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bl3, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

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bl2, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

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bl1, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

Mad props to the Joetsu Site, it is off the hook

Yes I finally checked out the local what`s happening in Joetsu page started by really cool people, and added my blog to the links. Lots of superfly blogs, if I may floss, by some chill dawgs that I must give some mad props to, word. Here`s the link http://joetsujive.blogspot.com
As for my jive, I found some SLang FLashcards up in my desk today and I have been straight trippin since then. They are hella cool. I think they should be part of the curriculum for Joetsushi.

Tomorow is the roof party for sanko, my ghetto up apato (don get me wrong, I have a tight crib now, lots of elephants chillin on the walls). I did a bit a sweepin and we moved the picnic table up for some trivial pursuit last night, and I think I know how to ghetto rig the cd player via extension cord over the roof and through my bedroom window for some killa beats. Yes we set us up da bomb.

There was a bit o ultimate frisbee on Sunday with 4 on 4. Thanks much to my team...Stacia, Collin, Lida ya`ll are all that and a bag of senbe. Over the weekend was the ALT newcomers welcome pa-ti...love to Joyce in Kashi...and a crazy costume birthday party in Myoko. I think most would have to give it up to Carrie on best costume there. I sorta forgot about the whole being a character thing, but wore my blue polka dot dress and was told I was Courtney Love with my hair blonde and the cut I gave myself recently. Wanna hair cut? I work for mangos and stuff with cute elephants. I also do walls (but not windows).

US Beer Taste

US Beer Taste, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

24 more days of being 24!

It seems to say something that my age falls on a Japan National Holiday this year....but oh, not any holiday....it has to be "Respect for the Aged Day". This is not making me feel so good about turning a quarter of a century in less than a month. Ah well, at least the 3 day weekend gives me the oppurtunity to go on a nice vacation somewhere close. I hope to find an amazing onsen with fun baths and massages to get away from it all. I`ve been cho busy and sometimes I`ve felt like crap ( or been fed a nice line of it), other times my hard work pays off, anyhoo, I deserve a vacation (like one needs a reason for one). So I`m going to do like Kazu at Sado told me on my birthday "Have more fun than anyone!"

So, I`m not completely sure I`ve taught the kids any new english here yet (well, school isn`t officially in session, but they are here for clubs, and I`m here because I have to be, but really I have nothing better to do, the only issue is the really long sweaty bike ride). So I`ve been walking around to various clubs in the school: volleyball, dance team, ping pong, music, kendo, art, soccer, and baseball. It really brightens my day. So yesterday I taught the entire kendo team how to whistle with their hands (amazing that many got it!) and today I walked around with my thumb piano I bought on Sado. 3 days ago I was teaching cheers and "We will rock you" to the 3rd years who are planning for sports day. Okay so maybe 3 days ago I did some english sorta teaching "Give me a G, G!.....What have you got? GREEN TEAM!" Time for bento!

Swearing them off

So I went to Sado for the Earth Celebration to watch the KODO drummers and this spanish bagpiper and met a cool Japanese musician named Kazu, who said "Have more fun than anyone!" which I`ve rather taken as a nice slogan. It came at a good time as I had just decided to swear off boys for at least the rest of my stay in Japan as I am oh so dissapointed in the dating cross section of the male population. DBD! So I did try to have more fun than anyone and I danced up a storm to all the drums and jigs and reels, bagpipes and fiddles.

I slept the whole ferry ride back and got back to take a quick shower at my apartment before going to the ALT seminar where I had 3 presentations to help present. Unfortunately, I still can`t drive, and everyone thought I had rode with someone else, so the result was I rode my bike and was 30 minutes late, then I had to introduce myself late to the entire room of Japanese Junior high and elementary school teachers and ALTs. I came out and my bike had been rained on so I took off my sock and wiped down the seat, got home did the camping laundry and passed out for about 2 hours.

Things have been better since then. Amy took me and Akemi grocery shopping and came over for a little tea and fansubbed Yakitate Japan anime. Today Kei sensei picked me up and drove me on this rainy day to school and I made an English board with chains of blue elephants for the border. I`m in no hurry to go home today, but still, today seems to be going by awfully slow. Guess that`s a rainy day for ya.

Just another life story

So I`m not gonna lie to you, things have been a bit rough recently. I`ve been in a bit of a funk what with so much movin and readadaptin stress going on. There are like, a million little slips of papers to fill out in Japanese and usually I`m a bit confused as to what to do with them. I went to Kyoto over the weekend mostly with people I didn`t know, but it was fun as I hung out with Jo, a new gal from New Zealand. We talked about snowboarding and stuff and hated on boys a bit. Then I managed to fry my new phone via floor toilet at the biru gaaden. I also just found out I`m overdue to file my taxes..oops. This life is gonna get better right? I`ve adopted sort of a "grin and bear it/ this too shall pass" attitude about it all though.

So there was a mini earthquake yesterday, I thought it was just a head rush from getting up fast after squinting at the kanji on my computer screen but then I noticed the ceiling light swinging to and fro. So nothing really happened here, but I went for a walk in case my amazingly ghetto looking apartment building decided to suddenly implode from stress (I know the feeling). I found out I can A)walk all the way to the beach in flip flops and B)the flip flops part was a bad idea. On a good note I watched the movie "Hero" for the first time. It has to be the most beautiful movie ever made. I cried 3 times, though whether it was because it was so beautiful.......

