chika...after 3 years

kami otai 上小田井

the best and worst smelling place in nagoya. if you take the tsurumai subway line west out to kami otai, you can enjoy either a great smell from a candy factory or a horrible smell from a candy factory. in the morning it smells great, however at night, something happens, and it smells worse than anything i can ever describe. they are currently building the biggest jusco shopping mall in the chubu area. it will be interesting if the candy factory will be allowed to stay there.

a prayer request

that hideki matsui and a yankees second round draft pick will be traded to the minnesota twins for santana.

it would be nice to see some more twins games and highlights on regular basis in japan. oh and to have people not have a blank look on their face when i say i like the twins.

oh and may something interesting happen to the state of nebraska, for the same reason.

that's all.

thanksgiving vacation down on the peninsula

i took a short vacation with about 20 of my closest japanese friends. we took a party microbus to a japanese style hotel near the ocean. japanese style hotels are different than other hotels, thats why i mentioned it. anyway, being near the sea, that meant eating a lot of fish. i ate some blowfish, lobster, crab among other things.

what also goes with a lot of japanese hotels, is an onsen. i really dont like onsens. i hate hot baths with other naked men. just imagine naked guy sitting on naked chair at prarie life center in lincoln, multiplied 10 fold.

i dont have problems with men being naked. i just dont like being naked with other japanese men. my friends are not exactly used to being around foreigners, so every thing i do is met with some sort of surprise or curiousity. my weight, my spacious forehead, drinking of coke, taking pictures, eating at mcdonalds, using chopsticks and eating anything japanese to my friends is fascinatiing.

so when i get naked...forget about it. but i was surprised nobody said anything. which means they were completely repulsed by me. or else everybody else was too worried about their own shortcomings.

i still dont like onsens. but sometimes i have to things i really dont want to for the sake of not causing a scene or confusion. who knows, maybe i will eventually like other strange things unique or popular in asia, like enka, martial arts, meditation, listening to long speeches, drinking green tea, taking vacations only to places around the world where i have family members, so i can sleep for free in their house and then have them show me around, writing haiku that make no sense, visiting places and have my picture taken in front of everything giving a v-sign or peace sign, and of course koncho.

thanksgiving vacation down on the peninsula

fish market down in chita

thanksgiving dinner

dangerous walk in nagoya's nakamura ward

i hate christmas time

so many cheesy lights and cheesy couples at nagoya station. by the way, what's cheesy in japanese?
けばけばし？ that's about as close as i can i get.

oharu town

pirate bar in kanayama

ever since i moved to kanayama, i have been looking for my regular hang out. i think i may have found it. i have been there a couple times. this past friday, i waddled in there and found a silent bar with about 7 guys sitting at the bar watching, "16 blocks", the bar tender is a friendly, middle aged guy, who speaks fairly good english. i looked up at the bullentin board, behind the bar, and i noticed quite a few postcards from different places around the world.

he said to me, "you know we have a lot of foreigners that come in here. quite a few of them are pirates."

what?, i thought. pirates? i did read an article about how pirates hit up a north korean ship off the coast of africa, recently. but pirates in japan? c'mon. he then told me they stay at the ANA hotel just down the street.

then it dawned on me, in the mornings, as i walk toward kanayama station, i usually see a bus full of flight attendants and airline pilots leaving from the ANA hotel out to the airport.

so i heard him wrong, he said, pilots, i thought pirates. pretty dumb. anyway, the place is cool. lots of books, nice projection screen, and friendly fellas. oh and i cannot wait to talk to some airline pilots. i am mentally creating a list of questions to ask.

the set list

you probably already heard of my latest concert, this past week at the shidax karaoke center in west nagoya. i managed to find the set list from my performance. i did the usuals, but also mixed in some new stuff. i was bit worried about how the crowd would react to me trying out some new stuff. but all in all, i received a pretty warm reception.

almost finished

kakuozan

grand sponsors

at the end of every tv program in japan, some lady with a cute voice comes on says something about announcing the grand sponsor for todays program, then a bunch of different companies logos show up on the screen. so at the end of my day, often i think about some of the companies that make a lot of my day possible. so here are some sponsors of my day.

chunichi and i are at an all time high

in case you are wondering...

i am still recovering from the japan series. the rest of japan maybe not care much about chunichi's first japan series win over 50 years. but aichi, japan is faaareeaaking out.
i, like terry jacks, could go on forever about this years season in the sun, but thats for another time, maybe after the konami cup.

oh, and i was invited to join a chunichi dragons cheer team for next year. awesome! what an honor. i gotta practice. each player has their own cheer, so i need to be ready. i will be ready. believe.

i hate halloween and christmas

around these two holidays, i am bombarded with phone calls and emails from people asking me to dress up, dance around and sing. some friends of mine have english schools or private english conversation groups and they love to have me come in and talk about halloween and christmas. man, i hate these holidays. no more santa no more pooh. it's over.

by the way,

i had two ideas for halloween costumes.

first choice- mormon missonary. easy to do, black tie, black pants, white short sleeved shirts and a black backpack. walk around and just be nice to people.

second choice- english teacher. easy to do. suit and tie, with backpack, no suitcase, i repeat. no suitcase (a backpack and suit is the greatest combination since chics in nebraska turn 30 get a short hair cut and mix in some old woman big butt jeans). then bring japanese girlfriend, hmm. that's a little difficult, then walk around and use the word, my, in front of everything. my students, my JTE (japanese teacher of english), my school. talk about how my students love me, talk about how my jte doesnt know anything, and doesnt let me be the star in class. talk about how my school sucks.

but i did neither, i stayed at home, rested and watched the japan series. go dragons.