James' Japan-Jive

Long time no see

2006-06-04T22:55:00.000+12:00

Howdy all!
I dont know why Im writing this now, but I just felt like writing a post. Its been a while.

What to say..
Well, life as of late has been good. To reflect back and stuff on my time in Japan is interesting. Im not as close with everyone as I though I would still be. Both in NZ and in Japan. Startin with Japan, I kinda thought Id be keepin better contact with everyone. I dont know why, I just havent been. I guess I do know why, to a certain degree. Its just leaving behind that whole life I had over there was really hard, and I guess I just figured it would be easier to not try to hold onto it too tightly, because it would never be coming back. It still was a WICKED WICKED experience, and I had an AWESOME time over there. I do sometimes wonder what where I would have ended up had I stayed for 7th form. I guess I may be closer to some of my NZ friends. There's been a bit of drift... Which is sad. People moving away and all.

Sometimes I do think it would be nice to just flag Victoria and go back to Japan for uni. I reckon I could win a scholarship for it. I just won a $3000 to stick around at NZ uni for though. I guess Im also not good enough at Japanese to get many other qualifications from a Japanese uni, other than the language.

I dunno, just finding Vic life a little dull. Not as easy to make friends as I thought it would be, and Im not as close with people as I used to be. There is also the fact that heaps of people have moved away, doing other things that arent uni or still at Onslow. Its a bit lame.

I do have a girlfriend now though. Makes things happier and stuff. Devika (Div). She's awesome! Really busy, but awesomely awesome! I won't go into detail now, because I guess you (Whoever you are) aren't interested. I should write it in a private diary instead anyways. She's a drama kid from Onslow. Indian. Beautiful, smart, interested, interested, wicked eyes, wicked music tastes, and all things considered, we have both ended up with pretty much identical political stances.. Awesome kid, and Im so so stoked to meet her!

Um uni stuff. Well, school's finished and exams are rolling around soon. I've decided that maybe Ill be a Japanese/ social studies teacher. I dunno, I wish I had real aspirations.. I just chose it because it's a little where my skills and interests lye. I also dont want a desk job, and I like the holidays teachers have. It's not because I have any real desire to teach high school kids anything. Esspecially with a name like Mr Butt...

Um, what else is up.. I have a crap job at Westpac doing data input. It pays okay, but I cant be bothered saying anything else because its too lame.

Band is The Lucky Strikes. Its fun when we are playing, and we play a cool rock'n'roll/ punk mix. Been gigging a bit too :-) Lame thing is is that its with 6th formers that I met through Rebecca. Argh, you can't win 'em all though. I just play bass, and so its not too hard. As long as we're actually doing stuff at practice, its fine.

My solo stuff is coming along actually. I have a number of songs crudely recorded, and almost ready for my solo CD :-D Should suck, but I'll enjoy it.

Well, this is my general update. I dunno, maybe Ill post again soon...
I do like writing this blog. It just doesnt seem to have so much point now that Im in NZ. Guess I could write it for me though.
We'll see what happens...
If anyone actually read this far, thank you!
Cant imagine who would though :-D
Cheers
James

Yes! Fish n Chip Friday!!! Woo!

2006-01-21T09:52:00.000+13:00

(wrote this yesterday, but internet stuff up so Im putting it up today)
Hey Guys
Hows it going?
Things goin well?
I stayed at Rowans house last night but we fell asleep before The Empire Strikes Back finsihed. We made the mistake of starting the 13 hour mission at 8, so we couldnt finish until at least 9 the next morning. We also went for a walk between two of the movies, drunk 6 beers each, ate a lot of chips, lollies and peanuts, and also had two Vs each. V is a good drink when your tired... ;-) I think we got about 3 hopurs sleep in the end.

Have to say the new 3 movies arent really that good. The 3rd one was alright, but I dont know why George Lucas bothered! Too much CG, not enough story... Also noticed that theres hardly any dialouge. THe onlytaling is to furthur the storyline. Nothing irrelevent, with means that I didnt get a very good feel for some of the characters. They seemed kinda empty. Anyway, good time was had... :-)

Had a guy some in to install broadband, but he coundnt do it because out house is made of concrete. He’ll be back another time to put in some wireless version. SHould be cool. Fast internet and two phone lines. Woo!

So tonight, as its FISH N CHIP FRIDAY I had fish n chips. I accidently said HAI to the Chinese person at the store though... :-( Its like whenever I talk to someone who has a little trouble with Englsih, I jus switch to Japanese. Not so good when that person doesnt speak Japanese.....Rebecca came round for dinner too :-) We went down to the botanical gardens to see a modern jazz/funk tconcert, but it was real boring so we left, and then went walking around town. Went to the wharf and stuff. Pretty cool. We got some good talking done. :-) Gardens are pretty cool at night with the lights and stuff....

Okay, heres a weird little saga for you.
Alright, so this guy called Gib calls up. He was my Dads friend from uni, 25 years ago. We havent heard anything from him in that time, but all of a sudden hes back in NZ. My parents did see him once, when he wasa millionare. He had a familiy and stuff, and he was a rich accountant. Apparently my parents got the impression that he thought we were poor. So, somehow he managed to loose/ spend his money, hasnt seen his famly for years ad apparently he says that hes trying to get his life back now.

He also seems into compulsive lying. He asked one of my Dads friends in Britain (where Gib has just come from) if he could stay a few nights. He ended up stayed about 2 months! He’s in NZ now, and wants to hang out with Dad. He did frieworks with my family on guy fawkes, and the other night he rang up asking if he could stay here for 2 nights. My Dad reluctantly agreed, but that night he didnt show up. He called the next day to say that the party had gone on a lot later, and he ended up staying at his friends house. I dunno, apparently he seems normal, but it seems like you never know if hes telling the truth or not.... THe reason I write this, is because he just turned up on my doorstep!
Thomas, Thomass friends and I are the only ones home, so I talked to him. Apparently hes going up to Taupo to see a cousin who he hasnt seen for years. He’ll come back on Monday and then call to organize hanging out with my Dad on Tuesday. Man, he’s a weird guy.... I knew he didnt have a cell phone ,but I asked anyway. He said he did have one but he lost it the other night at the party.... I was pretty sure that my Dad didnt have his number and that he’d always made calls from public phones. Its pretty creepy. He was also deported from Britain. Something to do with visa stuff... Maybe. Pretty mysterious. I guess Ill update you again if anything interesting happens.

ANything else new... Well it looks like first year at uni has changed again. Ill be taking Maori and Philosphy now, and will take music next year. Pretty rad aye :-)

Anyways, I think I best be getting off to bed soonish. I didnt get much sleep last night.
Cheers
Thanks a lot, aye!
Catch ya later
Big Jim

Kia Ora!

2006-01-19T12:03:00.000+13:00

Howdy All
Maybe its weird that Im still writing this, seeing as Im back in NZ and all... ;-) Oh well, I guess if people want to hear about the exciting life that I lead in NZ, they can still read.
Thing is I just like writing stuff, and I cant be bothered writing a diary, so this is good for me.

So yeah, one of the weirdest things about being back in NZ is that when I left all my friends were teenagers, and now it seems like everyone is adults. Its such a weird feeling! Its like the kids that Ive known for years are grown up now. I really feel like I fell asleep for 2 years or something ,and just woke up in a changed world. Like, I still have my NZ life and all, but its different in some weird ways.

Im still not really doing much though. I havent got anything to hold on to, so I feel kinda anchorless. I dont have school yet, not job, no band, no girlfriend. I reackon this feeling will pass as I start to get re-established in NZ. I have to say that Im feeling the counter-culture shock more than I flet the culture shock in Japan!

Well, I applied for a job atthe burger shop across the road from my house yesterday. Im gonna go into Cafe Mode today aswell. Yesterday I also hung out with Rebecca a little. I went there to drop off her guitar and camera. I also recorded a song that I wrote. Its pretty rad. Well, I like it at least...

The day before yesterday, I went to Daniels house and we jammed. He showed me some of his bands songs, and taught them to me. I might be jammin with his band for the rest of the holidays, before he goes down to Otago.

Tonight Im going to Rowans house for a Star Wars-O-Rama, where we’ll get drunk and watch all 6 Star Wars. It should be cool. ;-)

Oh, and one of the best things about being back. MY DADS LP COLLECTION. So much cool music that I didnt have with me in Japan. Ive been listening to Alice Cooper, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Beatles, Janis Joplin, Slade, The Specials etc etc. Pretty cool.

The new cat (named NEKO) is pretty funny. She goes outsid and brings us presents. Usually leaves, but sometimes wetas, baby birds and other insects. Nice.

As I write this, Im waiting for a call from uni. I called them up today because Im hoping to take Maori instead of Recording. I had a subject clash with Politics and Recording. If all goes well, in my first year Ill be taking:
Understanding Music
Maori
Japanese
Political Ideas
World Politics

This will maybe lead me to jounalist, primary teacher, language/ music teacher, Prime Minister or something. Be cool to open a cafe too, but maybe when Im older. I might also go to Japan after uni to teach English. This, I must note is because I wanna go to Japan and I need to make some money to cover uni fees, NOT because I have desire to teach English. As you have probably picked up from reading the stuff that ends up on this blog, Im not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to spelling, and general Englsih ability... Oh well... ;-)

Oh oh oh, and I got a letter from my American friend Sarah. Shes a good kid. Off to uni this year, and has just come back from Hawaii. Big thanks! ;-)

Have to say though, Im missing Japan quite a bit. Mainly my mates. I miss Mami a lot. By the end of Japan, I was hanging out with her 3-4 times a week. Never got boring either! I was hanging out with her a lot more than she was even hangin out with her boyfriend. She might come to NZ sometime though, so thatll rule! Have to show her all the excitin gthings that you can do in Wellington... Actually, we might go on a roadtrip, as Wellington is just a hole. ;-)

Got an email from Johanna today actually. Ive been pretty slack about emailing her (and everyone) so Im thinking about replying. I know she’ll do if I dont... ;-) She seems to be enjoying Holland, so thats pretty cool. Shes extended her time, and staying on till JUly or sometime. I forgot...

ANyways, I got a call from Donna Wheeler at Vic. I think Im gonna have to go down to uni (today) and sign some stuff up about my subjects.

Ill be back bloggin sometime. You dont have to read it though... I just like writing stuff :-)
Maybe Ill make it all into a book sometime...

Anyways, thanks for poppin in

Cheers
Jimmy

Back in Aotearoa

2006-01-16T19:48:00.000+13:00

Howdy all
Hows it all going?
Weathers awesome here!
Im back in NZ after the 10 hour flight here. I managed to get about 2 hours or so sleep on the plane, which was pretty good :-) Apart from that, I just watched movies, read and listened to music.
Its really good to be back in NZ. Im getting used to living at home again, but its still kinda weird sometimes. I really cant help talking my shoes off inside! And I got a suprise when I found the toilet seat wasnt heated... Pretty funny.

Japan:
Its been quite the experience. Not just really good Japanese practice, but the whole thing. Learning to adjust to what at first felt like someone elses life! A completely different schooling system, (complete with uniform!) an odd mix of ultra new and super old reflected in everyday life, sharing a bedroom, living with Grandparents, and just everything. I guess one of the most important things is I got more of an idea of how the world sees New Zealand.

In Japan, (the people who know of NZ) seem to think of it as almost like a tropical island. The people who have actually been there raved about it how beautiful it is. For me, I dunno, I guess I started to feel a bit more pride about being from NZ.

I came to japan with my past idea that i would be overwhelmed by people. After the 10 days i spent at yamamura highschool in 2002, i was expecting a repeat. (I mean, people asked for our autographs!)

At first, i got it! people were amazed by the fact that i was forigen, and even more amazed by the fact that i knew more than the japanese words konnichiwa, karaoke and sumo.

It didnt last though. well, it did to a degree, but not in the way id expected. I still had a relatively empty social calender. in fact, it wasnt until about 8 months down the track that i started hanging out with people from my school. To top it off, those kids werent Japanese, they were the Chinese kids! 9 months or so until i started chilling with the Japanese kids from school. Weird how these things work.

I guess I just didnt know what to expect. The way Japanese students have friends circles, in which they always hang out. It was kinda tough, because a lot of people already had those cirlces established from last year, and from school clubs. No one wants to be the odd person out, so the circles stick pretty close. I did find some exceptions though. People who were slightly more open minded. Those were the kids that I really made friends with.

I guess things were hardest when it felt like I had to squeeze my big NZ size, into a little Japanese mold. It was kinda hard conforming to such a restricting lifestyle. Once I sorta moved past that, things became easier. I mean, it was my life for 10 months! Maybe you dont understand what Im trying to say, because Im not explaining it very well, but that doesnt matter :-)

Big turning points would have to be Meg and I breaking up, making friends with the Chiense kids, changing hosts, making friends with Mami.
Really cool meeting up the Julia and Sarah (the two American girls from America that came to my school for a few days.) :-) Good guys!

Now to fill you in. I had the Japanese speech contest which wasnt particularly interesting. I didnt try very hard....
All the students that came over with me stayed at a hotel in Narita, which was good. We talked of old times, drunk, talked of Japan and generally hung out. One Canadian girl called Rowen got really wasted, but she was alright in the morning. Tom (my Aussie mate) shared a room. We ended up having a bath together and stuff too, because we'd been planning on another trip to the sento. Went to bed at about 5, and then woke up at 8 or so. Had to wake Tom up about 3 times though.... Met some cool French and Canadians too.

Best quote ever....
Tom to American guy called Greyson

Tom: "Mate, it beens a while. The only guy that Ive ever met with bigger hands than me!"
Greyson: "Really, thats weird, I thought all Australians had big hands"

If you know the guy its funnier... :-)

Anyways, so I got home and we had a little get together with a few friends. Heaps of people were away, but it was rad. ;-) Before the party I hung out with Rebeeca and we went to the botanical gardens. THe weather is really good, so it was awesome. Long time no see....

I danced to The Dancing Song with Rowan on guitar, I played Helpless by Neil Young and Blowin in the Wind by Bob Dylan on guitar and harmonica with Rebecca, and Daniel Edmonds played and sang one of his songs. Then some of us drank to Hannah playing a Irish Jig on his violin. Twas fun :-)

We had a BBQ outside, and talked. We drank the whole time, and got through a lot of beer, 3 bottles of wine, and some Gin and Tonic. Rebecca, Rowan, Sophie and I also danced to Chuck Berry at 2 in the morning, in my backyard. Twas good ;-)

Anyways, Ill catch you all later! Maybe Ill keep writing this, even though Im not in Japan anymore... ;-)

Good to be home, though I miss Japan a lot.

Really good to see see the family and friends again.
Cheers
Big Jim

Final Japan Post

2006-01-11T17:01:00.000+13:00

Hi all
This is my last post while in Japan. Its been quite the adventure. Hope youve learnt a lot. I managed to again loose the first copy of this post. (>_<) Meaning that this will probably end up being a lot shorter than the first one.
I had planned to write a nice essay about Japan, and the cultural difference between NZ, but I feel really bad and I cant work up the effort.
I was up till about 2 last night in a coughing fit. My host brother said some useful things like 'could you please be quiet,' but I can understand that it must have been annoying.
I have a pretty bad head ache at the moment, running nose and pretty much no will to do anything.Had a few panadols over the last few days, but it hasnt really made me feel better.

This morning Meg helped me close my Japanese bank account. Twas good.She also bought me pizza for dinner, which was quite the good one. :-)

Apart from that, I feel like crap.

I checked my luggage today, and it looks like Ill be over the limit with my normal luggage. Add about 5kgs of guitar to that, and thats gonna cost. I either have to send my guitar by boat (taking about a month) or leave it behind. Itll cost about $60 to send it, but its only an $80 guitar. I dont know what to do.... I do have lots of stickers and stuff on it too, so I do want to keep it... But its just so expensive, and I wouldnt be able to use it for a month. Argghhhh....
Ah, I guess Ill have to leave it.

Yesterday, I planned to go to school from the start of lunch time, but there was a fire somewhere along the train line, so the trains were late. Meg and I finally got on the train(she was going shopping in Ikebukuro) and 3 stops down the line (Yanesegawa) Meg realized that I didnt have my bag... So I went back tomy station, Tsuruse, got my bag out of my bike, and then went to school. I got there just in time for the end of lunch.... :-(

Firstly I talked to the principal, (a lecture about the importance of students like me, and how its such a great experience) and he gave me a key ring with a picture of the school on it. I talked to people at school. Teachers, the foriegn teachers and students. It was good. Pretty sad seing everyone for the last time though.... :-(
Heres Simone and April. I hang out with them at school sometimes. Simone is one of my English teachers :-)

After school, I hung out with Mami. Mami usually has an 8:00 curfew, but because it was the last time, she was allowed to stay out later. We took purikura and then went went to the Italian Tomato restaurant in Shiki. It was the restaurant that we went to the first time we hung out. Sat in the same seat actually :-)
It was really good, but it didnt really sink in that that was the last time.
We then took some more purikura and then set out to karaoke. In karaoke we just talked. It was good, but really sad. We then went and to a cafe and had hot cocoa. Im gonna miss her a lot. She is a really great friend and we had some really good times. Went to Disney Sea, the zoo,the park, lots of karaoke, cafes and restaurants. It was really good making a friend like her. She might come to NZ sometime, so thatd be cool (*^_^*)Im really gonna miss Mami...

So I got home at a bit after 10, rememebered that Id told my host Dad that I could go to the sento with him at about 9:30, felt really bad as he'd already left, then I pretty much went to bed. (Followed by my coughing attack.)

I feel really sad about leaving everyone behind. Im gonna miss Japan a lot. At the same time, I am looking forward to seeing people in NZ. Getting life back on track and all.

Anyways, this is a really sorry attempt at a final post. I really ahd planned to write a lot better stuff. Ill write another one up in NZ, when I get back. Sorta like a final conclusion. Hopefully itll be better than this.

Its really gutting to get this cold so close to when I leave. It just makes everything seems so much worse.

Anyways, thats for checking in. I hope youve learnt someting from this blog, and my experiences. BIIIIIGG BIG thanks to the regulars! I really really appreciate it. THank you so much!

Signing off for the last time from Japan.
See you all soon.
Lots of love
James A. Butt

Hi

2006-01-10T14:13:00.000+13:00

Howdy
This is my second time writing this because this STUPID COMPUTER just deleted the post that Id just spend an hour writing!!!! (>_<)
This computer has an external modem, and its really annoying. Arghhh.

Well, to fill you in in maybe a short version, Im pretty sick. I got a cold the other day. It was worst yesterda, but seems to have subsided to a head ache and a runny nose today. Been coughing and sneezing and stuff too. Hope its not anything worse. Id had to be the kid that brings bird flu to NZ....

Okay,on Saturday after an annoyingly late invite to my class party, I canceled dinner with Mami, and we just had lunch. I got the email on Saturday morning!

So, Mami and I went to a park in Shiki, bought lunch at a convience store, and hung out there for a while. After that, as it was cold we went to an Italian restaurant/ cafe thing and talked there for 3 hours. It was really good.

After that, I met up with my class in Asakadai, and we went to the same restaurant as last time. It was pretty boring. No one really talked to me much, and as everyone has to pay for what they ate, down to the last yen, we spent halfthe time eatting, and half the time calculating money. I ate Okonomiyaki.

After that, some of the guys and I wentto the river because thats where highschool students go to drink. Wewere there for about 30 minutes,and then went home.

Sunday, I hung out with Meg during the day in Kawagoe. We just looked at shops, took purikura and had some sushi for lunch. :-)
I also popped in to see Yuuji (my friend at the second hand shop.) That was good. :-)
Aftwerthat we met Asami, Risa and Kaoru at 5:30 at kawagoe station. We then went to a restaurant, 居酒屋。Kaori came too, but she was a little late. We talked a lot, then took purikura and it was a really good night :-) THose are all kids from Yamamura. Good times....
They all teased me though. They seem to think Ive devaloped a little bit of a belly... My Mum says theres nothing sexier than a skinny guy with a pot belly though!...

Monday, is when I started feeling crook. I met up with Shinya and Morgane for some morning coffee. I ended up about 15 minutes late though.We talked, took photos and they gave me some presents. I would have really liked to to meet upwiththe TOmita family one more time beforeI left, but I couldnt fit it in. :-( I wrotethem a card though.

After that... Oh, I cant be bothered writing this out again. Maybe Ill do it another time... An overview is that I tried to organise a final karaoke outting with my Chinese mates and some others. It all just fell apart though...
Ill write it later..

So I got home for a family dinner. We had sushi and my host Dad gave me presents to give to my family. Twas good. I then did some packing, talked to Misa on the phone (^_^) and then had a shower, then bed.

Today is the first day of school.Im gonna go to school at about 12, talk to some people, and then hang out with Mami for the last time.

SOrry this post ended up so bad. I just feel really crook,and annoyedthat the original version of this post, which Id put a lot into, just disappeared.

Been listening to a tape Rebecca sent me a while back.I love the song I JUST THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW by Steve Earl.

Anyways, Im really looking forward to seeing you all again.
Im gonna miss the kids here a lot though.
Sorry about this post
Thanks for checking in anyways...
Your man in Japan
Big Jim

New email addy

2006-01-07T13:05:00.000+13:00

Howdy
New email addy
Im still using the old, but its getting flooded with junk mail, so I have a new one. I will reply to the emails from the old one too, but in order to get my contacts list built up, could some people just send me and email here. Its doesnt even have to have any writing in it. Just to get your email addy. :-)
Cheers
jivin_jimmy@hotmail.com

Just a short one for the road... :-)

2006-01-07T01:03:00.000+13:00

Evening all!
Hows it chillin? Things are rocking here, but Ill be sad to leave.
I know that as of late it sounds like Im not looking forward to coming back, but I am. Its just hard. I guess I just dont know where Ill be. Its weird imagining being back in NZ, but I know Ill get over that fast.
I guess its also uni. I mean, uni seems like such a step. Even though I spent 10 months in Japan, I dunno, I guess Im just kinda scared....

Its gonna be wicked to hang out with all of you guys again though! Im looking forward to it!

Oh, and if any of you know people who are coming to my welcome home party, can you give them a hurry up for me? I mean, Ive had about 10 replys, almost half of which were to say that they cant come.... I hope I got eveyones emails right...

But yeah, New Zealand is a cool place, and I know I may talk about Japan a lot, and put it in the highlight a lot, but thats just becasue tis blog is about Japan. I start half my sentences over here with 'yeah, in New Zealand....'
or 'once with my NZ mates....'

Oh, and big thanks to Julia and Sarah for the letter. Ill email you when I get some time. (^_^)v and money... you didnt have to send me money... THANK YOU! Ive never really seen real American notes before. Their not very wide, aye? I know you said I should spend it, but its kinda too good to spend.... Maybe Ill take it with me when I come to America. :-) THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Anyways, lets start with a thought I had.
In Japan, advertising techiniques are rather different to NZ. Im not talking about the floods of junk mail thats handed out on the streets, or the big movie streens blaring advertisments out fromthe side of buildings. I mean the way its aimed.
Heres this for an example.
In New Zealand, beer is geared at party goers, and big, rugby player type blokes.
In Japan, its aimed at your average suit.

I dunno, I find those sorta differences interesting. (#^_^#)

Man, its been real cold lately. My folks in NZ are on holidays though. Look at them rubbing it in!

"Dad has just had to go to a second hand book shop cos he has run out of books. Sad. Tomorrow we are going to Splash Planet - do you remember going there? We went about 5 years ago and it rainned and Oliver was quite sick. But tomorrow it should be really hot. Then the next day we head on to Gisborne to check the beaches out for a couple of days before heading home to clean up the house to welcome YOU home."

On thursday I went to the sento with my host Dad. It was pretty good, though not very different to every other time. Good though. :-) Its still weird seeing 50 year olds who dont have any chest or arm hair! I mean, I know Im a little on the overly hairy side, but its kinda interesting how Japanese seem to develop differently to NZers.

Also, its weird seeing 60 year olds walking around clutching themselves. I mean, to tell the truth when you see some one walking around a sento holdingthemselves, it A. looking really strange, and B. makes you wonder what it is theyre ashamed of.
I mean, its a public bath, whats the problem?!

Yesterday, what else did I do... I went to Ikebukuro to getthe ring that Mami left atthe restaurant. She didnt know I was going down and was real suprised when I gave it to her today :-) Got a little shopping done too.

I also copied some CDs to take back to NZ, got some stuff ready to send (Whcih I will probably send on Saturday,) and yeah, just odds and ends.

Today I met up with Mami for breakfast, hung out and got some bowling done. Did some karaoke and then had dinner. Twas good. Also got some purikura taken :-)
As per usual, it was real fun :-)

Ive got some Going Steady on the CD player, which is rockin hard. They are real awesome! Had a good listen to Diesel Boy the other day. :-

Okay, I have a sleeping story. (Sorry Jeremy and Edmonds, its not that kinda story.)

Okay, so at 2 o'clock I woke up. I tried to turn over, but I couldnt. I was lying on my back, which is also really strange for me. I usually cant sleep like that.
So why couldnt I move?
Well, the problem was my arm was stuck.
Where was it stuck?
Under my computer chair
Did I have an accident ?
No, somehow my arm had escaped from my futon and gotten lodged under the chair that was sitting next to me. I couldnt move because I couldnt feel my arm.
See, it would seem that my arm went numb from the cold, and when I tried to turn over I couldnt even feel the chair holding me in place!
I actually couldnt move it!
I had to lift my arm up with my other hand, and put it back under the blakets.
Man, that was weird. I could even feel the blood rushing back into my arm.
Weird feeling....
Im alright now though (^_^)

Anyways, this is just a short one for you, but I need to get ready for the sento (again.) Got a picnic and a walk tomorrow, so Ive got to get ready for that tomorrow too.
THanks for popping in. Ill be back in less that a week.
Cheers ears
Love
Jivin Jimmy

Monring Everyone!

2006-01-05T13:45:00.000+13:00

Howdy all
Sorry, I know this is late. Its been getting rather inrequent as of late. Really need to start making my way through my emails too :-(
Lately Ive been flat out. Ive only really been home to sleep. I deliberatlly made today free because A. Im really tired, B. I have a lot to do (blog, emails, sendings stuff by boat to NZ, cleaning up my room, making a new email account because my one at the moment is getting flooded with junk mail,copying some CDs and just other bits and pieces) and C. Ive got some Roswell to catch up on. :-D

So lets re-cap the last few days.

Monday, the 2nd of January:
I woke up early, met Mami at a cafe in Shiki and we had breakfast. Twas pretty rad! :-) Mamis gave me a new years card, (^_^)(in return to the one I gave her) and I gave her soem NZ bits and pieces. After serious discussion about what to do, and where to go, we decided on Ikebukuro. So we wentto Ikebukuro, and arrived at a shopping center called Sunshine City at about 9:30. We didnt know it, but there was actually gonna be a huge fukubukuro sale on. Fukubukuros are like a mystery bags. All the shops were selling them, and apparently theyre actually a really good deal.
Well, we didnt buy any fukubukuros. Kinda suprised to see that many people lining up outside shops at 9:30 (considering shops open at 10 in Japan) though! We mainly walked and talked, looked at shops, but didnt buy much.

Oh, and the big news. Mami found me looking in awe at a Guns and Roses DVD, and bought it for me! I tried to stop her, but shes really strong... Im planing on a little gander today (^_^)

We went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch, which was Mamis first time. Ran into a problem though. Mami doesnt like beans.. It was okay though, I ended up having a big serving of nachos at and tacos. Twas good, (though not as good as me mums!) (#^_^#)

So we left Sunshine city, and it started to rain. We took some purikura, which was god. Then we we went to one of the omni-present 'family resturants' where Mami wahad Italian and I had what is called in Japanese, AMERCIAN COFFEE.

So, as I had other plans, we departed. I caught the yamanote line to Shibuya where I thought I could catch the train to Sayama. I lost my ticket (forcing me to pay another 160 yen for a new one) and then realized that actually I had to catch the train from Takababa, (2 stops from Ikebukuro) (>_<)

Well, I got to Sayama eventually, and met Daisuke. We wentto a cafe, and played chess for 2 hours. We then went grocery shopping, and then rode Daisukes motorbike to his house. We ate sukiyaki which is SO GOOD!

Daisuke, Daisukes mum and I talked for a while. His sister looks exactly like Asami for those who know her :-D (She looks so small and young, but shes actually 17! I actually thought his sister was about 12 when I first saw her!)
So, at about 11:30, Daisuke asked if I wanted to go to the sento. I was tired, but we went anyways. It was good, but it was SOOO COLD walking around ouside in winter in the nude at 12 at night, after being in a hot bath! Twas good though. (^_^)

The sento closed at 1, so we went home and went to sleep. The next day, I met Mami at Shiki station at 11:45 (I was a little late) (>_<) We went to Ikebukuro where we ate HUGE Chinese gyoza. They were really good! Mamis mum gave me a present, again!
So far its been like this
Mamis Mum -> Disney Sea ticket, food money and train money -> James
James -> Card, NZ chocolate and other bits and pieces, and some cookies from Disney Sea -> Mamis Mummy
James -> Japanese snacks ->Mamis Mum
Mamis Mummy -> Chocolate -> James
Mamis Mum -> Card, wallet -> James

Im gonna get the last one in though!
Mami also gave me a green and orange friendship bracelet. (^_^)

so, after all of that, we went to Ueno and to the zoo there. I lost my ticket again... (>_<)
The zoo was cool. Its been a while since Ive been to the zoo. I think the last time was in Austalia maybe.... We saw a giant panda, and a rhinos elephants and all the sorta animals you see at zoos. The animals I felt sorry for most were the giant panda, the giraffe, the rhino and the hipo. They were all in really small, bland, concrete rooms. (T_T)

As it was cold, we had hot anman which was real good. :-)

So we left the zoo, went to karaoke in ueno for an hour, and then went to Ikebukuro for purikura and okonomiyaki. We had a little problem, but I think its alright now. :-) Mami also left her lucky ring at the restaurant, which sucks.
If I have time maybe Ill go down to Ikebukuro and ask the restaurant for her :-)

As of late, its been getting pretty cold. It hasnt snowed in Saitama yet, but its been frosting, and occasionally puddles turn to ice a little :-)

4th of january, 2006. (yesterday)
I met up with Yuusuke, Hanrin and Morgane. We got some serious ice skating down,as well as playing chase. It was pretty crowded though. This is the same one that I ment to in 2002. Brought back some good memories. So funny remembering Daniel and everyone having slidding competitions. :-)
Those were good times (^_^)
Oh, and some peopel know this, some people dont. For some reason, I never learnt to fal properlly. Whenever I fall, I always land on my knees! Ever since I used to play soccer, its how Ive always fallen. Ice skating hurt when I did that though :-(

After that we had rammen for lunch, and then went on to karaoke, (for like 5 hours.) So tired after that. Sang the best song though KIMI NI JUICE WO KATTE AGERU. Its awesome. :-)
The urinals at that karaoke werent good though. In Japan, they dont have those long metal ones where everyone just crowds on board. They always have seperate ones, and every pushs themselves up agaisnt them to avoid peeking eyes. Problem with these ones was that they were really low. Im not going to go into details but it was hard work.

After that, I went to Yuusukes house for tacoyaki and okonomiyaki. We talked and played a little bass guitar. He gave me a letter too. I wish Id got to know him and all the other kids Im hanging out with earlier. Its so cruel making such good friends at the very end.
With Mami, I would have liked to get to know her earlier, but she was really busy with study back then. Now that shes already got uni entrance, its good :-)

I got home and got a call from Takeshi! Man, his English is SOOOO good. I didnt know he was going to call, and I thought he was a NZ friend at first. He was in NZ for a year and 10 (or 7, cant remember) months, but he really tried. He joined the Onslow rugby team and everything. I could tell he's been hanging out with some of the Maori kids. He was calling me BRO and everything! He didnt even have a Japanese accent at all. It was awesome.

Oh, and the other day I got a New ears card from Min (my Chinese friend) sent to me in the mail. My host family managed to loose it before I could read it though!!!! (>_<) Im gonna have to give it some good looking for before I leave....

So yeah, that pretty much fills you in.
I best be getting on with my day, and so should you.
Cheers
THanks for popping in
Lots of love
James
P.S Just a little photo catch up. Heres our gate with New Years decoration...
...and heres the family minus Shigeki at the temple.
and heres Ayumi (my host sister) at karaoke. :-)

Greetings to everyone

2006-01-01T23:16:00.000+13:00

Happy New Years all!
Hows it all going? What have you been up to?
Here in Japan, new years went somethhing like this.
On the 31st, I hung out with Mami. We had breakfast (cafe) and lunch together. We also took purikura, sat on a bench and talked and went to karaoke. Karaoke was another one where we just talked. Pretty fun. Its weird, we can just talk for hours and not get bored. (#^_^#)

After that I went home, and we had dinner withthe grandparents. After dinner I talked to Meg for a while, and watched a bit of T.V. After that, we had buckweat Soba noodles. These were special green, long noodles. Long noodles for long life. (^_^) To tell the truth,I wasnt all that hungry though.

THe T.V invloved lots of singers and music groups. THere was this real funny one. It was this serious guy in a suit, singing an opera/enka (Japanese traditional singing) mix sorta song. The funnything was there were people in robot suits carring eletric guitars and trupets fighting each other in the background. It was pretty funny (for me) (^_^)

After that, I talked to Meg a bit and tidied up my room a bit. The countdown wasnt anything special. It was just looking at a watch and then saying 'Happy New Years!' when it hit 12. Lots of new years text messages though :-)
Well, I was tired so I went to bed soon after.
In the morning, I woke as I do most mornings.
We then had a big breakfast with the Grandparents, and the adults and I had warm nihonshuu (sake.) I kinda strange how the Dad offer me (17) sake and not Meg (19.)
I actually didnt really like it much. Im not much of a spirits fan (esspecially brandy...) but tis nihonshuu just tasted like alcohol. No other taste, just like drinking warmed meths or something. :-P

Just my opinion, but some people love it.

Heres something found shocking. Something Im going to talk to my host Dad about. See, in Japan teres a custom of giving money to the children on new years. I guess its sorta like presents on Christmas, but a bit different. The thing is, I got included in it.
The host parents gave me 10,000 yen ($130NZ) and the grandparents gave me 5,000 yen ($65NZ.) I wasnt expecting it at all, but its too much. Im gonna try and give it back. Of course Im stoked to recieve it, and money is useful, but theyve already taken really good care of me, and given me a home.

So yeah....

After that, I mucked around the house. THe ouside cat with aids and no teeth has grown A LOT and is inside these days because its cold. Has to stay in just the one room though, locked off from the cat who doesnt have, abut has teeth.

Ayumi, Meg and I then went to karaoke. We sang a lot for a long time. Pretty crazy really. So tried right now.. After that,Meg and I went to the CD library and borrowed some CDs.
Im gonna burn then and then bring them back. Pretty sneaky aye :-) But you know, you cant buy Japanese CDs in NZ.

Shigeki was gonna come too, but he had part time job. Man, his part time job is NUTS! He has it everyday for 7 hours or so! He's cutting vegetables at a factory or soemthing. Doing some other things too, but he's making yen 850 (over $11NZ) an hour. He's not complaining too much causehe'S raking it in, but for your first job its pretty extreme. He'll have two days of holidays this winter holidays,and then go back to the 6 day a week school routine. Poor kid. He's also at a private school which is expensive, so he has to work pretty hard.
Hope he turns out alright....

On the 30th I hung with Mami aswell. We were going to go to the zoo, but it was closed so we ate and went to karaoke, and took purikura.
Oh, and yesterday (the 31st) Mamis mum (who Im yet to meet) gave me chocolates. (This was in response to a card and various bits and pieces that I gave her and Mami to thank her for paying for my ticket to Disney Sea.)
Our friendships gotten really good over such a short amount of time. We dont usually do much other than go somewhere and talk, but its really good. Its not just shooting thwe breeze too. I mean, I cant imagine many people have sat in a pizza shop at Disney Sea for 2 hours, and debated the death penealty. Its all really good :-)Im gonna miss her....

Tomorrow we're going out for breakfast and lunch, and then Im hanging out with Morgane and Daisuke. Ill stay at Daisukes house.
On the 4th Im going ice skating and karaoke with Yuusuke, Hanrin and Morgane. SHould be rad. Also gotta rearrange a new zoo day.

My real family in NZ wentto Akitio for NEw Years. They stayed at a family friends bach,with another family there aswell. THe 3 families had a beach bonfire, fireworks and went kayaking too. Sounds pretty good to me :-)

Anyways, its about time Im off. I still have a lot things to do before I leave.

Oh, and I tried to weigh some stuff today for sending back to NZ, but the only scales we have wont work. (>_<)

Still got a pile of emails to reply to, which I realy need to get onto sometime. I hope to get it all done before I go back...

Hope you all have a good year!
Lots of love
Jimmy

Morning Everyone!

