hello from nebraska

merry christmas

nagoya-detroit-lincoln

it's cold now, but it's about to get a lot colder

and when i say it's cold now, i mean it's in the mid 50's.

who doesn't like mtume?

Mtume - juicy fruit
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east of nagoya to shizuoka on route 1

nebraskan soul

has anybody seen this? the english title is "whispering smith". you can usually buy these old movies in japan for 500 yen. it looks great. you can read more about it here.

at last alone

sumo size

i went to a chanko nabe restaurant on friday night. this is the type of meal that makes up a good portion of a sumo wrestler's diet. last night,i tore it up, then this morning, it tore me up.

from omaha tv

from nhk tv

sad

fun

KY

recently, k.y. is a popular saying among people in japan. i noticed my co-workers saying this, and i have often overheard people in restaurants occasionally drop a ky in their conversations. i kept thinking i must be hearing people wrong. they cant be saying what i think they are saying.

so i was talking to john, and he explained to me that k.y. is short for kuuki yome. kuuki, meaning air, and yome, meaning, read. so, air read. or i have also heard, kuuki yomenai, meaning, air doesnt read.

so when somebody is talking on and on about something and the people being spoken to are clearly not interested or paying attention, the people being talked to will most likely think, k.y. the person going on and on obviously cannot read the people he or she is talking to.

i hope i can read the air. maybe i cant. but i have noticed a lot of americans in japan and europe go on and on about something without paying attention to the people they are talking to.

for example, sometimes i am asked, what is the difference between american and japanese schools. i usually answer, well they are many differences. for example, in america they have 3 months of summer vacation as opposed to one month in japan. i usually keep it short. if they want to know more, they usually ask follow up questions.

however, i have seen some americans go into long detail about A.P. classes, or SATs and ACTs. the problem is that often the japanese people they are talking to have the about the same level of english as i do with japanese ( somewhere between a pile of crap and a elementary school bathroom where the boys have yet to perfect their aim).

or a recently, i heard a conversation between a american and japanese women. the japanese woman just wanted to know if the american woman was free on saturday. but the american woman went into painfully long detail about every thing she will do in tokyo for the upcoming weekend. on top of that she tried to explain daft punk to the japanese lady, who clearly had no idea or interest in that type of music.

it is interesting and painful to see the glazed over look in some japanese peoples eyes when the person talking to them is clearly talking too much and using extremely difficult words or slang. but it is not even a level of difficulty sometimes, they just go on and on. just way too much information being given. unless they are your close personal friends, they dont care. i know my generation of americans were taught when we were young that we are special, but come on, most of us are not.

anyway, k.y. just so you know.

this one?

or this one?

goodbye japan and Hey! Say! JUMP

i have been waiting for this one. japan's guys team has been eliminated from the world cup of volleyball. although, i will miss watching hey! say! jump! prance around and sing before each match. i will also miss watching these cute girls cheer on japan during the match, too. but the worst thing is that the 18 wheeler driving around my apartment blasting their hit single, has stopped making its rounds. there is nothing better nothing better than waking from one of my many cat naps to that inspiring, uplifting song.

full version for you...enjoy.

japanese language test, i did not do my best...

i pulled a leon lett