The Return

Hey everybody!  Well it's been about 2 months or so since I have last blogged.  Apologies to all that have come back to my lame blog to see nothing at all.  Anyway, I thought I would get back into this whole blog business.  Currently I am back in El Paso for the holidays.  I arrived here on December 17th and it has been quite nice to be home.  Meeting family and friends definitely has a refreshing effect!

Well to just update you on the past few months I will just show you some pictures! :)

Cerezo Osaka soccer match in October.  This stadium is 5 minutes from my apartment.

My school had a festival in October.  They performed dances, plays and music.

Soccer team Christmas Dinner

Making random Japanese people use the Hula-Hoop!  Fun!

Volunteering to teach some Japanese kids how to play Heads Up 7-UP.  Swell time!

Matsubara Festival, a little festival close to my school.  Food, music, games...the lot.

Christmas time with Grandpa!

I'll be back with some more pictures very soon!  Thanks for reading.

peace

vince

What...Storm?

Hey blog readers!  How are you doing?  Well I'm happy to report that nothing serious happened when first hurricane in 2 years to hit Japan, Hurricane (Typhoon 台風) Melor came to shore in Osaka.  The winds were quite strong at night and I really couldn't sleep.  There was strong rain and wind for the duration of the night.  3am was probably the worst time for me.  I just watched the news on my cell phone and hoped nothing would break or fall apart.  The eye of the storm didn't hit Osaka directly luckily.  Unfortunately, other parts of Japan were not so lucky.  Here is a quick story that sums up the storm from The Examiner. Typhoon Melor  School was canceled for most of Osaka on Thursday.  I was glad because I really didn't want to venture outside with all that rain on the streets.  To sum it up, my first experience with a hurricane was uneventful, thankfully!

So today was the start of the 3rd term here at my school.  There are 4 terms total at my school.  Later this month is the school festival called 文化祭　"Bunkasai".  I talked about this event in the past, so look at the archives if you wish.  It will be held on the final Saturday and Sunday of October.  The bad thing is that I have to work on that weekend.  The good thing is that we get "make-up" days off the following Monday and Friday.  Brilliant!  That's another perk of working at a school in Japan.  When you have to work on a weekend, they will will usually give you the following Monday off or a day of your choice during the week!  I can't really complain about that! :)

This Saturday I will volunteer at a local Elementary school down the road from my high school.  They are having an "international festival".  That's a pretty vague term, but basically they will have some foreign English teachers and foreign exchange students from around the area to teach the kids about games from our countries.  From my school, 2 exchange students and I will volunteer to help.  I have to teach the kids from the elementary school about a simple game I used to play when I was a kid in school.  So the best game that I have memories of was Heads-up 7up!  That was a great game!  If you don't know this game, I'll give you the basic rules.  You get a group of students to come to the front of the class and have the rest of the students stay seated.  The seated students have to put their heads down on the desk with their eyes closed.  They have to stick their hand out with their thumb up.  The standing students will walk around the classroom quietly touching one students thumb.  Afterwards, the students who had their thumb touched will have to stand up and guess who picked them.  If they guess correctly, they get to stand up and join the standing group.  Pretty simple right?  Well I will see how it goes tomorrow!

I'm trying to decide where to travel this Christmas holiday season!  Any suggestions?  Until next time!

peace

vince

Meet Ms. Melor!

So it's been raining all day long here in Osaka.  I had a class this morning and it felt like it was night time.  Dark gloomy clouds were lurking overhead.  Well Typhoon (hurricane) Melor is heading towards Osaka right now.  It's supposed to arrive on Thursday morning.  We are supposed to see if there is an advisory at 7am on Thursday morning to see if we have to head into work in the morning.  So we shall see what happens.  I really don't think there will be too much trouble, but the rain should be abundant.  Those clouds were looking menacing as well.  Ok, I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.  I have to get ready to get soaked riding my bike home again today.  Take care!

peace

vince

Check out the location of the storm here.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/map/interactive/JAXX0071?from=36hr_topnav_business

Oh and this 大阪 means Osaka!