2005-12-30T12:28:00.000+13:00

Howdy All
Hows it all swingin?
Im good. Pretty good actually. Been feeling a bit up and down as of late. Mainly leaving stuff,but other things too. Its such a weird feeling! Ill be in NZ! I cant even remember what I did there apart from school, bands, driving and parties. I mean, when I hung out in town, Wellington just seems so small. What did I do?!

I guess here I juwst eat with people, and go to karaoke, but I dunno, just a weird feeling. I had picnics and stuff too, movie nights and all, which is something I dont do in Japan. Still... I dunno. ter than friends and family, it doesnt feel like I have much waiting for me. Not going back to Onslow, might not be going back to my old jobs... None of the same bands either... Plus people are moving away anyways.. Like, all my Japanese friends in NZ! Rebecca and Johanna wont be there much either.

Dont get me wrong, I am really looking forwardto being back, its just not that it seems strange. I bet when I get back, itll feel strange that I lived in Japan for 10 months!

Oh, and the other thing, hardly anyone has R.S.V.Pd my damn party invites. (>_<)

Japan is chugging along well. My family bought a new NZ, and chucked out the old one (if it was my real family, thered be fights about which room to put the old T.V in. Fights that Oliver would probably win.)

Um, my Thursday plans with Mai fell through, so I hung out with my old host brother Yuuki (from the Tomitas.) He's a cool guy, but quite a quiet image. He works nocturnally (夜行）but he had a day off. Must be pretty hard though...

(You can see how Tokyo combines two different world in one city. THis temple was so quiet, and empty compared to the bulging mass that is the rest of Tokyo)

So, we went to Tokyo (again, Im starting to find it boring!) but we went to Yasukuni Jinjya, which is the temple that Prime Minister Koizumi has been going to. Dont know if you get much about it in NZ, but its pretty heated. Basically, the temple is for the spirits of the people who died in the name of Japan. This includes inside wartds, and outside wars. Including WW2. Its pretty heated in China and Korea that Koizumi is going there to pray, because it also includes the spirits of the Generals who lead Japan into China and Korea literally slaughtering millions.

(Yuuki in front of the temple)

So its a tough one. I dont know where I stand. A lot of Japanese think its alright. I mean, the leader of the country going to where the past leaders of the countries spirits rest, to ask for guidance. But I guess if you add that to the areas of Japans history that went unmentioned in those text books, then I guess I can see the Chinese and Korea case.

(Hosei university, from Yasukuni temple. Yes, the university is a building. Just the one. Its my friend Harukas uni.)

Its hard though. I mean, its his country, he should (maybe) be allowed to go to a temple. Its a pretty big temple in the heart of Tokyo. And also, I was thinking about it, and to a degree I think that the other countries media might have played a bit of a role in whipping up some added tensions.

My Japanese teacher (Ogawa Sensei) also sad that apparently its not just warriors, but ALL Japanese go there when they die. So yeah. Oh, and also Takada Sensei (my cool lefty teacher) said that its a bit iffy, but he thinks its alright.

Always, enough of that :-)

So Yuuki and I went there, then we went bowling (my first time in Japan) and then went to karaoke for an hour. Both things I tried to pay for, but Yuuki wouldnt allow it. Ive been getting that a lot lately! (^_^) Thanks Yuuki!

Oh yeah, and at Takadanobaba station, there was this really funny police man. He was about 150 years old, and standing on this box by a pillar. Not doing anything, just standing. I mean, if someone wanted to cause trouble, I cold imagine they would have the advantage. It would be that hard to come up from the side, give him a shove, and he'd fall straight off the box. It guess he has a height advantage though... (O_o)

My host brother Shigeki has a part time job! Hes working at a fruit and vege factory, doing something, but I dont know what. Sounds pretty extreme though.

Got an email from my parents this morning. Apparently, my mum was making my bed after a guest stayed over and apparently she knocked a poster. THis particular poster apparently covered a hole in the wall! I was thinking about denying its existence, leaving it to my mums eye problems, or else blaming it on Thomas or Oliver, but truth be told, I think that particular hole in the wall was related to my wrestling days.... I used to be quite a fan of wrestling.

I still havent given up my dream to become a world famous pro wrestler though! Ill have to gorw past my 66 kgs though... (#^_^#)

So, we're coming up to new years. The biggest holiday in Japan. We'll have special soba noodles for dinner on the 31st, special breakfast on the 1st, and I think there'll be some temple-going too.

Should be good.

Hasnt snowed in Saitama yet though! Febuary is apparently the coldest weather, but its already snowing in other parts of Japan!

Music wise. I havent had much chance to play guitar, and I havent even been listening to much. On the Ipod , when I do listen, I listen to Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, Keb'mo and Elvis. When Im at home I listen to the CD that my Chiense friends, and Japanese teachers gave me. It sounds like a immature version of System of a Down, on LSD. I think Lucy and Jeremy would like it. The names written in Katakana, so its got Japanese pronounciation, but the name with English pronounciation is MAXIMUM THE HORMONE. Yes, I know. Strange.

There are some songs also, that have the same affect on me the that Piano Man did. Its mainly karaoke songs, that we sung hard. Hanrin and I, we thrashed two GoingSteady songs real hard, and also The Blue Hearts.
Makes me kinda sad, cause those are the songs of Japan for me.

Anyways, I better get dressed and ready to hang out with Mami. We were going to go to Ueno Zoo (in Tokyo!) but its closed unitl the 1st. Maybe we'll karaoke, maybe we'll bowl, maybe we'll go to a cafe. Dunno yet.

Money situation is again getting bad. Im gonna have to ask my parents if its alright to borrow some money again. (>_<) I really didnt want i to come to this, but it happened.

Dont think it would have happened if cell phones werent so expensive though! Actually thinking back now, my cellphone has cost, sh*t, about $1000 so far!!!!!!!!
(円76000ぐらい！）

Ouch!

Id never thought about it in context to my 10 months here....

Thats seriously not cool!

Well that just hit hard. I better go.
Cheers
Lots of love
James

P.S Bit of an old photo. But I thought Id put it up anyways. THis is my friend Tatsuro, from the band Giddy. They were SO GOOD, but they broke up recently because of drummer and bassist tensions. They were honestly AWESOME! (ANd yes, that is a Gibson Les Paul he's waving about.) (Not the Epiphone version, AND its not left handed either!)

mErRy ChRiStMaS (for 3 days ago) (;_;)

2005-12-29T00:23:00.000+13:00

Hello!
Japanese first, English Second :-)
Enjoy! ;-)

皆さん、こんばんは！
元気?
俺は元気かな～。
最近はすごい楽しい！はんりんと、モルガンとゆうすけと一緒によく遊んでる。仲がとてもいい。
それに、大切な人がいる。no no no,彼女じゃない！(好きな人だけど。）
火曜日一緒にデイズニーシーに行って、すごかった！本当に楽しかった！気がちょう合う！すごいありえない！
初めて、(うそ、2番目）まみとしゃべった時にまみはすごいストレスだったけど、なぜか分かんないもっともっと話したかった。目もすごい美しいし、会話がすごく上手し、ばかなこともまじめの事についてしゃべるし、メッチャ優しいし、まるですごい人。

だけどね、帰るの事。。。
いつも楽しい時間を過ごしたら、家に帰ってから悲しい。もっと、もっと楽しい時間を過
ごして、もっと、もっとさみしくなる。マジつらいけど、それは愛だね。
ちょう大変だよ！２５日間ぐらいだけ知り合ったけど、昔から知ってるみたいな感じ！火
曜日１５時間ぐらい遊んで、ずっとしゃべって短すぎるの感じだった。

昨日まみの事が好きってし、まみも俺の事が好きだっ！だけ
ど、実は悪い。毎回遊んで、最後の出発の『さようなら』はだんだん悲しくなってる。このじた
いは違うなら、絶対まみが俺の彼女になって欲しい。本当に楽しいけど無理。まみに会ってから帰りたい気持ちがなくなちゃった。

どうしようかな!　もう、しょうがないけど。帰るまえ、いっぱい遊びたいけどね。

ま、大変じゃん！日本にいる間に心は２回ぺちゃんこなった。
：－（

とりあえず、頑張るね。（＾＿＾）

日本の生活は本当に好きだね!友達もいいし、日本語で話すのが大好き！
帰ってから、本当にどうしよう！？

じゃね、またね。

慈英夢寿より。
P.S この事は英語で書かなかった。家族とかは読んでるから、恥ずかしい！

Howdy Howdy Howdy!
Another late one, a lot to say,　and not so much time.I have to be in Ikebukuro in less than two hours.
Things of late, staying atthe start,and ending at the end, have been rockin!

Christmas Eve (the 24th of December)
I met up with Hanrin at about 1:30. We then proceeded to Sayama where we met up with Morgane and the Tomitas. We ended up having lunch there (both Hanrin and I had gotten the message that we'd be having dinner there, so had already eaten lunch, but it I didnt complain :-) In Japan, Christmas Eve is bigger than Christmas, and people eat pizza and KFC a lot. I have NOOOOOOOO idea how that tradition popped up. (Having said that, anyone know how the Friday Fish'n'Chips one popped up in NZ?!)

(From left to right is Yuki (my old host brother,) Shinya (my other old host brother)Hanrin, Morgane, Daisuke and me.)

So we ate, drank talked a lot. Listened to music and stuff. Daisuke came over too.
Daisuke then went home, and Shinya, Harin, Morgane and I ended up going to this huge arcade tyoe thing. It was nuts! Okay, so you pay 70 yen (about $1NZ) for 10 minute, and you can do anything. Theres arcade games, darts, pool, music studios, karaoke, bowling, mechanical bull, and competition thing. If anyone remember the show Gladiators, thats what the competetions were like. So yeah, that was wicked! For karaoke its expensive, but the arcade is not. Ussualy arcade games cost 100 yen, and dont last 10 minutes. SO yeah, that was pretty wicked. I then went home and went to bed.

Christmas!!!!!!!!!
Well, oh course like always I got up early to open my stocking (my parents sent me one(^_^)) Lots of chocolate!!!! :-) I also opened some presents from my Grandparents, which included a pretty awesome hat from Turkey :-) Thanks all!!!!

No one else was awake before I left, and since the host mum sleeps in the lounge/dining room/kitchen room, I couldnt whip myself up anything to eat. :-(

(Hanrin, outside the church)
So anyways, I went to Fujimino Station, met up with Hanrin and then road tandim on his bike to the Church. The Church was pretty much the same sorta feeling as the ones in NZ. We first went to a Sunday school type class, sang a few songs, and talked.
We then talked to the minister a bit, and when he asked me what Church I havebeen to, and I answered Prespretarian, he told me quite bluntly that this is a Baptist Church. :-) He was a pretty funny guy though.

Then there was the actual sermon. Hymnes were sung in Japanese but I knew most of the songs, so I could do them alright :-) Someone was baptised aswell. :-)

Twas all pretty good. (^_^)

I went home, had lunch with the family, gave them some presents that my Mum had sent, and they were al reall happy. I asked also recieved a 2000 yen book voucher and some post cards from my host Mum. Twas pretty rad!

After that, I talked to the old parentals on the phone for a little while. Theyre all good. Going to Akitio for some holiday fun. Lucky guys....

I then went on my merry way to Kawagoe sation. I was late because I scratched up some Christmas cards for the 3 people I was meeting. On the train I talked to some kids from my schools soccer club, which was good.

So I met up with Yuusuke, Hanrin, and Morgane, went to karaoke ate gyoza and rammen (and edamame) took some purikura, then went to Hanrins house. We had planned to go up to the top of his apartment building to the observation deck type place, because the view is awesome from up, but for some reason the lift wouldnt let us. Instead, we just hung out watching TV, talking and not doing too much.

We all stayed over (which is rather strange in Japan!) but we managed it.
Morgane got Hanrins room, while us 3 lads got an empty room which was about the size of my room back home, if you took everything out. It was a bit of a squeeze but we managed. I woke up early, Yuusuke woke up earlier and talked on the couch in the lounge for a while. Hanrins mum then woke him up, and Morgane slept in.

Lots of usual morning stuff like eatting, and showers and stuff, and then we went to Harajuku. In Harajuku we met up with 2 of Morganes Japanese friends, (Who didnt say much the whole time) and we were going to meet up with her Aussie friend Jamaes, but he didnt show. He doesnt have a cell phone either, so thats tough.

Had lunch.
We then went looking around Harajuku, but unless your buying clothes there's not actually that much there! We looked around quite a bit though, and even foung a Hippy shop(with a slightly strange obbsession with The Grateful Dead.) Verrry cool though :-)

Truth be told, Hanrin, Yuusuke and I did have much of an interest in going. We sort of already knew what it wold be like. But we'd told Morane we would go with her, and so we did. Was so-so.

So everyone went home. I went to Hanrins house on the way to pick up some things Id forgotten, and Morgane came too. We ate, drank and talked a bit, while listening to music.

And then home.

WHen I home, opened a package for my Uncle (which contained lots of goodies, aswell as a Keb'mo CD!) Thanks SIMON AND JEAN!
I then started working on 2 cards (one for Mami and her Mum) and a tape. I had a shower, and then finsied it all off. (WITH THE LIGHT OF MY CELLPHONE!) Host brother was already asleep.

Yesterday morning.
Woke up early, went to Shiki sation at 7:30 to meet up with Mami, and then we caught the hours worth of trains to Disney sea!

As Ive mentioned before, Mamis mum payed for my ticket. What aI havent mentioned before, is that she also payed for my food and train tickets!!! I tryed really hard to stop it, but Mami confiscated my wallet.

Sneaky Japanese.... ;-)

So where do I start....? Well, firstly Disney Sea and Disney Land. You eiter like one or the other best. Not both. Disney land has more rides, but Disney Sea is more adult. Thats about all the info you need!

I did enjoy Sea more. Land has more rides, but that just means more boring rides. We started by catching a boat, and then going on the Indiana Jones Adventure ride. It was pretty rad. (^_^) Suprisingly, there werent too many people there. Most rides had about a 30 minute wait, opposed to the 1-2-3 hours wait of when its real busy.
So we road a lot of rides, ate burgers for dinner (while watching Donald Duck, Chip and Dale, Micky Mouse and Goofy running around on stage.)

(Mami and I. Mami is doing an impression of my double-peace face(>_<))
We went on some of the bigger rides too (well, not big compared to any other themepark, but there was a loop-the-loop in one!) ;-)
Mami was pretty nervous though. One ride she had been on once but was too scared to do it again, and another she used to wait for friends at the outside while they did it. With a little forcing, she did them yesterday, and didnt die like she thought she would. So that was good (#^_^#)

We drank hot cocoa as it was really cold, spilled water and generally had a really good time. We had dinner in a different restaurant, whci hI liked more because I like pizza more than burgers AND it was easier to talk with out the stage show going on. We ate there for about 2 hours. See, after eatting, we ended up having a debate about the death penelty (in English.) Mami was for it, but not for using it too much. I was agaisnt it. Man, she was good!!! It was easily a draw. I was impressed. When I talk to her in English, I actually forget that Im talking to a Japanewe person.

So, we rode the Raging Spirits again, and then hurridly returned home, (via the souvineer shops, because due to Disney Land/Sea unwritten rules, you have to buy people souvineers. I bought some biscuits for Mamis Mummy, and she bought stuff for her whole family.

It was all really fun though. We talked about serious and stupid things, laughed a lot and it was just awesome.

As we still had a little lime left over, we got some juice and talked at her station. In total, we hung out for about 15 hours yesterday, and talked the whole time. Twas awesome.
We're gonna get breakfast and lunch on New Years, so that should be rockin!

Man, its gonna be hard to leave Japan. Of course Im really looking forward to getting back, but you know 10 months is a long time to be somewhere. I guess though, the hard thing is just gonna be saying goodbye to all my new friends. Ive made some really good friends! Its been an awesome 10 months, and Ive really enjoyed my time here.

Anyways... The time is YABAI! So I best be getting dressed, and then hopping on the bike and then train, and getting myself to Ikebukuro.

Arghhh, the internets being annoying. Ill post this later.

Okay, I came home, and the internets working. Today I met up with some of the other students in my area, and my PIEE helper person. Kanou San. (She’s the lady who’s families house I stayed at a while back.) Twas really good  We had Mexican food, which was a first for me in Japan, and was rockin! Hadnt know the full extent of who was coming, and had actually planned on coming home afterwards. But Morgane invited my friend Yuusuke, who she then ignored, so I I felt I should hang around a little longer to make his trip out to Ikebukuro worthwhile.
He's a real good guy. After lunch, I hung out with the Australian James, Morgane and Yuusuke in Ikebukuro. We didn’t really do much apart from going to a cafe, but was good. Yuusuke and I then broke off and we went to a few arcades. I didn’t do much though. Yuusukes a fan of those UFO catcher games (which are REALLY big in Japan.) It was kinda sad watching him pump money into various machines, and then not receive anything. Good hanging out with him though (^_^) He's really funny. Yuusuke and I, and Hanrin and I have the funniest conversations in English. Totally slaughter the launguage, but its pretty funny (for us at least.)

Got home, and didn’t do much. I had a shower and dinner.

Okay, well, I think I best be off.
Cheers for popping in
Sorry for the lack of emails. I have however now read everyone’s emails (^_^)
Catch ya later
Jimmy

Happy Christmas Eve, Everyone :-D

2005-12-24T12:51:00.000+13:00

Kia Ora all!
Hows it going? Hopes this finds everyone well on Christmas eve!
THis month has flown by. I have no idea where it went! Im only in Saitama for another short while. I leave Saitama on the 12th of January, stay one night at a Narita hotel in Tokyo with the other PIEE students, and then come home on the 13th. (I think) :-)

It was soooo fast!

Been busy as of late, so I have a lot to write.

Wednesday involved school as per usual, and nothing really new there. After school I talked to one of my Japanese teachers (Nami Okuyama) and my Chinese friend (Min.) Was rad. Heres us standing... :-)

After that, I went home and talked to Rebecca for a good 2 and a half hours, which was rad! I then had dinner, and went to the sento with my host dad.

On the 22nd of December (mid winters day, or something) theres a Japanese tradition of putting YUZU in the baths (though people dont do it in their own baths so much these days. Yuzu is a fruit, like a cross between a grapefruit,anda mandarin.A little smaller than a mandarin I reackon. So there were 2 net-like bags of Yuzu and some other bits and pieces in the outside bath. Why do they do it? Because its supposed to be good for our body. They break open a some of the yuzu too, and so it smells pretty good too. Truth be told the Tsuruse Sento (which we often go to) got it wrong. The yuzu day is the 22nd, but we went on the 21st. Theyre closed on Thursdays though, so I forgive them.

Sorry, no photos though. I started getting weird looks when I walked around the public baths with a camera... (#^_^#)

Thursday: I got up. Looked at the morning news and they were showing the blizzards in some parts of Japan.It was snowing pretty hard! Its been suppused to snow a few days here in Saitama lately, but it just hasnt got round to it yet (>_<)

Has been cold enough though....

Oh, but you know that doesnt stop school rules! Even if its snowing, the female students at school ARENT ALLOWEDTO WEAR ANYTHING UNDER THEIR SKIRTS! I think they can wear thin tights or stocking or whatever they are, but thats all! crazzzzzzzzzy!
And anywhere you go, mini skirts are still really fashionable. So, even when its freezing cold, you see girls that choose to wear skirts that creep half way up their theighs!

Pretty brave....

So Thursday was my last day at school. We had no normal classes, but had a fire drill first spell. Not very eventful though. Oh, though it wasnt your normal fire drill. Usually they pump a smoke-like things into the building. If you dont get out fast enough you go dizzy! Pretty crazy aye! I guess it makes everyone take it a bit more serious. Kinda wanted to try it....

Next was OSOUJI, (Big cleaning.) Basically its the same as normal claening but it just takes longer. Talked to a few class mates and stuff, and it was all good :-) The blue uniforms people are wearing, are the winter PE uniforms. I donthave one so I just wore my normal unifrom, which is fine. By the way, I get to keep my school uniform!!!! WOOPIEEEE!!!! (^_^)v

Photo = Akasaka, Okabe, Taro... (I think) Theyre my fellow class 2/5 mates. :-)

We then had assembly, where I gave a 4 minute+ speech, that I had no one check before hand. (Got quite a few laughs too!) The principal then gave me a certificate (in Japanese,) a letter with the English translation of the certificate anda packet of letters about me from the teachers. I think those were supposed to be my letters of recommndation, though all but 3 of them are in Japanese. (>_<) Something that was kinda embarrassing, (which I didnt point out) was my English teacher with who I had 2 English classes a week, helped when she needed it, and who is also one of the two CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING teachers WISHED ME GOOD LUCK IN AUSTRALIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Arghh!!!

While I was upon stage, I also gave a card and a Japanese book about NZ to the scool,and they gave me a Japanese childrens book. The music teacher then got me to sing the school song on stage with her, in front of everyone. Everyone sings and it wasnt too embarrassing. Some students even called out'sei no, JAMES ARIGATOU!!!'

It was all pretty cool,and pretty sad. I got some cards from students, (Mami (which she made heself), Erica and Sakurai San) talked to lots of people, and gave out the old email address. We then had long homeroom,where I got a card from the whole class, took some class photos, and they sang my song. LINDA LINDA by The Blue Hearts! It was cool :-) (That was the song I sang at the assembly,and it was also put on as background music during cleaning.) (^_^)

Gonna miss the school (T_T)

I got to take my inside and my PE shoes home too, so that was cool. I thinks its finally time to throw out my old ones :-) Still means I now have 3 PAIRS OF SHOES! Thats my world record!

After school I had lunch (Katsudon, pork cutlet on rice,) then karaoke,and then dinner (Italian) with Mami. Twas real fun. I was kinda down about school, but that soon changed.
We talked the whole time! It was pretty nuts actually. About everything from politics, school, the future, her boyfriend trouble, langauge, and then heaps of random as things. The bell went to signal 10 more minutes left of the karaoke session, and we realized that we'd spent the entire 3 hour karaoke session talking. Didnt sing a single song. Twas really good aye. Im teaching her some kiwi English too :-)

Oh, ok, and so we decided to hang out on the 27th. She texted me yesterday, and she said that we're going to Disney Sea. I read that and I was thinking 'thats 4000 yen (about $50NZ) dude, I just cant afford it....) I was thinking about how to tell her that I couldnt go... but then I read on....

Mami's mummy (pronouced the same(^_^)) is going to GIVE as a CHRISTMAS PRESENT Mami and I TICKETS TO DISNEY SEA!

Now thats pretty nuts!!!

I sent emails of protest, but there was none of that.

So kind! I havent even met Mamis Mummy! So that really made my day! (@^_^@) Chou ureshiiii!!!!

Got a letter from PIEE. Apparently I can take 20kgs of luggage, and 7 kgs of hand luggage (+10kgs of things in my pockets Muhahahah!) ;-) But yeah, so thats still quite a lot I guess. Im also gonna be sending maybe 20 kgs of stuff via boat,so I should be in the clear. Might have to weigh everything up, and see where Im at right now. Problem is, we dont even have a scale here!

(Off topic but I measured myself at the sento, and Im STILL hovering aroundthe 66 kg mark! Crazy!)

So, that brings us up to date till Thursday.... Still a lot more to go (o_o)

Friday, I got up at 7:30 to go for an adventure with my host Dad. We caught the train from Tsuruse to Ikebukuro (Tokyo) and then from there to KAMAKURA. Ive never been to Kamakura before, so that was quite cool. Its on the other side of Tokyo. The train from Tokyo took about an hour. So from there, we went to see some temples. The first one was a Buddist one for Kannon Sama. The statue (that your not allowed to photograph) was pretty awesome. Quite big and really cool. The thing in the photo above is an outide insence burner + mini statues. Theyre for purifaction (^_^)

From that area, because it was a little high up, I COULD SEE THE SEA!

'Yeah, big deal' you may be thinking, but lets note that I havent seen the sea (not including the sludge that is Yokohama harbour) for over 9 months!

It was from a really long way away, but could see it! Yay!

From there, we went to the staute of Daibutsu. (I went to a different version while in Nara) and that was pretty rad.

We went to quite a few different temples, and got a lot of walking done! We had hot Tempura Soba for lunch,and that was good too :-)

We also went to a cafe witha sorta toy theme to it. It had these wodden games, and it was actually really fun.We drank tea, and talked to the owners. Theyve hosted exchange students too. So that was all rad.

I really liked Kamakura actually. Theres a lot of Cafe theres. And theyre not just the chain ones (Starbucks and stuff) but cool ones! It would be cool to hang out there more I reackon :-) Its also close to the beach, which is a big plus!

From Kamakura, we went to Yokohama. We saw some gospel singers, who were really getting into it, dancing and singing. And they were really good. We watchedthem for a few songs. :-)

After that, we went to China town where we had dinner (Chinese) and then NIKU MAN and some chestnuts. Niku man is like the equivilent of the mince pie, but its made from a white bread like thing, and doesnt have the same kinda meat. Twas good. The chestnuts.... They were everywhere! Sooo many people on the streets handing out roasted chestnuts, which was good :-)
My host Dad busted out some of his Chinese, but I didnt say much more than Thank you. (-_-)

From there we caught a million trains. On one of which there was a guy walking the length of the train, picking up the newspapers from the top shelves that people had left behind. Not too unusual though...
Because Japan has such a huge population (127 million, compared to the 4 million of NZ!) you do see a lot of poor,and homeless people in your travels. Its not unusual to see peopel sleeping in parks, or in the trainstations.
Ueno park (in Tokyo) has a HUGE population of homeless people. Peope thought there was a problem with Glover Park in Wellington, but here, the park is half full of the tents of people who live there. I guess with such a fast paced, compeditive society, its natural that I lot of people get cast out....

Anyways, so we arrived at an automatic train with no driver, and caught that. It went from Yokohama to Tokyo, and at night there was an awesome view of it all. Twas rad! We saw the Rainbow Bridge, andthe big Yokohama ferris wheel etc. Twas awesome.

From Tokyo we went home, where we arrived at about 10:30 (curfew not applying.) Then, as per every friday, the host Dad went to the Super Sento. I went too.

The Super Sento and the Sento are different. The Sento is like the local one, where as the Super Sento is like a chain one. Its bigger, more crowded, but not the same atmosphere. The super sento was actually really good though.

So we hopped back in the car, and arrived home at about 12:30. I went to bed about 1, and her I am.

Plans: Today Ill meet up with Hanrin (my Chinese friend) and then go to the Tomita's house for diner with him, and maybe some others. I dont really know much about it. Morgane was organizing it.

Tomorrow, Ill wake up and it will be CHRISTMAS! Ill give presents that I recived from my loving parents to the family, (though I dont expect to recieve any,) then Ill meet up with Hanrin and we'll go to Church at 10. Ill come home, have lunch I guess, and then talk to my family on the phone. After that, Ill meet up with Hanrin, Morgane, Yuusuke and maybe some others, got to karaoke, and generally hang out. Ill then crash at Hanrins :-)

Monday plan is going to Harajuku, but I dunno. Harajuku is expensive... We'll see though :-)

Tuesday is Disney Sea (^_^)v

By the way, photos. I do have more photos, but decided agaist putting all of them up now. If theyre hard to see, you can click on them for a bigger version. Im also gonna get a CD of all the photos my host Dad took aswell,so Ill have heaps :-)

Well, if youve read this far, good on ya mate!
It turned into quite the essay. ;-)
Looking forward to seeing you all!
Have a Merry Chirstmas!
Lots of love
Jimmy
P.S Did anyone else know that Jeremy and I have the same middle name?!?!? ALEXANDER!! That means we're pretty much brothers!

Konnichiwassu!

2005-12-20T22:24:00.000+13:00

Howdy
Japanese first :-)
こんばんは！元気？俺は元気だよ。最近は結構だね。週末むかしの友達に会った。けいと冬子。東京で遊んで、とても楽しかった。それに大介という友達の忘年会に行った。結構良かった。
今日はね、寂しくなった。後、水曜日と木曜日しか俺は和国(高校)にいない。まだ帰りたくない！今日まみという友達とお好み焼きを食べに行った。マジおもしろかった！ずっと笑って、楽しかった。まみは英語がぺらぺらしゃべってるし、すごい良い人。本当に日本でもっと時間が欲しい！
食べてから、プりクラを撮って、喫茶店でココアを飲んだ。すばらしい友達。
じゃあ、日本語はもう良いから、英語で読んでね！：－）
ここまで読んでくれてありがとう。
慈英夢寿より

Kia Ora all!
Hows it goin?
Hope your all doing well. Im not doing too bad myself actually.
Time in Japan is runing out, and infact only have 2 more days of school! Pretty sad.

I joined the English debate today in class. Someone was away, and so I got slotted in as 1st rebuttal speaker. I didnt even know what the topic was until about 3 minutes before the debate!It went well,though I probably could have helped our arguement more, if Id had some time to think about the topic.

We did win though (^_^)

I had my last art lesson today, and finished my oil painting. I think I did it wrong though.I just ended up using the oil paints like normal paints. :-(
Twas good though.

Had my last News English class too. Thats a real good class. Last class with Takada sensei which was sad, cause he's the man!

Uneventful, Uneventful, Uneventful

After school I met up with my friend Mami. We went to a Japanese savoury pancake, mix vegetable, meat, thingy-thing (OKONOMIYAKI) for lucnh, as its half days lately. Twas real tasty. Mami andI get on real well. We talked the whole time and laughed a lot. Its weird, she's never been abroad, and shes not half or anything, but for some reason she speaks English REALLY well. I have no idea why! Its really awesome!
We were there about 3 hours :-)

We then took purikura, and went to a cafe for some hot choco. Twas good. (^_^)

Tomorrow Ive got a talk with Rebecca, which should be good. Probably after 7:00 NZ time :-)

Thursday I have my speech and am then hanging out with a friend after school.

Oh, and I also recieved some presents. :-)
From Fuyuko I got a card and a Mickey doll
From my Japanese teacher Nami Okuyama, I got a Christmas card
From Chinese friends I got a CD and a Cd insert which they made :-)
And from Mami (and her Mum) I got a Totoro key chain, photo album and keyring/doll.

I really appreciate it aye. (^_^)

Oh,and King Kong! Yesterday I went and saw King Kong.It was real cool. SOme real NZ stuff, like the ferns everywhere, and the GIATN weta. Man, those were 気持ち悪い！ (gross!)

I laughed when I saw them though.

It was pretty sad, but I reackon it was buidling up to an even biggertear-jerker.
Twas real good though. Good effort by Pete!
No one knows about how Lord of the Ring, King Kong (Narnia, and The Last Samarai) are all made in NZ! Pretty sad!

Anyways, I think Ill let this post be.
Actually, Ill chuck one of the English essays I wrote for the school about my time in Japan up on the net.

Cheers all!
See you soon I guess ;-)
Kia Kaha!
lOTS OF LOVE
Jimmy

A little reef I whiped a while ago...

Hello, my name is James Butt. I'm 17 and come from the home of Lord of the Rings, King Kong and the kiwifruit. The two little rocks somewhere below Australia. New Zealand.

I came to Japan at the end of March, 2005 to embark on the understanding of both the Japanese language and the culture of Japan. My goals also included becoming more independent, experience what it is like to live an entirely different life, and pretty much soak up everything I could during my 10 months in Japan. I feel my goals have been more than achieved.

I came to Japan with a slight understanding of the language, having studied it at my New Zealand high school, and a will to learn. I quickly realized however, that what I had learnt at high school was just the tip of the ice burg. I was left floundering without any real ability to communicate with my peers.

By now, my Japanese has reached the stage where I can use it reasonably efficiently to convey normal conversation, (though this is excusing my tendency to muck up grammar.) (>_<) I still need to work more at some of the more difficult vocabulary, but I feel that I can convey my general opinions about most topics in everyday conversation.

Coming from Wellington, New Zealand where although there are seasons, they are not so clearly defined. I have found it really interesting seeing how Japan changes with the weather. The sakura (cherry blossoms) of spring, the rainy season, the humidity of summer, the reddening leaves of autumn, and the bite that the air takes on in winter. These are all things that are not so commonplace in Wellington.

One thing that struck me about summer in Japan was that although it was really hot and humid, not many people went swimming. I would have expected people to flock to the pools, and even thought there would be lots of people taking the long trip to the beach from Saitama. Most of the time however was spent under the loving care of the air conditioner. In contrast, the three things that come to mind if someone asks about NZ summer are swimming, BBQs and Christmas.

School wise: I really enjoyed myself. The students and teachers were really friendly, and I certainly got my fair share of karaoke done. I spent a lot of time with the Chinese students at the school too, which was fun. I took many of the normal classes such as Koten (Japanese literature) and other classes which were far beyond my Japanese level. I did however also have private Japanese lessons, which were really good. I got along with the teachers really well too. Strangely, I also took a number of English classes, though I actually found two of these classes quite enjoyable. These were News English, and Cultural Understanding, and were both taught by Takada Sensei. Very good classes ・ I also enjoyed talking to the many ALT (Assistant Language Teachers) who pass their time here.

I believe that the students at Wako Kokusai Koukou have a wider view of the world than many other Japanese high school students, and that helped to make my time here all the better.

I｡ｦm going to miss the school, teachers, and the students a lot. I｡ｦm also going to miss my Japanese life in general. It｡ｦs hard to be somewhere for 10 months, accept that place as your home, and then leave it knowing that you will never be able to return to that same life.

Thank you for everything. It｡ｦs been a great experience that I can't express effectively in words.

Hontouni arigatou gozaimasita
James Alexander Butt

Evening to al!

2005-12-19T00:09:00.000+13:00

Howdy All
Hows it going?
Things are good here. I had a rather busy weekened.
Firstly Friday: I had school, andthen afterwards I got got changed inthe bathroom atthe trainstation, and then went to meet Kei in Tokyo, Ikebukuro. Before I met him, I watched some guys playing guitar in the park. They were playing this kinda 'Japanese Folk' which is popular among street musicans. Its sorta like pop music, but with guitars. Its pretty cool, and they sometimes use harmonica and tambourines and stuff too. Its usually a duo, both with acoustic guitars.

I then had rammen for lunch.

Met Kei at the station, which was good. Havent seen that cat in 9 months. He's not coming back to NZ, so yeah, it was good to catch up before I went back. His English has come a long way from when I first met him as a 15 year old in Science class, but it could be a better after living in NZ for 3 years.... He doesnt really have kiwi friends though. He just hangs out with the Japanese kids, and some Indonesians and the others.

We walked, and talked. We did some karaoke, which was cool. Then went to Harajuku, Shibuya (where we had rammen for dinner), Ueno and then to Asakusa (where Kei's hotel was.) The plan was to just stay up all night talking and stuff, but as I wasnt allowed to enter his hotel room, and I wasnt up for forking out the more than $50 it would cost me to get my own room, I went home. I set it all alright with my host family, so it was good. I got home about 10:30, but as the host dad was at the onsen, (and he's the one who cares about the 10:00 curfew) it was all peachy keen :-)

Asakusa = Famous temple sorta place in Tokyo.

On Saturday I got the finished draft of my farewell speech (in Japanese) for school, and finished my English essay about Japan for my schools website. I also went to the post office to post my Japanese rport about Japan to PIEE (the company I came to Japan with) and also apply for my months transportation money. I also checked up about sending things sea-mail to NZ. Gotthe forms and stuff too, so thats good :-)

Went to lunch with my host Dad to this cool rammen shop. I had yaki soba (fried noodles) though.

I then went off to Sayama and met up with Daisuke and Morgane. We went for a walk, ate dango (not dangomushi)in the park (^_^) and then went to a cafe. We then got picked up by Daisukes friend and drove out to a cafe to pick up some food. The cafe was a one that Daisuke is a regular at, and so we talked to the staff there for a while. Its was an Organic/ Vegetarian cafe, so the people were pretty cool.

On we went, picked up some of Daisukes other friends, and then got to the place where Daisukes party was ate. It was about 12 people in total, so it was more of a dinner. But it was rad. This place he'd rented (from the owner, whos his friend) was like a bar, but with a stage as well. On the stage was drums, amps, keyboardsand everything. All connect upto a PA. It was rad! So cool! But the only thingwas, is we thought we'd be able to borrow eletric guitar, but we couldnt. We hit away on drums though, and I jammed with Daisuke. Him on drums, me on harmonica. Twas good. Daisukes real intrument is piano though.

Twas all real fun,and everyone was really friendly. We got home at about 2:00 and I stayed at Daisukes house. We then got up at 7:30, because Daisuke had to go to the Buddist Temple, and I had to meet some friends. So we had some breakfast, and Daisukes Mum (who is real cool) had a characteristic that Ive found in my host Grandmother. Its a really nice thing, but yeah.

So on Saturday I wake up,and everyones already at part time jobs/ work/ school/ generally out. Only the Grandma is home. So Im making myself some cheese on toast, and the Grandma comes downstairs and askes me if I want her to make me anything for lunch. I say its alright, and show her my cheese on toasts. Shes askes if its enough,and I say yeah, I dont eat so much in the morning. So she goes upstairs, then comes back down later with fried egg, salad and all sorts.
I mean, Im really grateful, but its too kind sometimes. His Mum was like that a bit, which is a good thing I think. Like, Daisuke is a real nice kid, and I can see where he gets it from.

