Damn this cold to HELL!

For some reason I can’t get rid of this cold. There were a few a days when I thought the cold was done for but I was wrong. I got back all of my old symptoms and breathing through my mouth. All this happened on the eve of my awesome vacation home.

It really hasn’t been too long since I was back home but you really start to miss the small things of Hawaii when you’re away for so long. I guess the cold some how resurfaced this past weekend when Krystal and I did our Christmas shopping. We started at about 10:30 and finished at 8:00 or so. Can you believe that? Crazy!! I don’t remember the last time I was walking so much. Actually Krystal was really organized and made a list of all the things we needed to buy. That made the day go a little quicker. I fell kind of bad too because every time we tried to go shopping before I was a little pissy because I HATE SHOPPING! So I made her do all the shopping in one day. But yeah we totally bussed our asses that day.

On a positive note the shopping wasn’t too bad because it was snowing! Supposedly it’s a freak accident when it snows here in December. But it did and it was pretty cool. Krystal was saying how cold it was but I thought that if it snowed it meant that the temperature was actually warmer. Anyway it was still cold. And with all the shopping you would believe that we finished right? WRONG! We both have a few last minute things to purchase before we leave tomorrow.

Krystal has been really excited to go back home. When I went home this past summer she was going to come but decided to wait until winter. I guess she really wanted to miss Hawaii before she came back. And now she misses it. She was so excited that I think she called Lisa last night for a couple hours talking about what to bring to Hawaii and what they were going to do when they got there. I guess I pretty excited too. The feeling of going home hasn’t really hot me yet. Maybe it’s because I haven’t finished packing. I should be getting that done today. Then its just one more day of work and then on the place I go.

Well I better get back to work…. So see everyone in a couple of days. I hope I can get over this cold by tomorrow or at least start to kick it. No one likes to be sick on a plane….

I got a FEVER...

and the only cure, is more “W!” So this past Friday, Krystal, Kevin, Val. William, and I went to Osaka, for the WEEZER CONCERT!! Jealous??? You better be because the show was freakin’ awesome! It’s been a while since I went to a concert and I was glad that I started by seeing Weezer. The “W” that the band has on stage behind them as they play was one of the most memorable things in my life. We walked into the already crowded small standing room only concert hall and the only thing I could see was the giant “W”. As we waited for the band to come out the anticipation was killing me. And sure enough the band came out and said a few funny things in Japanese and on the first note of the first song the “W” goes off!! It has got to be one of the coolest things in the world. And since that very first note, all the way back home to Kyoto I couldn’t get the image out of my head. I think it might be in fact burned into my retinas.

Anyway the concert was on a Friday in Osaka. To get to Osaka, it takes about 45 minutes or so on the express train. The gates opened at 6 and the band was going on at 7. The thing is that we get out of work at 4:30. That means we needed to get to the station and leave by 5:15 to get there in time to get up close. This would be impossible if we followed the rules. So Krystal and I asked our schools to give us permission to go the education center and from there we checked in and then left right out the door. We were able to get home by 4:20 and make it to Osaka by 5:45. The only thing was that we needed to take more trains within Osaka and that took an extra 30 minutes. As we got to the concert venue there was already a huge crowd by the gates. On our tickets it said random standing space but we also had numbers. They said Group 21 #1-6. This meant that we were the 21th group of people to go in, this made getting in semi-orderly. Anyway we get in and the whole stage is step and I crap my pants. This brings up to the “W”.