Typhoon season

Hello all 3 of my blog readers!! I hope this day finds you in good spirits. As for me, well I think I might be coming down with a retched cold. I suppose it is all my fault however. Last night I went for my weekly football practice. The weather looked a bit gloomy as I set off on my trusty bicycle. The sun was still shining bright in the late afternoon sky. The football pitch is about 20 or so minutes from my dwelling. I was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and some flip-flops. I was surprised because there was a bit of a nip in the air. Anyway, it started rain while we were playing football. That's no problem because the pitch is covered so we didn't get wet. Unfortunately it continued to rain, and I was forced to ride my trusty bike into the cold evening and onto the wet and slippery streets back home. Needless to say, I was freezing. I felt like a dog probably feels after a shower. Well, perhaps that's not the right analogy, as a dog probably feels great after a shower. Umm..well anyway, I arrived home and took a warm shower and I already started to feel horrible. Now today is nice and rainy again. I was chatting with my co-worker today and he said there should be a typhoon approaching Osaka tomorrow. Which basically means that it will rain all day long. Cold, rainy and gloomy for the next few days I fear. But that is life in Japan if you live close to water.

Two weekends ago I played in a football tournament in Kobe.  It was called the "International Charity Football Tournament".  Various teams from the Kansai region of Japan came to play in this tournament.  All proceeds went to charity, a charity for starving African children I heard.  There were eight teams in total.  The team I was on was the Osaka JET teachers team.  Obviously the players were Osaka JET teachers.  We ended up not losing any games.  We drew 3 games and won 2 games.  The last game we were down by 3 goals to 0, yet we still managed to come back and win 4-3.  We played six games, and I was completely tired after everything.  We arrived in Kobe at 8am and stayed there until 5pm.  It was a long day, but it was fun also.  We met many teams and players from around this area.  Most of them were foreign teachers, but there were also some Japanese teams too.

Last weekend my Xbox 360 died again.  The way you can tell that your Xbox has died is because 3 flashing red lights appear on the front.  This means "Hey, your xbox is now a fancy box of parts".  Last time this happened,  I had to get it fixed back home in the U.S.A.  However, I didn't want to deal with all that again.  So I just decided to buy a new one here in Japan.  It was on sale anyway at Amazon.jp.  I love Amazon.jp by the way.  You can literally buy anything from there and it is usually cheaper than buying it at the store.  Also you can ship everything for about 300￥ or about $3.00.  Cool!

Last weekend, my friends and I attended a J-League 2nd division soccer match.  The team name is Cerezo Osaka.  They play Nagai stadium which is about a 5 minute walk from my apartment.  The stadium they have also hosted the International track and field championships last year.  It's a really nice stadium, and I can see it from my apartment!  The match was a 1pm kick off, and in typical fashion we arrived about 1:20pm.  The match was fun and we drank some beers and ate unhealthy food.  All part of the experience I guess.  The Cerezo Team is doing quite well at the moment so they may get promoted to J-league 1st division!  That would be great, and it would make 4 teams from this area in the J-League 1st division, 2 teams from Osaka, 1 from Kyoto and 1 from Kobe.

Nagai Stadium

So after much debate with myself inside my head.  I have decided to buy a bed.  After living in Japan for 2 years of my life sleeping on top of a futon on the floor, I think my body needs a break.  So I am looking into buying a bed.  It's quite difficult though.  The sizes in Japan are different from the kind that I know in the U.S. .  The sizes in Japan are Single, Semi-Double and Double.  From what I gather a single is actually smaller than a "Twin" size in America.  So I think a Single may be a bit too small.  However, I don't really want to take too much of my limited space in my apartment with a large bed.  So I have to weigh my options.  To give you an idea of what I am looking at check out this link. http://www.nitori-net.jp/result.html?s.q=%8Br%95t%82%AB%83%7D%83b%83g%83%8C%83X&s.ie=Shift_JIS  This is a popular furniture shop in Japan.  It is quite cheap and the quality of the items are quite good as well.  I have bought my futon and various other articles in my room from here.  My price range is no more than $300 or ￥30,000.  I don't want to spend so much on a bed.  I've never been good at interior design when I was in America, so you can imagine how horrible I am here in Japan.  I will make my purchase next week and I will let you know how it goes.