So I train into Ikebukuro where I meet... FUYUKO! Twas awesome. Shes a cat from way back in NZ. We had tourism and science together, and helped each other with Japanese/ English. Shes real good at English which is cool. So we walked around. We went to a cafe, where Fuyuko game me a Mickey Mouse figure and a card for early Christmas, and then trained to Asakusa via Ueno. We met up with Kei in Asakusa, which was SOOOO crowded (like it always is.) Asakusas quite cool, and it reminds me of Nara and Osaka. We threw loose change into a box, and prayed for good luck, and all the things one does at Asakusa. We then went walking andthen ate at a 'family restaurant' (which are really common in Japan.)

Some more walkingand talking,and I have to say that I dont like te 3-person combination so much. As Ive found with other friendships, that when theres 3 people a lot of the time one person out isnt as included. And then when Im one of the two talking people, I feel sorry for the 3rd person. Maybe other people are different, but I work best just 1 on 1. None of this tag team battles.

Kei then went home at about 4. So that was our final goodbye thing. Its sad cause I wont see hiom for probably at least 3 years, but probably more (and maybe a lot more.) He's a good guy. In Japan, he comes across as a bit rough. Esspecially because he speaks in the Kansai/ Osaka way of talking, which sounds scary. But also he smokes like a chimney now.

He came to Tokyo and back onthe Shinkansen which takes about 2 and a half hours, but is super expensive. Fuyuko came on the night bus (which I went on to Nara) and it cost about a third of the price, but takes about 9 hours. (About $100 NZ from Nara to Tokyo return.)

So Fuyuko and I took some purikura and went walking around Shinjuku. I went with her to the Playboy shop, which may sound dodgey, but actually in Japan the playboy brand isnt aboutthe magazine, or naked people. Its about how the Playboy rabbit is 'kawaiiiii' (cute.) And its just a popular brand. Suprised me a little at first though....

I then said goodbye to Fuyuko, which was sad. Im gonna miss those kids. I still dunno if Ill go to Japan or not after uni. I mght be doing the Jet Programme thing, which would be cool. But I dunno yet.
I do hope that get to see them all again someday though....

I got home and hada look atthe news. Nothing about the Sydney racist thing has been on the T.V, but I did see a thingabout these four 9 (maybe) year olds, who have been playing music since younger, and were in a band. It showed a thing of them playing Smoke on the Water in the studio, with this little 9 year old girl soloing away on guitar. It was pretty cool. I think theyve been forced into it from pretty young. It was pretty cool though. They were really good.

We then had cheese fondue for dinner. It was awesome :-)

And so yeah, here I am, and here you are. That was my weekend. :-)
Things with my host mother have been a lot better since I came back, so thats turning out well. Japans going pretty good actually. Theres been a lot of spitting lately though. You walk anywhere andtheres always 40+ males spitting. I think its because its cold (I think it was 4 degrees C at one time today), so they get colds. Then the obvious thing to do when you have a cold, is to huff up mucus and plonk it in the middle ofthe sidewalk, or atthe train station....

Nice.

Plan for the week:
Monday - King Kong with James the Aussie, Morgane the French, and Hanrin the Chinese
Tuesday - Okonomiyaki and maybe karaoke with Mami
Wednesday - Talk to Rebecca on the phone
Thursday - Last day of school,so maybe Ill stick around a while
Friday - Empoeoers birthday or something. Itsa public holiday, and I think Im going to Kamakura with my host Dad.

Busy, busy, busy!

Again,im really sorry to the people who I owe emails to. I know Im really behind, but I will get onto it!

Anyways,I best be having a shower about now. Thanks for reading this far.
Only about 3 weeks of posts left!!!! :-( Its been one hell of a ride though :-) Hope you guys having been learning lots ;-)

Have a good one, and I guess Ill be seeing you soon!

Lots of love, kiss and hugs
Cheers
Your man in Japan
Jimmy J

'chiwassu!

2005-12-15T23:33:00.000+13:00

Howdy Kiddies (^_^)
Hows it goin?
Things are good here.
Another day pile of vomit at the station in the morning. Couldnt make out the flavour today without a closer inspection, but yesterday it was curry. Not an uncommon site when you get there before the morning cleaner.

THings of late have been real good. On Tuesday I went to a after school Japanese class, which Im actually not usually allowed to go for. Its to help the forigen students who have to get university entrance in Japan. After that, I went wit those Chinese kids, and Morgane (my French friend) to take some purikura, and then 4 hours of karaoke. Twas real fun. Everyone got on well too, so that was good. Some of my favourite karaoke atthe moment (which arent Japanese) are Blue Suede Shoes, Devil in Disguise, Suspicious Minds (all Elvis.) Um, any of the Buddy Holly songs they have, Please Please Me and Eight Days a Week (Beatles) and heaps of others. Singing lots of Japanese ones though.

Yuka couldnt come to karaoke, so the 4 of us went. Morgane, Hanrin, Hakuchou, Min and me. Morgane is from a different school, but yeah, it all worked out well :-)
The days have been half days lately, so thats been cool.

Wedensday was rockin too. Harin, Morgane, one of Morganes French friends and I went to Kawagoe. Again, everyone got on well. Interesting because althoughthe two French girls speak English, Hanrin doesnt. The other French girl,I dunno how much Japanese she understands, but she couldnt keep up with a normal Japanese conversation (I think.) We kept it to mainly Japanese (and French) but yeah, it was good.
Theres actually not all that much to do in Kawagoe, but we had coffee at Mr Donuts(which was gross, but you can get free re-fills!)
Then, we looked around at some shops, and as we couldntthink of e\anything to do, we ended up going to karaoke for an hour. Twas good. Hanrin and I sung some good Japanese punk tunes. We then had rammen for dinner. It was real good. Rammen is the best. We then went up to Hanrins families apartment, because the view from the top is real good at night. We did the most talking up there, and it was good. I mean, we al come from such different placs, different cultures, and different langauges, but we all came together speaking Japanese. It was so random, sitting at the top of a building in Japan like that, but it was good. We all have some similar feelings about Japanese and Japanese people, and yeah, it was just real fun. Hanrin also said he wants me to come and stay with him for a while (like a week or something!) DOnt think I could do a week though, but itd be rad. Hes an only child, with a Chinese parents and a Korean parent, who are at work a lot. They dont get home till 10 or something! Feel a bit sorry for him actually. I mean, he likes Japan, but like all the other Chinese, he likes China better.

Min was actually also telling me that apparently the Chinese workload is A LOT bigger than Japan, but in general, China is funner.

Today, in class I gave a little talk about becoming a NZer, gaining citizenship etc. That was then compared with what its like to become Japanese. Interesting stuff :-)

I also had my music test thing. It was my last music class in Japan. I played my own song 'End of the Line' and also 'Aoi Benchi' (Blue Bench) by Sasuke. It was this song that I once sung at karaoke,and my friend Maho cried becasue the lyrics were so deep ;-)
Anyways, so my first song went well. People clapped along and stuff, so that was cool. The second one, the Japanese cover, didnt go so well. When I started the harmonica/ guitar intro they were like 'EEEEEEEEEEEEEEHH' because everyone knows that song. They then started clapping along real loudly, I got distracted and ending uphaving to restart the intro. I forgot a few words,and I have no idea where Im supposed to sing that song. Like, its a guy singing it, but its kinda high. Twas hard. One girl asked me for my email address afterwards though ;-)

After school, I went to lunch, purikura and karaoke with my friend Mami. Shes real cool. We went to an Italian 'family restaurant' called Dolphin. Weird, I know! In Japan, theres A LOT of Italian restaurants, and most are pretty cheap. THe inside hada kinda India feel to it too, so it was all weird. Good day though. We laughed a lot. (*^_^*)

But yeah, Japan is good. Im really enjoying it. I mean, I think if I was Japanese it wouldnt be so fun. And if I wasnt as outgoing, I dont think itd be fun. For me, as school-wise I only have to learn Japanese, its not too bad. Ive finished my big exam too, which is nice. And I dunno, when you live in a country for 9 months, it starts to feel like home. And I dont mean HOME HOME, as in REAL HOME, I dunno, I guess its just comfortable. Like, I have my routines, I have my friends and I have a life over here. Im looking forward to coming back to NZ. But to some degree, I'm burrowed in here, morethan NZ. Dont take that the wrong way! Its just, in Japan I have a familiar school and as well as a familiar family and stuff. In NZ, I wont have a familiar school or job or anything. New car and cat too! So, its a little strange.
Dont get me wrong though! Im really looking forward to coming back, and hanging with you cats again!
I guess only people like Rebecca have a good chance of understanding.... Its like, I have two lives now. And when your away from one, you miss the other. Its good, but its hard!
I mean, you do become a different person, to a certain degree when you talk in another langauge. You laugh at different things, comment on different things, and think different things to a degree.

Plans for the next while....
Friday: School, then meet KEI (FROM OSAKA!) in Tokyo. We'll party all night, and then Ill crash at his hotel.
Saturday: Daisuke, has invited me to a party.Ill then stay at his house afterwards.
Sunday: FUYUKO (FROM NARA) and I will hang out in Tokyo.
Should be awesome! Havent seen Kei and Fuyuko in ages. Those kids were in NZ for 3 years or so, but have come back to Japan. We're in the same country, but their in the other end. Osaka is like the Auckland of Japan, in my opinion.

Books wise: I finished Star Wars ages ago, and it was awesome! Timothy Zahn is a legend!
I also got a shortened Kiwi version of the Bible from my Grandparents. Its pretty interesting. Its really readable, and its a good story. Cheers G&G

Email wise: Im sorry! I know Ive been really bad about emails as of late. I just havent had the time to do it. I will get round to it though! You can count on me! Edmonds, your first on the list. Its been too long....

Well, I think thats aboutall I can think of for now.
Sorry about the bloody essay.
Hope you all have good ones!
Have a good summer and all!
Cheers for comments too!

Johanna, email me please :-)

Cheers ears
Jimmy

Howdy Fuzz Chiefs!

2005-12-12T21:17:00.000+13:00

Hi all
Hows it going?
Things are good here. A bit of a bite to the wind, as winters hitting.
Schools almost finished and man, Im getting busy these days. Its nuts!
I had to do Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) after school today. Twas good. I did it with the foriegn teachers, and some Japanese students.
Got home and tried to do some guitar practice but had to stop as upstairs my host sister is sleeping, and downstairs my host brother is studying. Problem is, I have my music test on Thursday, and I still havent learnt all of the two songs that I plan to play. Crazy!

Back tracking: Saturday, I went to Ikebukuro and Harajuku (Tokyo) with Morgane (French girl,) Daisuke (Japanese neighbour at the Tomitas, and a cool guy) Morganes aussie mate James, and 3 Japanese guys. Kinda disappointing that the 3 Japanese guys didnt make any effort to communicate, even when we tried to talk to them. In the end it was like 2 groups.THe 3 Japanese guys in one, and James, me, Daisuke and Morgane in the other. Twas good. We wentto the park in Harajuku,which was cool,andtheres heaps of people practicing stuff there. Like plans, brass bands and everything you can thing of. We did some eatting and drinking and just some walking around. It was good. We found this rad Japanese restaurant too :-)

Sunday, Morgane and I met up in Kawagoe for lunch, karaoke, dango, and then coffee.
Twas good. I did some odds and ends too. Helping my host sister with English and stuff.

On Friday there was this REALLY drunk guy atthe station. He was a businessman, and man, he was wasted. This isnt exactly a strange sight in Japan, but I have noticed that Japanese business man, (not all, butthe ones like him) are I dunno, real dicks when they drink. I dont know what he was trying to do, but he ended up having to be held back by police. And he was trying to slap them and stuff. Seen the same sort of thing on the train before aswelll. Its weird. Havent seen anything like it in NZ.

The other weird things were a guy with plastic bags on his feet walking abck and forth along the train. There was plenty of room to sit, but he just kept walking from one end to the other.

Last recent one was the old man who was on a train.It wasnt crowded at all,and he was lying on the seat, on his back. There, he started doing stretches. Swinging his legs about while still lying on his back and all sorts. It was really very odd.

I guess in a country with 127 million people, theres a lot more odd people. ANd theyre the ones who stand out.

By the way, would you say that someone whos been learning for about 5-6 years, who an readi t reallywell, but not speak it at all, should be learing words like 'WHOM' just yet? And I dont just mean like a 'To whom it concerns.' I mean, "TO whom does this pen belong."
Arghh, it just annoys me how REALLY BAD The forign langauge (esspecially English) system is in Japan. THe ONLY point of it, is to teach the student hows to pass the test. They dont learn anything useful, and because they dont learn to speak, and they dont learn to USE the expressions and idioms that they have to learn, theres no point and they juts forget them. ITS SUCH A WASTE OF TIME!
Like, people talk about the Japanese school system as being hard, but good because you learn things. But whats the point in memorizing 70 pages of a history book for a history test! Its stupid! (And thats a real thing.Ayumi had to do it recently. No need for a teacher. Just memorize!) (>_<) They dont learn to analize what they learn, dont learn to doubt what they learn, and they dont even learn to understand what they learn. Its stupid! There are some students who can rise above that, but a lot cant and just get stuck in this screwed up world of mindless facts.

Anyways,thats my rant :-)

Cheers for popping in!
Ill try to write me interesting stuff. Sorry ;-)

Lotso f love
Jimmy
P.S A 3rd primary school student was attacked today. Its really wierd! Whats the point? Why!? Apparently it was by his cram school teacher too!

Ohayooooo 2000 visitors since August :-)

2005-12-10T13:16:00.000+13:00

Howdy all!
Sorry for the late one. I havent had so much computer time lately, so Ive just been lowering myself to posting with the lowlifes in the comments box.
Things of late:
Wedensday: There was a school trip to a nearby thearter, and there we watched Rakugo （落語）and another Japanese traditaional play. THe other one was sorta like Nou, (which is sorta like Kabuki) and if you dont know what that is, well, I guess its sorta like Shortland street with funnier voices aned clothes. :-)
It was good. I didnt understadn it though. Actually, there were two Rakugo comedians. The comedians sit on a cushion, and talk. But they do impersonations, and have conversations with themselves. I understood one ofthem perfectly, and it was actually really funy. The other one spoke really fast and in a low voice, and he didnt get so many laughs. I didnt understand him.

On Thursday I met a French girl, who came to Japan 3 months ago with PIEE, had a real bad family (with a 9:00 curfew,) changed hosts and now shes spending the rest of the time with the Tomitas. Shes really, friendly. Shes had some problems with Japanese people finding it weird when she kisses and hugs them. Shes pretty cool. Everytime we're both free, she wants to hang out, and also when one of us is hanging out with friends, she wants to hang. So, Thursday was coffee and then Omurice (omelete+rice,) Friday was me hanging out with Maho, Kaoru and another ex-Yamamura student called Mami, and then Morgane came along too. Today, shes invited me to Tokyo with some of her friends, and I think she wants to do something on Sunday. Its fun hanging out with her, but I really do have to get some other things done! I got a letter yesterday sayingthat I have to write a report about Japan, before the 20th, and that I have to do a 5 minuter speech on the last day, about Japan. Arghhhhh.

So yesterday, we went to karaoke, (where I sung heaps of Japanese songs) took purikura and then had dinner.

Oh, and in the news everyday lately has been these two Primary school students who were snatched from the street, and one was found in a cardboard box. I cant rememeber where the other one was found. THe cardboard box one was done by a guy from Peru, and the other one was a Japanese guy. The point is that firstly, its really horrible. These kids were taken off the street,one one strangled and I dunno about the other one. Second thing, whcih I find kinda weird, is that some people are saying that it could be harder for foringers to come into Japan because of this incident! ANd also, that primary school security is being BEEFED UP. Theres people protecting the schools, some school have police cars patrolling the streets and yeah, its all pretty extreme.

For me, coming from a country with 4 million people, to a country of 127 million, I find it a little strange how stirred up things are getting because of these two events. I mean, I fully think that its a terrible thing, and it must be horrible forthe parents, but as with the world terrorism thing, putting police on every corner, is not going to solve the problem.

Thats just my thoughts.

Anyways, I gotta get ready to go to Ikebukuro. Ill write again later. And sorry no Japanese one today :-(

Cheers
You have a good one
Keep asking Rebecca about her CD ;-)
The Jim of Japan
James

Yus! Finished my exams!

2005-12-05T00:35:00.000+13:00

Howdy kids
Lets try some Japanese blog first.... ;-)

こんばんは！元気？俺は元気だよ：－）今日は初めての日本語のブローグだね。日本語を勉強してる人と、英語がめんどくさい日本人のために書いた。それに、これは俺の日本語の練習。ま、文法とかはてくとに書いてるので、気にしないで！
とりあえず、日本語のブローグによこうそ！
今年３月２２日日本に来て、日本語がまだまだできないけど、（ちょっと)頑張ってる！
今日日本能力試験を受けて、ま、結構出来たと思う。。。。まだ分かんないけどさ！
明日は普通の学校。学校の後でマミという友達と一緒にカラオケをやったり夕ご飯をたべたりプリクラをとったりするつもり。楽しみだよ！マミは英語がすごいぺらぺら！

じゃ、もう寝るかな：－）
わざわざ読んでくれてありがとうね！

おやすみ！
慈英夢寿より　　　＜＝　James in Kanji!

P.S　チック時間がないので、いっぱい間違えたと思う。日本語で書くのは楽しいよ：－）

Evening all!
Hows it?
Just a quick one.
Big news is that Kei and Fuyuko (my Japanese mates from NZ, who are back in Japan now,) might be coming to Saitama for a little trip. Fuyuko got her drivers license recently, so thats cool. Itd be rad if they did! Those cats are real cool!

Oh, and I had the Japanese profiency test today, which wasnt to bad. I dont get the results till Febuary though. I recieved the good luck sparks on my back, from the fluint, whcih was cool. The test was easier than I thought, but that there were questions that I didnt know the answers to. I would say, maybe at a guess 75%-85% but I dont really know. Maybe I got more... who knows.
The majority of peole there were actually Indonesian. I used a little of my Indonesian too :-) I said to a guy Terma kasih (thanks you) and Apa kabaar (hows it going?) Pretty impressive aye! I probably knwo about as much Indonesian as I do Chiense! Even though Ive been studying Chinese for almost a year. Weird/ scary thing: its a month and 10 days till I come back! THats REAL fast!! Cant believe it really....

My Japanese teacher, Nami(not the one I had lunch with) who lives close , drove me from the test site to the station and bought me coffee after the test. Twas good.
Then my host Dad picked me up from the station thats close to our house (15 minutes walk) because it was raining. (I had to catch 3 traisn and a bus to get to the test site!) Host Dad: He's a good guy. He also brought an umbrella to Meg who was at Mr Donuts, (And will be till 10 tonight. It seems like he was pretty gutted about not going to Kamakura actually.

Been talking to Ayumi (my host sister) quite a bit lately. Actually feels like a real sister. Something Ive never had. So thats all cool :-)

So yeah, its feeling good to be all out of exams now. It means I can stop strapping myself to the desk for study, and get on with the fun things that Ive been neglecting... ;-)

Actually I have a few plans coming up. Going to karaoke and dinner with my friend Mami tomorrow, and then on Friday Im going to, guess, karaoke and dinner with Maho, Kaoru, and one of thier friends. They were the ex-Yamamura kids that I mentioned before. I think both outing will involve purikura (those small sticker/ photo things.) :-)

When I got back home today, I had a short (2 hour) conversation with Rebeeca on the phone. That was good, and Ive been enjoying her EP that she made on her computer. Its 5 songs (2 coversm 3 orignials) and its real good. I think she was selling them for $5 or $10 or something. I cant really remeber what she sauid (^_^)

Had an interesting question the other day. We were at the table, talking loosely about Christas, and the host brother asks, "so, do people buy THEMSELVES presents every year at Christmas?"

I guess it really shows how much the true spirit of Chrsitmas is being forgotten. People in Japan love Chirstmas, and theres lots of Chirstmas light and toys and everything (same as when Halloween came around) and yeah, its just interesting...

Also, Ayumi told me that apparently she'd heard from the forgien teacher at her school, tha the Santa figure was actually a coca cola creation. I dunno, can anyone confirm?

Been emailing one of my Chinese friends a bit latley. The Japanese teacher had been a little worried about him, cause he seemed unhappy. It seems to me like he doesnt like Japan so much. He realy wants to go back to China. It must be really hard for peole like him. I mean, because of his parents work, he had to com to a different country, which he doesnt even speak the language of, and he sys hes finding it pretty boring. Also, he's losing his Chinese because he hardly uses it, and has to focus on Japanese. He even talks to his parents and his Chiense friends in Japanese. He studies (and became pretty fluinet) in Korean before he came, but that doesnt mean much in Japan, because in Japan the only langauge worth learning is Japanese.... He hates learning English (and henceforth cant really sepak it) and so yeah, its tough for him... :-(

ANother Chinese fried (in NZ) is Um Chonging himself to China in Janaury so hes not gonna be here when I get back! That doesnt make me GAOXING! ;-)

Anyways, Ive got school tomorrow, emails to reply to (which will be replied to someday) and things to do (which wont be done now) because I need to do some more work on reading STAR WARS! Rowan sent it to me, and Im almost finished. ITs over 400 pages and so I was hoping to drag it out a bit longer. But it just keeps being read! Damn Rowan and his addictive Timothy Zahn Star Wars books....

Anyways, Im off.
Have a good one, eh!

Oh, and something I thought was cool. I finaly got back around to replying to my Grandparents emails. My Grandad was at the other end typing an email to me, so he pressed send and recieve, and we both managed to send emails at the same time! Seeing as I hadnt sent them an email for a month or so, I thought it was impressive (^_^)

And just to note, for regular readers, and those who are as ill-educated as me:

'Abbot' is the head monk of a male monastery.
And when you say in a comment, on this or that, something like "Cool aye"
it is I think spelled "eh". It appears to be something that Kiwi language
has taken over from the patois of the Maori who first got into it.

Who says this blog isnt educational...? (^_^)

Only problem is.... what is PATOIS! (O_o)

Thats one for you all to ponder. :-)

Cheers for popping in!
Have a good week (and life too.)

Bye bye!
Jimmy
P.S Only 3 more weeks of school! So fast... :-(

Ohayou!

2005-12-03T12:50:00.000+13:00

Howdy guys
James here.
Things buzzing alright?
Me, well I got woken up at 7 (nice and late:-D (serious!)) this morning by the host Dad. Apparently, the trip to Kamamura (that I gave up a motorbike ride to a Chichibu festival with the 23 year old neigbour from the Tomitas AND karaoke+food with 3 ex-yamamura students!) has been cancelled. He'd made the Kamamura plans, and it sounded like they couldnt be changed, so grudgingly I gave up my other plans. Today, the host dad has a cold, so he cant go to Kamamura.

ERGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! (>_<)

And so no plans today. :-(

Yesterday was good. I had an English exam (which wasnt so stimulating,) I then had a Japanese class and then hung out with the forigen teachers. THey're all pretty cool aye. Talked a lot, and then Rodney (the American guy) and I talked to Mami, whos a 3rd year (7th form) student here. She'd just taken a uni entrance test, and if she passes it, she doesnt have to take any more. This is what she's been working towards for pretty much, her whole life! Before yesterday, I hadnt talked to her, but Id overheard her speaking to other forigners. Her English is SOOOO GOOD. Id been meaning to ask her what country she's studied in for a year or so, but apparently she's only been on a 2 week exchange to Austalia! I was impressed. She even managed to keep up with Rodneys talk about HEDGE LOANS! (Theyre a kind of loan, where you bet for one company and against another!) \(Rodneys Japanese wife is real into hedge funds.)And he was also talking about Black American poverty. Oh, and apparently, the rent for an apartment in New York can reach $3000 US a month!! Isnt that not crazy!

So yeah, Mami was pretty nervous. She gets the results on Tuesday, and yeah, pretty nervous.

So, Mami went to talk to an interview thing wth a Japanese teacher, Rodney was talking to another teacher about something, so April (the 25???? maybe, year old American/ Philipeno teacher, who is my partner in Star Wars impersonations) and I, were listening to music from Rodneys computer and decided it was time for a dance party. It started off simple, with just a few hand movements, but then it got brought out into the full Robot, and then we were actually dancing around the room, with moneky dances and everything. It was so stupid, but so funny! Luckty there was only Rodney and the other teacher there to see it! Pretty random, but so funny!

Our Star Wars impressions are also awesome! They range from Chewbacca, to Han Solos classic "Im Han Solo" and R2D2. ;-) So stupid, but so funny.

We stopped our dancing when other people started to come back into the room. Rodney, Mami and Mamis friend walked home together. Mamis friend had taken the same sorta test, but a little earlier. So the result was suppossed to come yesterday. Mami, Rodney and I were leaving, Mami went into her classroom and found her friend sitting there at the computer alone, waiting for the email. She was so stressed, it looked like she was going to cry!

Its just so unfair how much stress the Japanese school system puts on students!

Well, Mami managed to coax her friend into leaving (as school had actually finished about 3 and a half hours ago,) and we all walked home together. Mamis friend wants to be a nurse.

THe other crazy thing about study, is I asked my tired looking 2nd year friend, why she looked so tired.After a few probing questions, it would seem that she studied until 3 in the morning, then WOKE UP AT 4 to study some more! See, I really like my life in Japan, and I even like school, but if I had to go under the sorta stress the other students are grilled under, I would hate it!

Got off the train, back at Tsuruse, and decided to venture into a op-shop. This particular op-shop, Id tried to go into before, but its on the 3rd story of this building oppoiste the station, and Id never been able to find out how to get there! I could see through the window lots of cool stuff, and the sign FURUGI (old clothes) and decided to have another go. I mangaed to find my way up through a hidden entrance, and it was a wicked shop! in some ways.....

It had a lot of stuff, bu nothing that I wanted. THere was a lot of the random stuff you tend to find in that sorta shop, but there was more random stuff than normal stuff! It was a real cool shop, ut nothing that I really wanted. Even the t shirts were mainly American sporting ones... The music was rap-pop stuff like Usher (I REFUSE to call it R&B. Why? Because theres no Rythem, and theres no Blues in it! R&B = Chuck Berry and the gang. And dont you forget it!!!!)

Okay, so although I liked the general idea, and I thought it looked cool, and there was insense and stuff, I could find much that I wanted.
Poblems with the shop, I think, is that in my opinion there would be no market for op-shops where I live. If you want young peoples op-shops like this one, you go to Harajuku or even Kawagoe. Somewhere where there actually is young people! Where I live is mainly old people!Its just random! Its like putting an op shop next to the Northland shops, but on the 3rd story, with a hard to find entrance!

So the guy who worked there. Not having music tastes and stuff to talk about was a fist for my conversations with the people who work at op-shops. ANd mate, he seemed to desperate for me to buy stuff. He recommned me some mens perfume, and let me try it, (I decided agaisnit buying it,) he gave me sweets, he followed me around, and whenever I showed even slight interest in anything, he'd show me all the things like it/ related to it in the shop. He even brought out an atlas with the map of NZ to show me. Um why? I dunno. I point to Wellington and told me thats where I live. He then put the map away. There were a few cool stuff, but it was kinda weird. He had a big Sponge Bob section, a HUGE postcard selection (ranging from The Clash, RATM, Britney, everything) and then there was also a big insense section, and a fair bit of clothes. I felt I had to buy something, so I ended up buying a Rancid patch, a sticker and some cheap chocolate (from the sweets section.) I dunno, i couldnt think of his target audience, who would actually come, and how he managed to buy all that stuff. I mean, the only idea I could think of was his parents gave him a lot of money, said start yourself a business, and he did.

Felt real sorry for him. He seemed like a nice guy, but he also seemed like he'd probably have days when no one wuld come to the shop. Poor guy....

Anyways, sorry for wasting your time!
Thanks for bloggin in!
Cheers
Slimmin Jim
James

Happy Aids Day!

2005-12-01T17:24:00.000+13:00

Hi guys
Hows it going? Things good?
Apparently in the UN timetable of dates which I looked at today, today is Aids Day. Anyone else know that?? :-)

Im kinda tired. Ive noticed, even though I go to bed earlier, and get up later, Im a lot more tired here, than at the Tomitas. Maybe its the futon/ bed thing. Like, Im starting to think that for me, a bed gives a deeper sleep... maybe. I dunno :-)

Yesterday I got two parcels! One from my Grandparents, which Im not allowed to open until Christmas :-D And one from Rebecca. Rebecca sent me some photos, a mix tape, a CD with 5 of her songs WHICH ROCK! and some other bits and pieces. Quite the ruling one! THanks all!!!! On the CD that Rowan sent me, Ive fallen in love with an Eels song, which doesnt seem to reall exist (i cant find it on any guitar sites :-()
I guess Ill try some more later :-)

Had 3 Japanese classes, and then talked to some forigen teachers yesterday. Today, I had an English exam, and a study spell. English exam wasnt too bad, but it would have been better if Id been in all the classes to learn some of the stuff. (I only take 2/3 of that class.)

Ohh, I dont know wat to do with the day. Its a nice day, buts its cold. I played some guitar when I got home, and I should do some more study. Also got other stuff to do.

Plan for the week involves, English test tomorrow, and then I think Ill have a crack at a practice exam that I asked for for homework.
Saturday Im going to Kamakura with my host Dad
And Sunday Ive got the Profiency test.
Annoying thing: Almost 2 weeks ago I planned to hang out with my some friends on Saturday (ex yamamura students) but when I get back to the Babas I find that there is unchangeable Kamakura plans (>_<) aghhhhh....

On the whole, being back at the Babas is good though. GOt a routine and stuff. I really liked the Tomitas though! I guess itll be easier to all the stuff that I need to get done here, as theres not so many distractions :-)

Anyways, thanks for bloggin in!
Until next time!
Stay Jivin!
Jimmy

Kia Ora Kido's

2005-11-29T17:45:00.000+13:00

Afternoon all!
Hows things sprintin'?
Life is back to normal here. Seeing as I already have routines and stuff at the Babas, its alright. Life just chugging along. Things seem better a bit with the host Mum, so tats cool. Getting bentos and stuff. Monday was just normal school, but from today its exams! Had my first two today. Two English ones. My study invloved reading some of the prints and textbook for NEws ENglish (about all I can do) and for the other test, I listened to Scribe and THe Fast Crew, to prepare my fast paced English. Mate, some of the stuff in the exams is SOOOOOOOO hard. I took the question paper (because we were allowed to) and showed it to sone of the forign teachers. THey couldnt believe it. I mean, its actually is he sorta level youd expect to find in a 7th English class in NZ. And I mean words like Abott! (apparently its like a preist or something, but Im not 100%)

Yeah.... not cool...

I think I did okay though. No exams tomorrow, but I have English on Tursday and English + Japanese class on Friday. I then have my big JAPANESE PROFIENCY TEST on Sunday. Which should hopefully be alright.

But yeah, as fo Japan. Its getting colder, Christmas lights are already going up, and thinsg are still busy. The train was really packed this morning, and it reminded me of something Rowan told me. He got it from a biology book ;-)

"Personal Space:

We all carry with us a personal space - an area around our bodies that
is private. If you are crowded in an area with many people, you will
reluctantly reduce the size of this personal space. If you are forced
very close - to the pointof touching - such as in a crowded lift, you
will find that people try not to move, get a blank look on their faces
and try not to look at each other."

And its kinda true I reackon. I mean, actually one of the first things I was told while in Japan, was that when on a crowded train, dont talk.

The other thing about the crowded train, is that lately everyone has colds! So many people, if you ask them what they did in the weekend reply, 'I got a cold, and stayed in bed.' And so I was standing there today, wedged up against 4000 other people, and listening to people sniffling, or coughing, or sneezing, and thinking, this doesnt seem like a good situation.... No colds for me yet. And I still ahve never had the flu!

Oh yeah and also, I got a package from my parents today. Farewell/ Christmas presents for the Baba family really. Also a stocking with some Christmas pressies for me in it, but I cant open it now :-(

Oh, and heres Shinya as the studio, playing his drums. :-)

Anyways, got some stuff to do. 2 essays and 2 speechs to write, plus study for my Japanese test and decide on 2 originals to play at music class. On top of that I have to get round to sending a box of stuff to NZ, so I dont get huge fines for having overweight bags, buy s some souvineers ;-) and decide how Im gonna survive on my remaning money... (^_^)

Anywoos, thanks for coming along

Cheers
Jimmy

Back at the Babas

2005-11-27T14:27:00.000+13:00

Mornin all!
How it going?
Im back at the Babas now. Its good. I miss the Tomitas though. They were such a good family!

Yesterday, when I got back, there was a package waiting for me from Rowan! He sent me a Star Wars book by Timothy Zahn, which is rad Timothy Zahn writes good star wars :-)
He also sent me an awesome CD with everything from Radio Head to Sting to Aqua. Its awesome :-) HEs a good kid that Rowan ;-)]

Went to the studio with Shinya, and that was good. We played the 4 songs, and even took a video of Help! with my camera. Not bad, 4 songs done in 2 practices :-) Still havent got all the vocals going yet though.
Still, its not bad for our first time working together.

Not much else is up... Not much has changed here. Except that the outside cat is bigger.

This was just a short one I guess.
Cheers for popping in anyways ;-)
Keep the comments rolling in guys!
See ya later
Love
Slim Jim

Hi all

2005-11-26T14:16:00.000+13:00

Hey Guys and Guyettes!
Todays my last day at the Tomitas house. Its kinda sad, like they really did start to feel like a family. And I actually got used to living here in about 2 days! Im not saying that itll be bad to go back to the Babas, but yeah, I dunno. The Babas, I have to say though, never really felt like a family, in the same way the Tomitas do. I mean, I got on with the Babas host Dad quite well, and he made quite an effort I feel.
One thing that aways kinda got me, which Ive never fully understood, is how it was easy enough to make 3 bentos (lunch boxes) for the 3 kids, but how making a 4th one for me, was too hard.... Kinda made me feel a little left out, as you can imagine.

Im going to the studio (for band practice) again today with Shinya. We're gonna play Day Tripper and Help! By the Bealtes, plus One Fine Day, and Want You Bad by the Offspring. SHould be good.
The host Dad is already at work, so I wont see him again today, host mum is at work till 1 or something, and then Yukis at work now, but will get back soon. Ill leave at about 4:30-5 Japan time.

Gave the parents some presents last night. Because it was such a late wanring that Id be doing the change, I never had anytime to prepare stuff, BUT I still gave them a Wellington Calender, and a NZ mouse pad, and 2 little note book things. THey were real stoked. Id actually given them another NZ calander for this year (but only had one month left on it) just so they coud see the pictures, and they loved both the calanders! I mean, the calander are big epic photos, but yeah, they really liked them. And they couldnt believe how beautiful NZ was. It was cool :-)

Just for anyone whos buying stuff for Japanese people, in my experience:
Good soap has not been the best present. Mainly because they dont use it. (Its a waste to use it, where I would think that it was a waste not to use it)
Calenders with photos of your country are good
Snacks are good. I bought some Cabury chocolate for the family from a international foods supermarket, and she real liked it.
Um, actually I cant think of anymore, and I should be going soonish. Gotta tidy up my room, and pack everything up (^_^)

Oh, and a cool ting was the they seem to realy wish I could have stayed longer. Theyre getting a French student to stay soonish BUT, as Yuki is out during the night they said I could come and stay the night here whenever i want! Its cool, and I appreciate it :-)

Well, I guess my next post will be from back at the Babas.
Hope you all have a good one, and good luck with the rest of the exams!
Cheers ears
The Jivinator
Slim Jim

Haisai guys (^_^)v

2005-11-25T03:52:00.000+13:00

Hey Hey!
Hows it slurpin?
Things are good here. Been listening to The Clash, The Rasumas, Diesel Boy and RATM today, so that been all good :-)
Kinda average today. We sung The Carpenters and The Beatles in music class, played softball in PE, and I had lunch with my Japanese teacher. I then bought a present for the people at Kendo, (to thank them for giving me free Kendo lessons.)The kendo lesson today was my last one, but although kendo has been interesting, Im glad its over. Its got fun times, but its not something that actually interests me at all. I mean, I didnt actually expect them to just give us armour, and a shinai (kendo sword) and tell us to battle each other for 2 hours. I jst was hoping it wouldnt always be the same 3 tyoes of hits, over and over again, and always yelling MEEEEEEEEEN, (a big voice is the most important one.)
Incase you were wondering, when you play kendo, theres 3 shots for practice,and your supposed to bellow them out:
Men = head
Kote = wrist
Dou = stomach

Oh yeah, and I saw something for the second time today. Well, everyday we clean up the leaves that have fallen off trees, because if theres is any leaves on the ground, thats bad.
Well, what I saw is that instead of composting the leaves, they burn them! Is that not pretty bad?! I mean, why not just compost them! Its like pumping smoke into the air for no reason!

