My Parents... IN JAPAN!!!!

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My parents might seem disoriented if you see them anytime in the next month. They might need some time to re-adjust after they return from a really strange trip with their overbearing and bossy son in Japan. However, their overbearing and bossy son only lost one parent once (sorry dad), so the bossiness seemed to have worked. It was great to see them!!!

Last weekend I played soccer! It sucked and I was sore for 3-4 days afterward, but it was fun and we won!

Maybe it's needless to say this, but the Japanese people who play in soccer tournaments (even if it's just a group of teachers) take everything WAY too seriously. There were a couple of times I feared for my life because people got really pumped about the game. Plus, I was the most retardedly dressed person of everyone. I didn't have a wind-breaker, tall socks with shin guards, spikes, or even running shoes. I played in a jacket and my skateboarding shoes. It was funny.

Luckily there were really good players on my team, so I didn't have to do much and we still won. I think the Ubuyama teachers are so good because there is nothing else to do in Ubuyama besides play sports, so they get a lot of practice. I, however, am much to lazy and frightened of the cold weather to venture outside as of late. I'm sure I'll start in again when it starts to warm up. This has been the longest winter of my life. I mean... WTF? Warm up already!!!!! I'm sick of it.



after the games, the male teachers studied the other teams' moves...
i mostly just sat around twiddling my thumbs




My car was in the shop for the shakken inspection, so I had to get a ride early from Ms. Kanayama.

After the game, we went to an onsen and went drinking. I love my double chin here.

Burning a volcano... seems redundant somehow...

I descended from my small, teeny, tiny, minuscule, microscopic dot of a village today and found the volcano (Mt. Aso) ablaze. That's right... they burn their volcano... BURN a frickin' VOLCANO!!!

wow....

WOW....

that seems really awesome.... and it WAS really awesome!
the best part were the throngs of hobbiest photographers with thousands of dollars of camera equipment around their necks walking in the middle of the roads.

and what do they use to protect the public in case the fire were to get out of control???

a frickin' hand-me-down K-car (white plate vehicles that are powered by lawnmower engines) spray-painted red and outfitted with a siren.

Seriously, that thing couldn't be holding enough water to extinguish a campfire!!

oh, Japan...

3333段の石段やバレンタインスデーやカラオケ！3333 steps, Valentine's Day and karaoke...

This weekend I went with about 19 other people to climb Japan's 3333 stairs. It was fun and terrible all at the same time. I'm not sure how long it took, but maybe it was about 3 hours round trip. The stairs are all stone and must have really been a task to build, and I must say the cause was not worth it. I think it was a terrible idea, personally. A ski lift would have been a lot smarter.

Apparently there is a larger set of stairs (8888) somewhere around Hiroshima, but those aren't stone. I definitely won't be climbing those anytime soon.

At the top you are greeted by some sunburned Japanese men.

Speaking of red things...
Here are the valentine's cards I made for all of my junior high students because I am such a nice teacher.


In Japan, it's customary for women to give the men chocolates on V-day, so I got a bunch of chocolate. I still haven't eaten it all yet 1 week later. Here was a couple of the more interesting things I got...
Yes, that's wine chocolate... and if you eat one of them in Japan you cannot legally drive a car... go figure. For some reason I got quite a bit of alcohol-filled chocolate. I am now trying to plan them into my schedule, because eating them means that I will either be stuck at home or need a designated driver to get back home.


Oh, and one of my teacher's made me some delicious choco cake.


I will now leave you with some images of me and some teachers singing some mean karaoke!


Mt. Kuju the other morning from the front of my house. Just waiting to turn green...

Yeah... so... so, I completely skipped January...

So, yes, I completely skipped the month of January with my posts... so, what have I been up to???

I brought in the new year...



I turned 27 years old...


I crashed my car into a guardrail...


I woke up and my house we 34 F inside...


I rode the tallest Ferris Wheel in Kyushu...


I prayed to the Valentine's Shinto Shrine... yes... you heard me right!


and yes... once again... I ate raw chicken :(


Other things to note:
I finally conquered Rubik's wretched cube...
My rice cooker that broke a while back started working again...
I attribute the resurrection of the rice cooker to my celebration of Setsubu (the Japanese equivalent of Halloween- where you scatter beans outside your house to fend off evil spirits and eat one bean for every year you are old. I didn't count how many I ate, but I did throw one on the ground in front of my house).
And, of course, I studied Japanese.

A lot happened, but not really. I'm mostly just lazy because it's cold out right now. Maybe when I thaw this spring I'll keep a better eye on the blog. Sorry...