Well it's about time for me to get out of here (work).  I had no classes today, so I used my whole afternoon writing this blog.  What a difficult job I have!  Talk to you all soon, have a brilliant week.

peace

vince

Docked and back in Japan!

Hey everybody! It's been a long week for me here in Japan. Last Friday I went left to Busan, South Korea with 3 of my friends. It was a wonderful trip! I had a lot of fun spending lots of time with my friends. Korea seemed like secondary really. It was more about laughs and having fun. We ate some delicious food, we hiked in Korean mountains, we wandered aimlessly through hordes of people trying to buy fish at an outdoor market and dodged reckless drivers in the street!

We started our trip with a boat ride. I didn't really know what to expect on the boat ride. However, I did know that it would be a 18 hour ride. The boat itself was a bit old and dingy, but it had a certain personality to it. Once we finally entered the boat we had to grab our room key. The room was a 4 bed bunk. It was very small and cramped but somewhat cozy. We put our luggage down in the room and continued to explore the ship. We went to the top deck of the ship to enjoy the views and the sea air. It was nice to get out of the big city. At about 7pm that night they served dinner. Surprisingly, the food was excellent. It was a buffet style with various Asian foods with a smattering of random western food like fries. That night we bought some beers from the vending machines and drank on the top deck. It was quite chilly and windy up there, but the beers went down well. My friends girlfriend felt a bit sea sick so she went to sleep. The rest of us went to run around like kids on the top deck with hurricane force winds at the top. The sea was quite ruff and we were swaying and hitting waves like crazy. Looking back on what we were doing, it was dangerous, but it was sure fun and a bit wet! haha

Here is sunset on the boat. With a view of the world's longest suspension bridge in Japan.

Sunrise on the boat, about 6:20 am.

This is a view of Busan, South Korea from the boat. The seas were so choppy!

When we arrived in Korea, we rode a taxi to the hotel that was on the other side of the city. The taxi was cheap! Only about $15 for a 30 minute taxi ride! South Korea in general is a very cheap country to visit. I brought $700 but I only changed $400 and I still had $100 dollars left from that. Our hotel was dirt cheap and it was not a bad hotel at all. It wasn't the nicest place on Earth but it got the job done. Plus, the beach was only about 10 minutes away. The streets of South Korea are a lot more dirty than Japan. There are parts of the streets that smell of horrible sewage. But it's not overpowering or anything. I was quite surprised at the the condition of some parts of Busan. For example, the Beach area is quite nice and there are very nice restaurants, a beach etc. In an area called Jalgachi, there are some areas that look like a proper third world country! Old women sitting in the middle of the road selling fish. We saw a lady literally preparing, gutting and cleaning fish on top of a drainage gutter. I wonder where these fish are coming from! Occurrences like that never happen in Japan. So to see it in a "rich" country like South Korea, I was surprised to say the least. At one point I was taking pictures of everything I saw, sometimes I would be far behind my friends because of my camera happy shooting. An interesting experience!

This was the beach about 10 minutes from our hotel.

One of the nicer areas of Busan.

On our last day we went to hike in the mountains. Now none of us were prepared to hike really! I was wearing some Converse all-stars and jeans. But we continued on our way anyway. My friend (following his Korea guidebook) lead us on a 2 hour journey to a lovely temple at the top of the mountain. It was very nice and worth the trek. The only problem was that after we finished the trek to and from the temple, about 4 hours had past and we were completely exhausted! We didn't really want to see anymore temples. It was all worth it in the end though.

The lovely temple that we hiked up the mountain for!

A brilliant view from the top of the mountain.