Oh well, I guess as gave up vegetarianism, its harder for me to fight the Green Fight..... (^o^)

Wednesday was a public holiday )(and interestingly, none ofthe kids at kendo knew why it was a holiday.) But yeah, so Shinya (my host brother) and I went to the studio for band practice, and played two Offspring songs. We're gonna do some Bealtes next time ;-)
After that we went to ta chain Japanese fastfood called Yoshinoya, which is a Gyuudon type place. MEaning that it serves meat on rice. But yeah, htis was my first time,and it was so big, tasted real good and it was cheap! Twas wicked!

I then went to Kawagoe, did a little looking around, watched two guys playing guitar, singing, and one played harmonica, then I went home. Soon after I arrived home Daisuke, our neighbour whos lived in America for a little while came over. We played some chess, ate dinner, then went to play pool at a place close to our house. On the way there Shinya rode on a bike, and I rode on the back of Daisukes motorbike. (On the way back I had the bike though.) Twas real fun! Im not much of a pool guy, but it was fun anyways, and the motorbike was cool ;-)

And music class. Well, we have two tests to go, but one is after Ive left. The one after Ive left is where you have to play a song with an instrument, or just sing. So it kinda sucks that I have to miss out on that.
THe other test, (in about 2 weeks) is singing in groups of 3 (alt, soprano, bass) and thats singing either Carpenters or Beatles. So,anyways, when we have the test in 2 weeks, by teacher (who knows I play guitar, as she saw it at the school festival) wants me to play two of my own songs. I kinda wanted to sing in those 3 part groups, but I guess itll be good to get the music of Slim Jim out there, aye ;-)

Anyways, I think thats about my news.
Not long to go now...
ABout 50 days or something I think. And about half of that is holidays!
CHeers for checkin in
Catch ya later
Jivin Jimmy

Kia Ora all!

2005-11-23T00:44:00.000+13:00

Hey Hey
Hows things strewin? Things are good here.
Today was school, and not so eventful. After school, I talked to my op shop friend Yuuji again. He's real cool. Theres a lot of things about Japan that he doesnt like though. Mainly stuff to do with school. I dont mean that how you might think though. I mean, the school system in Japan is really different. Because it is so compeditive, and exam based, you actually dont learn the important things. Teachers teach just for the tests. English, you barely learn to talk Just reading and writing. All good for tests, but its a really hard, unnatural way to learn, and dont serve much use. I mean, if your learning an entire langauge, but in a way tha most people will never use, then youre gonna forget it pretty fast, aye. I mean, for me, NZ uni is all cool, but if I was a Japanese guy living in Japan, I dont think I could hack it. We both agreed that youd be better to learn things on your own, than just learning the curriculum. Esspecially, because you have to devote so much time to school in Japan, that it doesnt leave as much time for other learning. I mean, esspecially some Japanese guys have some kinda, behavior problems. I dont mean that they skip class or anythin (thats a big no no,) but normal manners and courtesy. He was telling me about how some guys come into the shop, accidently knock something over, and dont even bother to pick it up.

Anyways, so he's an interesting guy to talk to, and he listening to cool music too. :-)

Also realized, when he pointed out to me, the reason why a lot of Japanese people dont party so late into the night, is because the last train. The last train may be about 12, or earlier, and from then theres not another until 6:something. And as most people have to catch a train, to get to a good place to hang out, thats why.

On Monday I met up with Haruka and Hami. They had a holiday, and we had dinner. Theyd been planning on meetin gup with a teacher at their old school (Yamamura) beforehand, but as they hadnt had time, the teacher came and had dinner with us. As they all hadnt seen eaach other for ges, I was kinda left out a bit, but she paid for dinner (^_^) and then left, so that wasnt too bad. Haruka, Hami and I then took purikura and that was about it. We had doria and pasta for dinner :-)

Oh yeah, and I talked to too of my friends today at school. THey asked about the concert. The first person (Ogawa Sensei,) when told about The Real McKenzies taking off their clothesduring the last song, and seeing a picture (in which you couldnt actually see much) said that if she had been there, she might have left in disgust. ANd this was in all honesty!

Seeing her reaction, I told my other friend, and she asked if it was legal! And then she said shed most likely call the cops! ANd they were both being serious!! Japans a weird country. Public Onsen are fine, but thats ZETTAI DAME! Its a country of contridictions...

Anyways, one more thing. Just been thinking, and yo know the image that EVERYONE that Ive talked to, (Japanese + American and other forigen teachers) all have this image of NZ as a really clean green, beautiful place. Its really popular, and if it wasnt so expensive to come to, a lot of people said they wanna go, or come again. And so yeah, Ive never been a patriotic kinda guy, but you know, I think we really do need to make an effort to keep NZ how it is.

ANyays, thats my green message.

Catch you all later
Thanks for popping in!
THe Slim Jim
Jimathy

()Howdy all()

2005-11-20T19:49:00.000+13:00

Gabba Gabba Hey!
Hows it slidin?
Things jervin alright?
Me, well, not too bad. Yesterday I went to Kawagoe with Meg. I collected some stuff, like a form for my Japanese Profiency test, and we also had lunch and karaoke. Twas good. Karaoke, well I sung System (Deep Dance,) Slipknot (Wait and Bleed,)Bob Dylan (Like a Woma) plus heaps of stuff. Beatles, Buddy Holly etc. Also sung Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones. First time actually readin gthe lyrcis to that song. They're not so good...

Today, I was gonna go to the studio to play Offspring songs, but things got mucked up. Its a chain studio and so Shinya booked it for the wrong store and stuff. Twas alright though. We had Tempura and Soba noodles for lunch which was good :-)
Stayed up till 1:40 learning the songs last night (0_0)

Today, I might be going to the arcade with Shinya too. But I dunno yet. We also bought some more red wine, which will be drunk at the home under the supervision ofthe parents. (Theyre cool with it) :-D

Um, ato wa... I cant really think of much. Ill take some photos for you aye.

As you can see, here are my shoes. Ive been trying to hold off using the new ones that my mum sent until I absolutely need to :-) THey way, Ill have nice shoes for when I come back. Or, Ill have brand new shoes for winter ;-) Good idea aye. And just to point out, these are not Converse shoes. These are NO SWEAT shoes, which you can buy at Trade Aid. I recommend them to everyone! Not only do they last a tiny bit longer, but theyre also the same price, and made by people with proper wages! Its what you wanna buy over Converse! :-)

Cheers
Anyway, sorry this isnt quite so interesting as the last post. Man, Nofx are so cool....

THanks for coming in!
Your first hand man, takin a stand in Japan
Slim Jim (the Jivin)

So, yeah, I just saw nofx.... :-D

2005-11-19T13:59:00.000+13:00

Hi all!
Hows it going?
Things jivin along well?
Had school yesterday. Twas kinda boring. Not really much happening. As per every friday, I had lunch with some forigen teachers and ome students who want to speak in English, so that was cool.

I then left school as the end of the day, excitidly skipped to the station, changed out of my uniform in the toilets,and then caught the train to Ikebukuro (Tokyo.) I then caught the train from Ikebukuro to Shibuya, and then walked from Shibuya station to SHIBUYA AX. That was all kinda uneventful.

And so I get there, and theres a whole lotta people in nofx t shirts, and you know, I was pretty excited. I couldnt believe I was standing there, about to go in a see NOFX!

So I go inside to my upstairs seat, and look down at the stage. And I think 'no.' Im not gonna waste the oppertunity to dance to nofx! I mean, nofx were the band that first got me into punk (and henceforth bass, guitar, harmonica, and the love of music.) SO I trot down stairs, and start waiting. I couldnt find anyone to talk to at first, and then the first band comes on. They were a hardcore band from the states, but had a Japanese guy on guitar. They didnt know Japanese, but they said a few funny things. They were kinda, I dunno, one of those hardcore bands, where they play good music, but every songs sonds the same, just with a different intro.... Just my opinion!

The second band was a special guest band, and they were kinda punk rocky. The thing that made them stand out, was that the guitarist/ singer for HI STANDARD (Japanese punk rock band) was playing lead. SO that was cool. Before they started I talked to a real punk looking American on the edge of the mosh pit. I though he was older, and he thought I was aolder. He actually turned out to be 18, and doing the same thing that Im doing. Studyng as a 2nd year highschool student. So that was cool. During the band, I went outside to get some water, and talked to some people. These people were THE FIRST Japanese people that Ive met that know millencolin. They even knew that Millencolin are from Sweden! Its weird, in NZ Millencolin are a little more commercial. Liek play radio a little, and Nofx dont. But in Japan, people have heard of Nofx, but almost no ones heard of Millencolin!

And of course, like everyone in Japan, they were also Green Day fans.

So the 3rd band was when I starts, and this was where it started to get REAL GOOD. It was The Real McKenzies. Theyre like this Scottish punk band. They all wore quilts, and they were kinda an odd looking bunch. From where I was standing, the drummer looked kinda like Melvin (guitarist for Nofx,) one of the guitarist was a big mohawked guy the other guitarist was this old man. WHo SERIOUSLY looked about 60, (or maybe 55.) The bassist was this small guy, who looked kinda normal. THe bag pipe player had loks of crazy facial hair, and the singer looked like a PE teacher. He barked at people, talked about Sake a lot, and mooned the crowd a lot. I danced hard to them. For their last song, they took off all their clothes and played in the nude. They were pretty awesome, and pretty funny too.

So I talked to a few more people in the crowd, and that was cool. I move up furthur, so that I pretty much as the front. And heres where the magic starts. (no more photos though, the boncer guy in front kept telling me to stop when I tried) (>_<)

They come onto the stage, say a few words. Anounce that its gonna take a little while, so tryto stay awake, and then they play THE DECLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never in my wildest dreams did they even play ALL 18 MINUTES (and 20 seconds) OF THE DECLINE!!!

So yeah, that was a good start, and I danced hard, singing along. It was awesome!

I cant rememebr all the songs they played, and I didnt know about 3 of them :-( But of what I cant rememebr, they played*
Frano Un-American
Soul Doubt
Dads Bad News
Hobophobic
Monosylomic Girl
Murder the Government
Linoleum (everyone went nuts!)
A song about Tokyo and about how Tokyo is cooler than America, but the American baseball team is better than the Japanese one.
Now here was my spot in the sun. Mike brought out a different bass, and then asked 'does anyone here play bass?' I put my hand up, (kinda timidly actually.) ANd he point at me and was like ' you play bass?
'yep'
'You should try and play this, it weighs like 5 pounds'
Struck for something to say, and brain running weirdly because f the switch to English) I say 'aweeesome.'
'And so you dont look like your fron around these parts'
'Nah, Im from New Zealand'
'New Zealand aye? You know El Hefe over there is Maori.'
'Aye? Yeah, he looks it!'
'Hey Hefe, show them your maori thing'
And then El Hefe (the guitarist) pulls out this greenstone necklace that he wa wearing!
And then Im like 'I got one too!' And pull nust mine out.
And then Fat Mike was like 'woah, that means you guys have to hook up'
'haha, yeah alright'
and then El hefe was like, 'nah, he's too young'
'Nah, he's not young.'
And then it went from there into a them talking about Japanese girls.

Then it was:
Speration of Skate and Church
I Wanna be an Alcoholic
BOB! (man, that was SO AWESOME!)
Champ Elysees
Radio
Bottle to the Ground
Regaining Unconciuosness
Whoops I OD'd (but they brought drums and guitar into it itoo, and it was great)
Then they ended on
THE BREWS

NO STICKIN IN MY EYE though (;_;) That sucked!

The order I wrote is pretty much all wrong, but yeah, you get an idea of what it was like.
They did seem kinda disappointed by the crowd I think though. I mean, there wasnt so much singing along, apart from OI's and stuff. I mean, you can understand why there werent so much. I mean, it was all in English. And also, they made lots of jokes (some funny, some not so funny) but only a few token forigners laughed. Again, because it was all in English.
Musically, it was AWESOME. And it was just such a cool enviroment an stuff. Lots of people like the same stuff.
I dont really know why, but I then that that venue, the shows haveto finish by 10. So, I think that Nofx thought that was kinda stupid. They did however say that they liked playin in Japan more than in China. :-)

The annoying thing were the stupid crowd surfers. People were trying to jump around and dance, but thered be these crowd surfers who kept on getting dumped down the front into the gap. I got kicked in the back of the head a few times which was annoying. But yeah, twas awesome.

I then talked to some more people, got my bag back (which had cost me $6.50NZ to get them to look after.

I then then recieved a free 10 track compilation, and twas on my way. Talked to some guys on the train, which was good. They thought I was like 27 or something around there :-)

THe real annoyin gthing was that by the time I gotten to kawagoe, Id realized, 'hey, what time do the trains stop running.' I looked at my watch, and it was almost 12. Had a vauge idea that it finishedat 12 so I ran full speed from kawagoe to hon kawagoe, which takes a little while, and got there just in time to watch the last train depart. So yeah, that wasnt cool. I ended up getting a taxi (costing $47NZ.) So I was a little cheezed off about that! I mean, the train costs about $3! And I already ha a pass, so it would have been free :-(

Anyways, twas an awesome night!
Im off to kawagoe now, so Ill catch up with you guys later!
Have a good weekened and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mum :-)
Cheers
Lots of love
Jimmy

P.S I got an email from a union that I joined just before leaving Dominos. THeres a protest or something on about youth wages in fast food:

The first action in Wellington is going to be a protest againstpaying younger workers lessjust because of their age. The protest is going to be 12.30pm Wednesday 30 November in Manners Mall. It'd be really great to see you there.
Just incase anyone is interested...

Sank yu beri beri machi (thank you very very much) - In spoken Japanese-English

2005-11-18T04:02:00.000+13:00

Hey hey
Hows it collaboratin?
THings are good here.
This will probably be a short one, but Ill give you an overall.
Firstly IM GOING TO NOFX TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And as you can imagine, Im looking forward to that.

The day todaay was pretty average. We watched a movie in Cultural Understanding English class about sweat shops (because thats the sort of stuff that you learn about in that class,) and that was interesting, and scary. Makes you really feel ashamed of pretty much everything....

Had Chinese, music and PE too. PE,although not playing with the girls, there were remarks about how the teacher felt sorry for the girls because they probably wouldnt be any good, and we were already applying our baseball skills to softball.

Also had a roleplay and a speech for the 2nd year students about the horrors of using cellphones and internet. Well, they phrased it as being addicted, but yeah. Kinda silly.

Also got two more flyers yesterday about drugs. Drugs which I am sure no one is even doing. If I point this out to anyone ,they say, nah, there is a problem. But, the fact thats theres no evidence, no ones been arrested, or fined, or even had to talk to the police, kinda indicates otherwise... Oh well, i guess Im just a gaijin (stupid foirgner.)

Had some interesting pictures in the leaflets about people smoking maraguana then gettin chased by dragons....

Had Kendo after school, and man, the lead guy is this old man, probably in his early 100s, (at a guess) and he's so annoyong. Him and this other guy. THey get angry when I dont know how to do something that Ive never learnt, they try to teach me hardcore stuff when I havent even learnt the basics, and then get angry when I cant do it, and they also do this patronizing thing that some Japanese do. Its when they try to speak to you in English. But its not in a friendly way, it makes you feel like they think you dont understand the Japanese, so they are forced into speaking English. But as their English isnt so hot, they just end up using the easy words like, head, left hand and stuff. Its kinda annoyng. There are some cool teachers there though, so thats cool. It semms like if I try a little harder, Ill be able to get the step up :-)

But my PE teachers patronzing likethat too. He cant really speak English, but when he does he just tries to say the easy words. And after he finishes an explanation, sometimes he'll say 'translate it for James,' and as I already understand, I tell him. And then he's like "okay." But the thing is also, that my Japanese is so much better than those guys English. And Im not boasting, becasue its not harder too beat somene who cant speaking in a speaking contest.

Sorry, I just had to get all that out. I dont actually mind speaking English with some people, but not when its just them being patronzing. When they actually wanna talk in English, its cool and Im happy to help.

Oh, and that reminds me. GOING TO JAPAN TIP!
* Learn to use chopsticks before you go

Something that people cant believe when they see it, and they all say 'its amazing!' See they cant comprehend that after living here for 8 months, using chopsticks for maybe 2-3 meals a day, I could have actually learnt to use them by now.

Its pretty funny...;-) (though again, patronizing)

Anyways, Im off to bed.
You kids stay safe!
Dont do anything I wouldnt do (and yes that does include all Cricket, other than beach cricket.)
Lots of love
The Jimmy of Japan
James

2005-11-15T22:52:00.000+13:00

Hi hi
Hows it roughin?
THinsg are good here. No complaints. Just school really.
Had lunch (bread from the conveinet store) with Ogawa Sensei, which was good. Shes been to Mexico 5 times, and says that Spanish is cooler than Japanese and English. And that Mecican beer is REALLY good. So yeah, thats cool.
After school, I went in to tak to Yuji at his op-shop. Talked to him for about an hour, and that was pretty rad. He's the one who likes the Pouges and the Clash.
Check out some of his cool factors:
* He's seen Rancid, Nofx and The Offspring live
* He's 23 and has owned his own shop for 1 and a half years
* He sings in a band
* He's a DJ (like in High Fidelity,) who plays cool music.
* Hes been to America 4-5 times to buys stuff for store
* He didnt go to uni, as he figured that its better to learn stuff naturally, rather than from a structured school system. (Japanese Uni is more free than highschool, but it wouldnt even have as many options as Onslow. You cant take music or art at uni either. You have to go to special schools.)

I might actually be going along to see a show oh his. Its him DJing, as well as oter DJs and also his band, and a whole lot of other bands. If I do go, itd be awesome :-)

On the subject of shows, Nofx played last night, and are playing tonight.Its so close. I cant believe it. NOFXXXXXXXX!!!!!!

Yus :-)

Well, Monday was a public holiday for Saitama students, so that was cool. I didnt do much. I went to Kawagoe to do a little shopping, but not much. After that, I went to the bottle store with my host brother (its cool with his parents) so we could buy some cheap (but tasty) red wine. Twas good, but the host Dad doesnt drink wine, he's a beer man. And Shinya doesnt drink beer, only wine. So I got stuck with the predicament of having to drink both... Twas fine though. (^_^) Shinya was kinda drunk though.

Haha, and one of the bottles of wine was called URESHII WAIN (Happy wine.) I thought that was the awesomest name for a bottle of wine, so thats why I bought it. Only $4.50 though...

By 1 o'clock, we finally decided on two songs to play at the studio. Both Offspring ones, but itll be cool. I do like Offspring, but they defineltey wouldnt be my first choice. We both like them and its not too tricky, so it should be good. He'll play drums and Ill play guitar and sing. :-)

On Monday Shinya also went to the salon, (normal for Japanese guys.) But guess what, he spent 1500 yen (about $20NZ)on 'shampoo and styling'!!!! I couldnt believe it!!!! Pretty funny though...
(P.S the photo is before he had it done. Sorry if you got confused...) (^_^)

I also bought a new tooth brush yesterday.

Got a bit of Mailbox Skipole on now, but had everything from lots of Millencolin, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and actually I cant think of what else now. But lots :-)

Anyways, Im gonna be off now. Hes a little clip from something I found in the news. I thought it was funny....

The Anzus Treaty has become so disused and irrelevant that the United States has apparently forgotten how to say it.

New United States Ambassador Bill McCormick described it four times at his first press conference in Wellington yesterday as the "Anzu" treaty - (pronouncing it "Anzoo").

But Mr McCormick has also begun his tenure by saying he was not expecting any change in New Zealand's anti-nuclear laws - which effectively ended the defence pact.

Anyways, thanks for poppin in!
Cheers
Keep Jivin and good on all those people who had exams today!
Im rootin for you!
Good luck
Jimmy

Haisai all!!

2005-11-14T01:42:00.000+13:00

Howdy kids
Hows things chuggin? THings are rockin here.
First thing first. I have to say Im really starting to enjoy Japan a lot more now. I dunno, like there were two times today when it really hit me. Haruka and I didnt end up going to the amusement park because it was apparently under maintenance. Instead we went to Harajuku. Now Harajuku was one of the things that really made me realise how much I like Japan. Now, I thought that it was cool finding about 4 op-shops in Kawagoe, (close to my house) with people who like cool music. The area in Harajuku that I went to, well, IT BLEW KAWAGOE AWAY! SO many op shops, and I dunno, lots of punk, metal, alterntive, goth type shops too. Lots of shops that had band T shirts and all sorts of stuff. I didnt get a REAL good look because I picked up that that shops playin Nofx as the background music, werent the shops that Haruka seemed to enjoy th most. Im definatley gonna go back there again sometime! It was just my kinda place. There was an Elvis shop which semed like a pretty important one, as it had a huge Elvis statue in front, and also had a pretty impressive display case. The shop downstairs was playing Janis Joplin (Move Over) and it was a band T-shirts shop.

And the clothes. I was looking pretty boring actually. Leatherjacket, jeans, t shirt and hat (hat that I bought in Harajuku,) but a lot of the other people were wearing the craziest clothes! If any of you went to that Tokyo Fashion photo thing that they had in Wellington a while back, it was like that. It was just awesome. Had crepes there too, which was good. Crepes are quite big in Japan. Oh, and we also went to karaoke for an hour and a half, which was cool. Sung some Elvis, Guns n Roses, Beatles and just some Japanese music.

After that, we went to see Harukas school which was close, and it actually in a building! HER UNIVERSITY IS IN A 26 STORY BUILDING! Crazy aye!

Then we went to Shinjuku, which was cool. Lots of cool shops there too, but it was just in passing, so we couldnt see so much.

Then we went to Kawagoe for dinner. Had ome-rice, which is as the name suggest, rice wrapped in omelet. Twas awesomely good! Had chicken and veggies too. Real tasty... At the station, I saw the guy that works at a kawagoe op shop who I befriended. HEs the gu who likes THe Clash and THe puge, and RATM atc. Talked to him breifly, and that was good. That was the other time today that I really felt, yeah, Japan is cool.

I guess its a mix of things. Like, the school system was getting to me, and Id got stuck in that cycle of school, come home, and then when I can hang out with friends. But after having to walk through Kawaogoe, meeting people, and actually being able to wait at the train station, and just happen upon mates that share a lot of the same interests. And I dunno, its hard to explain, but although Japanese highschool students dont have some much freedom ,theres more to do, and I dunno, for me, because theres so many people, its easier to find strangers to talk to.

I dunno, its hard to explain (esspecially after a few beers) but theres just so much to do in Japan, so much to see, so many people, so many everythings. Not that Ive really looked very muc hinto it, but theres also so many cool looking bars and clubs, and shows and stuff. Saitama prefecture may be boring, but Tokyo, man, its awesome!

I mean, you can go to a place like Ueno Park, and as your allowed to set up camp pretty much anywhere in Japan, thats where a lot of homeless people live. You can only see that in like, Glover Park in NZ.... Still love the old NZ though, and I looking forward to coming back! Jsut enjoying Japan a lot as of late. :-)

This morning was as per every Thursday and Sunday, Kendo. Twas good, but this hard and I dont have so much interest in it. Uniform is cool though, and as its only for a short time, its a good cultural experience. Thats another thing. SO many aspects of Japan. I mean, old stuff like Kendo, and new stuff like Harajuku. Both completely different. Its cool. Defintely recommend Harajuku. Its on the Yamanote line in Tokyo, if you wanted to know.

On the way home, I saw a forigen guy, and I talked to him. He happen to have be an American whod been living in Japan for 30 years. He's been playing music at a bar. He palys guitar, and him and his band play Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Beatles, Stones, that sorta stuff. At first when he heard i was ony 17, he presumed I wouldnt know a lot of the music that he played, but I soon put him in his place. He'd apparently been to see Jimi Hendrix twice when he was a kid, as well as Jeff Beck and Cream and stuff. And he also said that I was like his 18 year old son a lot. Guys name was Phillip. :-)

Saturday was the complete opposite of today. The family minus Yuki who was asleep, went to Gunma prefecture, where we saw this cool as waterfall, wne for a walk, and saw all the trees and leaves which had turned red with autumn. Twas real pretty!

We went there on the motorway, and as I mentioned a while ago, this costs money. So we're driving a lot, get to the boothes where motorway starts, and we dont stop. Im thinking, WHY ARENT WE STOPPIN!? ANd then the judder bar flings open. I think that its a holiday or a discount, free day or something, but actually, we have a thing built into the car, so that when we go through, the charge is automaticlly deducted, and we get a month fee or something! Crazy!

Oh, and at Gunma, we saw this restaurant. Something that a lot of Japanese do (including the Baba host dad,) is buy white spirits, and put fruit, or vegetables in it, and make their own alcohol. Now in this one, was a perfectly preseved..... SNAKE! There was this snake standing up, which looked like it had been put in there alive, and had died from drowning in the alcohol. Poor snake. I didnt ask to try it...

Oh, and lastly, I also got a warning which I didnt pay any heed to, but both the host Mum and the Dad made a deal about how you can see the very top of my wallet while its in my pocket. THey seemed to think that someone would steal it. I thought that was a little paranoid... But on the whole, theyre not too paranoid about Japanese crime. (Seeing as it Japanese crime is soo low.Esspecially if you think about how many people live in Japan!)

Anyways, Ill be off now. Good luck with exams everyone!
You guys keep swingin!
All the best from Japan!
Cheers
Jim

P.S FOrgot to mention, but you can even get Led Zeppelin, Misfits and all these different bands special insense sticks! Ill take orders now for when I go back (^_^) Lookin forward to slingin rockin with you kids again!

Konnichiwaaaaaaaaa

2005-11-12T14:44:00.001+13:00

Howdy Chaps and Chaplettes!
Hows it thrivin?
Things are whalin' around here :-)
Gonna go to a park with the family today, which should be good :-)

Thursday was music, where we started on I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND by The Beatles, so that was cool. PE, we were told that next lesson we might be going classes with the girls! Everyone was disappointed, and the teacher was like, 'Im sorry, just try and endure it. They wont be any good so you'll have to help them out. Itll probably just be catch ball.' Im serious! Pretty crazy aye!

We played softball for the first time, and I was with the guy that the song THE BALLAD by Millencolin is written about. We were just doing drills, but yeah, I feel real sorry for the guy. He's not very good at sport, but he's a nice guy, and gets quite a bit from the other guys. I mean, if you get down to steriotypes, he's the type of guy whos's almost never talked to a girl before, wear's glasses, and is the only guy in school who carries penS (more than one) in the front pocket of his shirt. But yeah, he's a good guy.

I had lunch in the cafeteria with the German teacher, and that was cool. And yeah, that was school.

Oh and just something Ive been meaning to mention. In Japan, looking good is REALLY important, but there is one thing that comes first. Hygiene. So thats why you see a lot of people with these doctors masks, to protect them. And also, the even stranger one, WITH SO MUCH POTENTIAL is the eye patch! Some of the mwear this bandage over one eye. I dont know if its from an accident or not, but I wouldnt have thought thered be that many one eye accidnets! But yeah, if I was to have that, I would DEFINETLEY buy a cheap black Pirates eye patch to cover it. And I would wear it proud!

On the way home, I went to a few op shops. iI found this rad one and talked to the owner. RATM was the background music, and the guys favourite bands were The Clash and THe Pouges. Lots of cool stuff in the store too. This guy was 23 and had already owned the store for 1 and a half years. I thought that was pretty cool!

So I got to the ticket barrier, but as I have to tickets, I managed to mix them up. By the time that the beeper went off, I had already walked through. The little flaps opened to block me off, but I already had to much momentium and walked write through. I didnt know what to do. The beeping had already finished and no one had noticed. I just got on the train and left. When I got to Sayamashi (my station) I used my normal ticket and again it went off (cause by the reading on the ticket, I was exiting without entering.) othing happene so I just went through. I dunno, I was all in the right but by the machine I was in the wrong. But yeah, if Id actually been trying to cheap my way through, I would have been able to do it. They dont really check at all.

Did my 25 minute walk home, and on the way saw thdog with the half a meter chain. Man,I feel so sorry for it. It was so happy to see me, and it was try ing to jump up, but it couldnt. I hung with it for a while, and that was cool :-)

I got home, then went to kendo. Kendo was good, and its fun. Only thing is that its too theory based. I just wanna hit people with sticks! But its a good experience, and its only twice a week. Pretty hard though...

Friday, was your average day. As per every friday, I had lunch (my bento) with some of the forign teachers and some of the kido in the Friday lunch time ENGLISH CONVERSATION CLUB. Twas good.

After school, I bought a leather jacket, and Im liking that. :-)

I then got home and talked to my family on the phone. They all seem good. My new 1st year uni idea is politics, music, Japanese. After emailing a higher force, I was advised that A) I would hate studying accounting B) It wouldnt even be that useful for starting a business. So yeah, Im gonna follow what Ive got. I might still take a 100 level accounting course later on, but who knows ;-)

Oh yeah, an I got my reference from school, which mentioned my NUMERACY SKILLS! THis is after taking STATS MATHS in 6th form! Pretty cool aye. Also had stuff about the GERMAN FUNDRAISER SHOW! Anyone remember that!? I wonder if anyone even knew that it was a German fundraiser... :-)

Anyways, Im out now. Ill catch you kids later! Cheers for popping in!

Oh and btw, I have some photos to add to this post, so if you log back in later I might have put them up. I have to go know though.

Cheers
Lots of love
Jivin Jimmy

HOwdy Chaps and Chaplettes!

2005-11-12T14:44:00.000+13:00

Kia Ora from the House of the Rising Sun!

2005-11-09T22:46:00.000+13:00

Howdy all
Hows it going?
THinsg are good here. Just a quick one. I had school as per normal today. I finished that Dude, Wheres My Country book the other day. Twas pretty interesting. Maybe thinking about not doing Economics too. Had expert advise that said if I didnt have any interest in it, I should both. Im still taking an accounting course though.

Thought you might also be interested to know that theres a bar close to my house, that has a sign in English saying 'I'm sorry Japanese only.' Am I right in saying that that is not cool!?

Pretty crazy aye.... I was thinking about going in and seeing what they do, but I probably wont.....

Heres some photos from the 3 Day March....

And by the way, Ive been printing some of my phtos, but as SD cards are pretty cheap in Japan, Ive now filled up both of mine! So Ill either have to buy a new SD card, or get printing... ;-)

Okay, so this is the guys that I was hanging out with. Walking and then drinking. The bottom left guy is my host Dad.

And heres the all too familar James, and a rice field... :-)

Anyways, sorry for the short one. but there hasnt been much up lately. Oh yeah, and Im teaching Shinya, may host brother harmonica. He bought one and he learns SO FAST aye! SO FAST!

Cheers for poppin in
Jimmy the turtle

Konbanwa all

2005-11-07T23:31:00.000+13:00

Hey kids!
Hows it going? Things spurtin well?
Im good, but fully tired. Arms hurt from Kendo yesterday, foot hurts cause I ripped the skin off, thumb and wrist hurts from too much texting, playstation and guitar, and Im just generally tired, because I wake up at 6 and go to bed too late. Oh well, these things cant be helped... Just aother day in the middle class suburban life of James the Jimster. ;-)

Forgot to mention things include, on the 20 KM march on Saturday, I was asked by about 8 boy scouts for my signature. They mainly wanted me to sign their bags ;-) There was also so boy scouts who came up, each giving me a 1 yen coin. (1 yen being about .76 cents NZ, I think.) But it was a nice gesture. ;-D

I also talked to an American guy who Id talked to ages ago one on the train, and I met some Japanese highschool girls who I talked to ;-) They were in the basketball club. :-)

Something I actually realised that I miss about Wellinton, is the wond. Theres almost NO WIND HERE! Its pretty weird. I didnt even realize it at first, but yeah. Its kinda weird...

Today was your average day. I hung out with the ALTs at lunch(the forign teachers) which was good. Those kids are always good for a laugh :-) Had bento (lunch box) today too, which was good. And also had 2 Japanese lessos with Okuyama sensei, which was good. I had a Kanji test which went alright. I actually impressed the host family last night with my ability to write the kanji for SEA CUCUMBER (namako.) None of them even knew it! Its made up of the kanji for sea and then rat/ mouse. :-) Not one people tend to know, but I do! Learnt it from a dictionary :-)

Oh yeah, and I ws gonna have a look through my photos and put some stuff out, but I got a lack of enthusiasm, so maybe another time, aye?

Dinner today was good. Fish, rice, bean sprouts stuff, and octopus. You know, in case you were interested. And presuming ou are interested, breakfast consisted of Miso soup, rice and something else but I can rememebr what. And of course coffee, but that goes without saying. Lunch was rice, chicken, capsisum (green bell peppers in American, I think,) and stuff like that. Yeah, food does rule...

Oh, and my host Mum works a bit at a sushi shop, and you know if she wants to take sushi home, that she made, she has to pay for it herself!!! We had sushi and udon noodles yesterday. it rocked.. ;-)

Oh, and NOFX is coming up soon. the 18th!!!! And on Sunday Im going to Tokyo with my Yamamura friend Haruka and we're going to an amusement park. Sounds like the rides are a lot better than Disneyland... ;-)

Anyways, I cant think of anything more right now, so Im not going to say anymore.

Cheers for popping in, and adding your comments. Always much appreciated!!
Peace in the Middle East
And Blazers for the people of Asia
Lots of love
Jimmy

Tops to the morning, all

2005-11-06T14:36:00.000+13:00

Hey Troops!
Hows it kickin?
Things swirling away alright?
Me, well on Friday night I went to dinner with the family minus the Dad who was at work. We went to a new looking Okonomiyaki restaurant. It had no atmosphere but it tasted good. It was kinda weird though. It was a high ceiling room with white walls, and it didnt feel like they finished builidng it yet. We were the only customers there. So yeah, those are all characteristics that differ from your average your usual run of the mill Okonomiyaki restaurant.

Okonomiyaki, by the way. Its kinda like a Japanese omelet, but you only put one egg into it. It has lots of veggies, meat and fish in it to. You usually have it with BBQ sauce, mayonaise, and a few other bits and pieces. Its REAL good and at most places, you cook it yourself. Like, they kive you the ingredients, and then you fry it up yourself on the stove thing o your table. Pretty easy to make too. ;-)

On Saturday, I got up early to go on something called THE 3 DAY MARCH. Its a 20km walk and yeah, it was pretty interesting aye. Its kinda rural, so out there the hoses are a lot bigger and cooler looking, and theres lots of trees, flowers and ricefields. Its the complete opposite to say Tokyo. I found it real interesting. We went with 5 of his friends, who are probably about 55. While on the walk, after lunch a few of the host Dads friends had a little nap. Also, while we were at the ending place, I saw this thing that made me wanna go up and yell. THere was this lady with a baby. She had one of those things that tiethe baby to youyr front. Thats not bad. THe bad thing was, the babys head was just below her chin, and as she was puffing away on her smoke she was blowing smoke straight over the babies head! She was also holding her fag(hehe) over the babies head, and it looked like she dropped ash onto thebaby, cause once she started brushing something off its head. Thats surely isnt good for a kid!

When we got back, we had dinner at one of their houses. THis was the first time Id seen that many people being invited into another persons house before! We ate, we drank a lot of beer, and talked. My host Dad also had a nap. So during that time I was left in the middle of a debate about Japanese, Chinese and Korean relationstions. And also, a lot of stuff about Japan. I actually understood a lot, (thanks to some of the political words I learned from Takada Sensei=D) But yeah, it was about politics and history, so yeah, kinda hard. I held up alright though. Those guys smoke a lot, but at least they did there smoking outside :-)

Got home, played some guitar with my host brother, and then went to bed. Today I got up early and went to a kendo lesson. Twas hard, but quite fun. Unlike the school lessons which are 5-6 days a week, this one is twice a week. I was wondering about weather to continue or not, but my mind was made up for me cause the teacher gave me the whole uniform + shinai (kendo sword) to borrow. Those thinsg are so heavy! Theres a lot of slidding of feet in kendo, and so I actually managed to rip the skin off the bottom of my big toe. Best put a plaster on there or something ;-) TOday, Im also gonna go to watch the host Dads friend play flute with his band thingy. Truth be told, Im actually quite tired, and would prefer to stay home. (;_;)

Alright, and our car. We actally have two, which is pretty rare in Japan. The new one has a nabi (navagation system) which is a awesome. Its got satilite maps, and you can programme in where you want to go, and it lead you on the fastest road. Its so high tec! Its also got a built in I pod sorta thing, so you can use the touch screen display to do all of that. THe back doors can be opened automatically with a button from the front seat. Its also got automatic folding side mirros, to make the car more compact. And its small, but really spacous! So high tec.... (Itsa Toyota by the way.)Thing that always gets me, is that whenever I got to sit in the back seat, I reach for my safety belt. Then I remember, that in Japan you only use the seat belt in the back seat on motorways! Crazy town ;-)

One thing that I saw the other day that I didnt like so much also, was a dog. I liked the dog, but I didnt likethe fact that it was tied up on a chain thats about 1 meter long. Now thats just cruel!
ANd its not the most uncommon thing in Japan. For most families, I dont think Japan is the ideal place for dogs. Dogs should be on chain! THey should be able to run about and stuff :-(

On the old I pod lately has been Millencolin, Diesel Boy, Lou Reed The Rolling Stones, Hanawa, Yuzu, The Puges and heaps of other stuff that I cant think of now.

