MY XXIV BIRTHDAY BASH!

This has been a whirlwind of a last few weeks, and finally I make it to my long awaited birthday. I had just returned from Hong Kong the day before and spent most of the night and that following morning adjusting/making my costume and fashioning a play list to dance to at the party that night. Surprisingly I was woken up by a ring of my doorbell at 9:30 am. I ignored it the first three rings thinking it was some kind of advertising guy trying to sell me a new internet plan or sell me the newspaper. I was surprised when I finally (grumbling) got out of bed and answered the door Enrique was standing there. I asked him what he was doing at my house at this time of the morning, and he told me “Happy Birthday” and presented me with a present. I told him he didn’t have to go through any trouble especially since I don’t know him all that well. He responded saying that he enjoys celebrating people’s birthdays, and with that he left. Instead of opening the gift right away I put it on the table and went back to sleep for an hour or two.

When I finally woke up again the first thing I did after regaining most of my vision and answering the calls to nature I opened the present. To my total surprise I was starting at a new Pen and Touch Comic Wacom tablet. I looked up the retail value of these tablets and it was somewhere around two hundred dollars. I literally sat there and starred at it for five minutes. It was such an amazing and personal gift that I’m not sure how he pulled it off, and to this day I have yet to take it out the box. I just say its so pretty and place it back in its wrapping.

After that I spent the entirety of the rest of my day making the final changes on my costume, packing to get ready for the following days’ dress/makeup rehearsal for the play. I managed to get in some talking time with friends on Skype while doing this. Around six in the evening I had my shower done and I was dressed and finishing up my playlist when my MP3 player decided it was time to die. Of course this couldn’t have come at any worse time, so I rushed upstairs and borrowed Dee’s IPod. I managed to get as many songs as I could on there in the time frame I had and then rushed out of my apartment in a panic. I had missed my train so my only other option was to drive there. So pedal to the metal I went down route 8 towards Toyama all the while managing to put make up on my face in the process. Of course the end result wasn’t my best work but it would do considering my restricted time frame. SO! I made it to Toyama ( driving for the first time which could have been a disaster since I had no phone to contact anyone if I got lost) parked at Vannies and had will take me to Ajito (the place where my party was being held) and drive my car back to the Apartment since he still had time before he’d himself join the party. So amazingly even though I managed to get to my own party fifteen minutes late I was still the first person there (of those I invited) and was able to set up the music and other materials for the reminder of the night. So the rest of the night is mostly history.

Slowly but surely people began to show up. Trevor and his axe of awesome came and truly represented his Ares God of War motif. Then again Trevor is a rather talented guy. Tina showed with her boyfriend Hercules and was dressed herself as Persephone. Then not too far after that Jarred, Salvador, Nicole and Ryan, Mallory and others showed. There were several people dressed as normal roman citizens (aka a simple white Toga) and others went all out. My love Tiffany came as the dreaded Medusa, while my friend Shawn came as Apollo (which was sooo convenient since I went as Artemis) so we claimed family ties of awesomeness for the remainder of the night. So dancing commenced and fun times ensued. Around ten or so it was time to cut the cake, and OMG what a cake. Tiffany surpassed my wildest expectations. I had only ever seen her cake decorating skills once before for her own birthday when she made a Mario cake. So I had no idea what she was going to do with my Roman themed cake. SO with that everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and then Tiff gave a small speech about me. She didn’t have to do that but it was really nice of her. She said I was one of the coolest people that has come to Toyama so it meant a lot to me. Applause ensued and cake cutting commenced and cake eating followed suit, and damn if it wasn’t a delicious cake. It is so rare when a cake looks awesome and tastes just as good.

