The Gap. . . Japan

The Gap
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

AWWW damnit! Just belt it and sinch it! HAHA!! I loved that SNL skit!

One of many Starbucks

One of many Starbucks
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

This is one of 4 in a 3 block radius. Coffee translates to ANY language.

A tree and a cup of coffee

A tree and a cup of coffee
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

I drink WAAAAAY too much coffee. The cup you see in the picture was like my 4th one that day. Starbucks is like a f*cking drug or they put drugs in their coffee to make me a coffee junkie. "Come on man, just one more latte. Please, I need another hit!"

Another moat

Another moat
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

What can I say, I love moats. I have taken like 30 pictures of this damn thing. God, I am such a dork sometimes. . .

A big building

A big building
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

I can see the top of this building everyday from my work. So the other day I decided to see it close up

Thanksgiving. . .well sort of.

So today was Thanksgiving. It was pretty low key, I was the only member of my household that seemed to notice it. I knew that there would be no turkey dinner (complete with mashed potatoes and stuffing) tonight, so I took matters into my own hands.

I caught the 12:10pm train into Shizuoka determined to get a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes! After about an hour I was beginning to realize that my search was going to end with nothing in my belly. So I fell on my "back-up plan" . . .KF f*cking C!!

Sure chicken and turkey are not the same bird but I was feeling a little defeated so chicken would have to do. Besides, I said to myself "They will have mushed potatoes and they are key to any turkey dinner"! So after a quick 10min walk I arrived at Kentucky, (the japanese call it that, not KFC). I was greeted with with the standard "Irrashaimasen!" (Welcome, in Japanese). I was all geared up to order my two piece meal with extra mash potatoes when I realized. . . there were no mashed potatoes that I could order!. . . I scanned over the menu again. Maybe I missed the picture of them (I still can't all that well, D'OH!). . . nothing.
"You gotta be shitting me!" was my only thought. It's KFC, how can you have fried chicken and NO mashed potatoes?!

All they had was French fries. Sigh.

Feeling really, really, defeated now (and starving) I had to settle for a chicken(sandwich, d'oh!) and french fries (without ketcup, damnit!) and a Coke. . .

Dude, what a dissapointment.

and. . . AND . . . yeah it gets better!

I really wanted to eat in peace and reflect on life and what not. . . (i.e. No talking) No, I was spotted by a fellow teacher who proceeded to talk my ear off for 30min. (It was one of those conversations where the other person does all the talking and the other person just sits there quietly.) D'OH!

Well, at least the day was almost done. . . No, wait as I write this I can feel the B.G.s coming on (B.G.=bubble guts=the shits) from the KFC! And to add to that I gotta hold it until I get home. I ain't really comfortable taking a crap in a public toilet in Japan yet.

Thanksgiving my ass.

But in all seriousness, I am very thankful for many things. And I take joy knowing that my family and friends are having a good Thanksgiving back home. And that always brings a smile to my face! So don't worry about me too much and don't take my Thanksgiving misadventures too seriously! If it brought a smile to your face today then I am thankful.

I hope everyone has a safe and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
shizzle.

Thanks for nothing!

KFC
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

No mashed potatoes. WTF!

Night train. . . no not the cheap booze.

IMG_1391
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Yes. Yes, I do.

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Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Me and Hitomi

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Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Just cool.

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Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

No other words are needed.

Pimp gainjin part 2

IMG_1378
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

He agreed to pose for me one more time but I could tell that he was getting angry. . .

Pimp gaijin

IMG_1377
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

They are very rare but I was able to get a picture of the rare creature known commonly as the "pimp gaijin". Rare to these parts they are mostly seen at night.

Just a cool looking picture. . .

IMG_1375
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

The same street 2nd shot

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Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Same street second picture. BTW, if you look closely in this picture you can see a girl with her pants tucked into her boots!

The street with the festival

IMG_1365
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

This was the street with the vendors on it. Hitomi told me afterward that the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) give money to help put on these festivals. . . yeah I feel safe.

Green river

IMG_1360
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

There were a SHIT load of koi (fish) in the river it was really kinda freaky!

At night in Yaizu

IMG_1358
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

There was a little festival happening tonight here are a few pictures from the area where the festival was at.

My dinner. . .are you jealous? You should be.

IMG_1357
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Yeah that's right it's my dinner. It was was GOOD! Back home this would have cost about 25 bucks! Salmon, tuna, and squid! And it was 500 yen, LESS than 4 U.S. dollars!

Shocked and stunned

What a way to start the day. . .I just found out that one of my favorite wrestlers, Eddie Guerrero, died today from a heart attack. He was only 38. I stunned and bummed out. I hope that he is in a better place now. Eddie became WWE Champion in 2004.

AWWWWW how CUTE!!!!!

daikon man
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

its soooo cute!

daikon man

daikon man
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

The cute daikon man. . . I . . . must . . . the . . . cute!

I have an addiction

Hello again from the land of the rising sun! I have not posted in a while so I thought it was about time to. First things first, I would like to wish my mom a happy belated birthday (Nov. 4th) and wish my dad a happy up coming birthday (Nov. 16th)! If you happen to see them wish them well. Second, tomorrow will be my 4th month here in Japan. I have not gone completely crazy . . . (yet) which is a good sign! Good now, with that out of the way I would like to confess something. . . I must do this because it will be my first step towards recovery.