Also been doing some thinking about uni courses, as I have to decide my first year classes soon. Havent got the trimester and stuff figured out yet, but Im thinking about:

Japanese (JAP 104) Its the course for people who have done 7th form Japanese. It also takes up Trimester 1 and 2. Maybe I could start at 200 level, but I guess itd be best to start from 100 level. I mean, Id prefer to be upper 100 level than lower 200 level. ;-) Plus if I do that, Ill be in class with Danny H, and the other kids ;-)
Im hoping that Japanese will lead to a major :-)

World Politics (INTP 114) Itll go toard my International Relations major. WHich will make it all a double major ;-)

Political Ideas (POLS 112) Again, this is towards my International Relations major. Im not 100% sure where this can or will lead me, but its a high level subject, which interests me, and so hats my main justifacation. COuld help with becoming stuff like journalist though. The Vic site says:
Broadcasting
Government
Historian
International organisations
Journalist
Market researcher
Policy analyst
Politics
Press secretary
Public relations
Researcher
So I guess I could go into something like that. Hey, maybe I should make my own party..... ;-)

Anyways, I dropped the Asian Studies triple major idea, because wheres that gonna lead? And theres other things I have more interest in! ;-)

Like....
Understanding Music (NZSM 130) (maybe) Looks interesting. But theres a few Im thinking about. THis one mainly because it can lead into an interesting looking 200 level course. Its more broadbased, but I was also looking into the recording classes, or the music in NZ society course, or music history. Any htoughts on what sounds most interesting? Cheers ;-)

Now heres, where I pull out my suprise shot.

Ready?

Economics (ECON 130) An introduction to economic principles and their application to issues facing households, businesses and government in the New Zealand economy and the international economic environment.

and

Accounting (ACCY 111)The preparation, use and social impact of accounting information, both within organisations and in external reporting.

Why? Why would I want to take something like that? I dont even care about money very much. Well, Im those courses are required to enter ACCY 223 – Management Accounting.

See, what Im thinking, is that Japanese and International Relations. THey have places that they lead. 300 level Japanese and 200 level music is enough to get me into teachers college. One year of that, then I could be a Japanese and music teacher! Internation Relations, we've already discussed. But you see, musicand Japanese teachers arent really the most sought after kinds of teachers. And journalism is maybe too hard for me. And as I dont wana spend my time in an aoffice translating documents into English from Japanese, Im taking Economics and Accounting. Why? Because those courses sound like good ones for starting up your wn business! See, if being a rock or folk star falls through, I could open up a cafe, or a music shop, or a language school or a record label, or something. See Id find that quite interesting, though Id find accounting boring as. So yeah. Thats that.

Anyways, thats my plan. Mainly put on the blog so that my parents can take a peek.

Sweet as!
Well, peace in the Middle East.
Taco compadre, el de burito!
That Jivin Turtle
Jimmy

Hows it spillin, kids?!

2005-11-04T22:01:00.000+13:00

Howdy all
Hows it chillin? Things going well in your ends of town?
Things are good here. I went to a second hand shop after school and found a whole bunh of second hand leather jackets for $60.... might be something to look into. Though I should probably be aiming my money at something different, like presents for the kids! Maybe...

Big news! Got MSN working on this computer, so add me if you havent already ;-) Had a little chat yesterday. Twas good.

Yesterday was a public holiday and the at the airforce base close to my house, theres was a display of planes flying round in formation and doing loop the loops, and twirly things and such. Not my can of vendy tea per say, but there were more probably more people there than the Tincan in Wellington can seat, so there was a fair few fans. Only once a year is the public allowed to enter that airforce base, so it was pretty exciting. I went with my new host Dad. We get on pretty well. I do get the feeling that I have to be careful not to annoy him, cause if I do he'll go nuts. He actually reminds me of Toms host Dad quite a bit. But hes a good guy and its good hanging with him sometimes. Had a beer with him last night before bed actually. Twas good.

Now heres something Id like someone to tell me. Email or just in the comments box. The NZ Defense forces. What does it include. Some people ask me about it. What I know, or what I think I know is:

* We have a lot of light transport amoured jeep thingys
* We dont have many or any planes left
* We have some frigates

And the jeep things arent quite so useful, as we dont really have many ways to transport them anywhere. Someone please fill me in.
Personal opinion though, is that we have more than enough as it is. :-)

So yeah, my new host family. So far the rules Ive encountered is that you wash your own dishes, while in the shower you wash yours own clothes a bit, and then put them in the washing machine, and the one that catches me out: wash your face in the morning. Everytime I forget, the host Dad reminds me. First thing you do in the morning. That was the same at my last host family, but I didnt bother after the first month.

Cleaning today at school was another pointless one. The team of 7 of us, swept up a little of the dirt that was on the foot path. The last time, we did the same in a difference path. As we werent allowed to brush it down the drains, the techer made us put it into the garden right next to where we'd been sweeping. If the slightest wind was to blow, it was would all be blown straigh back onto the path.

I really dont get the whole cleaning thing....

On the way home, I talked to a guy from Sweden and his Japanese friend. Apparently he was on a business trip in Japan. Which is does twice a year. I kept taking to him, and about his travels and stuff ,and it started to dawn on me that this guy must be pretty damn rich.
He talked about his work, which was stuff to do with Chemicals and compounds. Polymers and stuff. And then I talk to the Japanese guy a little, and he tells me that the Swedish guy (who works for an American company)is one of the biggest of biggest bosses in the company, (who name I forget) and yeah, i waspretty suprised. I had been talking to him as if he'd been your run ofthe mill English teacher in Japan, but he was actualy this big important boss. I Even intiated the conversation with a friendly'hey, hows it goin'? :-)

On the way to school, I got given a Bible for free. They were handing out the New Testiment to the kids going to school. My first instinct was to do the usual 'I dont speak Japanese' rounitne in English. But the guy followed me, oped it up and said English English, and gave it to me. I thanked him, and Ive actually been reading it. I guess its quite a highly recommneded book, seeing as people let it rule their lives, so Im giving it a good. It does have some good good things about treating you fellow (wo)man and stuff. But I dont think thats its quite nessecary to cut out your eye for looking at a woman, with bad intent. Or for touching someone without good intent, you have to cut off your hand. Because its better to loose your earthly eye or hand, than lose your spiritial body to hell. But as I say, theres good and bad points.

Tonight, Im going to Okonomiyaki with my host family. It should be good. THe 17 year old, Shinya gets back for his school trip today, and Yuki doesnt have work tonight, so it shoud be good. That kids real nocturnal!

Anywoos, Im off. You kids have a good one, and dont do anything I wouldnt do!
Chuz!
Lots of love
Jimmy

'chiwassu!

2005-11-02T22:21:00.000+13:00

Howdy kids
Hows things ravin?
You all reel and a rockin?
Things are good here. Got a public holiday tomorrow, which I only found out about this morning. And mate, its hard to gather people together on such short notice in Japan. And also, if I was to go somewhere with a friend whos a girls, we'd have to be dating. Otherwise its not possible. Weird rule...
School was ok. 1st and 2nd years had exams so I spent the 1st spell by myself, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th were Japanese lessons! And then 6th spell was Chinese with the token 3rd years in the 1st yer class. We watched a video about Chinese food. It was good.

On Saturday Im going on this walk with my host family. Should be good. By family I mean my host Dad and maybe the Mum. The 17 year old is on his school trip at the moment.

Going to and back from school is a misson, but I dont mind. Im consuming CDs at a time, so thats rockin. And I guess it gives me time to think about stuff. Oh, and read. The Michael Moore book DUDE, WHERES MY COUNTRY? is pretty cool. It gives me the feeling that he wanted to write a rant, so he looked up some facts on the net and then wrote it. Its not really structured or anything, but its interesting none the less.

Getting quite a bit of harmonica practice into me lately too. So thats cool.

Japanese is coming along. Im having full, long conversations in Japanese, without any problems, so thats quite rad. Im not fluient, but I can speak it with people. I need a bit more vocab and a bit more grammer, but I do have some real lacking areas. My honourific Japanese (the Japanese you use for talking to your boss at the company, the emporor and customers at your work) isnt nearly good enough for that sorta conversation, and my Kanji is only on about 400. Im getting there though.... ;-)

Hada real good talk to m new host mum last night. About Japan, NZ and school systems and compulsary education and food and all sorts. Twas real good. Ive probably talked to my new host mum in the 4 days or so Ive been here, than I talked to my last host mum in the months I was there!

I had a bento (school lunch) today, so that was cool. THe reason why the host mum cant always make it here is that she has work sometimes, doesnt make it for anyone else, and the mornings pretty busy anyways, as she takes the Dad and me to the station in the car, and also makes a cooked breakfast for everyone. But yeah, so i dont mind. The last one I just found weird because the host mum was already making 3 peoples lunches, so I couldnt figure out how one more could make such a difference. it was stuff like that that made it real hard to feel like a member of the same family. At this family, I pretty much already feel like a member!

And theres some other thinsg that are god too. The regime of rules was one. I mean, recently Meg got the 'its getting late, why arent you home' call a bit after 9! It was known that she was eating with friends close to her uni, but too late is too late. She then came home, and as its quite far she got home at 10:30. Even the mum said that it was too late. Usually its more of a Dads rules.
At 8:30 the host Grandad was going on about how late she was ;-)

Ive been in touch with Meg a little, but I havent made contact with the rest of the host family yet.

On the way to school and on the way home I managed to meet up with different friends, so that was pretty cool. (^_^)

Anyways, I cant really think of more to say right now. Things are up and down, and all this moving is kinda unsettling. I mean, in NZ I was always living at the same house. This year Ive already had two changes! Ill then have another in a moneths time and then Ill come back to a changed NZ. Kinda yeah, unsettling. But she'll be right. ;-)

Anyways, I will be off on my merry way.
Ill bi you farewell and catch you all on the wax train!
Chuz!
Jivin Jimmy

New Hostees Rule!

2005-10-31T22:46:00.000+13:00

Howdy all
I finally remembered my username for this! Just got home from school. School was average, my host family is rad though! I got here about 3 on Sunday, and just learnt a few ofthe ropes. Ive got my own room, and I sleep in a bed. So thats all cool. I have 3 siblings. The oldest brother has finished uni, sleeps during the day, and works at night. The sister is in America, and the 17 year old brother can play MASTER OF PUPPETS on guitar. I may
not be metallicas biggest fan, but i like them enough to know thats cool ;-) They have an electric and a steal string guitar, and as the brother Shinya doesnt play it, he's letting me borrow it. We cant play so much guitar when the oldest brother is sleeping, but at night we can. We jammed last night, and he also showed me some crazy Japanese hair-metal, and some awesome, awesome Japanese ska! The 17 year old is a real good guy too. Its refreshing to be around a Japanese guy that is this this easy going. Truth be told though, he's actually a drummer. He plays drums in a band that does Bump of the Chicken covers and he's about to start a Slipknot covers band. Most Japanese highschool bands just play covers.

Theres no pets here, and theres also no Grandparents. Its all rockin. I also already fell for the music shop, and bought a 504 yen harmonica (in the key of A, if you were wonderin.) Its rad.
Oh, and while there, I saw this item that I was thinking about buying for Rebecca. It was only $13, and I couldnt believe my ees. It was a live Misfits........ video. ;-) I thought it was a DVD that shed be able to watch, but no, a video. Sorry becks! Man, I was gutted.

But yeah, so although its a little far from school, I think Im gonna fit in well here. I wont be able to have lunch made by the mother everyday, because she has work, but I had one today. It was good.

School was average. Found out that on Wednesday, the 1st and 2nd years have exams, but not me. I have to go all the way to school for one Japanese lesson, one Chinese lesson and 4 free spells. Yay. Oh, and the Chinese is only with the 3-4 3rd year studnets in the class. Should be a blast.... I mean, its not like Ill have to travel 3 and a half hours to get to school and back..... (>_<)

Okay, Ill give you the story of Saturday. I wrote this up on my cellphone:

okay, weirdest story. i go to the grocery store, buy some choco bread, alcohol juice stuff and some gum. i then sit on the bench outside reading DUDE, WHERES MY COUNTRY and listening to LESS THAN JAKE. Im enjoying myself. finish the bread and half the booze, then things start getting weird....

a little girl sits down and starts talking to me. thats the first weird thing. thats SO uncharacteristic of small japanese girls. okay, so it starts off about language, countries and family etc. she says that shes the second oldest of 10. she said she was (and looked) 9 years old. she said that a lot of her siblings
had colds. i asked about her parents, and she said shes living with her grandparents, her dad is on business in the states, and her mum was in heaven.
she said something about china too. i think it was that her grandma was chinese, but i cant be sure.

now 6 its o'clock. its already getting dark. this girl seems like she has a hard life, and as im sitting there talking to her while she eats candy, im starting to wonder 'whats she doing here.' she gives me some gum, and i give her some gum. she also gives me the picture on the back of one of the lolly wrappings, and asks me to give it to my younger sister. she then gives me the
stick to her lollypop which is shaped like a cartoon character, and asks me to give it to my younger brother. i thank her.
i ask her who shes waiting for and she says that shes waiting formum.
apparently though, if it got too late, and her mum didnt come, she was supposed to go home by herself.

i dont wanna ask about her mum though, cause she first said that her mum was dead. theres a bit more casual talk, then a break.

then, she then stands up, leans closer to me and in a whisper she asks me to show her where i live. i dont wanna do this. ive already decided that theres
something a little different about her. i tell her its quite far, and that im moving tomorrow. (the first a lie, the second the truth.)

she sits down and i ask her if she lives in a house or a apartment. i mean, with a family that big either would be crazy extreme, but shes says an apartment.

theres another silence for a while and then she tells me to follow her. minds racing as i gather up my things, but she just takes me into the room behind. in the room is a few of those claw-catch-get prize type games, and some cigeratte
vendys. she explains about the game and asks if i wanna try it. i say that i dont think that id be very good at it.

i get out my wallet and look for a 100 yen coin, cause i thought it might be nice for her to have a go. i dont have one though. the little 9 year old eyes my wallet, and asks me if i have 1000 yen. i say i do, and she asks to see it.
i take it out and show her, but i hold it. she asks to see it, so reluctantly i hand it to her. she looks at it, and i go to take it from her, but she holds on. we stand there awhile, both holding the note.
eventually she lets go, but asks to borrow it. i ask her what she wants it for, and she tells me that her mum asked her to by cigerattes. im thinking. she says
shed pay me back the 1000 yen tomorrow, but i say i wont be here tomorrow. she asks about early morning, and though its a lie, i tell her that i leave early morning. then she suggests later tonight. by now im kinda sick of it. she cant really answer questions like why she was asked to buy smokes, but not given
money.

i give up.

i figure that she was given money but spent it on lollys. its the sorta thing i might have done when i was that ages (had my parents ever asked me to buy smokes!) and i feel sorry for her. i didnt want her to get into trouble. she doesnt look like shed be smokin them herself, and id only be sacrificing 270 yen.

i hand her the note, and she puts it into the machine, selecting SUPER LIGHTS. the girl gets the smokes and the change, then stands there. i put out my hand to, asking for the change. she looks startled, slips the 500 yen coin into her pocket, and gives me the rest. i take it, then ask for the 500 yen (about
$6.50nz, or over an hour at dominos!) she does nothing. i ask again and she gives me a 50 yen coin. i ask why and she says its a trade.

im fed up with the whole debarkel, and though i know shes lying a lot, i feel sorry for her. i give up, and say sayonara. she got on her bike and left.

i just couldnt be bothered anymore. and i didnt want a public arguement with a 9 year old girl, whod i just met and bought smokes for. esspecially as im this big white guy, drinking underage booze and not even the most presentable looking one.

I figure there was foul play going along somewhere. She was definaltey trying to get pity. I mean 10 children is unheard of in Japan! Im guessing it was an adult exploiting her, or her on her own. I guess I just figured that itd be better for her to go back to the person with some booty, than go back empty handed. Feel real sorry for her though...

Anyways, thats me for now!
Cheers
Jivin Jimmy

Kia Ora from the East!

2005-10-29T18:45:00.000+13:00

Howdy all
I got it wrong. I dont leave till Sunday, around 2-3 o'clock. So yeah, that gives me plenty of time to get to now the family before going into everyday life.... I went there today, but didnt meet the family, just to get to know the route to school.I went with my host Dad. Heres the plan, from the plan:
New House -> walk 25 minutes -> Saiyama Station -> Train 5 minutes -> Hon-Kawagoe Station -> walk 10 minutes -> Kawagoe Station -> train 30 minutes -> Wakoshi Station -> Walk 25 minutes -> Wako Kokusai Highschool.

So yeah, bit of a trek. Good for the old exercise though. 2 hours walking everyday. ;-) Have to leave the house at about 6:30 though ;-(

Yesterday I went with my host dad to the Sento, (public bathes.) I thought it was the last one for the last while, but he wants to go again today! I really do appreciate it, and he's a real nice guy. Its just Im a little fathered out. I mean I spend a lot more time with him than anyone else in the family. More than the whole family put together does. Also a little sentoed out. 3 times last weekend plus twice this weekend. Oh well.

My new place of Saiyama looks good. Biggerthan where I live now. And theres a lot of rammen (noodle) shops around, so thats awesome! Found out some more about the host family. The parents knew but I guess they presumed that I didnt want to know about it. Wel, there is a 23 year old sister and a 17 year old brother. However, the 23 year olf who I was relying on to take me to partys, is infact in America. The 17 year old lays guitar though ;-) Um, havent heard anything about Grandparnets, so that could be good. And I guess that as the 23 year old is in America, Ill have my own room! Now thatll be cool ;-) Also, as they already have a 23 year old, maybe they will have loosened up a bit, and I wont have the 10 o'clock curfew... ;-) But yeah, it should be good for a change. So far away though... I guess Ill be able to get some serious music listening, and maybe blog updating via phone, while I travel ;-)

Oh yeah, and today my host Dad took me to star bucks. And its true! THERE WAS $17 COFFEES THERE! They were special ones though. 'Signiture brands' and 'special imports.' I had a regular coffee for about $5 though. I also bought a book with a 1000 yen voucher Id been saving up. Michael Moores, Dude Wheres my Country. Looks like it could be good for a laugh ;-) Maybe some train and walkin reading :-D

Ive done most of my packing, btu Ive still got a little more to do. I seem to have lost about half my socks though! I guess they jus got mixed up with other peoples. If not, I guess Ill buy some more. Not to hard to find 30cm socks, (suprisingly.)

Oh, and my Chinese friend invited me for a jam with his band tonight. From 10 till 6! I could probably get away with it if I just said that I was staying at his house but I figure that Id be paying $30 for qa band pracitce, and Id just end up real tired for meeting my new family. Maybe another time ;-)

So what else has been up.... Thinking about watching Waynes World tomorrow before I leave. Thats a good movie ;-)

Well, I think Ill be off about now.

Cheers for poppin in!
Peace in the Middle East!
Jivin Jimmy

Happy 100th post (^_^)v

2005-10-28T21:14:00.000+13:00

Howdy all!
This is my 100th post right now. Pretty impressive aye! Quite the long blog aye ;-) This is also the last post Ill be sending from this host family for a month. I hope my new family have a computer... If not Ill have to update this from school. :-(
School today was kinda boring. I got some souvineers from my Chiense friends. Some red bean snacks unique to Kyoto, another key ring and a dolphin wind chime. Souvineers are quite big in Japan, so that was cool ;-)

I still dont know anything more about my new family, though Im going there tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and I thought Ill just report back on why it seems its been so hard making friends. Well, the way Japanese school works,is that people tend to have groups. Everyone only has one group though. So once a groups been made, its often quite hard for other people to join. So when I first got here, I didnt understand that. At first I ate and hung out with the guys in my class, but then I made the mistake of eating with a grop of girls. From then, its been kinda.... Like, groups do everything together. Shopping, hanging out, eating lunch everything. And I dont have one. Often, peoples groups will all be in the same school club. And I didnt join one. But yeah, so thats kinda hard. like Im sorta in witha few groups, including the Chinese kids, but yeah, only sorta. I seem to get on better with the teachers.....
Apparently though, its a problem that quite a few obviously npt Asian people face. Like, at first the other students are like 'ooooohhh, ahhhhh' but its hard to move past being the gaijin eye-candy to closer friends. Esspecially for guys! Ther girls are a bit more accepting... I think...

I actually went to a group at lunch today that the NZ teacher Daniel started. It was like an English conversation group, where as the name suggests, everyone just talks in English. That was pretty good. I ate the rammen I bought from the canteen,which was good too. Rammen rules....

On the Ipod has been Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones, Propagandhi, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Hanawa, Less Than Jake, The Pouges, Orange Range, and Ive got Rancid on right now. ;-) ----> (And shut up Edmonds, they are cool! Well, they used to be...)

Well, I know this is another boring one, but these things cant be helped.

Wish me luck with the new host family. Sorry if I cant update the blog ovet the weekend. Ill fill you in when I can. Little nervous, but Im hoping for the best. And man, Nofx is getting closer!!!!!!

Cheers for coming in.
And happy 100th!
Cheers
Keep Jivin
Jimmy

Hi ho

2005-10-28T00:13:00.000+13:00

Woo! this is a late one (;_;)
Sorry all. Been a mixture of nothing to say, and too busy to write. Ive been trying to get some harmonica and guitar done too, but the only time I can usually do that, is when I have computer time. And so sometimes the music just takes priority. Sorry!

Firstly, I go to my new host family in the weekend. Ill be leaving the stuff that I dont need like presents from people, real winter clothes, tooth brush and stuff with my current host family though.

I dont know much, apart from the fact that they have two kids aged 23 and 16, and that the train takes an hour each way. I guess Ill have tostart writting this blogger on my cellphone, on the train. Dont know the address or anything at all yet. And I dont thik PIEE (my company Im here with) have told my parents anything either. All kinda weird.

Today, my host mum made me lunch! First time this week and first time in a while. Twas good. School was boring though. More boring than you can imagine... No Japanese lesson either. Those are my favourites, cause I get on with the teachers well. And theyre just more interesting.

Oh yeah, and this *date* as some of you have chosen to call it, with my Japanese teacher. Well, the thing is that one of her kids at trouble at school, and so she couldnt go to the movie. We did however have lunch (which she shouted me) and talked a lot and stuff. Good to talk for long times with people sometimes, cause they dont do it so much in Japan.

Oh, and as everyone from my year went on the school trip,a few people bought me some souvineers. Takada Sensei bought be a Japanese style bandana thing. Its real cool! ;-) I also got some cinermon stick type things coated in green tea chocolate from some girls in my class. They were real tasty! And a keyring from my Chinese friend Hanri. ;-) Twas cool ;-) I appreciated it at least.

Oh, and I also talked to Rebecca on Monday which was good. Shes chuggin along real well on the old guitar. And Pauls all back from Europe, which sounds rad.

Oh, and importantly, importantly! Lucy Lu, sent me two vidoes from NZ. Theyre everythings from Top Gear to The Simpsons to Shortland St etc. Two problems though. One is that someone is always watching the TV, studying, or sleeping in the lounge, so its real hard to get watching time. 2. When I tried it, the picture wouldnt come up. Ill try to get someone to help or soemthing, but the rumour could just be true, that you cant watch NZ videos on Japanese VCR.... Ill try again when i get a chance, and Ill try at my new host families house too. If I cant do it though, I can still just listen to them though ;-) Stuff like Top Gear would be alright for that. :-) Big thanks to Lucy aye!

Well, whod have thought, but Im already out of ammo on this update. Ill b able to get some more stuff up, when i actually get something to say.

Japanese lesson
sasai (na) = petty

Anyways, Im off. Sorry about the poor effort on my behalf. Ill make it up to you somehow.... ;-)

Cheers for coming anyways!
These blogs wont always suck.... Someday youll see!!
Catch ya later
Love
Jimmy

Happy Labour Weekend!

2005-10-23T23:32:00.000+13:00

Hey all
Everyone recovered from Labour Weekend?
I had a pretty good weekend. Awesome actually :-)

So I got up on Saturday morning, in the same way I get up every morning. Had breakfast (coffee and cheese on toast!) and then we were off. It was just the host Dad and I. So, while we were leaving the Grandma gave us the usual good luck sparks. I think its a little Japanese tradition. When someone goes traveling, you wish them good luck and safe return by using a flint to flick sparks at them. (Not n a violent way though.)

Well, so we got in the car and all the way to Chichibu, we listened to Elvis and THe Beatles etc. Twas good.

We went to an area with a lot of temples, so that was cool. The host Dad did the usual throw money in the box, bang the cymbal and then pray at all of them! I did it once to. We had soba noodles for lunch, which was good. At the place, there was also sweet-soy GRASS HOPPERS! I had a few of them,and it was pretty good. It was rad :-)

We also had a few goes with the big one ;-)

Well after 100 km or so, we got to the hotel. Close to the hotel was a house and we counted 12 cats! They were in an enclosed area, and it looked like all the space around the house, including the little verandah, was netted off and te inside was filled with cats! Twas crazy!

So we got to the hotel and it was pretty impressive! There was a chapel attachted, and when I first saw it, I was struck by the thought. 'Why take a 17 year old boy to a hotel/ bath, 2 days after your 21st wedding aneniversary!' Oh well, different culture and stuff. I kinda got the feeling that he feels bad about me having to host change. I think its not really him, but the mum thats pushing it.

I did talk to him aboutthat too. But all I foudn outwas that the host family is decided,its in Saiyama (which is ages away, I could be in for 5 o'clock wake ups! Serious!) and that there are two children. A 16 year old and a 23 year old. Maybe Ill get invited to some uni paties! ;-)

Anyways, so the hotel was real awesome. The onsen (public bath) was real good. Like, one ofthe baths had was an open one. So at night you could actually see lots of stars. Id never stood outside naked and looked at the stars before then ;-) (Sorry no photos available.... for free)
Andthe hotel room was pretty big too. It was all real rockin. I even slept in a bed!Yay!

The food was crazy awesome! Dinner was crab and all this stuff, and the breakfast was japanesey stuff. Rice, miso soup, fish etc. Twas awesome!

We drove on the highway back, and that was good. But we had the highway blues because did you know that highways in Japan cost money to drive on! Yeah, like $!0 or so! Is that not crazy town!?

And so we got back today (Sunday) at about 10:30, then Meg and I wentto her bunkasai (school festival.) SOOOOOOOOO much better than my schools bunkasai! Mate, and uni is so much cooler! Its sorta like Onslow, but everyones older. Its like theyve suddenly got all this freedom. It was cool. Saw dancing and bands and stuff. Twas cool. Best bit was THe Beatles cover band. They played one set that Meg and I watched, then a while later they played again while Meg was dancing. I went to the sencond set early, talked tothem about music and guitar, then we jammed. Oh and this is the awesomest bit. One of the guitarists was real good, and we did it. We jammed the legend. We jammed JOHNNY B. GOOD! I couldnt believe it, it was awesome! I played rythem guitar and sang, which the other guitarist soloed and stuff. Mate it was AWESOME! So fun :-)

Their second set was the same. They're not actually a Betales cover band, butthey were for the show. They played with some funny pronouncation, and a ew of the harmonies were a little off, but overall it was cool. They played Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Yesterday, Twist and Shout etc. Twas rockin! I got their homepage too :-)

Got home and havent done much since.
ANyways, I got school tomorrow and I best be getting some kanji practice done before then.

Ill catch you all later
Cheers
Jimmy

Said "Hey babe, take a walk on the wildside" (I wish)

2005-10-22T00:15:00.000+13:00

Hi all!
Sorry for the late one!
Hows everyone? Hope your all at either PUNK FEST, or FOLK FEST. And yes, Americans, Hollanders, Romainians, Australians, and whoever else, that means you too!

Things have been pretty average as of late. I still dont know anything about my new host family, which Ill be going to in like a week! Tomorrow Im going to some sento resort or something with my host Dad. Should be good. I think its to make up for sending me away. THough Im actually looking forward to moving. Im a little scared of the mum. Like, in NZ, I do bad things and get told off (sometimes)for them, but I do understand why its bad. In Japan, I get told off more than in NZ, even though I never know that Im doing anything wrong! And I cant understand why its bad! Its such a weird dynamic! And I dont like the whole 'the older you are, the better person you are' thing. Like kids arent really asked about opinions, and theyve never been by anyone. Including teachers. You have to use a diffeent way of spaking to older people that your not real familar with. ANd its also the whole parents-children dynamic. To me it doesnt seem like The Baba Family. It seems like The Parents family. I dunno, just differnet I guess. In NZ adults and kids seem more equal, but here... Little different. Am enjoying hanging out with the forign adults though!

Oh, and to contridict what I just said, it seems like Im going to the movies with my Japanese teacher on Tuesday. Strange but true. Maybe we'll go drinking too.... ;-)

Host Mum hasnt made me lunch all week, but I tink Ill survive on the money I still have. Anyways, eating a nice bowl of hot rammen is quite good, as its been a little nippy as of late.

It was Megs birthday on Wednesday. We went to karaoke and had Okonomiyaki, which was good. Busted out some Clash, Buddy Holly, Guns n Roses, Led Zeppelin (a KILLER Immigrant Song!) Just the usuals. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Beatles, The Stones, Elvis, The Beach Boys etc etc. Meg was two CDs woht of Avril songs, Green Day, Offspring etc.

My host brother had a test yesterday. He decided on an interesting pre-test study session. He stuided till 12 at night, then from 4 in the morning. I didnt say anything, but I have to say, I reackon he'd be better off getting some slee into him! Crazy kid.

For those interested, I saw someone bag on the train this morning that said:

Elephant family are popular with us. The humming makes us feel happy.

Good old Elephant Family Restaurant!

Oh, and sorry to Edmonds, (that felow DJ). Thats gutting that you didnt get into the hostel. Ill email you back when I get back. Just dont have much time right now. :-( Are you gonan stay in Wellington, or find alterntive accomodation?

I had a little talk with Johanna today, which was good. Shes enjoying Holland, but had some ups and downs. Gutting, but she seems to be on an uphill from now. Shes being nice to herself ;-)

Oh, andI talked to Becky on the net. Twas good. Shes going to mexico next year. And yeah, I can fit in internet chats sometimes. Just need to email me a time ;-)

Heres the next photo of the destruction across the street. Their putting in a big road. Shoudld be crazy. Theve taken down so many houses, just to hit it in!

By the way, in the photo at the top of the screen. The area that you can see behind me may be small, but its MY AREA. Thats my half of the room. Its pretty tiny, but thats the only place I can retire to. Its where I get my reading, studying, texting, guitar and harmonica playing, writing, phone talking and sleeping done. Everything!
As you can see, I still have the habit of dumping everything on my desk ;-)

Anyways, I think thats about it. I best be having a bath. I wont be emailing tomorrow, and maybe not on Sunday. Who knows. I reackon Ill be able to jump one in on Monday though. Anywoos, hope yo kids are all reelin and a rockin!

Cheers
Jivin

JimmY

P.S I dont need to shave. Its hardly hippy yet! You shave! Wait, can you shave, or do you have to use a left handed razor? Damn clowns....

I wana play football for the coach....

2005-10-18T21:06:00.000+13:00

Konnichiwa all!
Hows things fanning out?
Sorry, this is gonna be a short one. Not because I have lots of things to do, but becauseI have not a lot to say. I had school today. It was pretty average. I had my art class and we're going on to oil paintings now, so we dont need a sketch books anymore. So the teacher said we could take them home. i as kinda stoked. Not becasue I tinnk my drawings are very good, but I was still hoping to take it back to NZ. Then the teachers like, oh and James, I want to keep yours as an example for next years students. But the thing is, its not because mines good, because theres lots of student who are way better, but I guess its becasue Im forign. Why else would he single me out? Anyways, I conviced him to let me take it home and I took two photos for you. The lighter pictures didnt really come out so well on camera, so Im only putting two up. Enjoy. ;-)

Anyways... I was walking today and saw my friend. We sometimes bump each other around, so I walked up behind kinda fast, walked into his shoulder and knocked into his shoulder. I then gave a fake apology, realized that it wasnt actually my friend, and then gave a more serious apology. I could see the same black glasses and hair cut from behind though! Oh well. ;-)

Seriously, thats about all thats happened today. I still dont know anthing about my new family. I know its in Saiyama, which is a while away. Thats all. Only about 10 days till I move. Pretty crazy.

On the I pod has been Led Zeppelin 2 and 4, Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed, Diesel Boy, a Distillers song, Chuck Berry, and now a NZ pop punkish, cool band called Mailbox Skipole. Its good.

Yeah, told you its be boring and short.

Thanks for making the effor to come. I have a few short days while all the other 2nd years go on the school trip to Shikoku and Kyoto. Costing a cool 80,000 yen (about $1000NZ) So yeah, I figured as thats my own money form work in NZ, I think I could have A LOT more fun on $1000, than a school trip. ;-)

Sweet as, well. Sorry for wasting you time... ;-)
Cheers
The Jivatron in Japon
Jimmy (the turtle)

Hey Hey Hey Music Champ!

2005-10-17T21:21:00.000+13:00

Kia Ora
Hows it jivin?
School today. Boring. It was nice and rainy too. My alarm didnt go off last night and so 10 minutes before I usually leave, my host sister woke me up. I was all like 'yabaaaaaaaai!' But I got there on time. Actually, Ive been real happy today. So thats cool. Been whistling and stuff. Listened to Bad Religion and Bob Dylan on the way to scool. I finally started liking the NEW AMERICA album copied off Edmonds, and so thats going well. Listening to Lou Reed now ;-)I had two Japanese lessons today, and that was pretty good. I quite well with my Japanese teachers, so thats rockin.

Ot a little package from my parents today. NEW SHOES! My shoes had pretty much fallen apart and Id been wearing jandels to preserve them. So thanks guys! Much appreciated! In Japan, male shoes tend to go up to 29cm, where as Im 31.5cm ;-)

Congrats to Vita! I hear done the grapevine that she won a short story competition or something of the sorts. A cool $1500 prize or something.Scholarship maybe. Who knows with these sorta thing. But big hand to her!

Sunday was uneventful, apart from talking to Becky. Meg and I saw Home Alone 2 at the library for free. We also officially that we are only friends now, though we both sorta already knew for a while now.)

Had an earthquake atthe library. A lot of Japanese get quite scared by them, but I dont really see the big fuss. I guess if it was a big one , things would be different though.

Oh yea, I cant remember if mentioned this before. But when Japanese guys use uirnals, they stand REALLY close to it. One of my mates told me I was standing to far away ones. Its liek theyre fine with bathing together at the public bathes, but not when peeing. Have to say I dont like the idea of the effect the splashback would have on my pants, if I was that close. Each to their own I guess though. ;-)

Anotehr thing thats kinda different from NZ, is living with 8 people in quite a small house. I mean, at night, every room is taken apart from the toilets and kitchen. Theres The Grandma in one room, the Grandad in another, Shigeki and me, Ayumi and Meg, and then theres the Dad in the parents room, and the mum in the living room. So if someone wants to sleep, or take a nap, I cant play guitar or harmonica. If the mum goes to bed, theres no T.V or computer an if after about 10, its impossible to use the phone.

Just takes a little getting used to ;-)

Japanese lesson (hisashiburi ne!)
hade - colourful, looks outgoing, maybe someone who has bright clothes, or died hair or something
jimi - looks boring, dull clothes, just kinda average, not so noticable
(theyre opposites)

Anyways, I got Heroine on full volume right now, and its making me want to roll around on the floor, so I think Ill leave it at that. (Heroine by Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, incase you didnt know.)
Catch you alley cats later
Keep things swingin and stay jivin
Lots of love
Jimmy
P.S Look at part of the email my loving mother sent me:

Anyways just letting u know that I
saw blog - foto of u gave us a fright - what is that on your chin? Is
it allowed? Did you paste on the host brother's eyebrows?

So not cool!

My Dad called it bum fluff too! Just trying it, to see how things work. ;-)

Hope you kids are Rellin and an a Rockin!

2005-10-16T15:54:00.000+13:00

Morning all
Hows everyone ravin?
Things are crackin along here. Happy 17th birthday to Julia! For yesterday (I think.) I remember when I turned 17. So many memories.... We had a little party with some ofthe other exchange students coming to Japan, a bottle f Johnny walker and a few other bits and pieces. Good times....