Once everyone was full with cake (I got two slices!) it was time for the Roman Quiz I had prepared earlier that day. Nicole, Rachel, Trevor, Shawn and Will participated in the quiz while others watched and some relaxed and talked amongst themselves. It was quite amusing since Ryan was taking score and providing commentary and while the contestants either cursed themselves for not knowing an answer or fist pumped because they did. The quiz was a total of twenty-three questions and the winner turned out to be Nicole followed by Will and last but not least Trevor. However I was impressed with Shawn’s knowledge on the subject which in turn just makes him even more of an awesome dude lawl. When the quiz was over and the prizes were handed out the music came back on. For the rest of the night there was dancing, and from what I could tell people were having a good time. Lots of pictures were taken though I haven’t seen much evidence of the night. I was a bit disappointed because some ppl who I just knew were going to be there didn’t show, but for everyone that did was truly grateful and happy about it. Even Nobuki, Asano, Wagner, and Marianna came and it was so nice to see them. I do really enjoy hanging out with them. I consider Nobuki and Asano part of my Brazilian friend group even thought they are clearly Japanese! I wish Evelyn could have come but she is partying it up in Brazil as we speak. I’m going to have to visit her sooner than later! The party didn’t officially end till I walked out of the place around 1:30am. A group of us went to the konbini since we were thirsty and a koban kuruma ( police car) came by stopped and starred at us until we dispersed. I’m sure it looked interesting. Having a group of about ten foreigners (some Japanese) people drinking soda dressed in Roman Regalia looked a bit out of place! But we didn’t care. I just waved at them and went on my merry now 24 way.

The Week of Meetings and AJet:

Tuesday (13th):
After work my JTE( one of the two new Japanese Teachers of English I work with) and I left work to Mikaiji Elementary school for our monthly regular meeting. The meeting in general was useless and basically going over things we are had heard about or to try new procedures of teaching that we more than likely wont employ on our students in the classroom. We met our new supervisor as well and though he seems like a SUPER nice guy he can’t speak a lick of English while our former supervisors’ English was fantastic. Nevertheless the meeting finished and I had enough time to get home, change and go to Momo bar where we had the welcome/farewell enkai with JTEs, ALTs and Board of Education members.
This was indeed an interesting night. I managed to set myself between the now former and current supervisor and when I offered to move my former supervisor said it was ok to stay where I was. It was also my first time to have an party of sorts with both my new JTEs. Y-san gets adorably cute when she is drunk, and she liked to nuzzle her face into my side. She is made of adorable and also a fun teacher to work with. It indeed lucked out on having the opportunity to work with her. My male (25year old) JTE was also there, and wanted to go one on one with me for shots. Both I, O-san (25 year old and his name for further notice), Bandou, and a few other JTEs also managed to get on the topic of fetishes and porn, and O-san decided that it would be a good idea to bring it up with our former supervisor when he walked over to talk with our side of the table. Not to long before that though my former supervisor spoke with me about how he wanted me to continue teaching and help introducing western culture to those around me. He also proceeded to tell me that all of us Kurobe Jets were hand picked under other requirements then the rest of our Ken and said that I was indeed the most special. This backs my theory up that my supervisor had some subconscious crush on me. It’s interesting. Nevertheless as you can see the rest of the night was history, good times and no hangovers the next morning cause I’m a G.

**FAST FORWARD**

Friday 16th:
So today was Regional meeting time. Left work around 12:30pm and meet up with Lawrence to follow him to the Uozu center where the meeting was held. The meeting was long but more informative then normal, I also ran for regional representative but Marissa won over me. I am not to hurt by it simply because it leaves me free to do something else. I’ve debated about social representative but we shall see. After the meeting we had another short meeting talking about personal grievances we are having within the school system and hopefully that will start a chain of action. When that was over we were off to dinner at some Italian place (did not enjoy the food), over to the kombini for snacks and then three hours of karaoke. Amazingly I sung alone perhaps twice. I feel I’m starting to loose my voice, not so much from illness, but it’s been hard to sing up to my usual volume, range as of late. I wonder why this is. Then home I went with Tiffany. She ended up crashing at my house since she missed her train.

Saturday 17th:
AJet Prom started at 6:00pm that night so I spent most of the morning cleaning my apartment after Tiffany left to prepare for everyone one who was staying the night because of Kurobes’ lack of late trains. I got dressed with what I already had and went to the train station to pick up Faye. We ended up waiting around for twenty minutes (ate a bento in the mean while ^^) for Nicole and Ryan to come because their train was late. Once I had everyone we went back to my apartment and they finished getting ready. Faye got a small Anita make over as well. It was quite funny. We however didn’t make it to the prom till around seven but thankfully the party itself hadn’t really gotten off the ground. So for the remainder of the night it was picture taking galore since everyone was in 007 theme (which was essentially formal wear) or something short and spy like. Several ppl had fake guns. It was cute. The music got better at the end as well and a lot of us danced. All in All it was a really good time. The prom itself wasn’t the end of the night. Since the dance ended at 10:30 about twenty of us piled into cars and taxis and made our way back to Momo bar. There we stayed a few more hours, had some laughs, alcohol and good times. I saw many people I see rarely and Tiffany bought all my drinks. I think it was simply because I let her crash at my house twice in a row, but even still that was super nice of her. It was a good night, and I was suuper glad to see those who stayed over night at my house.