Our last night we used another useful travel guide to lead us through some dicey streets to a wonderful 5 star Kalbi(BBQ ribs) restaurant. That food was absolutely delicious. The workers were very friendly and helped us cook the food. We were all happy and full after that meal. At night my friends girlfriend showed up in our hotel room and gave us some Korean face masks she had bought from a cosmetics store strangely called "skin food". Apparently they are very popular to buy for the Japanese. So she strongly suggested that we use them! We all put them on our faces and look completely ridiculous. We started to act like we were burn victims in our beds. Hard to describe how funny it was. It made our last in Korea a memorable one.

Five star meat on the grill.

Overall I left Korea with a nice feeling. I learned a lot about the country in the short time that I spent there. But I know there is so much more to know about that country, so I want to return again soon! On the other hand, I gained a profound appreciation of how wonderful Japan is. The old saying goes, "You don't know what you have until it's gone.", and the rings true for Japan. I'm really glad to live in a place like this. This is not saying Korea is a bad place, because it's not. However, I feel I am lucky to live in a prosperous and nice country like Japan. Well there is a lot more to say about this trip but I just wanted to give you a small taste of what happened. I will be back soon with more posts soon OK!

peace

vince

p.s. if you want to see my photo album of my trip, send me an email at trancewave2000@hotmail.com and I will send you a link!

Off to Korea!

Tomorrow (Friday) I am heading to Pusan, South Korea with a few of my friends. We are going to travel by ferry. So I should be able to take some nice pictures of the sea. There are 3 holidays in a row next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so we have some time for a mini adventure! I won't be back until next Wednesday. So I'll be back with some pics! Talk to you soon.

peace

vince

Good times on a Friday

Good Friday to you! Well it's already the second week of September. My September has been pretty bland so far. My birthday was last Wednesday, and it was great to get some goodies from home! Thank you!

I decided that I would share some of the lessons that I do at my school. I scanned some of the works from my students so you can see the results. On this past Wednesday I made a lesson for my students that they have to make a short story by looking at a picture.


I made this sheet for instructions.

I have to make the English very simple. I also made a ridiculous story about an Elephant in a rain coat for an example. Next was the students turn.

This is from one of my students. She is really funny and this is my 3rd year teaching her.

The English is not perfect at all, but I don't punish them for it. It's just a conversation class not grammar! I just want them to use English.

*The circles on the sentences mean "correct" in Japan. In America, we use the check mark.

This is the picture that she had to look at to create the story above.

You can see some of her notes in Japanese there on the paper. The English level is probably about middle school at my high school.



The next picture is one I gave to another student. He happens to be the funniest guy in class.

He had drawn angel wings on the backs of the kids. You will see why now... ;)

As you can see, he has a very big imagination! Oh, just in case you didn't know. Yakuza are Japanese mafia, so that will make the story make a little more sense hopefully! ;)

The next lesson I started in my class a few weeks ago was to make a recipe in English. I wanted them to make a simple recipe and them share them with each other. Here the best example from one of my 3rd year students.

Japanese students love to draw little picutures of everything. They are good at conveying emotions with these little drawings. Hey maybe you can try to make this very popular Japanese fast food dish! :)

Ok, I just wanted to share some of the things I am doing at my school. Teaching is very interesting here, I have to make up all my lessons on my own. I'm the only foreign teacher so sometimes it can get a little difficult. Enjoy, and I will be back soon!

peace

vince



p.s. don't forget 9-11-01. 8 years later and I can remember every last thing I did that day.

Football match in Kobe

Hello all! This weekend was a busy one! On Saturday I went with my friend to watch a football match in Kobe. We went to see a Japan League (j-league) football match between Vissel Kobe and Urawa Reds. Urawa is close to Tokyo in the north and Kobe is about 30 minutes from Osaka by train. Kobe has a really nice Soccer specific stadium and I was quite impressed. The atmosphere was intense and fun! Here are some pictures of the match.

This mural is in the subway station.

The outside of the stadium.