Good news for me! i bought a ticket to nofx! megs buying an ipod mini, so im
just going by myself. Should be fantastic! ticket cost $80nz, and its not a
standing one. have to sit back, but ill get a better view of the band! i got
the friday show too, so thats good. november the 28th. dont have to go to
school the next day;-) weird that the monday and tuesday shows were told out,
but the friday one wasnt! should be great;-)

To balance out the splendor of my almighty ticket, i watched a backstreet boys
dvd with meg. it was even worse than id expected.... ;-(

I was woken on saturday not by my alarm, not by shigeki getting up for school
in the noisest way possible, not even by those stupid advertising cars that
come round with thier loudspeakers, but by the house across the street been
ripped down. You see theyre putting a big road in. our house was one of the
lucky ones thats not being torn down. i think theres about 15 houses being
pulled down. we were pretty close though. if the road stretched a little
further to the left, itd be bye bye.

that reminds me. Anyone know how the wellington bypass is going. i mean hey,
new zealand doesnt have a very long history, so getting rid of some of our only
heritage buildings is cool.... (?!?!)

Photo from my bedroom this morning ;-) The other phots are from my bed room window as well. As you can see, streets in Japan are rather narrow, but thsi new one looks like itll be pretty big!!!!

Anyways, another thing ive noticed and learnt in japan is that the cars arent
old, dirty or rusty. you never see the sorta cars nz kids drive. Reason? well
japan has a thing like a warrent of fitness. every year (or two, cant remember)
your car has to have a check-up. This includes lots of taxes and fees, and
could be as high as $1000! now if theres anything wrong with your car, thats
gonna put the price up even more. its really hard to get your car up to
standard, so some people just find it easier to buy a new car. It sounds a bit
dodgey to me. Like i reackon that as the government gets a lot of the money
from these pointlessly expensive and strict check ups, i reackon there could be
some dirty dealings going on. i mean its pointless, but theres a lot of money
to be made from it. The government sets the unreasonably high standard, and
they both make a lot of money. Its also easy because they can just play on the
fact that A LOT of Japanese people see Japan as a real dange
rous place. Interesting.... (in my opinion)

Oh, and following the same kinda thing, on friday the prime minister Koizumi
passed the bill hes been REALLY KEEN on getting passed. Post offices will stop
being government run, but sold to a corperation. But as its a private firm, my
host dad reackons that they wont be so interested in keeping the small, more
remote post offices. Could be trouble for small towns. LOTS of money for the
government though.

Just now,I was called away from writing this update on my cellphone, for a
little family discussion. (minus the younger sister and brother.) I already
knew most of it. New facts about my host change include:
* a date. From about the 28th of october till about the 28th of november.
* a place. Shiyama. an hours train ride from school, (as opposed to the 20
minutes at the moment.
* the fact that piee havent actually decided on a family yet.
* a reason, kinda. well, because the mothers 80+ mum in Niigata is sick, the
mum will be going to Niigata more. For thisreason she wont be able to look
after meand so i have to change. (just so you know, im looking forward to
trying it. itll be a good experience, ill learn more about the japanese family
unit, and hopefully find some interesting things to write to you all. no more
host brother stories for a whole month though!)

Thing that i dont understand is that until april the grandma will be in
hospital, so i cant imagine theres much to do apart from visiting. And why a
month? and i mean the taking care thing. Im not really that hard to take care
of. I mean, it just seems to me like im just an extra mouth to feed.

anyways, im passed caring. itll be good to get out of this house for awhile.
maybe ill be allowed out past 10! and ive already decided that nobodies gonna
do anything to interfer with me seeing nofx, so its all good(^_^)
okay, now heres another example of the “avoid confrontation, bitch behind
peoples backs” thing that tom (my aussie mate in nara) are starting notice.

Toms friend jared who he met at school, and is on the same sorta exchange as
uswas having host family problems, and didnt even know it! he got to school to
find that the teachers had organised a meeting about the fact that jared wasnt
talking to his host mum enough! he hadnt known there was a problem. not until
the host mum rang the school to complain, and his teacher told him in the morning! whats the problem with a little up frontness!? AND WHY THE SCHOOL!?

blah!

its the morning now. im still writting this on my cellphone, which i like to
think is rather legendary! (ive come a long way since my boycott of
cellphones=D) Im about to get a call from rebecca. something that has to be
organized in advance! friends dont really call friends, just for a chat in
japan. and when they do the time and everything is pre-arranged.
Daniel will be keen to know that i listened to all the Munted Dog songs TWICE
last night! have to say, yeah there were some sloppy bits, but the bits that
came out well, came out real good! still like \10 Note, Romance isnt Dead and
Fire Escape the most. the record quality isnt particually good, but its alright
for the fact that Jamess Kitchen Studios recorded it, only using its own recipe
of secret recording techniques, and a tape player.(^_^)

Okay, Im on thecomputer now. I talked to Rebecca for a good two hours. Hers Dads got this 1cent a minute deal, so thats cool. ;-)We're gonna get Two Buck Tim back together, but we'll be doing it as an acoustic duo. Should be good. Shes going to Mexico in Febuary, so itll be short lived, but we'll get it back when she gets back. Shuld be god. Another thing Ive noticed about Japan, is that people dont tend to have chordless phones! I would have expected video phones and stuff, but no, chordless phones. oh well ;-)

Meg andI had pizza for lunch yesterday! It was her firsttime ordering pizza, and her firs time eatting American style pizza.We had Pizza Hutt and it was pretty different to NZ style. Hada look at Dominos, but the store as too far awa. Dominos is completely different in Japan. Crazy ;-)

Anyhoo, Im starting to lack things to say. On Saturday to Sunday, Ill be going to some place with my host dad. Its like an onsen (bath place.) He said its to make up for me not going to Niigata with the family. So yeah, if you dont hear from me overthe weekend, thats why. Ill probably update Sunday night or Monday. I dunno yet.

Oh, and yeah, I told you about how I was gonna have a holiday on Thursday and Friday because thats when all the other 2nd years are going on a school trip. Also, because they get back Sunday, they get Monday and Tuesday off to make up for school thins on the weekend. BUT, seeing as I cant afford to pay $1000 for a school trip, I have to go to school on all of those days, even though there wont be any other 2nd years! I have to go to my 1st and 3rd year classes. On Tueday, I dont have any, so I have to go to a 3rd year Englsih class to help out,and then they want me to study in the library the rest of the day! I think theyre shortened days, but theres no way Im just gonna sit in the library to pass the time. Ill talk to my teacher, and probably be alowed to leave early. So stupid though....

Anyways, thats all I have to say.
On the I pod lately has been Nofx, Millencollin, Munted Dog, Buddy Holly, Rolling Stones, Neil young, The Beatles etc.

Sweet as! Well, Ill catch you all later!
Stay Jivin!

You man in Japan
Jimmy

Moshi moshi

2005-10-14T21:19:00.000+13:00

Kia Ora Everybods!
Hows everyone sliding?
Things are good here, but dotn really have any weekend plans yet?
The big news is that you know ages ago I talked about the mystery of the what my host brother uses a razor for, as he has no facial hair at all. Well, yesterday he managed to cut his finger a little, and when I asked him what happened, he told me that he was shaving his:
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EYEBROWS when it happened! No he doesnt just pluck his eyebrows, but he shaves them too! I was so stoked when I found out. But I then heard some bad news this morning. Meg said that he hadnt been using the mystery razor, he had been using another one. A yellow one. Meg thinks that the red one (The mystery one) is for his armpits though. Ill have to investigate more. ;-)

Another host brother story. Okay, I got this complaint down the usual grapeline. Shigeki complains to my host Mum (without mentioning it to me) then the host mum tells Meg, and then Meg tell me. Apparently, when I text on my cellphone the noise is too noisey and he cant concentrate. And then other thing was that when he's trying to sleep my texting keeps him awake. (This is the kid that sometimes just lies down on the floor during the middle of the day, and goes to sleep!)

The truth is though, if he mentioned it to me, I wold try to press th buttons a little quieter, but he just doesnt havethe balls to even mention it. I mean its a petty, petty thing, but if hes gonna complain, he should go for all this sneaky stuff. Going behind backs and stuff. My NZ brothers woudl just tell me to shut up.;-)

Today was alright. I had my Japanese talking class for two hours, which was good. Not lunch from my host mum, so I had RAMMEN instead. It was good ;-)Also had a talk to some of the foriegn teachers a bit, which was good. The American guy (Rodney) and I often talk about Japanese and their social lives. Like how Japanese parents dont seem to go out, or have people for dinner very much. My host Dad goes to the movies by himself, and sometimes has dinner with people from work.
It seems to us that the grup thing is REAL big in Japan. Like, if your in a sports club, youll usually just hang out witthe people from the sports club. This isnt all people, but a lot. People eat with the same people at lunch time everyday too. When they get out of school, they hang out with peole from the same work, and not so many other people. And also, it seems like married couples dont seem to hang out with each other much, or have the same friends. Its kinda weird in my forign opinion. All the forgien teachers could also relate to having parents who would invite friends round for dinner, send the kids into the T.V room with a few pizzas, and telling them not to leave the room. And esspecialy not disturb the adults.. ;-) Interesting.... Like to me it seems kinda depriving. Someone needs to show them how to live some life!

Oh yeah, and yesterday my host Mum got a call from kanou San (the PIEE lady whos house I stayed at.) My host mum said thanks for taking care of me and stuff, but that she coudnt talk about something now. The host mum wasnt doing anything at the time, so I assume it was because I was in the same room. Im not supposed to know about the host change yet, you see. The two things that piss me off about it a bit, is not the changing, cause think that it will be a good experience. The two things are the way its some big secret that Im not supposed to know about, even though it affect me most! And that theyre not even asking my opinion. In Japan kids dont have opinions, but its lik someday soon, teyre just gona say, 'your going to this persons house fromthis day to this day.' havent given me the oppertunity to try to find soemone from school, or anything like that. Just kinda annoying. Anyways, it should hopefully turn out alright.

Anywaysm sorry this email hasnt been about anything other than my host family. Hope you enjoy ;-)
Looking forward to seeing you all again!
Catch ya later
Love James

Konnchiwa from the East

2005-10-13T21:12:00.000+13:00

Hi all!
Hows it going? Thingsare good here. I wentto my friend Hanris house yesterday. He's Chinese but he's living here with his family, and has been for about 3 years. He speaks perfect Japanese, real good Korean, alright Chinese and a little English. SO eah, we speak in Japanese the whole time, apart from the occasional bit of English. A lot of Japanese like speaking in Englsih, but just like a few lines. Actually speaking in English is a bit of a novelty. They only realy learn to read and wrte it. My school is a little better bout speaking English, but not much.
Anyways, so Hanri and I played some playstation (my first time in Japan!) playeda little guitar, (he owns one but doesnt really play it much.) I even tuned it for him BY EAR. That was like my first time! I dont know if it was perfect, but EADGBe, but it it sounded alright. We also ate diner, listened to music and just hung out. His parents dont get home till about 10 or 11. He used to be in th soccer club, so thats why I havent been hanging out with him until now. He stopped going everyday, and so his coach said he had to leave. Hes joineda band thoug, now. He sings but they dont have a bassist yet. He showed me a song they recorded (just a demo tape type thing) and it was alright. The drummer was on about the same level as me, and apparently had had about as much druming experience as me! (not much) But yeah, so that was cool. Im gonna go along and watch their band sometime at the studio (where they practice.)
I also showe him Coming Soon, Munted Dog, Two Buck Tim, Hung Jury, Other Side Up and Poo Hate. (Onslow bands.) He really liked them all and he was REAL suprised at how good they were. He also said he wants to cover 1 2 3 Riot! By Two Buck Tim. (Its easyand the lyrics are easy) Didnt show him Social Science though. Gutting! He wouldnt have understood the brilliance behind it though, as the lyrics are all in English. (He may have understood the brilliance of Edmonds 2 string power chords though....)
But yeah, so my social life is getting better. Went out on Sat, Sun, Tues and Wed! Thats pretty impressive in Japan!

TOday, school was pretty average. Had music and PE and stuff. No Japanese lessons. No lunch box either, but I bought cheap TEMPURA UDON from the canteen, an it was awesome. (Tempura is deep fried vegetables and fish in batter. Udon is thick noodles. Its also served together ina soup and its good.)

Ummm, PE was volleyball, Music was Carpenters again. Had Englishand stuff too, bu thats not so interesting. Oh and had Chinese today too.

On the I pod today and yesterday has been the bands I mentioned above, plus Canned Heat (they rule!) Captain Beefheart and his Magic band, (cant believe I like them, but i do. Maybe the craziest music youll ever hear! SERIOUSLY!) The Ramoanes, Rancid , a little System, George Throgood, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. So yeah, thats all good. Ive had a little listen to the Robert Plant CD which my Dad bought, and put on the I pod. Its pretty cool, but I havent sat own an had a god listen though it yet. My first impression was that it sounds a bit like the No Quarter CD, but I could be wrong as Im yet to dealth in.

Good luck to everyone with exams, by the way. Whatever countries youre in!

I dont really no why, but hes another mystery. Okay, for some reason the head on my tooth brush seems to get all bent out of shape A LOT faster than the rest of the family! I just noticed it last night. No ones tooth brushes get bent and crooked and stuff, but mine! Is this because there're too soft, or Im too rough? Or do they secretly buy new brushes which are exactly the same, before they need to, just to mess with my mine.... Whos to know!

Oh yeah, and we had a speechs from people who want to be the Student Rep type people today. They had posters and stuff, just like Onslow. But there were some differences.

* One guys motto which he mentioned in his speech and on his posters is MORE CYBER, MORE INTERNATIONAL, something something JOB. (It was in Englsih but I cant remember it all now
* The same guy real likes card tricks, so on his posters (in English) it also said I WILL CHANGE THE SCHOOL WITH MAGIC and there was a picute of Disneyland at night in the background, and him standing in the front with a magicians had and a pack of cards. Kinda differnt.
* One guy mentioned his blood type on his poster! (In Japan people think about blood type a lot more. I dont even know what blood type I am, which suprises everyone.)
* At the speeches there were no singing Nuieans. (I swear, that time Josh did that is probably the only time Ive seen the Onslow students singing together!) it was awesome.
* There was no one running for the point of making an ass of themselves, and having a laugh in the process.
* Everyone took it REALLY seriously.

Anyways, not a lot moreto say. No updates on host changes or anything. Just trying to enjoy the rest of my time here.
At te moment when i come back, Im planning on a degree of:
A combined major in Japanese, International Politics and Asian Studies
Then also Music and other bits of marketing and stuff.
If I still decide to, I could go to teachers college and then become a Japanese/ music teacher. So thatd be cool.

Sweet as, well Ill catch you all later
Have good ones!
Jamerson in Japanerson

Haisai Captains ;-)

2005-10-12T00:57:00.000+13:00

Konbanwa all!
Hows it slidin'?
Things are good here. Actualy real good :-) Suprisingly....
Ive been to karaoke with my Chinese friends today, andthat was pretty cool. Those kids speak better Japanese than Chinese. Some of them speak a bit of English but some are a little behind.... ;-)
Twas real cool, and we took purikura (those small sticker photos) too. This was just after school. School was average. I had to give an improb speech in my Japanese class (consisting of a teacher and me) about how Japan is a hard place for forigners to live in. Went alright.

Monday was pretty average. Nothing really. I went for a bike ride, played guitar and studied a little.

Sunday, I went to Misas house, where we got a bit of drink into us, talked and watched a DVD. Twas pretty fun. Misas broter got drunk and fell a sleep. Twas pretty funny.:-) Its the opposite of this host family. This host family is really nice and stuff, but can be pretty strict. I then had dinner with the Grandparents and then the family got back from Niigata.

Tomorrow Im going to my Chinese friends Hanris house. Should be good :-)

Had a few emails about the host change thing. All I know is that Meg wasnt supposed to tell me, so its still a secret ;-) The host Dad was supposed to talk to me about it yesterday, but didnt, and yeah, thats about it. I think it could be a good experience though. Id hate to get some real bad family, like if I got a Morman family or something. But yeah, I reackon it should be good.

My host mum made me lunch again today, so that was cool. :-)

Oh, and yeah my parents got the I POD fixed and sent it to me! So stoked! Id ben listening to tapes that I sent Meg ages ago. Nofx, The Pouges, Queen, and then a thousand or so mix tapes. Its been awesome to get it back. Ive had it on 24/7! Everything from Nofxs Decline (18 minutes of punk in one song!) to The Rolling Stones, to the Beatles, to Monpachi, to Neil Yong, to The Clash to David bowie. Its all there! You know, it was getting desperate. I listened to Nivana (Smells like Teen Spirit) and enjoyed it! Yeah, THAT desperate....

Anyways, things are getting better. I mean I hung out with friends Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and will again tomorrow. So thats not too bad. People keep telling me that my Japanese is getting better too ;-) Got a Kanji test tomorrow though...

Well, keep rockin!
Catch you kids later
Jivin James (in Japan)

P.S Julia, Sarah and Johanna..... You know what i want... ;-) )

Kuwachi Sabira (Okinawan for good morning)

2005-10-09T14:14:00.000+13:00

Ohayo!
Sorry about the late one. Been a little busy and havent had so much to talk about. Got a bit now though. The weekends been pretty cool, actually. Starting Friday, I had school. Pretty average. I had my class with this japanese teacher, whos not actually a teacher, but she still teaches me it. Because there no real lesson plan,she usedto photocopy problems from books, and Id do them, but now its just turned into talking for 2 hours. Its real good practice and she teaches bits and pieces too. We talk about everything from the weekend to politics to to the pros and cons of same-sex schools. Pretty cool. She was also telling me about how her husband had to work in Hokkaido for 2 years, but their kids didnt mind so much, because like a lot of Japanese Dads, he wasnt home much anyways. Like a lot of Japanese dads leave for work before their kids wake up, and come home when their kids are asleep. Then the weekends are either work, sleep or the kids are ot doing something. Kinda sad. Itsliek the family unit pretty different to NZ. Feel sorry for them.

Well, Fridays routine was pretty much the same as usual. I got up at 6:40, my host brother got up at 6. By the time I was up, he was already dressed and breafasted, but I as usual, I left for school before him. Why? There was a good 40 minutes between the time we woke up! See the thing is that a lot of Japanese guys take a lot of time doing their hair in the morning! He washes it, dries it, waxes it, sprays it. I dunno, he might do more. Also, Japanese guys dont change their hairstyle very much.Like I wax my hair differnetly everyday, or sometimes I dont bother. I get asked if I had my haircut soooo much! Like, its different so it must have been cut.
;-)Ive had a bit of a cold as of late, so my host mum gave me a mask to wear. The masks look a little bit like doctors masks, but wearing tem makes you look ike you have SARS that you dont wanna pass around. I didnt bother. She made me lunch on Friday, so that was cool. Got home and talked to Lucy and Johanna on the net. So that was cool. Then i went to the sento (public bath) with my host Dad. Twas good.
Saturday, I returned the Blues Brothers and started writing a new song. Ive also been learning about THE TABLE OF 5THS, from the net which has been healpin my guitar and harmonica theory ;-) Meg baked some cookies which were good. Meg, the host Dad and I went out for rammen for lunch, and that was good. Ramen rules! I alos talkedto my parents on the phone, as well as Thomas. So that was rad. Apparently Thomas is (my 12 year old brother) is running equal with my Dad as heaviest in the family. At 70 KGS! Im still 66kgs, which means I havent changed for liek 3 years or something! After that I went and met up with Risa and Kaoru. It was real fun actually. We saw Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Generally I liked the original better, but this one was pretty good too. We then has some Korean food for dinner, and tok some purikura (those little sticker-photo.) So yeah, thatwas all good. Hadnt hung out with Risa in ages, and Kaoru I hung out with at the Yamamura scool festival and met her in NZ, so yeah, it was good. ;-) I did however manged to forget to bring the money that Id gotten out of the bank. Risa paid for my diner and my bubble tea. Real stupid. What sucked though, is that Id parked my bike at a shed close to the station, but only remembered when I got to the station .I didnt have enough money to get my bike back! I ended up walking home, getting the 100 yen that I needed, then walking back to get my bike.

So I got home, watched REBEL WITHOUT A CUASE wich was good, then went to bed. This morning I talked to Jeremy and Lucy on the phone. Oh and I also got my I POD and some mellowpuffs from my parents last night. The I pod hard drive was stuffed, so it had to be replaced. Lucky it was still under warrenty. I dunn what happened to it though. Im making good use of it now though. Gonna go to Misa house for VDs today. To thatll be cool.

WHAT!? Okay,and I just got a text from Meg. She said that te host Dad had just told her that id be going to another host family for a month!!!! What the hell!? Wheres this coming from? Apparently for the end of October to the end of November Ill be going. HE gonna tell us about it tomorrow more. I guess itll be good to try living with another family, but thats crazy. Why now? Why so suddenly? Whos the family?

Sorry, I gotta go. Get some hardcore texting done.
Sorry tis is late.
And short. Myabe, I dunno.
Catch ya
JAmes

Haisai Ladies and Gents!

2005-10-06T21:47:00.000+13:00

Hello
Hows it rovin?
Things are swingin pretty plainly here. had school today, which was alright. No
japanese lessons but had music, where we've been singing YESTERDAY ONCE MORE by
The Carpenters. PE was okay. We played volley ball which was good. Had a
uniform check, which wasnt as exciting as it sounds;-)
Host mum made me a lunch today, which was good-(^_^)-when i have to buy my own,
it costs about $4NZ.
Yesterday i started learning extreme polite japanese. You hardly ever use it,
and you dont even need it. Im learning it for the profiency test. Kinda
interesting though. Theres two types of polite talk which you learn together.
* Sonkeigo is for talking about the other person. It works by making them seem
bigger and even more important.
* Kenjyougo is for talking about yourself, and is used by lowering yourself,
like, making you smaller and less important.
Never really use either of them but its kinda interesting.=)

A little advice to people following in my tracks. In some ways I reackon coming to uni would have been better than coming to highschool. Japanese students highschool lives arent as relaxed as the ones we have in NZ. At uni, they seem to have more freedom in their lives. Thats just my opinion. I mean I really like my life as a highschool student here, but thats just food for thought.

Truth be told, I dont really have anything to say. Sorry, Ill probably have more stuff to put up in the weekend, though Ill most likely udate tomorrow too.

Heres a photo I stole. I could have easily taken it myself, but I get weird looks when I take toilet photos to much. This is a Japanese style toilet. You squaton it. NOT SIT DOWN! ;-)
Cheers
Kia Kaha (Stay strong!)
Cheers
Jivin James

Hows it chuggin guys?

2005-10-05T20:59:00.000+13:00

Howdy all!
Pretty average day today. School and stuff. Hada kanji test which Ithink I did alright on. Have just started learning some REAL polite Japanese. I need it for the profiency test a little, but people dont actually use it! Only if it was someone REALLY high ranking.
Oh yeah, and as of Monday it been my job to be the class caller. See, before and after every class and homeroom, we stand, and bow. Atthe moment I say KIRITSU and everyone stands. Then 'kiotsuke. rei. ' and everyone bows. My Japanese literature teacher was real suprised when I said it. He thought it was real funny that a gaijin (forigner) was saying it.
One thing I thought Id mention about school, is that the teachers have no power. By that I mean they cant dish out punishments. For example, theres no detentions, n holding people after class, none of that. I dont think they even have slips home. Weird thing is, they everyone stays in line anyways! Crazy. One rules people do break in class abit though, is that a lot of people sleep during class. Esspecially during history classes, seriously, over HALF THE CLASS are asleep in some of them. Kinda feel sorry for the teacher, having to teach when he knows no ones listening. When Im my 'try to understand as much as possible' mode, I listen real hard, and Ive noticed he always looks at me. And it always feels like hes trying to teach just me.
Its a real hard class to understand though. Theres a lot of hard kanji and stuff, Esspecially as we're learning about Chinese leaders and battles and stuff now.

Today was another day where I had to by my own lunch. I think its just gonna be random. THe programme rules say that my host family doesnt have to supply me with lunch, but she did for most ofthe time, and shes making everyone elses lunch anyways, so I dont know why. I guess she is rather busy, and so I can understand a little. Shes a nurse as well.

On the topic of food, just like to clear a few things up
* We dont eat sushi very much
* Rice is the main thing, but we have toast for breakfast, not the miso soup/ rice etc dish you hear about
* We do have the rice/miso soup combo at dinner though.
* The bento, or lunch box that we take to school consists of mainly rish with some flavouring or something,and a few other bits and pieces. Truth be told, I kinda went offthe bento a little. Better than buyin my own food though.
* Rammen rocks!
* For lunch in the weekends, we usually eat noodles, not rice.
* I dont think there would be many Indians who would go near Japanese curry, which　features a main ingrediant of beef

Anyways, I think my work here is done.
Thanks for coming, and drive safely!
Cheers
The Jaminator

Kia Ora kids

2005-10-04T21:05:00.000+13:00

Howdy Primes!
Hows it swingin?
Tried to log on a few times before this but it kept on saying that the blog
making site is down for maintenance. Weird.
Things lately. Been a bit down. Stuff with Meg and just missing some aspects of
NZ. We've decidedthat we'll haveto break it off once I go back. Its just too long, and I guess we're both still young ;-)

One thing an American teacher at my school called Rodney pointed out, which is true, that in Japan you dont say 'do you wanna hang out after school?' nothing as spontaneous as that. Everything has to be planned, and theres no such thing as taking risks.
Thats been strange for me. And they also dont hang out for the sake of hanging
out. Dont talk on the phone either. I guess its the old 'different culture' arguement, but its like theyve been deprieved of a lot of fun.

Youd think that with 127 million people (?i think?) itd be hard to feel lonely here!

Okay, and heres two host brother stories for you.
On Sunday, he saw something that really scared him. He told the whole family
twice and also said hed be telling his school mates. From the window of the
train, he saw a ghost! yes, im serious, and he was serious! It was the ghost of
an old lady. Though i didnt hear the whole story, im thinkin that maybe it was
a real lady!;-)

The other story is just annoying. Whenever he comes home, he doesnt use his key. Okay, maybe it sounds petty, but itis annoying. Esspecially when its just the Grandparents home, because they are both over 80, and it takes them awhile to come down the stairs. In some ways,he's a pretty selfish kid. But I guess its not just his fault, its the society that he grew up in.... I dunno, just wanted to get that out ;-)

Okay, big news. My family are going to visit their sick Grandmother in Niigata (about 3 hours or so in car, maybe more.) So, as theres no more room for me in the car, I aveto stay home. THe Grandparents who live here will be home though. Ha, so maybe you'll be hearing a bit more from me here over that time, though I wont have anything to say.
Heres the plan:
Its a 3 day weekend (just like pretty much every weekend in Japan. Mondays a publicholiday)
On Saturday Im going to a movie and dinner with Risa and Kaoru.
Sunday, maybe hanging out with Misa, but I dont know what we'll do yet.
Probably get some study in there too. I have to say that this much free time would be a lot better if I had more to do. I hardly go to school anymore because of allthe holidays. Pretty nuts.
But the cherry on the cake come from the school trip to the Island of Shikoku. They leave onthe 20th, and so I dontthink Il have school on Thursday and Friday. Their way till Sunday, and so to make up for school related things on the weekend, Monday and Tuesday are holidays! HAHA! Crazy! I just cant believe it! I can actually choose to go to school, with the 1st and 3rd year students, which I might do because theres only so much I can do at home alone.
I would go on the school trip, if it didnt cost 80,000 yen (about $1000NZ!)

My lunches. Well, I bought my own on Monday, but was given one today. I think its just gonna be random. Still have NO IDEA why she just stopped!

Anyways, heres my guitar. ;-)

Two things I thought Id mention, which I find different.
Advertising. This is an annoying one. You get flooded by people with handouts atthe train stations, and then there's these cars that drive round with loud speakers. THeres the election ones, which have people waving and and smiling a lot out the windows. The other ones are advertising. Their really loud, real annoying, and their legal. And to tell the truth, I would probably never shop somewhere or buy something jst because I heard someone shouting about ti from a car while I was trying to sleep.

Another thing isthat there are some old people, aminly old woman, and I mean like 7- years olds, who have dyed hair. That alone isnt weird, its the ones that have blue or green, or red in their hair which suprised me a lot the first few times I saw them! Kinda crazy, but cool ;-)

On Saturday Meg and I went to Kawagoe and did a little shopping. A few souvineers and stuff. ;-) Twas pretty good. Kawagoe is quite an old area. THeresthe newer part where a lot of the kids hang out, but theres the older part where the oldies hang. We went to both. The old place has its own special beer, which for the sake of experiencing new things,was tried. And it was good. But yeah, lots of old buildings and stuff, and you can still see fire damage from WW2 onsome ofthe buildings. (All wooden with really low door ways!) This photo is a bell tower in Kawagoe. I dont know much about it, but it could have been important. ;-)

Oh and on a different subject, Kat could you send me your email address (if you have mine.) I asked Lucy but I think shes busy or something ;-) Cheers ;-)

Well, time is getting short in Japan. About 3 months left and then its back to NZ. I cant figure out if its gone slowly, or fast.... NZ seems quite a while ago, but it doesnt feel like Ive been hear that long. Weird. Anyways, so yeah, its been good, its been great, and its been real worthwhile. Ive learnt a lot. Not just the Japanese language, but also about Japan, Japanese way of thinking, and Japanese highschool. Ive also learn about myself a bit more. Self discovery ;-) But Ive also learn that Onslow is a pretty rad school ,and NZ is a pretty good country. Also, that my friends in NZ, are a lot cooler than my friends at Wakoku!
Anyways,thanks for always logging in, and I hope you guys have learnt something about Japan too ;-)
Cheers
Kia Kaha!
Until infinity and beyond...............!
Jamerson

P.S If you cant get enough of Japanese blogs. Here the address for Toms blog in Japan. You took the libery of calling it Tom in Japan. What a rip-off..... ;-) http://spaces.msn.com/members/vaultdweller25/PersonalSpace.aspx?_c=

Kia Ora guys! Sorry no post yesterday (;_;)

2005-10-01T13:42:00.000+12:00

Howdy all!
Hows it swingin?
Exciting night, last night. At about 11 o'clock we heard barking. Startled, we investivagated. What we saw was a HUGE BROWN DOG! Hanging out by the place that our outside cat lives. Ive seen some big dogs before, but this may have been the biggest. So the host Mum made everybody go inside, because it was dangerous. Some of the family started banging pots and stuff by the door, but it was probably a good 10-15 metres from the door to the dog, and it was around a corner. I went up stairs, and was pretty much above the dog. I tossed up the idea of throwing something, but the only thing I had close to me was my pillow, and I thought my host mum would be angry with me if I threw that. THinking back now, maybe I should have thrown books.... I did shout though. Anyways, so the cat was successfully hiding under the car. The move out of the way, going aoundthe other side of the car, and then Nyan escaped. Sitting in the middle ofthe road, the cat couldnt think of what to do. So it sat. The dog eventually figured outthat Nyan wasnt under te car anymore, and came out chasing. THe mammoth thing lashed out, but I dont know if it connected, or how badly. THere was no blood though. Then they both went running. I dunno, I would have thought that a dog that size would be able to outrun a small cat like that. And I still dont know. About that time, my host brother and I dashed downstairs. Anyways, so from then, the dog eventually left, but Nyan! Where was Nyan?! I reackoned shed come back on her own, once she wa sure that the dog was gone, and had gotten over the suprise, but even so we were out searching till about 1. At 5, Nyan came home on her own. And so everyone woke up. Then went back to sleep. Feel sorry for Meg though. The little tyke had to get up at 6 for Mr Donuts!

So yeah, theres my exciting news. Heres what Ive been up to:
On Thursday I watched THe BLues Brothers, and thought it rocked! Twas real rockin! I then met up with Kanou San (whos the PIEE rep person.) We had rammen for lunch which was good. A lot of you may not know ramen. Ramen is originally from China, but its REAL popular in Japan. I reackon people eat it more than Undon and Soba. Rammens real tasty and apparently its what a lot fo people eat after drinking, before going home. Ive thought of these reasons, though there is probably more:
* Theres soup to re-hydrate you
* THeres noodles and other food to soak up the alcohol
* Its salty, because eatting salty things after drinking is fun
* Its nutritious. Well, it has meat, vegetables, eggs, noodles etc in it.
* Its cheap
Good reasons? Probably more.
Anyways, so after that we did some necessary shopping, picked up her 2 kids from school (and one o the primary kids saw me, and he was like KAKKOI! (cool!) I felt proud, (even though I knows it just cause Im foreign.)
So we just mucked around a while. I helped make Nabe for dinner. (Which is like a hotpot, where you chuck in lots of different food and stuff, and it tastes real good.) After dinner, the father came home and I talked to him while Kanou San was giving the kids a bath. That was good. Um, then I had a bath and went to bed. Oh yeah, and the kids are pokemon kids, so we watched pokemon during dinner. I recognized like, 1 pokemon! I think theyve got like a 1000 new ones or something.

The next day we all ate breakfast together. The father aswell. Thats somethings that I havent done in a LONG time! I then investigated a shopping mall by myself. I found an African store, which sold clothes, pipes and Indian things. I bought a sticker for my guitar there. Still have no idea whqat to get people, (if I can still afford it by the end.) Ive bought my brother Thomas something though...

After the supermarket, I met Kanou San and bought icecream. Crazy thing was that after that, we went to a machine, put in the tokens she'd bought, put in plastic bags, and then pressed the button, firing dry ice into the plastic bags! We then put the dry ice bags ontop of the icecream to keep it cool. Apparently its only the big super markets that have them. I was impressed.

So after that I went on MSN a little and talked to somethings called Daniel. Then we went to cram school. This cram school for Primary students learning English. I helped teach two classes. One was 5 and 6 years olds, the other class were a bit older. Twas pretty fun. I knew two of the kids from the last time I stayed at Kanou Sans house, and they all wanted me so make them 'fly' like I did at the park last time. One of them kept holding my hand too. They were all real cute. (^_^)v
We then had dinner at an Italian resteraunt (theres a lot of them in Japan) an ate pizza with another family. Twas good :-)
But yeah, so it was all good and stuff. More interesting than hanging out at home. ;-)

Now for a few things I remembered, but forget to tell you, or told you but forgot about it. Ill make a list instead of making an long, pointless sentences;-)
* Once, I withdrew 1 yen from an ATM! Pretty impressive aye! The least we can with draw in NZ is $10, and thats only really at National Bank.
* Japanese cars in Japan making a beeping noise when they back out. Sort of like a truck. I guess that gets taken out when the cars get to NZ.
* I went in the car of the other famly to the restaurant and there was a T.V for the peole in the ack seat, and a satelite mapping T.V in the front. When we were backing, there was a camera showing the back of the car , and two lines so that you know exactly where you're about to back!)
* The double major I found out about with Japanee and Asian studies at Vic is possibole, but its called a COMBINED MAJOR. I just got the names wrong.
* When we made the haunted house at school, for recylcing purposes we had to seperate ALL The masking tape from the cardboard. Now that was a big job!

Oh, and heres a picture of a real popualr guy in Japan atthe moment. Hard Gay. (hadogei)
He goes around in his leather pants, waving his various parts arounf and shouting FOO! (sorta like woo!)

Oh, and by the way. Rebeccas band have just finished recording. Rebeccas band recorded 2 songs and Rebecca said she might send 2 of Rebeecas bands songs to me. Pretty cool aye. Keep at it Rebecca. ;-)

Anyways, thats my Japanese life installment.
Heres a little lesson:
anata - you BUT apparently you dont say it to people older tan you so much. You use their name!

Anyways, Im off.
Thanks for popping in.
Until next time........
JIVE TO SURVIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jamerson

Howdy Dudes and Dudettes!

2005-09-29T11:46:00.000+12:00

Hey hey hey
Hows it all slingin?
Things pumpin along?
Things are all good in my neck of the woods. I got a call from this PIEE lady. Shes like the person who looks after me and some ofthe other PIEE kids in this area. I stayed at her house a while ago, and she wants me to stay there again tonight. Gives me something to do! Her kids are pretty cool and she wants me to teach them some English. Theyre both alread learning, and shes pretty much fluinet in English anyways. Theyre also both learning music which is cool. One pipes away on this oversized harmonica, and they both learn piano. But it does mean that I have only a short amount of time to get this post up, watch the Blues Brothers, then get to the station in time.
Okay, so yesterday I go to the video store, and find that they FINALLY have a copy of the Jackass movie, the one when theyre in Japan. I was gna show it to Meg, but someones always renting it. So after cherishing the moment, I pick up the VD,go to the counter, and then theres a problem. I assume its because I already had a DVD anda CD out, and saidId return them tomorrow. No, the problem was THAT IM NOT 18! Of all the countries to have that problem, I get snapped in Japan! I mean, theres nothing in that film to justify that sorta rating. And you know, thats the first time Ive ever been told I cant rent a movie cause Im too young. It was my card that caught me out. It says Im 17. I was real gutted. Ill have to get Meg to go there sometime.