Sunday 18th:
The morning started super early. I wanted to sleep in for a while but some are early risers and thus woke the rest of us up. I resigned to my fate and we all dressed, and went out the door. We decided to catch lunch in Toyama, and the only reason why I agreed to go was for the sole purpose of play rehearsal that afternoon. At lunch we or at least I ate entirely too much but it was all very tasty. When the meal was over I said goodbye to everyone and to play rehearsal I went. Other then not being able to work on my song the rehearsal went well, and I simply just need to learn my lines by next Sunday (its already Tuesday >.<). FINALLY I WENT HOME… and then spent an absurd amount of hours (stopped at 5am) finishing the Sengoku Basara anime series even though I had work at 8:30 the next morning! It was totally worth it!

Long Week Post Long Vacation:

( Vietnam Vacation Post in the works)

The day I arrived back in Japan (April 5th) I went to work two hours after walking in my door. This was the first time I met my new JTE. A twenty five year old guy who is possibly one of the most non Japanese, Japanese people I have ever met. After work was over I managed to drag myself to Eikawa later on that night. It was a feat let me just say.

Wednesday the 7th I had my second ever play rehearsal and it was simply to receive my song and go over it the first time. I need a little work on the timing and on a few spots here and there with the Japanese pronunciation but overall I think I can get the song learned by the 18th. Thankfully the practice ended early and I went home afterwards.

The following day (8th) after work I went with Lawrence to a small Italian place for dinner. It was nice because he invited my out to chill and that really hasn’t happened even though we’ve been neighbors for eight months now. Even though I was spending money I didn’t have I had a good time. The food was great and the company is always nice. The more I talk to / hang with that boy it never ceases to amaze me how talented he is. Makes me want to raise up my awesome status bar. In fact just being here with all the talented people I’ve had the pleasure to meet here in Toyama has made me want to up my game in all areas of life. It’s nice to say I have finally got that push to reach further. Perhaps it’s simply because I don’t like to be average in a group of anything. I always prefer being on the higher end, and I think in truth that’s something everyone wants/or tries to strive for.

Friday the 9th was the beginning of quite a FULL weekend. Instead of perhaps staying home and saving money (and getting sleep) I dressed and made my way to Toyama to meet her and her friends who came from Canada to visit. We ended up going to Gohei (who’s food is great, but service is a bit slow). It was a nice time to just talk with people. Got to chill more with Jarred who is a very cool guy, and Sal who I had an great time with on my Vietnam vacation. Once we left Gohei we went to Karaoke for an hour then wondered around until we found ourselves wasting away time in a bar. Overall the night wasn’t to intense and yet it still ended up being a long one.

Saturday (10th) was a day that started far slower than I had/would have wanted. I lounged around at Vans until late in the afternoon which landed us at Hanami around 4pm. I had hoped to be at Hanami by noon. Kojo Koen Park in Takaoka was very pretty, and just as promised half the kens Jets were there and the Sakura was in full bloom. While I was here I just roamed around and mingled with people. There was some epic picture taking as well which included a Asian against brown people fight along with boys being piggy backed by girls. We all sung along to songs played by Lawrence on ukulele and Chris on guitar. Many Japanese people walked over to watch us. Leave it to foreigners to make a scene and get everyone involved! Yay us!, and leave it to Hanami for letting me see/hang with people I never see, Yay! *snuggles Nicole and Ryan* Around 8pm I left out with Nicole, Ryan, and Debbie to Hilda’s so we could get ready to head back to Toyama and over to Banana Pop for Hilda’s birthday.　Hilda let me borrow a shirt of hers to wear, but since there were no late night trains N&R decided not to come out with us. After saying bye to them we (being Hilda, her two friends, and myself) went to the station where we all decided to get Mc Donald’s. Ironically enough nearly twenty of our friends who we had just left at Hanami found themselves in Mc Donald’s with us. It’s apparent that when people are drunk/tipsy they want heavy food. Seeing as we had a little over half an hour before the train we all sat down to eat only to take a mad dash to the right train platform hamburgers and all so we could catch our respective trains. I also found out that Michael a fairly serious and calm individual is CRAZY ( in a good way) when drunk. We all got to Banana Pop but not without talking about the logistics of Thanksgiving and the wonders of southern food. Once at Banana Pop I saw Marianna, Wagner, Nobuki and his wife. They are always a pleasure to be around and I also met a guy names Mark who is a really good painter. It’s too bad that I met him so late as he left back to his home country a few days ago. It was an overall decent time, and nothing overly spectacular. It was nice to be with others. Then after a few hours of this we tiredly made our way to Vans to crash for the night.