The pitch

The end of the match. Vissel Kobe 3 Urawa Reds 2!! :)

Sunday I went to the Osaka Science Museum and Planetarium. The Museum was a bit rubbish, but the Planetarium was really cool! They showed the stars that were viewable that night in Osaka. They also showed a few constellations, galaxies and nebulas that were viewable that night. All this information was in Japanese. I wasn't able to understand everything but I knew what they were talking about! I hope to go back there soon!

I was at the market today. I found some little dried fish snacks! They were tasty, salty and sweet. They look crazy but they are really good! :) Want to try? :)

Tasty little lads, fish jerky?? You want some while watching a game dad? :)

peace


vince

I've been here a long time!

So today one of my teachers told me that I needed to turn in my health insurance card. I asked them why I needed to. He told me that my insurance card has expired and they needed to renew it! Apparently it is only valid for 2 years. So I came to realize that I have been in Japan for quite some time. I still remember that fateful day when I stood in line in Tokyo waiting for my suitcases filled with shoes, deodorant and hygiene products. Now I'm nice and settled in my new flat and I have a daily routine. I have a good paying job, some new friends and a lot of new experiences. So I guess this staying in Japan thing has worked out in the end.

I was looking on the board at my school to see what the schedule was just a few minutes ago. I found out that it was another half day for the Senior students. Keep in mind that we literally just came back from summer holiday but this week there are 4 half days at my school. Anyway, the reason that there is a half day today is that the teachers are offering some practice job interviews for the Senior students. I asked my colleague what kind of jobs they are practicing for. She told me that they are for the jobs that they will look for after high school. You see, my school is a very low level school. The students know they are at a low level school and only a small fraction of them will even attempt to go to University or even technical school. Therefore, they are starting to prepare now for real world. It's a pity that many of these students are quite smart, but lack the confidence to go so University. They think that they are not smart enough because they were put in my school, the publicly known "low level school". I've ranted about this many times in previous blogs over the past 2 years, but I still can't get over it. Most of the jobs that the students here are expected to get are jobs like, bike repair man, hair dresser, shop clerk, cleaning crew, trash crew, convenient store worker, construction worker etc. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these professions, don't get me wrong. I just see so much potential in some of these kids, it just makes me sad. I asked a very talkative, witty student in my class the other day... "What do you want to do after high school?", he told me "Umm, maybe I want to work at bike store". As in he wanted to do that for the foreseeable future.

I'm glad that my school feels that it needs to help the students with their interview skills! That's a great idea. However I just wish that they would try and push them a little higher. Damn I'm starting to sound like a trained teacher... oh wait! I am one! :)

Well I'm leaving school soon! And I have to ride my bike past that scary scarecrow mannequin again!!!! ahhh!!!

peace

vince

Summer Vacation is over! :(

Hey everybody! I am back to blogging after a month off! I was on Summer Vacation and honestly I had absolutely nothing to write about. I did nothing interesting besides play football and eating. Pretty average life I guess. Well today was my yesterday was my first class. I did my usual "Good Morning!!!" greeting and my response from the students was "..................................". Then I remembered, wow I hate teaching here! Well I guess it's not that bad, but wow! Not even a response. I had to say "good morning" about 4 times until I received a little "good morni....n..g". Well the lesson went well, after I made the dead rise.

I'm excited about next month! I will be traveling to South Korea with my friend, his girlfriend, his brother and I. We are going to to take a ferry from Osaka to Pusan, South Korea. Home of Korea's most wonderful beach. According to the Internet, that is. We'll be leaving on September 18th. Should be quite fun!

As I left for home today, I was riding my bike as usual. There are many rice fields in front of my school. There are also many scarecrows our there, to scare away those giant freak black birds! Anyway, I saw this freaky looking scarecrow. I don't know where the farmer dude got that mannequin head but damn, if I was a bird, I'd fly away from it!

Apparently, blonde people are scary! That thing is freaky!!!