The band was so AWESOME! They really know how to play to the Japanese crowd. I was impressed with the Japanese fans as well as the band. The fans new pretty much all the words of the songs off the new album as well as the old school stuff. It was pretty funny jumping there and hearing the guy behind me screaming, “ipu U wanto to desutoroii mai suweta, ohh, woo woo woo. Jes puru the su-ed ando waku a-wey.” (Translation; If you want to destroy my sweater, woo woo woo, just pull the thread and walk away.) HAHAHA it was pretty funny. Another cool thing was when the band finished a song and walked off stage, the lights all went out and we all thought the concert was over but somewhere right behind us Rivers Cuomo was standing on a small stage playing an acoustic version of Island in the Sun. IT WAS CRAZY!! He finished the set and the rest of the band was on stage again and this time they were asking if there was someone in the audience that could play acoustic guitar to come to the stage. I never wanted to be able to play guitar so bad in my life. But anyway they got this guys that was closer to the front to come up and play The Sweater Song with the band. The dude looked like he was crying at one point of the song. God, if only I knew how to play guitar. Anyway, Weezer finished the set and it was time to leave. So as the Japanese ushers were trying to get out I went up to the stage and started asking the stage crew/roadies fir anything of the band. The girls in front of me were yelling for something and one of the guys ripped off the concert song set list and threw it to them. SHIT so I started screaming “Nani ga Chodai!” (Translation: Give me Something!) But they were just ignoring me. So in English I yell out, “Do you guys have anything from the band up there? Anything, anything, come on man, I came all the way from Hawaii to see these guys.” Then one of them turns around and asks, “You’re from Hawaii? Which island?” I say, “I’m from Oahu, Honolulu, you know.” Then he asks, “Where in Honolulu?” I say, “Kaimuki!” He picks off something off the floor and walks over and hands me something, ignoring all the girls in front me and hands me a PICK! It was one of River Cuomo’s PICKS!! HOLY SHIT!! As the guy is passing me the pick he tells me that he used to leave in Maui and in Kailua. Is that AWESOME?! I can’t believe I got to see Weezer and get a souvenir.

I got some pictures for you guys to drool over. MUAHAHAHAHA

This is the "W" that I got burned into my retinas.

This is not a picture from the concert because cameras weren't allowed but I just wanted you guys see what the "W" looked like with Rivers in front... totally aweosme!

This is the announcement we got, just to show you guys that I wasn't making nay of this up,

This is RIVERS CUOMO'S Pick that I got for being from Hawaii!

Enough gloating, anyway I should be coming home very very very soon. Can’t wait to see everyone and eat some Zippy’s!!

I got a fever and the only cure is more “W”!!

The New Me

Check out the new harido!!

I’m just sitting here counting the days until we get to go home. From where I’m sitting it’s no more than 6 more working days. I can’t wait. I miss all the green mountains, blue sea, and white rolling clouds. Ok lets not get too cliché, but you know what I mean. I miss the small and simple things from home. Things like Large sized drinks actually being large. I miss Zippy’s and their oh-so-culturally mixed foods available to order at anytime. I miss the fact that things other than convenient stores are open 24 hours. I miss hanging out at PH and cruising with Jake guys. I even miss some of my family members. But the one thing I’m really missing is the warm 80 degree weather. It’s too cold here. I was trying to compare last year’s winter to this years and it seem like this year is much colder. I hate that I have to shed four layers of clothes whenever I get home and just to step out again I have to put them back on. If I’m not mistaken, Hawaii is still T-shirt and shorts weather right?

Well we started our Christmas shopping yesterday. It wasn’t successful at all. It seems like a bunch of you are going to get candy. Actually I’ve been keeping my eyes open for some of the rare candies that are found only in Japan but they don’t seem to exist anymore. Either that or Hawaii has finally caught up with Japan and their confectionary market.

So anyway we started off early right after work and walked around but the “dying hunger” was effecting us both. (Me and Krystal) After a long brainstorming session, we decided to go to a place called Café 60’s. A theme restaurant/café where they have 50’s and 60’s Americana as decoration. The first floor is a American western theme where they have some wooden tables and chairs to look like an old saloon. It was a little crowded so we decided to go upstairs to the 50’s diner and it was pretty awesome! The diner gave an eerie sense of comfort being surrounded by Elvis and Marilyn Monroe pictures and paraphernalia. The floor was tiled in the black and white checkers (like Joel’s house I believe) and the booths were painted in alternating baby blue and baby pink. It was truly a 50’s diner. Anyway we ordered a few burgers and even a salad. The salad wasn’t an ordinary salad. It had mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, and pesto all under a balsamic vinegar dressing. SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOD! I really wanted to get a shake with my dinner but they didn’t have any, but I got the next best thing, a coke float. The burgers were pretty awesome compared to Japan standards. Krystal got an avocado burger, which was basically a regular burger with thick guacamole type spread. And I got the 60’s burger. It had the usual lettuce, cheese, tomato, but it also had a fried fish filet and teriyaki chicken. IT WAS AWESOME!! I believe Jack Black calls this type of burger a “Surf and Turf.” All I know is that it was crazy good. It also went perfectly with the coke float.