My apartment is turning out rather nice as the painting progresses, I have big plans for the ceiling but, boy is that tiring looking up for so long! I`ve got air conditioning now and I cleaned all the floors and windows. I`m still waiting on a handle to replace the one that fell off the bathroom door. I had a funny conversation on the phone with my rather serious Japanese boss who was concerned as to whether I would need a western converter seat for my Japanese floor toilet. As she told me her concerns and assured me that if I ever felt that I needed to have the seat converter I could just let her know.....the ridiculousness of this phone toilet conversation both hit us and I about couldn`t stop laughing to say goodbye, reassuring her that I was sure I wouldn`t have a problem with the squatter. I wonder what the people in her office thought?

Well the obento is here, so I`m going to enjoy a nice lunch without thinking once about all those papers or that strange never been cleaned area under the tub. As the Calpis Water soda can says "GET HAPPY"

Fireworks and Paperworks

On Wednesday the rest of the new JET ALTs came in and they all seem pretty cool. 2 are from he states, and 1 is from London. Some of us went up to Nagaoka to see the huge firework show on Wednesday. Below you can see a few pics I got with my keitai phone.

Meanwhile, I`ve almost got it all unpacked in my apartment...time for painting tomorow after a driving lesson. I`ve been doing lots of paperwork to get my driver`s license in Japan and I go to turn it in on Monday and take the test the following monday. Luckily I either have home study or seminar planning I can catch a ride to next week, so I don`t have to worry about getting far. Tune in for more Joetsu fun after this short weekend break....

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h8, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

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h7, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

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h6, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

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h5, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

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h4, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

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h3, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

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Fuji Rocked and got real muddy

Fuji Rock was really fun but muddy this past weekend. I went for 2 nights of camping and 3 days of rockin. It rained right after we arrived and set up camp...right through the CAKE concert. It was fun to see so many young Japanese folks and foreigners. It seems that all people in their 20s live in Tokyo or somewhere else big and happening so we don`t see too many up here in Joetsu. Other great bands I saw were Foo Fighters (lazer light show, jumping up and down, moshing, and a screen close up of gum falling out of David Grohl`s mouth on big screens), there was also Beck which was cool cause they sat down at a dinner table on stage while Beck played a song on an Indian piano, then they broke into rythm with forks, plates, glasses of water, etc; then there was FatBoy Slim which was strange cause it was just him with some turntables, but some really big fun and sometimes freaky images on the screens with flashing lights for a big club atmosphere (anything from big video speakers, smiley faces, to naked women illustrations, to big scary eyeballs on all the screens) and alot of people got 3D glasses to view it, but there weren`t enough to go around by any means. I saw some smaller or lesser known bands to me such as the Bravery, and Maximo Park, and the Black Velvets, and Lisa Loeb, and best of all the John Butler Trio. Now I just bought the cd (there:s only 1 so far) in May on a whim at Barnes and Nobles back home in Greenville, but I:ve played a hole in it if one can do such a thing to a cd. So when I saw they were coming to Fuji I was on cloud 11. I came home limping with blisters and mud and bandaids in my flipflops . It was made much better by an onsen bath by Jusco and a steaming bowl of ramen.

Now I:m working at Kubiki JHS and I rode my bike here today cause I don:t have my license renewed yet (hopefully on Monday!) Other counties can just change over their licenses but America is special....yes we have to take the difficult driver`s test after 1 year. I:m moved into my apartment, but I:m still scrubbing it down. It has a Japanese style floor toilet so that will be a little wierd. I figure this place can be transformed with a few buckets of paint and some indian hanging cloths. I:m planning on some mural work for some room areas. A nice white leather couch a kotatsu and a sturdy nice little kitchen table were delivered this morning from another ALT`s apartment...there are benefits to moving into a larger place! I still don:t have a microwave though, and my gas range won:t start without a lighter! Sigh..

I saw the movie The Island last night at J-Max. It was really rather silly and a bit strange but it was kinda interesting. Still if we:re going for silly Sci-Fi I prefer Hitchhiker`s Guide. Two of the new Jet ALTs came along who live in Sanko apartments too, Megan from Wisconsin, and Amy who`s from England? They are both very interesting people....Megan likes alot of the same animes as me and she knows my buttons already! ( She got me in the car when she said "Imagine a very small elephant, now imagine that elephant standing on a cracker, now imagine that elephant eating a marshmallow"....eeeeeeeeEE unbearable cuteness!) . Then Amy is quite unexpected as well. She was in a trampoline club and she went to well, I guess it wasn:t clown school but something for performing things like juggling and unicycling. Can`t wait to meet the last aparment member tomorow...Then it:s time for a Sanko summer barbeque party on the roof. Maybe I can fix up my room enough that people will want to come visit me!

me @ cake

me @ cake, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

chuck look

chuck look, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

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mel, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

martin n tif

martin n tif, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

liz @ cake

liz @ cake, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.

chuck and ben eyeballs

chuck and ben eyeballs, originally uploaded by gritsblogger.