vince in osaka

Time is flying.

2011-09-06T15:54:00.006+09:00

So I just had my birthday last Friday. It was uneventful for the most part, but I still had a good time with some good friends. There was a tropical storm roaming around Osaka so we received 4 days straight of rain. It would come in spurts too. You could be walking around with no rain, and all of a sudden a torrential downpour. Luckily for me, I happen to love rain so it was good.

This week at my school is the last week of normal classes until the end of the semester exam. Most students are tired of studying but they have to really study more because of the tests next week. For my English Conversation class, the students are being paired up and asked to make a short dialog using some topics we have covered this semester. These include asking for a date, asking for a favor and talking about summer vacation. It's not that difficult, but if the students really try to learn and act out the dialog well, it will be difficult. I hoping for great results. Tuesdays are really busy for me here at my school. Six classes in a row is straining. I've only got 30-40 minutes to eat something and prepare for the next class. Wednesday and Thursday are really simple though because there are only 4 classes. Two classes each day. So the week starts fast and ends slow, which is probably the best way.

This past weekend I was watching a wonderful documentary called Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero. It is a powerful, sad and uplifting documentary. It chronicles the planning and the building of ground zero. They introduce you to people involved and how it effected them. Some parts will make you cry and some parts will make you realize what an amazing country America is. It makes me proud to be from America. It makes me proud that best city in the world is just going to get even better, New York City. I hope you guys try to watch it. It's on Discovery Channel in the USA. You can also search for in on YouTube.

Ok, I've got to go now. Tonight and every Tuesday night I play futsal with my futsal team. It's so much fun and I really love playing soccer and futsal. It's such an amazing sport. Have a wonderful day all.

peace,

vince

After a year.

2011-09-01T14:52:00.001+09:00

Hey everybody! I can't believe it has been about one year since I last posted on my blog. I just thought about it today and decided to give it a try again.

Well, I've officially started fifth and most likely final year of JET. It's hard to believe that I started this blog 4 years ago before I left to Japan. Nowadays I'm basically posting on Facebook. It's a lot more convenient and easy.

I've recently come back from a long 29 day European tour. Needless to say, it was absolutely amazing. The cities I visited included Rome, Florence, Pisa, Sienna, London, Manchester, York, Liverpool and multiple towns in Wales. I experienced so many highs and a few lows. I made a lot of new friends too. This trip has made me think about finally ending my tenure in Japan. My contract is over on July 31st 2012.

Tomorrow a typhoon is supposed to arrive here in Japan. It so happens to be my birthday as well. Should be a very windy and rainy birthday. I don't mind because I really like rain and they might cancel school. I'll be back with a better reflection of my trip to Europe. Pictures will also be posted here soon. It just takes a lot of time so please bare with me. I hope you are still reading after all this time. Take care.

peace,

vince

Where's the Typhoon?

2010-09-09T14:37:00.006+09:00

Last Tuesday there was a big announcement in the teachers room just before quitting time. The Vice Principal yelled out that there was a big typhoon coming and we might not have classes the following day. While he was saying this, I was looking at the weather on my phone and it said "Sunny". I figured that it was just another over reaction from the weather folk in Japan. It happens a lot actually. Needless to say, it was warm and sunny on Wednesday. :0)

Two Thursdays ago was my birthday and I became 28 years old. Wow, I'm really getting old! I still feel like I haven't really accomplished anything in my life. It's a weird feeling to be honest with you. I went to dinner with the misses and ate some delicious Korean style food. It made me remember how much I miss Korea. The food there was just amazing. Anyway, besides getting about 80 happy birthday messages on Facebook, it was just an ordinary day. One of my students gave me a cute little present with cookies and a Super Mario Lolly. I was really happy and surprised.

My Small Present

Yesterday, (9/12, Sunday), I went to watch my school's girl's basketball team play in the Osaka City Round of 16 high school basketball game. It was really interesting to see how it they play these games. They had girls playing on one court and the boys playing on a court directly across from them. Meanwhile fans and other teams waiting to play are in the middle of both courts. It's a really strange setup compared to an American style but I guess it's efficient. If my school would have won, they would have went to the final 8 of the city. Unfortunately they didn't win but they sure played hard. The other team just shot lots of three point shots and made about 60% of them. That pretty much ended the game there. I was so surprised to see how good my school was in terms of ball skills. They handled the ball really well and were good in the paint! Girls got some skills, even though they are so short. After the game I headed back to my apartment. It took me about 1 hour to get home, so it was a bit of a journey to see the game.