Found out something. Okay, in NZ we recycle paper and stuff. I mean not in rubbish bins, but at home, if we have a lot of paper, it gets recycled. In Japan, theyre CRAZY about sperating plastic, burnables, etc. But I just realized that the paper (burnables) wont be recycled, because otherwise it wouldnt be put under the catergory BURNABLE.
See, Meg saw that I had a used packet of glue in my paper basket, and she tol me I had to seperate it to another bag. She said that because the paper will be burnt but the used glue wont be, they have to be seperated. But why burn all that paper? Kinda weird.

Japanese Lesson
Moeru 燃える - Burnable
Honyaku - Translate (I remember it case it sounds like you wanna grill books!)
Gomiyasan - Rubbish Truck (yes, the direct translation is RUBBISH SHOP)

Anyways, thats it for me. There was a long one yesterday, so this is just a short one. there may not be one tomorrow. I dont know. Actually, yeah there probably will be but it wont be a morning one.
Thanks for coming.
Hope things are jivin
And I love you all ;-)
Your man in Japan
Jamerson

P.S Im off to watch the Blues Brothers now! Yay!

Ohayo Fellow Cheiftans

2005-09-28T12:15:00.000+12:00

Morning all!
Hows the holidays in NZ and the school everywhere else?
I just got a text from Asami saying that she'll have baito (part time job) on friday, so we cant hang out. So that sucks.
Things are good, but X-STREAMly boring here. Lets have a little look at what yesterdays plan was, then compare it to how it turned out.
Yesterday I planned to:
Computer, guitar
lunch
Then go to Shiki, Asakadai and Asaka and explore. Venturing through the backstreets, finding stores that nobody knows about, visiting temples, buying cheap rammen (cheap noodle soup, originally from China. REAL popular in Japan) and generally causing havoc.
Then, ending it all by meeting my classmates for dinner and drinks (and maybe karaoke)

How yesterday turned out:
Computer, guitar
lunch
Went to Shiki, Asakadai and Asaka lisntening to Nofx tapes, but couldnt really find anywhere to explore. There were no backstreet shops and no Japanese style stuff. I did find a backstreet arcade which was kinda weird. Like a saw a staircase from the street that said GAME and I was like, 'wonder whats down there' so I went down a lot of stairs, circling down deeper and deeper, furthur away from the natural light. I finally got down there and there was about 20 guys down there. All fixed to the machines (and it as pretty cheap too.) I had a go on the drum machine, which was good. It was kinda weird though. Like that many fully grown adults with that much free time at about 2 o`clock was kinda strange. And there was only one group f peole (about 3) everyone else was just sitting there alone playing games. Kinda felt sorry for them, just sitting there in this little den, playing games all day. Having said that though, I guess I did exactly the same thing! Other that that I went to a department store and looked at some of the technology things. They're all pretty expensive though, not that I need any of it. I also went to a CD store and listened to some of the new Rolling Stones THE BIGGER BANG and the new Queen + Paul Rodgers (or whatever his name is.) THe Bigger bang had good points and bad ones, though I only listened to 2 songs. One being good, one being bad. The first songs was more like raw, powerful blues which was pretty cool, but the other one was Micks attempt at being political, and it didnt work. Dunno if Id buy it, but I do think its better that some other Stones stuff. Like I never really liked Black and Blue that much. THe Queen one was pretty wicked aye! It was live and yes I know that theres no replacing Freddy and stuff, but this Paul Rodgers guys (who was Freddys mate and even dedicated a song to Freddys mum) had a pretty good crack at doing it. His voice is a little different but it worked. It was a Live CD and yeah, I have to say I felt that it had a move powerful sound. Like everyone had turned their amps up a few notches. We will Rock you was huge!
Apart from that, my day didnt consist of much. I went into a few pachinko places, just cause I was bored, but its SO LOUD in there. All the machines are making alot of sound and everyones pouring the silver balls into their machines and yeah, its crazy. People smokin to much too ;-P

And now to the party.
The impression Id gotten from a few of the people was that we might be having a few drinks with dinner. One of the girls who was organizing it was scared that if ateacher was to see us there drinking, we'd be in trouble, so she told he resterantthat we wouldnt be drinking. The teachers didnt even know that were there.
Anyways, so it was like a Japanese restaurant we were in a private room with too big long tables. Firstly the boys sat at one table and the girls sat at the other. THen we realized that there was room at the girls table for the boys to fit in, so we sat at the opposite end to the girls. (no, theyre not 10 years old, these are 16 year olds.) Well the restuarant was horrible. I mean, we'd recieved 2 meals every 10 minutes or so, so it took about an hour for everyone to get their dinner, and by that time people we already thinking about what to have for dessert. They also got two orders wrong. There was karaoke in the room, but noboby wanted to do it. So, while we were waiting for all the food, we played games. Someone wrote the numbers 1-19 (there was 19 people there) and put them in a bag. One of the pieces had the word O SAMA (not Bin Laden, it means king) and so everyone would pick a piece of paper, then the king would decide on a few number (without knowing who had which number) and then decide on something they would have to do. First people had to sing (they sang a bit of the school song) the next girls had to run into the boys toilet then come back and say that they love our teacher, the next people had to make a pirimad thing, its the sort of one thy have to make in gymnastics class.
And the last people. This was the big one. The top of the mountain. The one everyone went crazy about. When it finally happened everyone shouted and cheered, and congratulated the two. One boy had to give a girl a quick peck on the check. A quick little kiss. Everyone went nuts! Tey treated it like they were getting married. It kinda reminded me of 3rd form camp. Only Daniel wil know what m taking about, as I think he's the only 3GDian on here. Guess the fruit juice must have gone straight to their heads.

Anyways, so that was my day yesterday. Pretty boring but I wrote a lot about it anyway. Sorry. ;-) Todays gonna be even more boring though. I really dont have anything to do apart from guitar and study. I might rent a movie out. I was thinking about getting out the Blue Brothers. I have to admit, Im sorry, I havent seen it yet..... Im SORRY! I know, I know, Im a bad person. I mean a consider myself a blues listener and to some degree a blues harmonicaist, but I havent seen it.
Please dont stop coming to my site. ;-)

Okay, as I already have a bit of stuff about the kind of people my class is comprosed of, I think Ill have a little rant aout my PE class. My PE class is made up of the boys from 2 classes. Its sorta divided up by the students though. The guys that love sports, the moderate people, and the not very good people. I managed to fit into the moderate kinda group. But the 2 guys in the lowest 'group'have a kinda hard time. One guys only barely in that group and the other guy, for privacy reasons Ill call him Bob.) Bob has a real hard time, the guys that love sport and are(or think they are) really good at sport, give him a hard time. They call him OTOUSAN (Father/ Dad/ Pop) and they always make fun of him when he stuffs up. To tell the truth Bob does look a little like business man. Hes the only guy in the school that walked around with more than one pen in his front pocket on his shirt, and just the glasses and haircut and stuff) but that doesnt justify it. I try to talk to him sometimes but he does really respond. I try to stick up for him too, but its hard to know what to say.

One guy called Shimada (Im not changing his name, cause he's a complete cock.) Hes like a jock, who dresses like a hip hop guy. He works out a lot, and goes round all day showing people his arms, and asking people for arm wresltes. Hes a real dick to Bob. When PE class starts, all the guys who are (or think they are) really good at sport, change. Like they get REALLY compeditive, and Shimada trys to act like the PE teachers assistant. As most of you probably know, Im not the most athletic person in the world, but I would enjoy PE class a lot more, if it werent for the compeditivness. Call me a wimp, but I think its stupid to give your own team members a hard time if they stuff up. Anyways, theres my rant ;-) Oh, and Julia and Sarah, Takuma is inthe middle group, but thinks heS in the higher group. He stuffs a bit, but if someone else inthe middle group of or the lower group stuffs up, he givesthem a hard time. He changes a lot during PE. Infact I dont consider him a friend in PE class because he chnages so much and hes such a dick to other people.
Actually, it kinda reminds me of Northland school. Kids like Joe Hurndell and Michel Hobbs. (>_<)
Anyways, you have to admit thats a lot of writing for a day yesterday that consisted of pretty much nothing.
Oh, and Ive narrowed down that problem of getting all those viruses sent to my phone from your email addresss. It only happens when I connect to the internet. Still weird. Shigeki and Meg changed their email address for their phones, but I cant really be bothered. Im only gonna have it for a little while longer anyways. And their not a problem, I just delete them. My phone cant read the viruss anyway.

Heres a photo in Yokohama when we went there on a school trip. Those are some kids from other classes. I dont know their names but they wanted to take a photo with me, so yeah. Yokohamas pretty cool. Second biggest city in Japan, an as its right next to Tokyo, their slowly merging. I reacon in a while thier gonna join up, and make a HUGGGE city! Ill be crazy!

Heres Meg at the Samarai place we went to. Thats like a temple type thing behind her. Twas a pretty cool place, and all the plants were SO NEAT. Its didnt seem natural for everything to be tha tidy and straight. Crazy. Real Japanesey.

Anyways, Im off now. Sorry this email is not so interesting and including a lot of complaining about people. But I guess at a time like this we have to look to Bob Dylan for the answer.
"Name me someone who isnt a parasite, and Ill go out and say a pray for him"
Cheers
Lots of Love
Your Jivatron in Nihon
Jamerson

P.S
Just found something that could be useful when I get back. ;-)Sounds pretty rad aye! (^_^)v

DIGITAL JUKEBOX & KARAOKE SYSTEMS
These units are the new generation of Jukebox and Karaoke. Play CD & CDG from internal memory of the J1399, Able to access thousands of songs instantly. This marvel is achieved by using the latest digital technology MP3 + graphics.

Built in 4 band audio equalizer
Tempo and digital key control, both of which work independently
Words cannot do justice to these systems; they speak for themselves with regard to the quality of sound and performance

Two microphones, plus one 14-inch Television monitor on a stand for the singer, also a 21-inch Television monitor for the audience
Two speakers and two speaker stands
Digital echo karaoke amplifier and remote control (user friendly)
Also play your own CD's with the Triple Tray provided.
Can play CD, CDG and VCD.

$250 (incl GST)

Kia Ora Kiddlies!

2005-09-27T12:29:00.000+12:00

Howdy all
Hows things? Japan is rocking away. Im on holiday now but dont have much to do. Im gona start my adventuring after lunch.
As a starter to the holidays, I thought I better make a list of school rules thas Ive broke, or purpose, or not on purpose. And weather I was caught.
* I wear jandels to school. On purpose BUT its becasue my other shoes. Converse ones break real fast, and if they do, Ill be lacking shoes. So its in the name of preservation. Not caught.
* Wear necklaces. On purpose, because I like them. And one of the was given to me by my Grandad. And theyre cool. Caught once.
* Extreme hair. Gelled on purpose, but I didnt know it was extreme. I usually do the standing up hair gellin, but this time I semi-spiked it. Caught.
* PE shoes, used inside and outside. Not on purpse. Nobody ever told me I had to have 2 PAIRS of PE shoes. I just realized one day that A. It was kinda dirty to wear the shoes weve been wearing in the dirt inside, and B I noticed that everyone else had different ones. Not caught.
* Wagged class. Not on purpose. I forgot I had class. I went to my homeclasses class instead of my Japanese class. Caught, but not told off)
* Cellphone in class. On purpose. Caught twice. Once it was confiscated, but it asnt my fault. I thought it was on silent, but i got a text from someone and it started playing ROLLING STONES. I wasnt even using it at the time. THing is, the menus of my phone are all in Japanese. Most phones have English too, but mines doenst. Back then, I didnt understand it so much.
* I wore the girls skirt to school. (haha, nah Im joking. But you believed me, didnt you! ;-) )
Anyways, I think theres some others, but it gives you an idea about what Japaese school rules are like. And just on the topic of cellphones, in Japan everone uses songs instead of beeps. So people like my host brother, put the it on full volume an whenever he gets a text, the song plays for like a minute or so. Ive always, in NZ and Japan, just used vibe mode.
Heres me on my first day of school. Its Sakura which is the cherry blossums you can see. Megs there too. Im not wearing my jandels though. :-(

Heres the photo Daniel wanted. Its at the farewell party, at karaoke. Sorry to te people that couldnt come, by the way. It just that theres was a limit to how many people I could invite.... Sorry. THeres always the coming back party though! ;-)

Heres some of the the kids on the same programme as me. We hung out for a a few days before going to our host families. Cool bunch of kids. The guy with blonde hair to the right is my mate Tom, whos house I stayed at in Nara. Apparently though, quite a few of the people have either gone back to their countries or changed host families because of problems. I dont know if some of them are getting the same out of Japan that Tom and I are. I can understand that though. I mean the kids at upper level school (like me) esspecially. I mean, at my school peoples free times tend to be taken up by 1, or a few of the things from this list:
* School club activities
* Part time job (although school rules say your not allowed one)
* Sleeping
* 3rd years (7th form) study
And yeah, so that doesnt leave much time for other things. So I can imagine that if some of the other kids on my programme (like me) hadnt joined a club, they might find things a bit boring. I did have the luck of already knowing some people in Japan though ,and having friends at other schools. I mean, if this was my first time comin to Japan, I think Id be having it quite different.
Ive also been hanging out with Tom in Nara and Oosaka, and Johanna in Tokyo which has added extra coolness. And of course hangin with Meg it cool, cause if I wasnt I would be spending a lot more time by myself.

Oh, and heres me with a real Samurai from the Tokugawa era. Meg and I went to see a demonstartion of Samurai a while back. That was pretty cool. They fired old guns too. This particular Samurai looses his intimidating apeal a litte, because the lanky white kid next to him, is towering. ;-) JiviN!

Oh, an heres a photo of that manga John Lennon that I mentioned before.Doesnt it look exactly like Rowan! Pretty crazy aye! Like the glasses, the hair, everythings perfect! I couldnt believe it, and I still cant. It actualy looks more like him, than it looks like John Lennon. Its like that Sipsons episode when theres that dishwashing powder that looks like homer. I bought a sticker too of a photo of John,that I reckon looks like Rowan, if he cut his hair a little. Put the sticker on my guitar ;-)

Anyways, I best get on with something productive, like guitar.
THanks for visiting, always appreciated!
Cheers
Your man in Japan!
Jivin James
P.S Ive been so excited about seeing NOFX. I listened to them all of yesterday and I couldnt get enough. I mean they were the band that got me into punk. Well, them and The Perpetrators. ;-)

A dead end......

2005-09-26T15:35:00.000+12:00

Howdy Captain!
Suprise, today I only had a half day. Yaya! I thought I had a kanji test and and normal classes but it turns out that I actually only had cleaning, assembley and homeroom. So that was cool. The assembly was SOOOOOO boring though!
So yeah, Im on holiday now, so thats rocking. Im planning on getting some real undercover exploring done. Like going places, getting lost, taking photos of stuff, and that sorta thing. Try and find some wacky stuff, and hopefully some cheap things ;-) Tomorrow my class is meeting up (yes the whole class) to have dinner as a 'yay we finished the sports festival 4th place' type dinner. Should be good.
Oh yeah, I the good boy I am, I was up till about 12 last night studying for the test that I thought I had today. Good stuff aye!

Oh yeah, and I know I say things about my host brother a lot. He's actually a good kid. He's not annoying deliberatly, he just think about himself a little more than he thinks about others. (^_^)

Well, to tell the truth, there is actually nothing that has happened since I last updated this. So yeah. Hmmmmm.
Also, I just planned out some photos to put up, but now the computers being silly and not working. So yeah, sorry this post doesnt have much point. Sorry.

Oh yeah, and I found this on a website. Its the meaning of the MOS in MOS BURGER. (note-> MOS is pronounced MOSS;-))
The 'MOS' in 'MOS burger stands for 'Mountain, Ocean, Sun'. According to the official MOS Burger web site, the mountain, ocean, and sun in the name symbolise the company's "infinite love" of both humankind and nature. MOS Burger's love of people and nature is "Grand and noble like a mountain", "Possessed of a spirit as deep and wide as the ocean", and filled with a "passion that, like the heat of the sun, never burns out."And you thought you were just getting a hamburger.

Kinda weird aye!

Anyways, Im gonna go now an ponder so more thinsg to tell you.
Cheers
Sorry
James

Renshi ni, wo hen gaoshin

2005-09-25T19:34:00.000+12:00

Hey all!
Sorry, this is a little late. How have you all been?
Good to hear ;-)
Things are all good here. Japan is treating me well, though its suddenly got pretty cold. I went to the Yamamura school festival yesterday (Saturday) which was pretty cool. We went with some of Megs other ex yamamura friends, incuding Jules friend Ana ;-)We also met Kaori and some others at Yamamura. Is was all pretty cool.It wasnt a impressive as my schoools one, but I think my schools one was unnessecarly impressive. Apparently, according to Ayumi my host sister, my school has a reputation as trying to be elite and being kinda up themselves. I dunno how true it is, but its quite different for me, coming from Onslow. At Yam, I met up with the NZ kids that came over this year and that was all cool. They seem to be enjoying themselves. They thought Id changed quite a bit ;-)Also met up with Maria (Rowans host sister last year) and Misato. Shes also doing well.

As you can see, neither of them have grown much... ;-) Jokes! (but not really) (^_^)

Yeah, I had a crack aat karaoke on the stage. I wanted to sing Rock'n'roll music, butthey didnt have the Chuck Berry version, so I tried the Bealtes version.Some ofthe lyrics were different! Got me mighty confused! And I lookedreal lame starting at ---roll music, any old way... becasue I didnt reaize that this version had a vocal intro, not a guitar intro! Anyways, maybe if I cared more it would have been embarrassing. I kinda use to making an ass of myself though.

Heres Kaori, Me and Meg. I dunno if its like this on your computer, but on this computer, my face is really munted. Like, the photos broken or something....
Anwyays.

Oh, and big news! I found out that NOFX ARE COMINGTO JAPAN FOR TWO SHOWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! Coming in November, playing 2 shows in Shibuya, Tokyo and thats all. Tokyo being not that far away! They are playing a Monday and a Tuesday night, which is a little inconveniant, but theres NO WAY that that will stop me.

Oh, and Rowan will be keen to know I saw Bon Jovi on a Japanese gameshow/ music show. They were interviewed and stuff, joked around, made fun of Mariah Caery and played HAVE A NICE DAY. And I did have a nice day.

Been working on some more songs lately. Leart Rave on by Buddy Holly and Yesterday by the Beatles. Also made two new songs, which are pretty cool. Both using capos to disguise the fact I just play the same chords as every other song. Theres one called 'The End of the Line' which on one level is about catching trains in the rain, and on one level its about making different descions being like catching trains. Every train takes you closer to the end of the last station, but some are faster, some are slower and bla bla, that sorta thing. The others a anti war type, with anti racism things in it too.

To end the music section of this post, Ill just tell you that I borrowed Blonde on Blonde (Bob Dylan) from the CD library, and thats been rad. have to say that I think the song Visions of Johanna was one of the inspirations for Lou Reeds WILD CHILD. Like, if you listen to Wild child, then listen to Visions of Johanna you'll hear that some of the it sounds quite similar. Just my opinion.

Today Ive just been GOROGORO (lazing around, doing nothing much.) I put the strap that I bought yesterday on my guitar, and thats working well. How? You may ask. Seeing as your guitar has no places to hold a guitar strap. And if you were to say that, I would reply, "Well, I went to the 100 yen shop, bought some small hooks for securing wires to the wall, glued them to my guitar, and it works awesome!" But seeing as you didnt ask how, I wont say that.
Also today I watch 1 and a half movies. Firstly I tried to watch a movie with Meg and my host brother, but seeing as it took 2 hours to watch the first hour of it, I got bored and went off to play guitar. How is this possible? Well, it was my host brother that borrowed the movie, and so it was like it was is rules for it. And so yeah, it was paused twice so that he could go to the toilet (impressive seeing as he hadnt really eaten anything. More impressive though is the time he spends in there!) We also had two breaks so that he could write texts, and one pause so that he could get some biscuits. Yeah, annoying. that one was a Japanese Haunted House movie, I could pretty much understand it, but its wasnt very interestng. The other was Big Daddy, which was good. :-)

Japanese lesson
anaba/穴場 good, cheap placethat not so many people know about. Its a good word.
Literally means HOLE PLACE
gorogoro (mentioned before) laxing out, mucking around, lying around, not doin anything in particular
momo Peach

Oh, and by the way. I had a mandarin the other day and it was GREEN AND YELLOW! I thought it as a weird lemon at first. Twas awesome!

Well, I guess thats about me. You kids enjoy your holidays, your various jobs, your exams, your study, Romania, Netherlands, Japan, America, England, Austalia and anything else your doing, or anywhee ese your reading this.
Ive got school tomorrow, and I think Megs gonna give me some left-over bread from her job at the bakery, which Ill take for lunch. After that its HOLIDAYS! Not many plans, as nobody else has holidays. Guess itll be guess, study, music and on Friday Im gonna hang out with Asami and Satomi. Meg cant come cause her school finishes late and it takes about 1 and a half - 2 hours to get back from there!

Oh yeah, and had a pretty good talk with Meg last night. About uni, school, life, the universe and everything. Twas good. Shes finding her group at school kinda boring. In Japan, a lot of the time people make a group when they first start school, and theyre with that group till the end when they graduate! They always eat lunch together etc. Megs group, after a series of people breaking up with boyfriends, was split, and so the boys and the girls got seperated. So yeah, that kinda sucks!
Its tough being a teenager ;-)

Okay, well Im all out. Thanks for popping in!
Your man in Japan
Jamerson Brown-Butt

How's it ravin?!

2005-09-22T20:04:00.000+12:00

Howsit Captains?
Things going well? Hope so!
Things are alight here. I have a National holiday tomorrow, which is pretty cool. Then school on Monday, then for some reason my school (but it doesnt seems lke any other schools) have an Autumn holiday! Its 1 week starting Tuesday and finishing Monday. Kinda weird that we go to school for from today we'll go to school one day (monday) then not go to school again till tuedays the next week. And so who said that the Japanese are hard working!!?! ;-) (jokes)
Well yesterday I had my first lesson with my new Japanese teacher.Twas pretty good. Shes a real Japanese teacher. All my other ones in Japan have been normal
teachers but as they can already speak Japanese pretty well, they teach me. SO yeah, I think the's taking over 3 of my old teachers. But we got on pretty well. I tend to get on with my Japanese teachers pretty well. I guess Im probably more mature than a lot of 17 year old Japanese guys. I dunno, maybe its just natural carisma (though I very much dought it!) But yeah, so Japanese lessons are prett funny. A barrel of laughs even.

Anyways, so yeah, today was pretty avenrage. We played volleyball in PE, and sung The Carpenters in music. So yeah, twas good.

Heres a weird thing. At least, I think its a weird thing. I came into the kitchen last night and found my host sister rubbing olive oil in here! Apparently its good for your hair.... Learn a new thing everyday. ;-)

Well, Im not feeling extremely creative right now, so instead of putting some Japanese photos up, Im gonna put two photos from my farewell party up. I would put more up, but Ive got 2 others Ill put up later in this post. Anyways, these at my farewell party. I tried to choose photos with a lot of people in them. SOrry if your not in there. :-( Next time, aye!

This next photo was taken at the airport. Its my family and a few well-wishers. Pretty cool that they came along. Thanks! :-) They were the Jap kids from school! ;-)

Modesty. This is an interesting thing. I guess Im quite a modest person. I mean, yeah sometimes I joke around, but you know the truth is, just becasue Im right handed doesnt neccesserilly mean Im better at guitar than Daniel. I mean, it means I probably am, but its doesnt mean definately. The point though is not another Edmonds diss, but that whenever I say something modest (like if someone says, You're good at Japanese' an I say that Im not) a lot of the Japanese students say "oh, your modest, just like Japanese people."
I dunno, it seemed to me like the opinion they have grown up with is that forigners arent reall modest peolple. And its like a trait that is uniqui to Japanese people.
Okay, maybe you dont find it interesting, but I do and it's my site! (^_^)v

Anime. Ive been asked about it, and my person stance is that some anime is pretty cool. I liked hotari no Haka or whatevers its called (Grave of the fireflys.) Um, Tonari no Totoro, Mononoke Hime, most of the films by the guys that makes Tonari no Totoro are pretty cool. That includes Sprited Away. (Sento to sento chihiro.)Oh, and of course the epic INTIAL D. (Which there is a movie coming out soon, which I will be seeing atthe theatures! hope you like that Tanuki Boy!)

I dont read manga apart from that one John Lennon one, and I dont really know anything abou Naruto and stuff. From the glimps of manga I see all the office workers reading on the train, I dont know if its realy my sorta thing. Maybe Ill grow to like them someday.

Oh, and by the way, the office workers arent shy AT ALL about what they read/ look at on the train! Some of it would make Britney Spears blush!

A little Japanese for you:
Yabai - Risky, bad. (Sorry Im puttin this up again. Its just Japanee teenagers say it A LOT)
People say it if a card games going badly, their late for school, all sorts of things. And MAJI YABAI (real bad) is a good phrase.
Senchou - Captain (of a boat) Okay, maybe you guys wont use it much, but I use it a far bit ;-)

This photo is of Meg in April at a small little outside table at a park we went to while sakura (cherry blossums) were in season.

Pretty small table/ seat aye!?!
Okay, Im lying, its not a talbe at all. I thought it was when I first saw it, and so I made Meg sit on the seat backwards, just for the purpose of a photo to lye about. Im sorry.
Its two park benches (which are pretty small anyways) back-to-back. ;-) Was anyone fooled? ;-)

Anyways, not so much to say, so I think Ill leave it at that. Everyone, good luck with everything that your doing. Hope things are all Jivin in your countries.
Cheers and thanks for poppin in.
Jamerson

Howdy kiddies

2005-09-20T20:19:00.000+12:00

Top of the Evening Troops!
Hows things?
Today was school, and not particually interesting. I did remember something I was meaning to mention. THeres this girl at school (who I havent talked to) her face look EXACTLY like Simon Rowes! (No offense to the girl!) Its pretty crazy, I always think 'Simon Rowe' when I see her.
Anyways, as I dont have anything to say, Im gonna put on the HOME SPECIAL.

Okay heres the front door. If you look carefully, you'll see 3 locks on the door, (one is a chain lock.) And you'll also see bars. The lower area is called the 'genkan.' At the 'genkan' we take off our shoes.

Heres our lounge from the kitchen. THe kitchen is pretty small and the lounge/ dining room is probably a little smaller than my lounge in NZ.

Moving upstairs, heres the upstairs toilet. The control panel on the side control the angle, temperature, strength of the cleaning spray firing up. I havent played around with it yet though. I dont want to injure myself....

Lastly, heres my host brother (Shigeki) and my room. The right side is mine and the left is his. If you can see the yellow curtain in the middle, thats the dividing wall when its pulled out. This photo is actually mainly of my side, but as you can see, its not terribly big.

Anyways, I havent included our peoples rooms, cause I dont wanna breach privacy and display it on the net and stuff. I also havent put the bathroom or the downstair toilet. But yeah,thats pretty much the house. Maybe Ill have an OUTSIDE THE HOUSE SPECIAL sometime. :-)

Oh and the weirdest thing happened yesterday. I have no idea why, and neither does Meg or Ayumi, but my host mum asked me to buy my own lunch instead of her making me lunchbox (bento) from now on! It was all so sudden. I dontthink Ive done anything to annoy her. I dont even see her very much. I know that as shes like a housewife and works 6 days of the week, making the lunchs is tough. So Im always appreciative. But yeah, so I dunno... I figured out roughly that if I do by my lunch everyday then thatll be around a third of the money I ave left. Not something I worked into the budget.... Im planning on just making my own sandwhiches though. I cant afford to buy my lunch everyday!

Anyways, thats my problem.

Okay, some Japanese.
eikyou = influence
kougi suru = to protest against

Another weird thing.
My cellphone, Megs cell phone and Shigekis cellphone have been getting heaps of junk mail lately. Theres no message, they usually have the tittle Hello, or something like that though. Weird thing is that they are coming from peole in some of them are coming from people in mine and Megs hotmail address books. Ive had two from Rebecca, one from Yessy, Megs had one from my family computer and Shigeki has had one from my Grandparents. So yeah, thats weird. Megs already changed her cellphone address. They also have a thing thing attached that I cant open. Its always 64kb. So yeah, thats weird.

Anyways, I think Sigeki wants to usethe coputer.
Thanis for coming!
Cheers
Jivin James

Ohayooooooooooou

2005-09-19T10:53:00.000+12:00

Morning all!
Today is a public holiay, just like Friday will be,so thats all cool :-) Megs at Mr Donuts, and I think Im gona catch up on some guitar and maybe some study ;-) THe weekend was pretty cool.
On Saturday I went to Tokyo with my host Dad. Mainly sight seeing and stuff, and then on Sunday I went to 3 hours of karaoke, and then pizza with Meg. Twas good. We also watched The Day After Tomorrow on DVD.
Okay, heres my TOKYO SPECIAL!

This first photo is of me at the Imperial Palace. Its where the empeoror lives, so your not allowed to go inside, apart from a few days at the start of the year. From what Ive heard, its pretty crowded then! There was also A LOT of security at the big metal gates a little furthur in.

In Japan, the emperor doesnt have any political power anymore, he's more like a figurehead. A living God if you will.

This one here, its a photo of a urinal commonly found in Tokyo. THey have ones like these at Disneyland to. The guy standing next to me while I was taking this photo was kinda taken aback ;-)
Nah, Im joking. I wish I had a story like that. THis is actually just fo drying your hands :-(

Heres a temple. We went to a little festival. THis was was quite small comparedto some Ive been to, but I think it was aimed at kids a little more. I had the same things that a lot of festivals have. A lot of stalls where people sell food and playstation games. THere were also games that you can do and then win prizes. SO yeah, that was all cool. Festivals also often have portable shrines at them. THis one was no different, but it had little kids walking around with tiny ones. It was pretty cute ;-)

We also went to a fish market. It was pretty rad. This photo here is the line outside a sushi bar. Yeah, there was a lot of people. All the food places had lines like this around 12. Pretty impressive. The fish market was pretty cool. There was a lot of tasty looking things, but we were just browsing. Or as they say in Japan, 'window shopping.'

Well, so yeah. Tokyo is probably the craziest place in Japan. We have the temples with old fashioned festivals and the imperial palace, right next to the swarming industrial mass that is the est of Tokyo. I mean, its the capital and its big business area. Thats like putting Wellington inside Auckland. The two extreme manage to fit together pretty well though. Sometimes its miss-match, and living there would be absolutely nuts, but I actually really like Tokyo. Its a pretty cool city.

Anyways, so theres my Tokyo Special!

I dont have a lot more to say.
Karaoke was rad. Sang so much! It was like compensation for not having my I pod working. There was no Buddy Holly, Jethro Tull, Nofx, System etc though. Made do with about 200 Beatles songs though!

Good stuff to Labour!! It was pretty close, but they came through in the end!

Umm, Japanese lesson.
sabetsu = discrimination
kyoku/ uta = song

SOrry, I cant think of anything else ;-)

Interesting Japanese fact: (at least I think so)
Before I came to Japan, I thought that all Japanese families would have a playstation 2, a whole lotta Nitendo things, and like a thousand TV games. We dont have any! Not even a game boy! And from y experience, there seems to be a lot of families like this in Japan! I mean, I think most NZ families have at least a playstation 1. Its pretty nuts!

Anyways, Im off now!
Hope you all enjoy your week.
Tune in next time for more adventures in the East!
Leading the pack:
Jivin James

Konbanwa all

2005-09-16T20:26:00.000+12:00

Howdy Chaps and Chapletes!
Hows things slingin'?
THings qare good here, I was SO TIRED at school though. Im alright now though, dont worry too much ;-) Had an interesting email from my brother actually. We've exchanged a few now about the current polictical situation in NZ. Oliver is veeeeeeeeery right wing. He's probably support Brash if tried to bring back slavery. And Im quite left. So as a starter, theres a big difference. Now Oliver also really likes the idea of capitalism, and I dont so much. Oliver thinks ther should be more help for the rich people (ie, brashs income tax cuts for rich people), and I think that there should be more help for the poor. Anyways, so thats been heated. Heated to the point that Oliver is comparing Labour to Nazis and claiming that Labours uni interest cut plan will cost $1,000,000,000,000. Yeah right.
But yeah, so Edmonds and any other people with the same siblings problem. Im sorry for you. I feel your pain.

Anyways, elections tomorrow. Should be interesting. I actually have a class once a week where I pretty much just talk to the teacher (cause its one-on-one) about anything. Today was elections. At first I didnt know what election was in Japanese so the teacher (who speaks reasonably good English) kept saying it in English. The whole Japanese L and R thing where they pronounce it the same made me laugh a little though. ;-)

So yeah, today was a pretty average day. I saw another 7I (heart)' T shirt
I LOVE GOTCHA
Twas cool.

Oh yeah, and so Ive been asked about what sorta world coverage of news events we get here. Well, we dont get anything about NZ, but we get the American floods EVERYDAY! Morning and evening news. There was the London bombings and stuff too. SO yeah, its not just Japan, as some may expect.

Some super bad news. My I pod forgot all its songs! Like, lately it had not been playing some songs, and it eventually got to the point when no songs would play. I tried resetting it, and ended up losing all my songs! In Japan, I havent been able to refresh the memory by connecting it to the computer, so I think thats why. I sent it to my family yesterday and hopefully theyll send it back ;-) So yeah, just a warning to peole with I pods ;-)

And yeah, I noticed today that almost everyone in the class is now tanned from the sports festival. No one is really sunburnt, its only tan! Its crazy!

Heres a photo, not of everyone tanned, but its just after the school festival. Thepink t shirts are our class ones that we wore while dancing.

Oh, and heres a mystery. Okay, the outside cat gets given water but never drink it. No ones seen her drink it, and its always full. The inside cat does. So, the mystery is WHY DOES THE OUTSIDE CAT PEE MORE THAN THE INSIDE ONE! Pretty crazy aye! If anyone knows why, please share!

Japanese lesson.
yotou　= current party (in parliment)
yatou = the opposition
seiji = politics
uha = right wing
saha = left wing

Well, I dont have an awful not more to say right now. YEs is was a pity about the NOFX t shirt, but it was getting tattered, and it seemed better to save it till I get back to NZ.

Oh, and for those interested in temples. Here is the big one that houses the biggest Buddha in the world. Its in Nara and its cool.

Well, Ill stop wasting your time. You kids have a good weekend, and do something cool! I dont think Ill be doing much. But hey, Im in Japan!
Catch ya later
Jivin James
P.S Edmonds, I believe it is infact YOUR TURN to email me. Just like Tanuki, Rolando, Kate, Yessy, Hannah, Vita, Paul and yes, Johanna, etc etc! So there!

Hey hey hey

2005-09-15T22:11:00.000+12:00

Ta Lofa kids!
Hows things going in your various countries? Things are good here, but Im pretty tried and really sunburnt. Yesterday and the day before was the Sports festival. Tuesday was like a warm up, and Wednesday was the real thing. The sports festival is like where a 1st year, a 2nd year and a 3rd year class get together and compete with other groups. All the groups have a colour and have to choose a mascot/ theme to do with their colour. Ours colour was pink so we did Piglet. So everyone does crazy games. Some were just tug-of-war and mass skipping ropes, but there were other ones too. The most violent was when there is 2 groups of 3 classes, (divided into ones and girls.) So yeah, the game is a little like battle tug-of-war. The two teams line up on opposite sides of the playing field. There are ropes outstretched, tires and wooden beams in the middle. Not many just a few. So yeah, the whistle blows and then everyone charges. You run to the middle and then tug a whole lot of people tug away at the objects. People shove and stuff as well. Its hard to explain, but most people ended up with slightly bleeding knees (including me.) It doesnt help that we dont play on grass, all the sports are played on a dirt field which is scattered with little stones. A little bigger than sand. Just the right size for busting you open!

So yeah, on Tuesday, we had the opening ceremony. We also marched out in our teams with the brass band playing. The front people of every team carried a platform and there was another member holding the teams flag on top of the platform. It took about 10 minutes to get us all marched out into the middle of the field. Then we listened to a speech about how the small towels they were carrying (everyone has them for wiping sweat) were visible, and that some people were talking. So we did it all again. The next time it was alright and we did stretches and listened to people telling us to do our best. Wednesday was the same, but we only did it once. So we did all that, then some sports then dance practice. School finished and then a few people in my class stood up and said, “the 3rd years are trying so hard, and I really think we should do some more practice. They’ve done so much work, blah blah blah.” So yeah, quite a few people stayed after school and practiced! This was at 4, and everybody was fully tired. I thought we had it pretty good already!

Meg came along to see the dance on Wednesday, so that was cool. The dance went well. Well at least I didn’t stuff up. Good to get it out if the way FINALLY!

On Wednesday we also had a closing ceremony. It was REAL boring! After that, all the teams got together, and the 3rd years who made the dance got up and gave speeches about how happy they are that we learnt and preformed the dance. They all cried. I was pretty surprised, some of the guys were acting real tough, and now they were up their not able to finish their speeches because they were crying too much. Pretty different cultures, aye!