I'll be back soon with a few stories.

peace,

vince

Footy Dinner and Kobe

Hello everyone! How are you? Well if you are in Osaka, you know that it has been very humid lately. Rainy season is in full effect over here. Today it rained almost all day. That wreaks havoc on a bike ride to school. Well last Friday we had a small end of the Football season dinner. We went to a Brazil themed Churascaria, or BBQ place. It was very delicious, but a bit expensive. We had a great time, giving out awards like MVP, best goal scored, etc. I even got the meat sweats...dictionary that one. :)

This pic is of all the guys just eating and drinking at the restaurant.

On Sunday I went over to Kobe, Japan. It's only about 30 minutes away by train. Kobe is a really nice city, and it's a lot cooler than Osaka. Probably because of the sea that is there. It's more of a port town, and that is an important party of the economy. The area around the port is very nice. I want to go back at night because I'm sure it looks lovely. Well here are some pics of my small day trip to Kobe. Enjoy and I will be back soon!

Kobe Shopping area

Me in China Town

Poor little duck...he was a lovely young buck in his day...

Various nonsense on sale in China Town...

Kobe Harbor Area

There is a ferry and a nice ferris wheel in the background.

Deadliest Catch?

Kobe

Soda choco!!! What?????

Hey everybody who still reads this blog! How are you doing? Things are hot and sticky (that's what she said) over here in Japan. The humidity is really starting to do some damage. I can't seem to dry off when I take a shower. As soon as I go outside I start to sweat, it's just absolutely horrendous. The good thing is it's been cloudy a lot lately. I really do like the clouds.

So I am finally settled into my little nook of an apartment. The internet guy came to my apartment and took out a few gizmos and did something and the internet turned on. It was great! I even have TV service now, but I don't have a TV. So I guess I should probably buy one sometime...eh... So what's new in Japan? Well a few weeks ago there was a foreign English teacher from Canada that was arrested for taking pictures up high school girls skirts on an escalator. I don't understand why you would try to take a photo of that. Honestly I think the some of those girls want you to look, they wear these ridiculously short skirts sometimes. Anyway it turns out that I actually know that guy that got arrested. Apparently he was not in the JET programme, which is good, because it would really give a bad image to the programme. I think he is leaving this month back to Canada. What a pity. In a way I feel sorry for the dude, because it was blown up in the media over here. Basically because he was a foreigner. Old nasty Japanese guys do that stuff on a constant basis here, but nobody ever does anything about it. Double standard??? You be the judge...

As you might know I play futsal every Tuesday night here in Japan. It is great fun and the team are good guys. We never play with shin guards because it's futsal and usually you don't get kicked in the shin. Well this week I found out, that is not always the case. I was running for the ball and it was a 50/50 ball, meaning I could have gotten it or my the defender could have gotten it. We both swung at the ball but our shins clashed and I didn't feel anything at the time. About 30 seconds later, I felt a horrible pain in my shin. I kept playing on, and by the end of the 2 hours, my shin looked like this.

Lovely isn't it?

It was really painful, and it was swollen. I went home and took a shower, put some pain spray on it. And it looked like this...

Still painful

It has gone down considerably since then. Now it is just really red and a bruise. Needless to say, next time I play I will be wearing my shin guards! ;)

Yesterday I went to see Terminator 4. It was pretty good. I went with my buddy from Canada. If you told me 2 years ago that I would go watch Terminator 4 in Japan with a Canadian, I would have thought you were insane.

Candy in Japan is just like the clothes here. It changes with the seasons. This morning I stopped at the local market and found a sign that said "SUMMER CHOCO" or Summer Chocolate. Having absolutely no idea what the hell that means I wandered over there and found these interesting morsels.

kit-kat ramune flavored, basically sprite flavored kit-kat...

It didn't seem very tasty, and honestly it isn't very tasty. But it does show you how different things can be over here. I don't think American people would like this candy. It is very interesting though. ;)

Well that is all for today my liege. I'm going to take some photos of my apartment this weekend and post them up for you. Take care and be safe.

peace

vince

200?