After the dinner we tried to do more shopping but it was too cold to walk around anymore. Plus we were failing in finding all the things we wanted to get for that day, so we decided to treat ourselves to a relaxation break at Latone (massage and relaxation center). Then we came home and watched the movie “The Notebook.”

I heard a lot of people talk about how good “The Notebook” was so I needed to see for myself. It was a pretty intense romance story that had some really sincere parts to it. Not to mention that Rachel McAdams was in it. I remember someone telling me how their grandpa got totally hooked on Rachel McAdams after he saw this movie and I can totally see why. She plays such a fun and crazy girl that almost anyone could and would fall in love with. I thought she was pretty hot in Red Eye (a shitty movie that was watch-able because of her) but she really held her own when it came to acting in The Notebook. Ehh it was pretty good.

Anyway last Friday we went out with Eluke (Elisa and Luke) to dinner on a double date thing. They wanted to take me and Krystal out for a quiet birthday dinner. We ended up at DeMonde which is this burger place (not as good as 60’s Café) and had a few drinks totally stuffed ourselves. It was nice catching up with Elisa and Luke and hanging out. After dinner we decided to go to karaoke because Luke had only been a few times and with big groups so he hadn’t had good microphone time. We sang our hearts for 2 hours and decided to call it a night.

Saturday was supposed to be Krystal’s hair cut day but everywhere were went ended up being booked. Krystal had been looking forward to cutting her hair and getting a straight perm. (?) Anyway she seemed pretty bummed about all the places being full but we happened to check out this small place right by our house. It was called the Like Like Hair Resort. Can it be Li-ke Li-ke as in Likelike Dive INN? It actually was. The guy who owned the place visited Hawaii, Oahu and loved it. He saw a sign for Like Like and decided liked the way it sounded so he named the store that. The place is kind of a hair salon place for younger adults. There were lots of deals for college students and high school students.

Well anyway as Krystal talked about getting her hair done I kind of got a notion to get my hair cut too. I wanted to get rid of the old generic Asian look and get a generic Japanese look. So anyway after 12 years of having the same haircut I got a new style. It may not look as drastic too you guys but I’ve had the same hair for over 12 years and I needed to change it. I remember just before coming on JET I asked Lisa and Krystal whether or not I should change my hair style We talked about a lot of different options but the bottom line was that I looked good with my original hairdo. .So I never got it changed until this past weekend. So how does it look? Well I can say now that my Asian disguise is now complete. I can completely blend into the Japanese populous.

Then on Sunday I went to visit my aunt who lives in Osaka. She’s the aunt that I just found out recently that she is my aunt. Anyway the last time I saw her was when my parents came to visit me in October and I never really got in touch with her since. I made a promise to my mom that I visit her before I leave for Hawaii so I did. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Well the last thing I remember was how drunk my aunt was and how much she was irritating me that night in October. But she’s actually really nice when she’s sober. We got to her house and chatted for a while. Then she took us to eat yakiniku. The place had really good Korean food and we totally pigged out. Afterwards we went to karaoke and had a good time. It was kind of weird because my aunt is 31 and I’m 25. She’s only 6 years older which could easily be an older sibling. During the night she would phase in and out of aunt mode. It seems like sometimes she was trying to be a good aunt and at other times it was like she was a friend of ours partying on a Sunday. My aunt’s boyfriend whom I just called “uncle,” is pretty cool too. He’s the one that keeps my aunt in check when she starts to veer. It was really fun seeing them again. But it did wear us out for work on Monday. I think that’s why I had so much trouble shopping yesterday. The body was running on empty and I need to rest. Unfortunately today is clean-up day since we neglected the apartment for about a week. And there is a lot that needs to be done before we go back home for the holidays. But then again just 6 more days….

Proficient?

A picture from my birthday party that Krystal threw for me... and yes I was a bit intoxicated.


Krystal doing what she does best, cutting the cheese...cake.