Sunday (11th):
SO after I made several trips back and forth from Kurobe to Toyama picking up things I forgot in the first place I went to rehearsal at CIC and had a makeup run. It was overall a bit stressful but now that I’ve done it we have divvied out jobs and I also know what I plan on doing. It’s far easier to know what I am going to be doing for the actors and far less time consuming as well. Once this was over me and Saiyuri went to Uozu for Indira ( yay! Indian food!) It was nice having dinner with her. She really is a sweet girl. A bit crazy and gaijin loving, but a friend nonetheless. With dinner I was aiming for my bed, the weekend was indeed long and crazy! However I was masochistic enough to go watch Saiyuri, Adam, Brian, Brett, and Nana bowl for two hours. THEN I went home! O.o

Sorry the last bit of this was rushed. I’ve been falling behind with my posts, and on top of that I’m nearly ready to pass the hell out from tiredness as I type.

Sumo Weekend! March 20-22nd

Saturday 20th:
SOOOOO SUMO TIME!!!! Waking up on a Saturday morning at 7am is a horrible thing, but well worth it as I met up with the others in front of Toyama station to check in and pay money for the tickets and rental cars. It was also the first morning in what it seems like eternity that we were able to enjoy a sunny and cloud free day. It was a wonderful feeling to have the sun beam down on us as we embarked on our journey to Osaka! The car ride was interesting, full of good music, conversation and random bouts of sleep. However we ended up hitting a traffic jam and what would have been a four or five hour trip turned into an eight hour adventure (as we did get lost once). Nevertheless we arrived in Osaka, checked in our hostel, and ventured out for some energy replacement. The group decided on this all you can eat pizza place a few blocks from our hostel. It ended up being a magnificent choice since we managed to get buffet style food ( not just pizza; chicken, salad, sweets, fruits, etc…) and an hour nomihodai all for around $16 bucks or \ 1500 yen. After stuffing ourselves, good conversation, and bathroom breaks Ryan, Nicole, Laruel, Alexis, Revan, and I went for some Baskin Robins (where we saw a all girl group dressed in wild electric/neon colors. I assume they were a roller derby team! LAWL), and then went to an appliance store to shop around. I ended up purchasing a deck of “KiKi’s Delivery Service” playing cards, and a Final Fantasy XIII figurine ( I currently have 4 out of 6 now). With money successfully spent on something OTHER than food the group went over to the Karaoke place next door and sang it up for three hours. My love Nicole can truly sing and we sound pretty good together. If I go out for the charity show/play next year I hope she auditions. It would be awesome to hit the stage with her!

Sunday 21st:
The day of the SUMO. Another early morning for us we marched down the streets of Osaka at eight in the morning to watch the Sumo matches held in the arena a few blocks from out hostel. Although there were around fourteen people total on this Sumo Trip the same group I hung out with the night before was the same group I traveled with to Sumo. Once we were seated that was it! We managed to be at the Sumo tournament from 8:30am to 4:00pm. I wouldn’t have guessed that I would enjoy sumo as much as I did. I can truly understand why the Japanese love it so (though it leads me to think about the irony in it all. For a country that can stand the idea of an over weight person to have a sport that basis is on being a rather large person both in muscle and in weight… it makes me just shake my head. Japan will make sense one day haha ). The only break from watching the matches (8:30am-2:00pm preliminary matches) was a quick trip to the local Mc Donald’s for lunch ( in which I lost my ticket getting snacks from the konbini on the way back and had to ask to be let back in! Thankfully being black had its advantages since I was like the only one there so he HAD to remember me! Hahaha ) The major sumo players came out around 2:30pm and they were wearing their special garbs and went through a few ceremonies before it began. These matches included the Yokozunas! (Which nostalgically brings me back to the first time I played Tekken) When Sumo was finally over the group simply walked around Osaka and I watched them play some games in the arcade. This one particular game that flips tables for points is something I know Tocky would LOVE. When I have a chance I will upload the video for viewing. The night ended finally with Alexis and I going to Toho Cinemas to watch Disney’s “Princess and the Frog” movie. We both quite enjoyed it! I felt like I owed that movie a theater watching (cause otherwise torrents go!). Disney has been around for a hot minute and we are just now getting a black princess. Yay! for progress ^^.