So this post is going to be my 200th post on vinceinosaka.blogspot.com. I'm actually typing this at work because my new apartment doesn't have internet yet. 200 posts? That's a lot of pictures, stories and other nonsense. Actually this month (july) 31st will be my 2 year anniversary in Japan. It's crazy that I have been here that long. In a way it doesn't feel that long but in a way it does. I've made some good friends here, I have found a wonderful girl, I've moved 2 times, learned a lot about Japanese culture, the language and the people and I've learned a lot about myself too. I don't really know what I will get from this experience in the end of it all, but I know it will definitely stay with me for the rest of my life.

This week I should be getting internet at my place. When I do I will upload some pics of my apartment and the surroundings. I bought a new microwave oven, a toaster and some pots and pans. I even bought curtains! hah! I hope to buy a TV sometime this year. Other than that I really don't need anything else. Time to start saving loads of money now! I'm really glad to be living on my own again. The other apartment was beginning to become unbearable. My new place is quiet and nice. So far I haven't talked to any of my neighbors but they definitely know that there is a foreigner living there! :)

I'm still working on starting the podcast. That is this summer's project! Anyway, thanks for all the support over the last 2 years. I hope this blog becomes better as time goes on. Take care!

peace

vince

p.s. skype calls are not possible for me at the moment! also msn mail because it's blocked at my work!!! lame... internet is coming soon!


p.s.s. R.I.P. Michael Jackson... here is my favorite song from him!

Why I love the game

So this morning I woke up again at 3am to watch a football (soccer) match. It was a special match for me to see because my home team the USA were playing the #1 ranked team in the world Spain. It was a semi-final of the Confederations Cup tournament in South Africa. It's basically a warm-up to next years world cup in South Africa. Anyway, all the writers, pundits and so called soccer know-it-alls, gave the USA absolutely no chance to beat the Spanish. The Spanish were on a world record 35 game unbeaten streak. The last time they lost was in 2006. So basically the Americans had absolutely no chance.

So I woke up at 3am like I usually do for games. I have never seen so much heart and effort being displayed in my life. The American players were absolutely brilliant. I felt so proud of them. I've always been proud of them, even when they lose. Well to make this story short USA won 2-0!!!! They played so great. So now they will play in the final on Sunday afternoon in America (3am Japan). I really hope this makes Soccer a much more covered sport in America. Sure American sports are good and all. But when you succeed in Soccer, the WORLD watches. It's the best sport on Earth! If you are interested, please watch this highlight of the match.

Spanish


German


English




peace

vince

Company Health Check!

Yesterday at work was company health check day. A mobile hospital comes to the school and checks all the teachers and staff at the school. I like this idea because it makes it much easier to get a health check. Anyway, we had to check our urine, height, weight, eyes, lungs, (blood for 30 and older) and an x-ray. The best part is I didn't have to pay for anything. I think everything was good with me, and I am fit.

Today I finalized my new apartment. I had to pay over $1,000 today! The good thing is that includes rent for July. The next step is moving all my stuff. I will also have to buy many appliances for my apartment. I am looking forward to the new place. It's going to be a simple and clean place.

Last night I played futsal with my friends. I play every Tuesday at the outdoor covered futsal pitch. Football is so fun, it is the best sport in the world. There is nothing like playing out there with your friends working hard. I feel so good after I play, I don't want to stop. Anyway, I went to buy some football socks at the sports shop before we played. I need some because the ones that I brought from America are already getting beat up. They only had up to 27cm size. My feet are at least 30cm, so I wasn't able to buy some socks. I think I will have to buy some on the internet. The humidity is really starting to pick up over here in Osaka. I felt much more tired earlier than I usually do. I was literally panting like a dog by the end of the 2 hour session. Usually I am a bundle of energy at that time. I think it's just going to take a few weeks to adjust to the humidity. Unfortunately I don't know how much we will play this summer. Many people go on vacation, therefore we cannot field enough players. Hopefully this won't be the case. If so, I will just play at my school in the gym and practice my touch.

This is a picture of the futsal place we play at.

I'll be back soon with another post. Talk to you soon!

peace

vince

Advertising works!