I’m trying to be a good blogger now… so what’s up dudes and dudettes? This past weekend went by really quick and I have no idea what happnened. Well I know what happened but I can’t believe its already over. Yes that can only mean that today is Monday. Well I’ll start on Friday an bring you up to speed.

Friday night me and my friend Kevin had an enkai. (Another work/school/teacher party.). This is the school that I usually go with even though they’re not my school this year. I think it had been a good 6 months or so since the last time I saw everyone and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. They were still the same bunch of teacher that accused each other of being gay or perverted., just like usual. This time we went to a Chinese restaurant and it wasn’t all that bad. Especially when the night’s theme is to drink as much as you can, food is not always everyone’s top priority. So we drank to our hearts content for two hours only to move to another a bar to drink some more. The funniest part of the evening was this long winded discussion I had with one of the teachers.

Let me start from the beginning. First of allthe dude was wearing a shirt that had a cat “doing” a turtle from the back. I found it highly inappropriate for a teacher to wear, nevertheless it was funny. I was raging his taste in clothes when he made a crack about how crappy my aloha shirts were. I don’t claim to be an expert but I did live in Hawaii fro 24 years and I have owned many aloha shirts so, 24 years experience in purchasing and wearing aloha shirts would make me a somewhat expert right? Right… anyway he claimed that he had 4 aloha shirts that were so cool that I couldn’t wear them. So I asked him to describe to me what the shirts looked like and he described on of his shirts as being a pink silk shirt with a tiger on it. WHAT THE HELL?? That’s not an Aloha shirt! So I tried to explain to him that the shirts he had were nto aloha shirt. This is where he got semi-offended and became really defensive saying that*
a) Each shirt was about 150 dollars
b) Each shirt had a collar (?)
c) And that each shirt was made of silk.
d) And they had tigers and dragons on them
e) And they had buttons made out of walnuts

Like I said earlier I’m no expert but I don’t think those are aloha shirts. I tried to explain to him that an ALOHA shirt is a collared shirt that had buttons but then the main part is that the picture on the Aloha Shirt should give somewhat of an “island feeling, paradise, vacation, or the Aloha spirit.” There are in fact some Aloha shirts that may have dragons or tigers on them but in a way that describes paradise or the islands. So he got really pissed and tried to explain to me that his shirts were Aloha shirts because they were made by a designer that is popular in Japan… etc. I was really drunk during this discussion as well as my teacher but he never could accept the fact that he might not have any Aloha shirts and that indeed all he made were loud shirts. So he tells me that he is for certain that I would LOVE the shirts that he owned but never in a hundred years would he give them to me. And that’s how the drunkenness went on.

So of course on Saturday I slept in. And by sleeping in I really slept in. I think I woke up around 1:30 or so. It was too cold to do anything outside so me and Krysatl decided to stay indoors all day. We watched some TV and had some really good polish sausage omelets. That night we decided that we better open the Japanese books and study. You see the next day Sunday we had our Japanese proficiency test. There are four levels of the test and depending on what level you’re in you take a certain level just to say, “I am proficient in Japanese according to this test I took and passed with a 60%”. We’ve been taking Japanese lesson to better our conversational skills but somewhere done the line we decided that we should make it official by taking the test. BAD IDEA. The studying didn’t last too long but our brains were too mushy to continue.

So on Sunday we woke up at the butt crack of dawn to go to the testing center and take a language proficiency test. How did we do?　I'm sure that Krystal did fine, knowing that she speaks Japanese but I did horribly.　I totally bombed it. It was such a crappy feeling. The feeling that you recognize everything but nothing was for sure. The whole test was like that. All you need is a 60% to pass but I don’t even think I did that much. Hopefully my guessing skills were still sharp after being unused since my UH days. At least the test is over with and I don’t have to worry about it anymore. I’m more interested in speaking Japanese and understanding rather than knowing grammar points. I actually felt pretty good during the listening section of the test since I could basically understand everything that was being said. That was the easy part, you can throw kanji and grammar out the window though. It’s finally over…..

Well I guess that’s what happens for waiting until the day before to study for the test. And now it’s Monday. Another whole week until I get to sleep in…. goddamn its cold….