Sunday 22nd:
The entire group went to breakfast together and then hopped in our respective cars for the trip home. The trip home was relatively shorter then the trip going to Osaka and I managed to catch an hour or two of sleep in the process. When I got back to Toyama I ate some foods at Vans house, said my goodbyes and caught the train home!

Marching On and almost at max health!! Yatta!

March 15th:
Went to Koshino for a small assembly to get a present from the sannensei kids.

March 16th:
Koshino Graduation day!:

This was an interesting day for me. I brought along a former JET who taught my graduating class the year before me. She crashed at my house the night before and wanted to surprise everyone at the school. This was all well and good, however the problem with this was that all the attention and respect that would have been afforded to me during my time there managed to get usurped because she was an old friend to the staff and could speak fluent Japanese. Needless to say for the whole of the day I felt rather low. The ceremony was nice (long) but nice and I managed to hold back the tears. Once graduation was over it was time to wait outside and meet the graduation class for pictures and conversation and so on. I took as many pictures as I could with my kids and when my girl Honoka gave me flowers I lost it. I cried, she cried and we hugged each other. I truly do love that girl, and I truly loved those students. I can only hope that the children I teach after this upcoming spring break will be nearly as fun and easy to love as them. After all the graduates cleared out we went back into the school with the intention to leave for the day. However unlike Su thought we had to stay. I was told by her not to bring my bento because we traditionally left after graduation so I had no food. Su was told the same thing and yet the school magically had a bento made ready for her. So in the end she ate, I didn’t and she didn’t even notice I had nothing to eat so I went hungry for the day until we were allowed to leave at four in the afternoon. Needless to say by the time I could eat I was past the hunger stage. Su packed her things and I took her to the train station so she could head off to another friends home. I felt like crap. Regardless however I returned home and freshened up for the Enkai at Auqa hotel at six.

Time for Enkai!
It was far more formal then other Enkais that I have been to, if only because we had chairs and tables to sit at instead of tatami rooms and low tables. As far as Enkai’s are concerned however I prefer the tatami room parties better. Either way I didn’t speak all that much, and a lot of the time I wasn’t really sure of what was going on. However towards the end when it was time to pour drinks for others, I talked a bit more to people and I began to feel better about my day. The best time however was when we went to a karaoke bar and had drinks and sang. I was far more acknowledge there and a teacher even told me that he wants to speak English with me because he is trying to learn. By the end of the night ( and the judo teacher here is soo cool and a good harmonica player) I felt good enough to say the day wasn’t a total loss and returned home. Had no time to just wonder about and stay up late since I had work the following morning.

March 17th:
After work around eight o’clock I met up with Brian, Brett, Lawrence, Zack (his gf), Saiyuri, Yuki, Rie and her friend for a St. Patrick’s day drink and meal( the karage was delicious!). Most all of us wore green and it was a good feeling. We talked and had some laughs. Took a few pictures and once we were done with one bar and Yuki was totally wasted we went to the neighboring bar ( MoMo bar) and had a few more drinks there. We all had a good night, and it was also the second night in a row where I was out drinking on a weeknight when I had work the following day. However being of Irish blood myself it would be truly wrong for me not to have a Guinness and some drinks on St. Patty’s day. So it was all good!

March 18th:
Chuo Elementary school Graduation: Yet, another set of my kids are going off away from me. I quite adored these kids as well. The ceremony was nice and at the end I waited outside and took pictures and video of the kids. A few of my kids who are particularly found of me, asked me to get into pictures with them and gave me high-fives and such. I told them I’d miss them and they told me they loved me!. Cool thing is I will probably be able to teach a few of them as they are moving to middle school and I teach at one of the two junior high schools that Chuo kids filter into. Saying farewell to all my students proved to be far harder then I’d ever imagined it to be.