Well I went to eat at a pizza buffet tonight. It was really good, and in a typical American fashion, I over ate! It was delicious though! :) When I was walking home, I saw a GIANT advertisement for Terminator 4 that comes out on June 13 here in Japan. I snapped a small photo with my cell phone.

a four story Terminator 4 ad, epic!

As I dropped by the convenience store to grab a soda, I found a very interesting Coca-cola product. Green tea flavored Coke. Actually, I just finished taking a few sips of it. It is quite tasty, and has a very very mild green tea flavor. I like it! I just thought I would share a picture of it with you. I'll be back soon with some stories!!

how about some green tea coca-cola?

peace

vince

Changes

Jeez, it's been quite a while eh? Sorry about that everybody. Lately I've actually been busy.

Well you know that whole Swine Flu craze that has been going around in the USA and the world? It hit Japan about 2 weeks ago. And in a very Japanese way, an overreaction occurred.

Last Monday May 18, all public schools in Osaka, Hyogo and Nara were closed for an entire week. Some of my students said that even the karaoke shops weren't allowing high school students in because they were afraid of the swine flu. Everybody and their mom (literally) is wearing those white surgical masks like it's a fashion statement. All the drug stores have either a giant sign with "WE HAVE MASKS!!!" written on it, or "WE DON'T HAVE MASKS!!!". I'm sorry but those masks are completely useless.

Needless to say, I didn't have any work last week. So on Tuesday I went to school, but only to play basketball. I played with the PE teachers(体育の先生) and it was quite fun. Afterwards, I went home and didn't go back to work until the following Monday (25th). What did I do with all that time? Well I exercised everyday, played video games, went shopping, ate dinner and cooked. It was an unexpected holiday! Unfortunately we will have to make up those days at the end of the term. But for what it's worth, it was fun.

As many of my friends and family know, I like basketball. Well finding someone to play basketball with in Japan is no easy task. I play futsal every week with a JET futsal team but I really want to play basketball too. Well, a few weeks ago I started to search for some basketball teams in Osaka. I found a team on Facebook, and I sent them an email. It took about 2 weeks for them to respond and finally last Friday I received a reply. The guy told me that he plays with some foreigners and Japanese people every Monday night. I asked them where? And he told me that they play in a middle school in Matsubara City. The funny thing is, I work in Matsubara City!! So all this time these guys have been playing and I had no clue. Anyway, he invited me to go play with them this past Monday (25th). I went last night and it was fun. I met 5 foreigner guys, all from America. They are not in the JET program though. They were really nice and made me feel welcomed into their group. We played from about 7:30pm to 10:00pm. I was dead tired afterwards, and I still had a 50 minute journey home. It was worth it though, because I made some new friends and now found some basketball people! I look forward to playing again next week. Tonight I'm playing futsal with the JET team and that is really fun as well.

Looks like I will be moving my apartment again. One of my roommates is moving back to America so that will raise my rent about $250! I want to find a smaller and cheaper place. Perhaps in a nicer area of the city. I found a nice place by Osaka's largest park Nagai Park, the rent suites my budget, however I would have to furnish the entire apartment myself. Which I think would be fun, but expensive. I will let you all know the details as the days progress.

Last night I called my grandfather in El Paso, for two reasons. One reason was to wish him a happy 89th birthday! Wow! The second was to wish him a happy Memorial Day. If you don't know what Memorial Day is in America, I'll explain a bit. It's a day to remember and honour the veterans of war. Well my grandfather is a World War 2 veteran. I asked him to tell me a couple of memories he had. For example a moment that he could never forget. He told me about his friend that was a bodybuilder Polish American, who taught him to weight lift while on the ship. He told me about when he was running away from Japanese snipers. He told me about a time while on a Navy ship and the attack alert sounded and all the soldiers had to run to the top deck with their safety vests (my grandfather had forgotten his!!). It was really nice to hear some of his stories about the war. He told me that he really didn't want to remember some things. It was a quick conversation but sometimes it's the content and feeling of the conversation that counts.



peace

vince