same ol same ol

Had a great time for Halloween.  It was pretty pro.  I've been pretty lazy lately, so I decided to go for a run yesterday... I think I pushed it too hard.  The muscles around my knee hurt a little yesterday and today, so that slowed me down and I was late for work by a few minutes both days.  =\  Even so, I can't compromise my secret identity by flying to work instead.

look at all the crazy damage from the typhoon a month or two ago.... leaves.

operation complete.  made this guy feel super awkward and embarrassed.

too many acronyms, but there's big magic happening here.  magic the gathering.

ramen near my workplace on thursdays/saturdays

little doggies, i murdered your master.  i am your new master now.

Overtime overtime

Going with the theme of the redundant titles on the blog posts of this month.  That is, the two other blog entries of this month had repeated phrases in their titles in their titles.

Today I worked an overtime shift to cover some dude who went on vacation for a week.  Let's call him Jabroni.  The classes that he normally teaches are like... super expensive classes, so the students are really motivated to participate and learn.  Basically, they show up for like 6 hours a day for classes... and gets lots of homework, etc.  It costs like.. more than $10k a session (two sessions a year, I think... five days a week?).  Maybe one session a year, actually.  Anyway, it's expensive, especially if you think of it in terms of not being able to work a full-time job at the same time.

In Japan, it's totally normal to live with your family til you're old enough where you need your diapers changed again.  Not quite the case in America, where you're labeled as a 'loser.'  With that said, there are TONS of losers in Japan.  I know what you're thinking:  "How do people have sex?"  That's a very good question.  Both men and women have private parts.  Women have a vagina, and men have a penis.  When you put the penis in the vagina, that's called banging.  Banging is very similar to sex, except it involves two revolvers and that's how babies are made.

I took a picture thinking I was the only one on the train headed to a certain destination.  Turns out the train stopped for maintenance... a secret everyone kept from me.

Some wonderful material from one of the books we use...

More specifically, I have to _______.

One of my junior high students is a hilarious person.  She drew a perfect portrait of this guy, who's another student in that class.

NICE BODY~

LoL wet?  I think wet was referring to something else.

GUESS WHO THIS IS yeah it's you.

Just chillin just chillin

Lemme tell you somethin.  Japan is Japan.  As far as what's been going on, let's just say I've been really busy.  Super busy.  Doing what?  I'll leave that up to your imagination.  You can imagine me eating ramen, if you like, because that's involved.

One of the highlights of my month is the amount of exercise I've been getting.  Every day, I sprint about 3 minutes to the train station, and it's doing wonders for my body.  I usually wear dress pants, a dress shirt, and dress shoes when I go for my daily run.  I usually tie my shoes, since I almost rolled my ankle a couple times... but there's always a risk when it comes to exercise.

My hair's too big, I can't wear hats.  It's pretty big.

Over here, people can be awfully shy.  A lot of times, I'll talk to people and they'll just kind of dip their head so as not to look at me.  This can be discouraging as I try to talk to people who are clearly interested in talking to me.

These guys work for a modeling agency and took my info and a couple pictures for their records.  I then took their picture for my records.

Some place on the way up Mt. Takao.  It appears to be... a 7-11.

whatchu say bout my boob??

A Tengu statue, I believe.  You may know the name Tengu from Persona games.

People blow their nose and tie the used tissues here.  Japanese tradition.

CHECK YOSELF something is happening

I know I know

Check the price on this coffee.  It's hard to see, I know, but it's basically a fortune.  380 yen = nearly $5.  The coffee is just normal coffee.

Akamaru Modern at Ippudo ramen shop at Chiba station!  Where can you get this kind of ramen stateside, you ask?  NOWHERE!  Except in New York at the Ippudo restaurant over there.

Massen and I at Chiba station

So Massen was in Japan for a day on a layover or something for his flight back to the US, so we hung out.  There was this cool matsuri (festival) over at Chiba station, which we obviously did not take any pictures of.  What do you think we are, STUPID?  no u

anyway we got drunk and walked around and ate ramen and i got tired early so we slept in an internet cafe for wayyyy too long oops sorry massen

Teaching is still quite a blast.  I met a famous singer/songwriter who I had never heard of... and I had her sing for me during the 1 on 1 lesson.  It was her first lesson, and she was super nice.  I can't give you her name, cause that might compromise... something.  I haven't seen her since, but she's really busy with her career -- television, radio, CDs, etc.  I hope I see her soon :>

I bought clothes recently at Uniqlo -- think of it as being like Gap, except more Unique and more Clo.  Most male clothing stores in Japan only go up to Large sizes, but a Japanese Large just barely doesn't fit me (mostly the sleeves are too short)... so I can't get XL at most cool places.  Uniqlo, on the other hand, has XL... but it's too big!  For a 2000 yen XL shirt (nice shirt, too), it would cost me like 5300 yen to get it tailored at a tailoring place... so I have it sitting in a tub of hot water right now hoping it'll shrink.  btw 2000 yen = like $25 and 5300 = like a little more than $65.  Sigh.

BUT life is pretty good pretty good atm oh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh