taiwan report three "taipei 101"

taipei 101 is the tallest building in the world. this building also has the fastest elevators in the world. these beasts will take you to the 89th floor observation floor at a world record 37.5 mph or 63 km/h. once i reached the 89th floor in under 40 seconds, i paid the extra fee to go outside on the 91st floor, as well. taipei 101 is at the center of the world trade center in taipei. the first floors consist of a large shopping mall, and who knows what occupies the rest of the tower. i was hoping for a less cloudy and smoggy day for some good viewing, but no such luck. taipei 101 does look a bit strange standing there all by itself. there is no building around anywhere near it's height. i am assuming that will change in several years.

taiwan report two "night markets"

night markets are unique in the fact that you can buy different types of food, from snakes to octopus balls, some of this food smells like an old dead dog with a dirty depends diaper laying on top of its head. but then, some of the food is some the best i have ever tasted. besides food at night markets, you can also buy some of your favorite brands like blueberry and louis witton. the night markets in taipei are like a sunday in harajuku on steroids. there are masses of people, which make it impossible to move. there are also lookout guys on ladders. who, once they see somebody suspicious, make the signal and all the bootleggers pick up there stuff and are gone in 5 seconds. absolutely amazing. i picked up a new pair of air force ones at a taipei night market. the store looked legit. the shoes feel legit. the price was legit. so i just hope they are legit and that they dont fall apart in a week.

taiwan report one "the foot massage"

i was told that by a number of people that i should get a foot massage. i am not a big massage kind of guy. in fact, i really dont like to be touched. i especially dont like creepy massage guys at work back in the states. you know the type of guy with a pony tail at your work who creeps everybody out by offering to give out massages to every girl in the office.

by the way, this foot massage costs about 15 USD. the same massage will run you about 55 USD in japan.

first, they put your feet into some scalding soapy, hot water. then, they give you a neck and back massage. during this time, they get you coffee, tea, anything you want to drink. they also put on the satellite tv and hand you the remote. after that, you sit back and they start the massage. it feels so painful and good at the same time. it was wild. it felt so good. they end your massage with a good punching and slapping of the legs and feet. that was ridiculous. i could not stop laughing when this guy starting slapping my feet. awesome. all around. if i lived in taiwan, i would get one of these every day.

back into japan

i spent the last 4 days down in taiwan. i will post some pictures later. i went to taiwan sick with a cold. i came back to japan with diarrhea.

graduation

this was my first graduation ceremony in japan. like most big events or school trips with schools here and in nebraska, i cant fully enjoy them. the reason being, i have to try to keep rowdy 13 year old boys, to stay quiet and sit still for 2 and half hours.

after the ceremony, i was able to talk with parents, students and sign yearbooks. i also had my picture taken with many of the students as they were leaving. strange thing was, after having my picture taken with some of the students, the parents would hand their camera to their son or daughter and ask to have their picture taken with me.

cleaning out my locker

i just finished a stint at a local junior high school. in april, i will start working at another junior high school. it is pretty common for teachers to switch schools in april. march marks the end of the school year. so april brings the start of the new school year. usually, teachers will spend 5 years at a public school then transfer to another school in the city. however, i transfer schools just a little bit more often than the other teachers do, for different reasons.

murder

last week, there was a murder that occured about a 30 minute bike ride from the school. all students had to leave early from school. students had to walk home in groups. no one was allowed to go home by themselves. teachers were spread out in the neighborhood, positioned on street corners and patrolling the area in their cars.
man, this place is safe.

bike or bus?

if i dont post on this blog for a while. just assume i died. riding my bike to work is absolutely horrible. i have to pass the tomei expressway interchange everyday. so i have a had a good amount of near misses with people either rushing to muscle their way in to get to the toll booths first, or when they are making a mass exit from the toll booths. but riding my bike is good exercise. i could take the bus and my work would pay for it. it is safer, and i can read, sleep, or listen to music on the way to work. so on one hand riding my bike is good exercise, good for my health, but on the other hand, getting nailed by milk truck would not be beneficial to my health. i think the biggest factor is the following; i like taking pictures on my bike, i like stopping by family mart and picking up 2 diet cokes and a pizzaman. i can't stop by family mart on the bus. i would have to get off and then onto another bus. bike wins.

new train

i love coming home on a new JR train.

the pec

after being sick and getting fat for last two weeks, i was pretty eager to get into gym. i started working out at this gym. i have no idea what rapeku, means. but i like to imagine that it is la pec. which means, the pec. pretty ironic, that there is no bench press at this gym for me to work on my pecs. no member fees here. i just pay 350 yen each time i go.

the man who hurt me

friday night i went to a small izakaya (bar/grill) before going to the speech defect concert. i was told that someone i knew might be stopping by. so at the time, i took the only open spot at the bar. i heard the door open behind me, so i figured i should get up and move. this guy would probably want to sit with his buddies, or so i thought.
as i got up, i felt a hand on my side, grab me and tell me to sit down. i thought, who is this guy? he grabbed a chair and sat next to me at the bar, finally, i got a good look at him, and realized it was the doctor who jammed a camera down my nose on sunday! it seemed like everybody in the bar was in on this. i was pretty surprised and embarrassed. so we had some drinks, and he explained to me why he thought i freaked out when he put a camera up my nose. he mentioned to me that i have a deviated septum or something, and me being hyper-sensitive. he said, my type of reaction is rare but amusing. and of course, like almost everybody in this town, he has been to omaha.

speech defect

speech defect is touring japan for the next week or so. last night i went to their concert. it was a good time. the guys were pretty nice. i found out that one of the members went to the same school in sweden that i did. i was also mistaken by some drunk concert goers as a memeber of the group. so a few girls wanted to get their picture taken with me. so most likely today, they will look through the pictures from the previous night, and wonder who is that overweight pasty white guy they had their picture taken with. press delete.

in the mail

either this was a joke, present or a mistake. maybe a lady going by the name of katy is missing her victoria's secret catalog this month. however, i am guessing one of my friends thought i might be short of some quality english reading material. thank you.

sick

finally after being sick for 5 days and with no clear improvement in my condition, i decided to finally go see a doctor. i went to see a ear, nose and throat specialist on sunday. the doctor put a camera up my nose and down my throat to look around this thing burned my nose, and felt pretty uncomfortable. the nurse had to hold my head back as i was struggling to breathe, sweating and swearing at them. when they were done, tears were running down my face and i felt worse than i did when i came in. the doctor and nurse were smiling and laughing. they probably dont have too many patients that openly swear at them. i know that was the first time i ever swore at a doctor or nurse.

so they gave 4 different types of antibiotics and pain killers to take and a patch to put on my chest at night. in the end, it cost about 3000 yen to see the doctor and 1200 yen. it would have been considerably less costly and painful had i just seen a regular doctor.

shizuoka from abekawa

the super

i find myself buying the same things at the grocery store every week.

diet coke
bread
milk
beer
oreos
corn flakes
ramen
spaghetti
choco pies
ice cream
tofu
lettuce
kimuchi or kimchi

i never spend over 2500 yen. there are no shopping carts at the stores by my apartment. so a full basket of food never lets you spend too much. i gotta try something new.