March 19th:
Friday and the day before Sumo I met up with Hilda and Evelyn in Toyama to hang out, eat Mexican and karaoke. It’s Evelyn’s last week or so in Japan before she leaves back to Brazil for good. I’m going to miss her. She is a really nice girl. So we all went to Mexican where I met up with all my other Brazilian friends and a few people I didn’t know. I ate greedily and too much but the food was really good. Then Karaoke time happened, and we had a good time together. The two Japanese girls that I met for the first time that night were really cute and nice. One was very bold and quite westernized which made me like her even more. I found out later on that she was thirty one years old and I cursed the Japanese stay young forever jean. It truly isn’t fair!! Once I said good bye to everyone for the night, and gave extra hugs to Evelyn I crashed at Vannie’s for the night for what was to be a good weekend!

March continues.. (still sick!)

March 8th-14th

Monday March 8th:
Normal day for the most part with the exception that there was sun. I went to Koshino thinking that the small assemble was that day but the dates were mixed so I was there a week earlier then I had to be. So I drove back to school and simply continued with my day. Later on that night I had my Eikawa as usual and I did my best to each them web language. Like “lol” or “ASAP” and so on. It was amusing how focused and interested they were in such things.

Tuesday March 9th:
It was a normal non-working day at Koshino until I left for Chuo’s rokunensei farewell party for teachers. It was a very cute set up and they had food and a place setting for me. They were all decorated and very cute. The program the kids put on what nice, and I even participated in a quick charades game. Finally at the end, a pair of kids presented handwritten letters by the students to each teacher along with two daisies. It was really sweet and my daisies are holding up strong even a week later. When it was over I stayed around to mingle with the students and take many pictures with them. I hope to prepare something nice for Chuo at the end of my year teaching there. I am not sure yet if I am having my schools changed but we will see.

Wednesday March 10th:
Work as usual and once I returned home I did a small make-up trail for Lawrence so I could take a picture for the charity show. It turned out looking pretty cool. Later that night I had Jacks Eikawa and it was good times like it always is.

Thursday March 11th:
NOTHING!!!!(besides work) YAY!!!! Cleaning mostly!

Friday March 12th:
After work, I hoped in the shower and got ready to go to Shino’s surprise farewell party at Peyote’s in Uozu. Wore my boats I acquired for my pirate costume a few weeks back and met up with people there. It was nice hanging out with everyone, and we took a good deal of pictures. Once Lawrence finally brought Shino we said surprise to her and all began taking pictures with her. Lawrence had brought a Polaroid camera which took instant pictures and so we used those to make her a farewell scrap book. It was really cool. Oddly enough 70% of the girls at the party were on their rag and thus we took a PMS picture together. It’s true what they say being around others who have it can do to you. Also Sara had some random drunk Japanese boys believing that I was Jay Zs cousin. >.> Oh being black in Japan never ceases to come up with new surprises and unbelievable gullibility

Saturday March 13th:
Sooo I woke up early to catch the train to Toyama, for a fashion show photo shoot. Me and Val met on the train and arrived at Vans house a bit past noon. Rebekah was already there and she was to be the photographer of the whole ordeal. That and it was cool to see her especially since I don’t get to see her too often. There Van teased up Vals hair, and then we organized ourselves as best we could and packed up our things and taxied over to the Ajito where the photo shoot was to take place. There I did her makeup using pink, black, bright orange and white and then dressed her in Vans outfit (corset and lace pants set). From there it was holding lights and having Val pose as Rebekah took pictures of her. The overall look together turned out pretty amazing. For amateurs (some far more practiced then others) we did a damned good job. I managed to see a few photos before I had to rush off to Uozu and they looked good. I am excited to get the photos after they have been edited and begin working on my makeup portfolio.

Leaving Toyama both Val and I caught the train back to Uozu and met up with Adam and Revan. From there I purchased cake and walked to Christine’s house. There was Marissa, Yasmine, Adam, Revan, David, Christine, myself and Val. There wasn’t much food there even though it was a potluck. Everyone mostly made deserts or something sweet since its much easier to do that then it is to make an actual dish. So Marissa brought apples and dip( the dip was good and sweet), Christen made Chinese soup, Adam made mashed potatos, I brought three types of cake, Revan brought Banana cream pie, David brought chocolate covered micon (like an tangerine). Everything there was good but we were all so sugared out. The movies we watched ( since this WAS Niikawa movie night) were The Rock, and Forgetting Sarah Marshal. Both entertaining movies in their own right, though Forgetting Sarah Marshal was far more entertaining even though it was the second time I had seen that movie.