Sunburn. Yeah, after spending almost of two days in the sun, I got pretty sun burnt. It really hurt getting into the bath. But actually, I usually associate sunburn with lots of pain and red skin. Japanese sun doesn’t do that as much. It just tans you! I turned real brown! Pretty nuts ;-)

The dance went well, but we didnt place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in anything!

Oh yeah, and lately because of all the long dance practices outside in the heat, my PE uniform gets kinda wet from the sweat. So the legend that I am, Im handwashing my uniform so that I can get it ready for tomorrow! What a legend!

Ohhh, just remembered. Okay, at school when you see a teacher your supposed to bow and say hello. I do this when I make eye contact them, but not if I don’t. And thats all fine. There are few EXTREME cases though. I was walking behind a girl at the sports festival and so there were quite a few teachers around. Every time she saw a teacher shed stop, bow and say Ohayo Gozaimasu. It wouldn’t matter if the teacher had their back to her and couldn’t see her, shed do it anyways. She wasn’t taking the piss either! This morning on the way to school, on the school driveway I even saw someone bowing to a teachers car. She could see him, but him not her! Its nuts! I guess some of them must have gone to a real strict school before Wakou Kokusai.

Sorry this is a bit all over the place. Ill put some photos and Japanese and other stuff up later. I haven’t re-read through this (not that I ever do) but I hopeit doesn’t sound stupid. Sorry, just real tried now.

Thanks for coming aye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good luck to Labour in the polls!
Cheers
Jivin James

Konbanwa all

2005-09-12T21:26:00.000+12:00

Hey mates!
Hows it all going? Things are sctrachin' here, but today was pretty boring.
School was pretty much dance practice all dy. THat might not sound that bad, but from 7:30 till 3, we were dancing then having breaks. I think tomorrow is the same. Wednesday is the actual sports festival where we'll perform the dances. Lets hope for nice weather (but not like it is now, IT'S STILL TOO HOT!)

Just thought Id mention that Koizumi (the Japanese prime Minister) was re elected today. I dont know much about him other than that he is a stubborn, right wing guy, and that he once said that he likes the 80's rick band X-Japan.

Like to give thanks for the generous comments made in the last comments box. I thought Id also mention that if weekday are too busy, then I can probably chat in the weekends too. Just throw me a time, and Ill see what I can do. Il try to fit it in between parties ;-)

Just to catch up, heres a photo of me dancing at the Wakou Festival. Every city has a festival once a year, and Wakou is where my scool is, so I went to that one too. The school made me dance a Japanese 'Bon Odori.' Twas good. As you can see, it was before I had my hair cut.

Oh, oh oh, and I rememebred the funniest thing. In the Sento on Saturday, we got there and there was a fight type thing. There werethese two old men, both completely naked trying to slap eac other on the arms, and yelling. THe staff came in and stood between them while they yelled, and kept trying to slap around the staff. It was just the oddest thing. These naked out Japanese guys, slapping each other and yelling. I didnt laugh very loud, and I did think about taking a photo for you all, but I didnt think the public baths was the best placee to bust out a camera. ;-) Very funny though.

This next photo is from my school day-trip to Yokohama. as you can see there is my Chinese friend on the left, me in the middle (before my haircut) and as a special treat for Julia and Sarah, Takuma on the left. ;-) Enjoy!

Oh, and a little bit of French-English-Japanese for you. Theres this snack that is pretty much a cream puff. The name for this cream puff (notthe brand name, the actual name) is made up of two words. Cream from English, and Shuu (I dont know the spelling) from French. Shuu cream. The pronounctiation for the word for cream puff is SHOE CREAM! It makes me laugh whenever someone asks if I want to eat shoe cream. Its great! ;-)

Yes, it is quite bad. Oliver (my brother the Brash supporter) reackons that it will be good to have someone who 'understands economics in power.' (^_^)
(For those of you who dont read online newspapers,) did you know that that Brash kid wants to get rid of the Maori welcomes for international visitors! Yeah, maybe we're not all Maori, but from my experience everybody from other countries really likes the Powhiri and stuff. Likes I think it is something that's unique to NZ and if we get rid of it, its another step towards becoming Australia, or Britain, or the USA. I reackon we need to build retain our unique qualities, not bypass them. Brash can take a long walk, off a short pier, hand-in-hand with Bush and Blair for all I care! (Impressive rhyming aye. Maybe Ill turn it into a song;-)) (probably not though.)

Oh, and my Nofx t-shirt. Well, as it was getting rather tattered, we decided as a familythat it would be best to leave it behind (to preserve it for more use when I get back to New Zealand!)

Heres a sign for a real town, which I love. Should show it to all your punk friends!

Anyways, I best be off before I say anything stupid....... ;-)
As for Japanese:
wazato = on purpose
Eg. Tokidoki ore ha nihongo wo WAZATO machigaemashita.
(Sometimes I make mistakes in Japanese on purpose)
betabeta = sticky

Cheers
Well, Ill love you and leave you.
Thanks for coming!
Your man in Japan
Jivin James

Kia Ora!

2005-09-11T20:16:00.000+12:00

Howdy all
Hows tricks?
Todays a bit on the rainy side, but its alright. On Saturday, as it was the Grandfathers 83rd birthday we went to the sento (public bath) with him after lunch. I dontthink anyone gave presents though. (I note that only because its different to my family in NZ.) Before and after that, Meg and I watched There's Sometin About Mary. That was pretty rad. The reasons for the large amounts of movies being watched is because there is a lot of classics (from my generation, not Dads) that she hasnt seen. Also, because the parents dont like us leaving the house too much unless its school related. (And also, Japan is an expensive palce!) I did talk to Jermy on the chat yesterda too, and that was good.

Today, being sunday, I recovered from a splitting head ache from the heavy
drinking of saturday(i wish!) Then read some more of the John Lennon book. I
got to page 50 but ended up taking it back to the library because it was due
back. I hadnt been able to read it much when i first borrowed it, so i ran out
of time. At the library, Meg and I watched HOME ALONE. I hadnt seen it for
ages. Twas good.
Ill explain. The library has 3 tvs, each with two sets of headphones. You can borrow movies for free for the 2 hours or so it takes to watch the movies in the library. Pretty cool. I do feel sorry for the people who have nothing better to do than to go there and watch a movie by themselves though. The selcetion isnt big, but its still cool. Oh, and so we ordered the movie and the lady gave us the headphones and a cardboard vinyl LP case! I though, WOAH, I got this wrong? Are we just listening to the soundtrack? no. Then I thought, well maybe this is the Japanese over dub, and we'll have to start the DVD and the LP at the exact same time as to getthem lined up. Wrong again. I took it out of the case, and it was a HUGE DVD! Its something called a LAZER DISK! I think it must have been the bridge from video to DVD, but maybe it didnt go down so well. The player alos worked like a GUHE DVD player. It was pretty rad. We even had to turn it over half way through, like an LP! It was crazy!

This is a little something for when you just cant be bothered walking. No stairs, just a moving platform ;-)

Oh, and Ive been asked about my school lunch. Well, he mum makes a 'bento' lunchbox. WHic husually includes lots of rice, and assorted other things including cooked meat, and fish and veggies and stuff. Pretty good. Latley though, there hasnt ben time becauseI haveto leave to early in the morning. So lately Ive ben buying cheap noodles or bread from the 7 11 (convience store.) Just as a note, Im not usually picky about my bread or my cheese, but just to note, NZ bread and cheese is really differentto Japans. In Japan people seem to either eat plain bread, or sweet bread. They dont eat tasty German bread, or French bread and stuff so much. I guessthis is because rice has always been their staple diet, not bread. Cheese though. Cheese is never in blocks or circles or anything else. It seems to always be in those indiviually wrapped plastics coverings. No feta or anything liek that. Im not sayingthat Im a cheese expert, nor am I anwahere close. Im just pointing out that in NZ there is a bigger range or cheese. In Japan there is a bigger range of natto, soy products, fish (yes,the fish is A LOT cheaper) sea food etc. Thats all Im saying ;-)

Here is one of the parts of our haunted hour. Usually its almost compleltely dark, but theres a torch shining. Its called a 'suidou' and is like a long sing. Some one actually made this one completely out of cardboard and paper, but I think all schools actually have the real ones. At my school, 4 out of the 5 floors have 2 of these sinks each. I dont know if theyre really THAT necessary, but people use them for washing their hands after PE, sometimes brushing their teeth, and also for rinsing out the plastic bottles (of coke and stuff) before taking off the labels and caps, and then recycling the bottles. The real sinks are a lot longer than this one, and obviously not made from cardboard.

Jandels! Everybody seems to in it really funny that I wear jandels to school. I think Im not actually allowed to, but no one teachers have said anything yet, so if its not broken, dont fix it ;-) It feel a lot better than wearing swetay socks, I can tell you that much!

Sweet as, well Im off to have a bath.
Japanese...... Um, urusai.In NZ we learnt that urusai means 'loud.' It actually is more like ANNOYING. Like if someone says something mean or stupid to you, you might say URUSAI! (Or the cooler way, which I prefer is URUSE! have to say it agressively though ;-) )

Anyways, Im off. You kids have fun at work and school tomorrow.
Lots of love
James (the Jivinator!)

P.S I found out my brother Oliver is a rabid Brash supporter............. ;-(

Kia Ora fellow adventures

2005-09-10T11:47:00.000+12:00

Hey guys!

This is me in Nara. I got good luck because I could fit through this hole, which is the size of the nostril of the statue of the buddha behind me, which is the biggest in the world.

And this one is Meg and I at the John lennon museum. Hope you like that Thomas! ;-)

I finqally got round to asking the Dad, and found out I could just do it exactly the same as at home. So yeah, silly me.

Nothing much has been up lately. Thanks to Edmonds and Lu-C for coming on the chat the other night. Was good to talk to you! Umm, school hasnt been so interesting. Its all just practice for the Sports festival. I did have a talk in one Japanese class with my teacher in Japanese about politics, the Iraq war, Capitalism, and that sorta stuff. Shes saha (left wing) too, so yeah, that was good. I read some news news last night which was interesting. I really hope Don Brash doesnt win.

The mysterious school fluff and my host brothers mysterious shaving scases are still open, but a lack of evidence against the accused is making things hard. Almost as if someone is trying to cover their track.......

Theres been a bit of a lack of crazy stuff happening because of school. School is becoming rather boring. I played baseball for the first time, and yeah, I wasnt the best (wasnt the worst though!) ;-) For those who didnt know, baseball is one of Japans national sports. Oh, and nobody but old people even like sumo! I couldnt believe it! Most people have never even been to go and see sumo. Jeremy, Jucy and I have been!

So Friday night wasnt exactly arty night, and Saturday doesnt seem like itll be much different. If Im lucky, we might get out a DVD, but who knows. Ive been meaning to show Meg the Jackarse Movie, when their in Japan, but someones always renting it! If we dont do that, Ill probably just play guitar and muck round. ight go for a bike ride. Oh,and I learnt a Buddy Holly BY EAR the other day. My first time really trying. ;-) So what if it consists of the 3 easiest open chords (A, D, E!) I figured it out by ear! Oh, and even the solo is coming along (also consisting of the notes A, D, E.) Im allowed to be proud!

Sorry aboutthe lack ofinteresting stuff on the blog lately. All this dancing is tiring and there actually isnt anything realy to talk about. I do miss NZ a bit. Mainly friedns and family, but in NZ there was always something to do. Weather it was get my junk mail run finished, band practice, recording by myself (or with others) jobs, school or just hanging out. I mean, if you guys think of NZ and Japan, you would probably say that in Japan there is a lot more to do, more people to meet and everything. Thats true, but theres also so much more restrictions.

Also, I am kinda finding the bossines of some Japanese annoying. In NZ, my parents have gotten used to the fact that if I ask to do something and they say no, they have to back it up with a 'why' because otherwise its nagging time. In Japan its not like that. To me it seems like a lot (not all) Japanese parents are rule makers. They make the rules, and theres ot so much questioning of them. In my familuy in NZ, its like that a bit, but my parents seem to me more like advisors than rule makers. Like, say if i wanted to get another job and they thought I shouldnt. They would say what they thought, and why its a bad idea, and but it might not stop me. (In this sorta of case they'd probably be right, but thats not the point.) And like, there's no 'set' curfew. Depending on the situation its different times. I dunno, its just different and its weird coming to a place where there are SO MANY RULES, but also with SO MANY PEOPLE to tell you that your breaking the rules. Everyone already knows the rules and follows them unquestioningly, and as they're not written out on a piece of paper, Im just sorta picking them up. So yeah, Japanese school is hard, but Im not regretting it at all. It seems liekthe est tme to come is when your old enough to go to uni. For most people at highschool and primary school, their main focus in life is to enter uni. For uni students, now that the gruelling entrance exams are over, it sems a lot more relaxed. So anyone thinking about it,uni is the way to go.

Anyways, Im off.
seito = student/ political party
kikai = machine/ chance
(Although people say words like chance, get, check, etc in everyday Japanese.)
I found out Me doesnt even know what frying pan and stuf are in Japanese. Everyone just says th English words (or the abbreviated English.)
Eg,
ekon is air conditioner
pasukon is computer (personal compter, PC)
I thin kthe spelling for the Japanese words might be a little wrong, but you get the idea.
Cheers
Tell you friends!
Jamerson

But nothing happens.......

2005-09-08T20:10:00.000+12:00

Howdy kids
Argh, had morning dance practice, P.E and singing class today. Twas tiring. How are you all? This morning I talked to a guy on the train from America. He was pretty cool. He was the second forigner Id talked to in Japan who was here to do engineering, (the other guy was from Sweden.) he was a big Beatles and Stones fan, so that was cool. He was also alive when their best stuff came out so thats cool. If you hadnt heard, the Stones have a new album out called 'The Bigger Bang.' Ive read mixed opinions, but it sounds like its not so good. They have one song, (which I read the lyrics to) which is about George Bush. Its got some stupid lyrics like 'You say your a Christian, I say your a hyprocrite, you say your ?????, I say your full of sh*t' I cant remember what it all was, but it wasnt particually stimulating. Anyways, what I was gonna say is that in places like Saitama (my prefecture) where there are so many foriengers,) all the forigeners seem to talk to each other. Even if we dont talk, we at least acknowege complete strangers. Its pretty cool actually. Like, Ive talked to people from Peru, Papa nugini, Ameica and even an Aussie illistrator for childrens books. Quite rad. Their all older though.

Anyways, I really dont have much to say. My Grandma (in NZ) hurt her back helping my Grandad with some heavy lifting. To help a friend, they were carrying a lawnmower down 89 steps! Not the sorta thing most 80 year olds do! Crazy kids!

Oh, and Yon Sama (Sama being the honorific equvilent of Mr/ Mrs.) Yon Sama is a Korean guy and he SOOOOOOO popular in Japan. Apparently he's helped improve reations between Korea and Japan, just because he has a nice smile. He's an actor, and he doenst speak Japanese. He seems liek one of the sorta guy wo cries a lot, and asks in slushy romance movies. Maybe the equivilent of a wimpier Leonardo DiCpario (if you can imagine such a creature.) ;-) Anyways, he has a really normal face, (I reackon but he just has the smile. Pretty nuts.

Anyways, I gotta go. Ill post a better one next time.

Thanks for coming
Jivin James

And so the road gradually curves....

2005-09-07T19:58:00.000+12:00

Howdy Captains
Hows it ravin'? Hope its all fantastic at your corners of the globe!
School today was quite boring. During English class the teacher wrote the words 'light ball' a few times on the board. Curious as to what a light ball is, I asked a fellow classmate what a light ball is in Japanese. What it seems she meant was 'light bulb.' After class (and after everyone had copied 'light ball' down, I told the teacher. I dont really like pointing out to teachers their mistakes though. Its like, if I was them, I wouldnt want some punk-ass, 17 year old kid telling me how to do my job. But I guess its better to tell them. I also have a new Japanese teacher, and shes pretty cool. (I say that though I dont know anything about her yet.) Still have to say, out of all the Japaese teachers Ive had in New Zealand and Japan, Hasegawa Sensei is by far the best. I guess its because she knows what Japanese Ive been taught, and she started from the begineening, and shes knows how to teach NZers, butyeah, her teaching style is by far the best.

Okay, I dont have any 'I HEART...' T shirts to report, but I have an awesome line from a song. ITs by a sining pop group called V6, and its so great, I might even se it in a song. Ready?

1 2 3 4 Beat your heart!

Awesome? Its just conjures up so many different images. He could be telling everyone:

* not to clap their hands to the music, but beat their hearts to the music. Like, ever one sechronizes their heart beats to the tempo. ;-)
* beat UP their hearts (kinda violent)
* thump their chests liek a gorrila. That would constitue beating your heart
* Etc etc

Oh, and this isnt going to be a regular update, but for the peopel aware of the band Coming Soon, I just checked the downloads page, and we're on 349 downloads! Thats pretty impressive ;-) Its not going to be a regular one, because I dont think itsd going to change much from where it is ;-)

Oh, and we did have some birhday cake. Everyone had it at different times, and o one sang happy birthday. I guess its just a different culture and stuff. But 17! 17 is the magic age! I mean, in NZ you cant do anything new apart from being tried as an adult in court, (I mean, you could be tried as an adult for underage drinking! How does that work!?) But yeah, I dont actually know if theres anything new in Japan. Most things are from 20 (apart from driving and gambling which are from 18.)

Oh, and Japanese lesson.
kankei = relationship/ connection
eg. sore wa kankei nai! - thats not relevent/ related

Ummm, this looks like itll be a sort one, as I have nothing to say. But everyone, dont forget about our chat tomorrow ;-)

Everyone be happy and keep jivin!
From your friend in Asia
James 'The Jivinator' Butt

And so the adventure continues....

2005-09-06T19:45:00.000+12:00

Howdy all!
Hows it ravin? Things are good and hot over here. And my cheese on toast is grilling itself nicely. I started th grilling earlier but then I relized it hadnt turned on. Why? Because in an effort to save power, we unplug most things when we're not using them. Kinda weird, I didnt know that before I came to Japan.... Heres a test. Turn off your computer, so that theres is no flashy lights on or anything, but keep it plugged in. Everyone done that? Now, do you think the computer is using power? Well, apparentl it is.

Okay, you can turn your computers back on now. My toast is finished.

Today was school, which was pretty boring. LOTS of cleaning. (Although this was cardboard haunted house cleaning, not mysterious blueish grey fluff cleaning.) Lots of people congratulated me on my guitaring. One guys even said that he wished he could play guitar like me, but that he was left handed. So he's doomed to a life where trying to play is just not worth it. Tough for some. ;-)

Today was also my host sisters birthday. And if Meg and I hadnt bought her a present, I wouldnt have known! I dont know if her parents gave her anything, but no one really said anything. Maybe there'll be something tonight.... I dunno. In NZ, my family have presents in the morning, and then frozen cresonts* (although obviously we heat them up before eating them) but here it was just a normal day. Its interesting.
* I sometimes spell words the way they sound to make it easier for readers. It doesnt in any way reflect my own spelling ability.

Yesterday, Monday. Monday was a holiday because I had to go to school on Saturday. Meg still has summer holidays, so we took the oppertunity to go to Disneyland. It was pretty cool. THe rides were better than I rememebered., and it was all pretty cool. Maybe a little childish at times, but the music in the Western area was pretty cool. Some pretty good harmonica playin'. :-) (Im not being sarcastic by the way!)
Nothing particularlly happended. I foudn out that they set off fireworks everynight (which is pretty cool, and EXPENSIVE I reackon.) Oh, and I also found oputthat they dont really change it, AT ALL. Like, there are some dear that have been moving their ears and wagging their tails in the same way for 20 years. Pretty impressive. My Japanese teacher (Im her only student) reackons that Disney Sea is better, but tis a controversial subject in Japan. (In the same way that there was the Beatles vs the Stones 30 or so years before I way born.) (^_^)
I saw too 'I heart...' T shirts, but only wrote down one. It was:
I love JUICY
Twas good.
Oh and also, I hadnt noticed how much advertising there is at Disneyland last time. Like, Space mountain is PLASTERED in coke advertising. WHile your waiting you see stars with bottles of coke flying past and everything. I think it was Splash Mountain was plaster in Nissan. Its pretty crazy. A LOT of moeny must go in to that place. Consider this, I dont know how many people were there today, but there are times when people wait TWO HOURS for ONE RIDE, becasue the queues are so big. Now that many people going in, EVERYDAY. Everyone paying almost or over 5000 a ticket, PLUS food, souvineers etc. Bloody Hell. Its pretty crazy.
There wa this guy there though, he was working and he told me in Japanese that I was handsome and cool. I thanked him and told him that he was too. An thn he said I was good at Japanese, we talked a bit. He was cool. now, to answer the questions I know are coming:
No, it didnt go an furthur
No, I didnt notice or ask weather he was left handed or not
No, he didnt mention Bon Jovi, (but he looked like a fan)
No, he wasnt a Simple Plan fan kinda man, (and neither was his raccoon)
No, he didnt look like Takuma (but he was Japanese)
No, he didnt say anything about a deep interest in womans rights
And no, I didnt ask him if was single.
He was cool though. :-)

Ohhh oh, and I noticed that Shigeki, (my host brother) the one who shaves ???? everyday. Well, I noticed he didnt have any armpt hair. Is that normal for 15, going on 16 year old? I dont know. I didnt get a good enough look for stubble, but there definately isnt any hair there. So maybe... Maybe Ive solved the mystery, and we'll all sleep better. .. Or maybe theres something deeper, something that in my current form, I can understand... Or maybe, I should get soemthing else to occupy my time;-)

Sunday saw the final installment of Back to the Future. Its such a good set of movies. Great! Host sister chose to study downstairs so we had to watch it on the coputer with headphones. Still dont understand why the two youngin's like to study downstairs so much. DOwnstairs has a toilet, a bathroom/ laundry, the parents rooms and the kitchen/ dining room/ living room. I I guess, in a way its kinda like a smalled version of my kitchen/dining room/ room-area thing. But yeah, so if one persons studying downstairs, they pretty much take up the whole living area.

Japanese Lesson
yabai = bad
yabai doesnt really have an English equivilent, but if your running late to school with your friend, you might say YABAI or MAJI YABAI or something like that. Also, kinda if soemthinsg too fun, or kida naughty, you can use it. Its quite useful if your going to Japanese school. Hard to explain though. Ill try again another time.

Oh, and good on NZ rowing. I heard from my Dad that we won 5 gold medals, or something like that. Havent heard thing about it in Japan, but I guess its not the sort of thing people in Japan really wanna hear about. I also dont have the some gasp on the news that I did in NZ. I did see on the intenet that Don Brash wants to chuck away the Powhiti, bring back knicghting people, and he also wants to bring back black slavery. So yeah, could be some changes in NZ. Helen on he other hand wants to get rid of interest on student loans! Woop woop!

Alrights, well Ill see you all later!
Rave on!
Jivin James

Chat!

2005-09-05T10:06:00.000+12:00

Howdy all
THis is just a quick one. I just Just to tell you that at 8:30 on NZ Evening. 5:30 Japan, theres gonna be a chat in the chat room. Can find it at the bottom of the main page. All people who I would consider cool (which is everybody here) is invited.
Cheers
James
(From Japan 05

Ohayo

2005-09-04T10:38:00.000+12:00

Morning all!
Hows things going? Things are all good here. Bit tired though. Been pretty busy lately.
Yesterday goes down like this:
Firstly, I wake up at 6, get ready for school. Then go.
Get to school and wait around, because no one told me that today we had to be there by 800, not 7:30 like the day before.
THe Haunted House (Obakeyashiki) starts. I spend 3 and a half hours shouting BOO! , or FOO! or any number of strange noises in an effort to scare people. For most people it worked. Some people screams throughoput the whole thing, others didnt at all. So I finished that, had some Okonomiyaki with Meg, (who came to visit) and then we looked at the brass band, dances, bands etc. Twas pretty cool. Then 3:00 rolled round, and infront of all those students+teachers+vistors I played my songs. The first song (my original) went down real well. They cheerd during the picking intro, cheered when the harmonica came in, and then clapped the beat for the rest of the song. Twas pretty fun. Then I played Linda Linda by The Blue Hearts. The cool thing about this song, is that everyone knows it, and the chorus is really easy. (Linda linda, linda linda, lindaaaaaaa etc) During this one there was a slow beat clap for the intro, then when the chorus came in everyone went nuts. They were all clapping the beat, and singing and all. Halfway through they started to speed the tempo up with their clapping. Not wanting to be out of time with them, I speed up too. If it was a recording, it was have sucked, but as it was a live performance, it went really well. Real fun. Not like at Onslow, when no one can even be bothered to raise their hands. ;-)Anyways, so that was good. We then went home, put on some Japanese style clothes then went to the Miyoushi Matsuri (Miyoushi Festival.) That was good too. There was SOOOOOOOO many people though. You had to fight you way through. And the bike park lot was HUUUUUUGE! There were so many bikes there. It as crazy. Like a big bike shop ;-) But yeah, there wa lots of food, and traditional music etc. Like Taiko(Japanese drum) and flutes and all. Twas pretty cool. Then there were fireworks. I liked to say that tey were so beautiful that I was moved to tears, but they were just the same as Wellington ones. I didnt say anything because I know that Japanese people tend to take a bit of pride in their fireworks, but yeah. Was cool anyways. Then we came home (very slowly) in the heavy bike traffic. Iwent to bed immediately. Since Ive been waking up early lately though, I ended up waking up early today again. So yeah, Im still tired. Maybe its time for another coffee. :-) Had my trademark cheese on toast + coffee combination this morning, if you were interested ;)

Today it was doesnt look like Ive got much on today. Might try and catch up on some emails (if your lucky) ;-)

But yeah, the whole bunkasai (school festival) was real crazy awesome. SOOOOOOOO much work had been put into everything. Every class as well most of the clubs made different thing. There was a lot of food (and I know that all the people doing food had to have a poo check!) haha. Some people drew huge pictures. Which were fantastic! Oh, I just couldnt believe how much work people had put into it all. It was nuts.

Oh yeah, and last night, Ayumis (my host sisters) friends stayed over. This is the first time this has happened. Meg had to sleep downstairs in the lounge so that they could have the bedroom. Bu yeah, it means that there were 9 people here last night! Thats quite a lot for such a small house.

Oh, and the convience stores heres. THey all have these machines. Their crazy machines. From them you can photo copy, print photos, order Disneyland and bus tickets, I think you can fax, and probably other things Its pritty kool! :-) On Monday, I have a holiday because I went to school yesterday (Sunday.) So yah, Im going to Disneyland ;-) (not by myself, Meg still has summer holidays.)That should be rad.

Yesterdays I (heart) T-shirts were:
I love peachy
I love T and H
So awesome! :-)

Japanese lesson ;-)
Watashi - I (everyone, mainly girls)
Atashi - I (girls)
Boku - I (boys)
Ore - I (boys, the cool way)

Actually, that reminds me. All the guys say 'ore' because its like the cool way to say I, and yeah, I say it too, but sometimes Im kinda hesitant because I still ave this NZ way of thinking. Tell me if Im wrong, but us NZers generally think that if someones diliberatly do something to be cool, thats uncool. I dunno, I know its stupid. :-) Ive been saying Ore a lot more lately.

Japanese lesson 2
(Bonus lesson)
hontou (ni) - Really (normal)
honma (ni) - Really (causual, its actually fro Kansai. Osaka etc)
maji (de) - Really (Coolest of cool)

Totemo - Very (polite)
Chou - Very very (casual)
Meccha - Very (casual)
Mecchakucha - Very (casual)
Sugoku - Very (kinda causal)

You can use all the 'reallys' as 'verys) too ;-)

So a cool thing to say would be at a concert, maybe:
'guitar ga maji umai ne'
'(he/she is) really good at guitar'
Anyways, as always, thanks for coming. Hope you all I having good weekends.
Catch you on the waxtrain
Jivin James

Helllllllo ;-)

2005-09-02T23:39:00.000+12:00

Hi hi
THings are good. This is just a short one, cause again Im tired. I do have lots of things to say about the school festival. But I dont know if Ill say it all now. Today was the Opening ceremomey with only my school students and teachers. There was some awesome dacing and a guy juggling a soccer ball. He was amazing! The Opening ceremony filled up all the seats (600-800 at a guess. Maybe 700.) Thats a lot of people. Thing is tomorrow, its the same idea for the ending BUT therell be people from other schools there too. This will be the biggest crowd Ive ever played to AND Ill be doing it by myself. Kinda scary! At the rehersals though, people sang along, and some people danced a bit. Pretty fun. Anyways, today I saw to band aswell as the brass band. I also spend ages in locked rattling it whenever someone came past. I couldnt believe how much everyone screamed. Its like, what do they expect when they go into 'Haunted House' classroom/ ;-) Twas good though. There was one guy that just went round saying, 'thats enough' and that sorta thing when ever someone did someting 'scary.' Anyways, the bands were good. One of them was a punk band, and almost the whole time people were shouting 'oi oi oi oi oi.' It was pretty cool. (Just to note, theres is also actually an area by my house, with a big sign saying OI TOWN in English)
And the brass band was AWESOME! Of course they played Disney music first (Aladdin music.)The 3 rd song though, as a combination of HIGHWAY STAR and ten SMOKE ON THE WATER by DEEP PURPLE. Oh, I coldnt believe it! I almost had a heart attack. Twas awesome. Gotthe movie of it on my camera too ;-)

Anyways, wish me luck for tomorrow. It could be the most embarrassing thing of my life, if it goes wrong. (Even more so than the time Rowan and I performed the Dancing Song for the Yamamura students and the 3rd formers. Rowan got he cool job, guitar. I got the dancing in a skirt job, flinging my eggshakers and train whistle around. But thats a different story. (One that I just finished))

Anyways, it was a 7:30 start today, and will be the same tomorrow. Tomorrow Im not in the closet, Im in another area, scaring people by shouting. Yay.

Today, Meg and I watched Back to the Future 2, which (of course) was awesome. Megs also still addicted to The Bealtes. One more thing. Today at Mr Donuts, there was a situation. One of the employees (whos Chinese) didnt hear the customoer and made the wrong drink. She then went nuts and was all 'Are you even allowed to work here. If you cant speak Japanese, then maybe you should go.' So, as you can imagine,someone who is a 2nd year uni student, and who can speak real good Japanese, doesnt like being told something like that. He kinda slammed his hand on the table, and said that he could speak Japanese.Then she called the police.

I only know this cause Meg told me, but apparently shes a regular caller.

Heres a little something I stole for you.

Watch your head, 2.2 meters! ;-)
Catch you all later

Jya ne
Jivin James

Howdy guys and gals!

2005-09-02T00:22:00.000+12:00

Konbanwa all
Things are all good here. Im pretty tired though. Today i had school, but it was all just preparation for the school festival. I was there till 6:30, which is pretty impressive. ;-) actually, the haunted house is pretty impressive though. Its like a maze made from cardboard painted black, with different scary things. But its X-STREAM how much works been put into it. The desks that make up the maze are stacked 3 desks high, and as this is obviously dangerous, a lot of work went into preparing them. The windows are completly blacked out and even the wall outside was decorated with big cardboard pictures. Its blacked out so well, that in the middle of the day you need a torch to see anything. The scary things are mainly severed manakins, and people jumping out to suprise you. I get to send 3 and a half hours in a locker, rattling around and scary people. They had to choose the tallest guy in the class to go in a cupboard that Im at least a head to tall for. I stick my head out though, and its scary. (Forign face you see ;-))

Today I also did 3 practices for the guitar, harmonica, preforming thing. THeyve got all the chairs out now, and I find out the WHOLE SCHOOL is going, aswell as vistors. So yeah, a little nervous, but as Ive already done it so many times in the gym, Im not that nervous.
Bst thing today though, was that I saw of the I (heart) T shirts, proclaiming I LOVE DEAR PRINCESS. I had to laugh. (But not too loud)

Also on the wayto school, I walked past the packino(gambling game, kinda line pinball, but completely different) shop. As always, at 7:30 (I woke up late today) there was already people waiting outside. Its like their so addicted to it that they have to resort to sitting outside drinking coffee andreading porn, (Japanese guys ares so discrete about what they read, essepically on the train!) But yeah, Ive been into pachinko places before, cause its real big in Japan, and its SOOOOOOO noisy. Orgh, I couldnt stay in there 5 minutes. So many balls being dropped, so much loud, (bad) music. So Id HATE to work there! Found out yesterday, that my friends boyfriend actually does work there! Its pretty nuts! My friends Mums not so happy about a boyfriend with that sorta job actually... But thats not for me to discuss here. :-)

I watched a gameshow the other day. It was a 'V6 summer holiday special.' By V6, I mean the singing popgroup. It was just them going places, and doing not much. They went berry bpicking, found a beetle, realized that one of the members hates bealtes, then spent half an hour chasing him with it. Yeah, Im not such a fan of Japanese T.V. Though there is the occasional good one :-)

Just thought Id take this oppertunity to thank Rowan for giving me the idea for this blog. He gave me the website address and everything. If not for him, I would have ended up writing in a private diary, or not at all, and end up keeping all my wacky adventures to myself, (or forgeting them.) So thanks Rowan. You real arethe Captain of the ship!

Oh, and as the holidays have finished Ive stopped learning 5 kanji a day, and am down to one. It was just too much, and I couldnt rememebr them all. THis ways easie and it means Ill know another 100 more or so before I leave. :-)
Japanese lesson of the day....
Let me see...
Anata - You (Normal)
Kimi - You (Normal)
Anta - You (Slightly rude, but alright for friends etc. Used in the Osaka area a bit, I believe)
Omae - You (Rude. A husband and wife might say it to each other, but not usually. Usually used when insulting someone. But you might hear it when someones talking to a cat or something.)

Sorry, Im really tired. Theres more I was goin to write, but I might just save it till another day. Ive been hearing that everyone seems to be going to Vic next year, so thats mighty cool!

Oh, and the big news. Meg, 19 in October, went against her father will, and got her ear pierced! Ohhhh!! Naughty! He doesnt know though. She always wearing clip-on ones, so he wont know the difference. Dont tell him though!

Oh, sory and the ACTUAL big news, is my real family got a new car!! A ford Mondeo and its an automatic! Gutted! Its replacing the 'Red Ligthening' Totyoto Chariot.
Anyways, Im off. Ive got the school festival tomorrow, and have to be there by 7:30.
Ill be back later! Maybe not tomorrow though. I dunno. Anyways, thanks for coming (as always). Oh, and yeah if anyone wants to set p a time to talk in the chatroom as I dont have MSN, thats cool.
Sweet bix, well Ill swing ya later
The Jivin James, from Jamerland

James' Japan-Jive

Long time no see

Yes! Fish n Chip Friday!!! Woo!

Kia Ora!

Back in Aotearoa

*Final Japan Post*

Hi

New email addy

Just a short one for the road... :-)

Monring Everyone!

Greetings to everyone

Morning Everyone!

mErRy ChRiStMaS (for 3 days ago) (;_;)

Happy Christmas Eve, Everyone :-D

Konnichiwassu!

Evening to al!

'chiwassu!

Howdy Fuzz Chiefs!

Ohayooooo 2000 visitors since August :-)

Yus! Finished my exams!

Ohayou!

Happy Aids Day!

Kia Ora Kido's

Back at the Babas

Hi all

Haisai guys (^_^)v

Kia Ora all!

(*)Howdy all(*)

So, yeah, I just saw nofx.... :-D

Sank yu beri beri machi (thank you very very much) - In spoken Japanese-English

Haisai all!!

Konnichiwaaaaaaaaa

HOwdy Chaps and Chaplettes!

Kia Ora from the House of the Rising Sun!

Konbanwa all

Tops to the morning, all

Hows it spillin, kids?!

'chiwassu!

New Hostees Rule!

Kia Ora from the East!

Happy 100th post (^_^)v

Hi ho

Happy Labour Weekend!

Said "Hey babe, take a walk on the wildside" (I wish)

I wana play football for the coach....

Hey Hey Hey Music Champ!

Hope you kids are Rellin and an a Rockin!

Moshi moshi

Konnchiwa from the East

Haisai Captains ;-)

Kuwachi Sabira (Okinawan for good morning)

Haisai Ladies and Gents!

Hows it chuggin guys?

Kia Ora kids

Kia Ora guys! Sorry no post yesterday (;_;)

Howdy Dudes and Dudettes!

Ohayo Fellow Cheiftans

Kia Ora Kiddlies!

A dead end......

Renshi ni, wo hen gaoshin

How's it ravin?!

Howdy kiddies

Ohayooooooooooou

Konbanwa all

Hey hey hey

Konbanwa all

Kia Ora!

Kia Ora fellow adventures

But nothing happens.......

And so the road gradually curves....

And so the adventure continues....

Chat!

Ohayo

Helllllllo ;-)

Howdy guys and gals!

Final Japan Post

()Howdy all()