July 2005 Archives

I have such a massive entry written up on my laptop, except that I have not internet access and probably won`t for a long time. Heck I don`t even have internet down at City Hall! On an up note I do have a cool job, a nice place to live, and have met alot of awesome people here in Fukuyama.

But yes, I am alive. And no, the heat has yet to kill me. Though its trying hard.

With any luck I can snag some net access in city hall with my laptop under the guise of working on a webpage for work. Until then こにちわ！

So I'm alive and in Tokyo for the next few days. This after the grueling 12 hour flight from Chicago! Our JET group is the largest ever to come out of one consulate in the US! 220 people! We ended up having to split the group onto two separate flights. The movies were nice, for a change, but that was because we were flying America Airlines and not crappy North West. We each had our own little LCDs and stuff.

Tokyo is a bit hot. Plus our hotel, the really super nice Keio Plaza Hotel, is hot. That could be because we have over 1,000 new JETs hanging out in formal clothing. Lots of people have come here to tech from all over the world. Such a cool thing. Its finally sinking in that I'm in Japan. It was probably because we all had issues ordering food last night that made me realize that I'm going to be here for a while. But its all good. Orientation is has been very helpful, though I skipped some optional ones this afternoon so I could walk around Tokyo for a few hours. Super big place, lots of cool buildings. Plus its super busy, though not as expensive as you'd think. Probably the coolest thing is all the interesting, and kinda weird, people. But in the same way any big city.

I'd talk more but I need to go off to a Prefectural gathering tonight. AKA drinking time with new friends. The all seem cool, and you'll soon find out all about them. That is as long as we don't all die in the Typhoon thats going to hit Tokyo on Tuesday.

Ooooo I can't wait to start editing these fun video clips....

Well, not my last post forever, just the last one for a long time. I spent most of the day in the company of my mother, who is by trade a master of packing. She has good spacial recognition skills which makes her ideal for packing large amounts of luggage. I was more concerned about how the heck I was going to be able to pack so many of my precious techno toys into my carry on bag, for fear some baggage handler would destroy or swipe them. But everything came together, and I think everything is under the max weigh limit, if not I guess I'll have to pay for it. But heres exactly whats going to happen to me in the next week.

Friday: Travel to Chicago for pre-departure orientation.
Saturday: Leave at 11:00 am for Tokyo
The next few days or so because I can't find my schedule: Orientation in Tokyo.
Some time after that: Fly to Hiroshima for more orientation.
Even more time after that: End up in Fukuyama, dazed and highly confused. Minus a lot of yen.
Weeks later: Settle into my new place, try and figure out microwave.
Next month: Actually start teaching. watch as children never get my jokes.
Next year: Still don't know what to do with life, stay on with JET for another year.
Three years: Still have no idea what to do, run away to China.

Thats probably whats going to happen. The only fact that I can count on is that ever week or so my mom will franticly e-mail me about how the printer isn't working, to which I will respond that she should first turn it on. But in all reality I do need to return to Wisconsin some time in the future, because all my Transformers and Gobots are here. They're still cool.

So if you didn't notice my webpage has been down for quite a while. Several weeks actually. This is for several reasons. First off my webserver went all crazy on me, and I came to a realization. I could either leave a webserver back in Wisconsin while I was in Japan and wait for it to die on me OR I could find some place online and have them host my webpage for me. Long story short I finally got everything working with my new host tonight, though I'll be needing to do a lot of work on the webpage to get some stuff working again, as well as add in some new info. Along the way I actually sold me webserver, got a video camera, went to Iowa City, and scanned in a whole lot of old family photos. Oh, I almost forgot, I've also spent a great deal of time packing for Japan and helping my parents unpack all their stuff from Sioux Falls.

Speaking of Japan I leave for Chicago on Friday and then for Tokyo on Saturday at 11:00 AM. Fun time to be had by all. Wish me luck peoples!

I survived my trek across Wisconsin and the horrible traffic that is the 4th of July. I managed to make it up to Jared's house near Rice Lake in only 5 hours. There I met up with Seth, Carl, Zach, Jolene, Ben, and Jared. I had a good time hanging out, fishing, and watching everyone bumble around with fireworks. Having lived in or very near South Dakota most of my life, fireworks come second nature to me (there are no restrictions at all in SD!!!). I found it odd when Zach freaked out at my wild handling of bottle rockets, having never ever done fireworks in his life. Luckily Jolene was able to calm him down a bit, as she was also wise to the ways of fireworks. This came in handy later as Lee shot off one firework completely wrong, and almost killed himself. I needed Jolene to back me up on how to properly use another, before someone did lose an eye. (Note: In the photo of Zach, Ben, and I that is not my beer. Its Zach's)

Sunday I decided to go up and hang out with Heidi up in Two Harbors. We had a fun time in Duluth that evening, where I drank a massive strawberry Margarita (46 oz.), and then saw the new Bewitched movie. Which was made even more funny thanks to my massive drink. Duluth at night is a rather fun site. Its a nice city with a very cool look thanks to the large cliffs that overlook the lake.

Anyways, I made it home, and I'm a bit bushed. It was a long drive today, something like 6 hours, so I'm looking forward to getting some sleep. That and having my allergies assaulted thanks to the two cats around here. I missed them so much!

So I went to see War of the Worlds with my dad on opening night. It was an ok movie overall. Not great, but just ok. After watching it, and thinking about it, there are way too many plot holes to make me happy. I won't go into detail, but for those ho have seen the film, think about. If you were an advanced alien civilization would you 1) wait a million years to invade (face a species with no tech, or a million years later with lots of tech) 2) send one scientist to check to see if your plants and animals could actually live in new environment 3) take all the time and effort to harvest people to turn them into plant food, when obviously you're a super advanced civilization. I mean seriously. They've got a million years of technology on us, and they constantly overlook the obvious and take super complicated measures to get things done. The aliens in Independence Day had it right. They just blew the crap out of everything. If it wasn't for the massive 'death' beams in the film, the aliens in War of the Worlds would be as threatening as Dr. Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show.

I bought more clothing. Yes, even more. So far I've spent way too much money on work related clothing. But then again, as a guy, I can confidently say that my fashion of today will still be good 10 years from now. Thank goodness guys fashion, especially business fashion, takes forever to change. All I really have to worry about is finding more cool Spider-man ties and fun boxers.

I'll be up at Jared's place for the 4th of July, hanging out with all my roomies from college. It should be a fun weekend of fireworks, camping, fishing, and a few cold drinks. All weather permitting. This does get me away from my DVD burning... to which I just happened to get another pack of 50 in the mail today. They should come in handy when I go to grandma's house to scan in family photos for two days. Good times.