Sunday March 14th:
Another early morning, and more money spent going to Toyama. This time it was a costume meeting at Seattle’s best. Unfortunately only three out of the five of us made it, but we discussed matters of importance anyway. However my health wasn’t the best that morning so once the meeting was over I went back home and cleaned my house up some so Yasmine could drop by and I do her hair. I picked her up from the station around six and from there went to my house, I spent a bit over an hour perming and blow drying her hair. After this was done we decided to eat and went to this place I had never been before. The place itself was pretty cool, and I wouldn’t mind going there in the future.

Good week, Still ill

March 1st:
It’s March already. The months are going by so quickly and yet sometimes I feel like the days are so long. Long because of the tight schedule I keep and not long enough because I never get EVERYTHING I want done in a day. Although I’m sure I could try harder to accomplish all thing on the ‘Anita wants to do’ list, but I truly don’t have the energy. This week the cold I felt coming on the past weekend was in full stride. Nevertheless I went to work and still kept my dinner date with Adam and Revan. I met them both at a Chinese restaurant off of route eight and the food was good, but rather expensive. The company however was nice and rather laid back. I’d didn’t have to fork over too much energy and it was greatly appreciated. After dinner we said our goodbyes and I rushed to my Eikawa class.

March 2nd:
Work as usual…well not usual, I haven’t been teaching regular class or teaching at all in either one of my junior high schools for at least a month. Just there clocking ours to get paid. After work I mulled around until 6:45 when I left out to meet Adam in Asahi for Taiko drum class. The community center where it was held was in the middle of nowhere and even though I am far out and away from bigger cities I am glad I’m not THAT far out. Once I got there Adam showed a few minutes after me, and with that we walked into class. A large group of kids were there. Cute kids and chubby ones too. I have to admit seeing two chubby brothers was a refreshing site. Seeing kids that eat heartily is a nice look, and a change from the overall stark norm (skiiiiiiny) Japanese kid. For a while we sat on the side and watched the younger kids practice. They were very impressive, and all happened to be Adams students. It was here that I finally met a girl names Usagi. I know it’s a dorky sailor moon fan thing to do, but I was rather genki once I learned her name. One thing is also certain is that I’ll never forget it. Once the older players started me and Adam played the small drums for them. Then they decided to teach us a small routine on the big drums. It was cool but not that easy. We were far less stylish and cool looking I can say that much!

Wednesday 3rd:
The beginning of Jack’s Eikawa class. Taking over for him again since this is a rather busy month for him. They are good/nice people and we just talked throughout the whole time. It was good since the class is to improve English conversation and pronunciation. So there is no better practice then actually having full blown English conversation on topics of interest.

Saturday 6th:
D&D!!! FUCK YEA!! Ok, I think I honestly just like saying that phrase XD. In any case my D&D crew met up at Seattle’s Best in Toyama for a round of game. It was the first time in quite a while that we had all played, and I’m sure it will be a while afterwards before we have another session. Everyone in general is very busy and thus haven’t managed to find consistent times where we can all get together and play. It also doesn’t help that we all are scattered and live in different parts of Toyama. It was interesting playing out in the open for the first two hours because the conference room in the back was already occupied. Nevertheless we had a good time while drinking our coffee. After two hours had passed the conference cleared out and we moved our party in there. It was a far better environment to play and be more vocal now that we weren’t surrounded by random people watching a play. However at this point my illness was really kicking me and once the session I simply went home and called it a day.

Sunday 7th:
First play rehearsal. I don’t have many lines and I am GLAD. Granted I can read romanji and say everything fairly well, my pronunciation on several phrases weren’t very good. It was cool because I got to see the other actors practice, and meet my team of slaves (in the play) and how they were going to interact with me on stage. Overall it was pretty cool. I will have to practice often and do my best to remember my lines. Once practice was over I ended up hanging with Johnny F and Hilda for the remainder of the day. We chilled with Alexis at Seattle’s Best after practice then met up with Jarrad and John at another café later. Then we went and had dinner at this Italian place. The food was pretty good, and there was indeed interesting conversation. However I did more listening then anything simply because I’m a first year. Most conversation was about things in past years, so I just say back an observed. My cold was dragging down pretty hard anyway so I didn’t have much energy to participate to heavily. After dinner we parted with Jarrad and John and found ourselves at Starbucks just relaxing. It was kinda disturbing how we just café hopped the whole day. Granted it was interesting but I’d rather not make that a habit. Days like today can empty a wallet fast.