Those of that know me. . .know that I am a guy that likes pro-wrestling matches with barbwire, shards of broken glass, and lots of blood. I guy that likes movies like Pulp Fiction and Fight Club. A guy that thinks Dickies and Ben Davis are fashionable. A guy that doesn't really have the word "cute" in my vocabulary.

But ever since I came to Japan "cuteness" has been all around me. Infecting my mind, changing me. Cute TV commerical, cute posters on the train, cute pink cell phones, cute cell phone straps, cute little old ladies in Kimonos (no, not the ones that push me off the train), cute little old men that ride the train and give little cute bows before they sit down next to you, cute little kids that I teach at work that have cute little voices that they talk to me in Japanese with, cute school kids that all look like sailors and travel in packs!, cute cars that look like toys, cute cartoons and comic books that are about cute crushes on classmates, the cute way that cute school kids say "Kawaii!!!!!(kawaii is the Japanese word for "cute"), the cute daikon man figurines that I collect(see the pictures below for a better idea of what I am talking about, cute j-pop music that everyone loves because its sounds. . . well. . . cute! I can not escape the cute here. I tried to resist "the cuteness" but it has consumed me. Bring on the cute because I like it!

This is my first step towards recovery. . .

In all seriousness, I would rather have "cute" here than scary, mean, and twisted, like some of the people from my hometown that walk the streets! Yeah, so maybe I like Totoro (do a Google search if you don't know who he is) and maybe I can have a 40min conversation with a 12 year old on how much we both like Finding Nemo, but least I know they won't "pop a cap in my ass" if they get mad at me! LONG LIVE THE CUTE DAIKON MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
shizzle

Bikes

Bikes
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

I was looking for my bike has anyone seen it? I was sure that I left it here!

Don Quixote

Don Quixote
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Yeah this place is really called Don Quixote and they sell everything you can think of and even stuff you can't! A very popular store!

Hiroki's Shop! Girl. Next door

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Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

My brother's hair salon. I get my hair styled here all the time! He is very good at what he does. So this is my thanks for cutting my hair every week! Domo arigato gozaimasu Hiroki!

Keith in Japan, Basketball on Japanese TV and other random thoughts

Well its been a while since I have made a real posting about things here in Japan. Pictures are nice but sometimes thoughts and words are better.

So the bad stuff first: I am currently sick with a cold, and well, it sucks. To add to the discomfort one of my wisdom teeth decided to shift. Thus, my mouth is a great deal of pain right now. The Yen (Japanese money) has also taken a big crap against the dollar. Which in simple terms means my money here is not as much as in the States!

But let's not dwell on the not so good!

The good stuff: I now have a wonderful woman teachng me Japanese (thank you Kazue!) And I hope to increase my speaking ability sooner than later!
I go into the Starbucks down the street from my work a lot. So the other day one of the staff at Starbucks started talking to me in English?!? I asked in Japanese if she understood English and she said a little then the other Starbucks staff started talking to me! To make a LONG story short I now have new Japanese Starbucks friends! I doubt if I will get free coffee out of it but at least we are on a first name basis!
I was sad that the Astro didn't make the W.S. last longer now can't watch baseball in the mornings before work! BUT I watched my first game of the NBA tonight! And although it wasn't the Lakers (or the Heat) it was still basketball, and that made me happy!
I am also no longer in Japan alone! My buddy Keith is currently in Kumamoto! WHOOOH!! And he is getting his first taste of Japanese life! Now he just needs a freaking cell phone! But there is nothing wrong with taking it SLOW! Keith GANBATTE!! (Do your best!)
The weather is getting way cooler (on the verge of COLD!) and I can now wear the blazers that go with my suits! And my students at work think I look cool in my full suits! (OH AND YES I AM WELL AWARE THAT THEY MORE THEN LIKELY LYING TO ME SO THERE IS NO NEED FOR SMARTASS COMMENTS!!!!) But it makes me feel good!
And lastly my family at home are all doing well and that ALWAYS MAKES ME HAPPY!

Random thoughts. . .

I still don't understand how tucking your pants into your boots became fashionable but that shit NEEDS TO STOP!

Vending machines in fall and winter serve HOT cans of coffee and tea?!? I know this because I burned the shit outta my hand the other day!

My Japanese gets better the more beer that I drink. (Proven FACT.) But it could just be me THINKING that it sounds better. . .

My little kids at work STILL think my name is "Blue"! D'oh!

Most Japanese high school kids have cooler cell phones than mine.

My co-workers from the U.K. refuse to call chips, "chips". They call them "crisps". I guess they never got the memo. . .

Most of my Japanese students do not like the taste of turkey. . .dude what the hell! That's not right.

I am now driving in Japan on a semi-regular basis. It is very strange, I have to keep telling myself that it is OK to be on the wrong side of the road!

And lastly to answer the recent comments,

1) A "Gaijin" is a person that is, not Japanese, they are in Japan. AKA a foreigner. Me.

2) Yes, normally I would pray in a church but here they are called "temples" and yes God can still hear me.

3)"Manga" are Japanese comic books. But they are NOT just about superheros. They are about everything from baseball to love stories. Many, many Japanese people read them young kids to adults.

4)I didn't understand the point of the "smokers style" (see recent posts) either. I just thought it was a very creative concept for a "shop"!

5)Most streets in Japan are really really narrow! And really hard to drive on!

shizzle.