The team huddling up before the game.

During the game.

Warming up at halftime.

On Saturday was the 9th anniversary of 9-11. That was a horrible day for America and myself. It's sad to see that many people have already forgotten about that day. It's not really mentioned much in the news from what I saw. I don't think I saw anything about it here in Japan either. Well, It's not like Japan has to care or anything, it didn't happen to them, so I can understand that. I spent my evening watching the web stream of the memorial in New York city. It doesn't matter how many times I see that, I always cry. You can see people holding up 9 year old photos of their family members that no longer exist. One lady made a small speech at the podium and something like, she hopes that 9-11 never becomes a national holiday in America because it's not something to celebrate and have a day off of work, it should be a day of remembrance and mourning. Another woman added that her husband was never found in the rubble so she will continue to come back every year because it is where her husband is buried. Imagine not having a body to lay to rest? That would be just horrible. I'm sure his body was incinerated instantly in the fire unfortunately. One day he's alive the next day he's gone completely. Well, sorry to go on about this saddening topic but I just had to say something about it.

One more week until I head to Mt. Fuji to climb to the top. I should probably start buying some gear right? haha OK, well enough of my rant for today. Have a wonderful day, night, whatever.

peace

vince

Hisashiburi! (Long Time No See)

2010-09-01T11:56:00.004+09:00

Hello everyone that still (nobody) reads my blog. I think that this blog has really no point now. Especially since almost everybody that I know and keep in touch with is on Facebook. They can see everything that I do, all the pictures that I upload and status updates instantly. It seems that Blogs are becoming more and more obsolete. Unfortunate but true none the less. I'm sorry to anyone that reads this and is not on Facebook to see all my happenings and what not. I'll try to update my blog at least once a month or something like that from now on.

Anyway, I've had a busy 4 months since I last posted. I changed my school with completely new staff in a different location of the city. No more bike rides to school either since my school is now in train distance. From trips to the beach, birthday parties, playing soccer and basketball, the world cup, school welcoming parties, work drinking parties, practicing Japanese calligraphy, clubbing, a tour of the Suntory Beer Factory, a trip to San Francisco, Las Vegas and El Paso, duty as a best man in my cousin's wedding, planning a birthday party for a friend and I and finally saying goodbye to many good friends that are now leaving back home. It's been crazy this year so far to say the least! My life over here is still exhilarating and fun. I can't say I'm not lucky sometimes.

Here are some pictures from my phone I've taken this year.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=161812&id=632777724&l=cfbff7fb6a

This is my album from Summer 2010
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=184645&id=632777724&l=3f5fc7ed44

I think that when you see these pictures you will get a good picture of what life has been like over in Osaka. It's a great place to be and I enjoy it everyday. From August 1st, I started my 4th year in Japan. When I first came to Japan I never thought I would be here 4 years. Time literally passes us by.

My next excursion is this month. A few friends and I will attempt to climb to the top of the largest peak in Japan! MOUNT FUJI!! I really can't wait and I know it will be a challenge, but I'm always up for a challenge. There is a famous saying here in Japan that the Japanese always say. "Everyone should climb Fuji, but you're a fool to do it twice." I'm really looking forward to that day! ;)

OK well, I just wanted to update this BLOG. I hope all of you readers are doing well and thanks for the continued support even though I completely neglect the BLOG. I'll try harder.

peace,

vince

p.s. If you are on facebook just add me!

Teaching English Reading

2010-04-15T13:11:00.008+09:00

So today was my first non-English conversation class. At my new school, there is a different curriculum from my last school. At this school I have to teach English Reading to all first year students. Today was my first two lessons. Needless to say, I was quite nervous about it all.

Each class consisted of 42 students. I have never taught a class of such size before in Japan, so I really didn't know what to expect. To raise the pressure, I had never taught with my teaching partner before. I literally just met him about 1 week ago! So we didn't know each others style. Anyway, I'm glad to report that the classes went just fine. The students were very enthusiastic and friendly. The English level at this school is fairly decent as well. This reading class is not an elective therefore they must take the class. That means that many students are assumed to not care about English. Luckily for me the students did like English. There was not even one student sleeping either class for 50 minutes. That would never have happened in Matsubara High School.

My lesson consisted of a sparsely laid out plan of introducing class greetings, bonus point rules and class rules. Then the last goal was to introduce Texas and myself to the students, giving out bonus points to students that answered questions or asked them. Overall it went smoothly considering all the obstacles. Afterwards my teaching partner and I discussed ways we could improve the class. I think that we worked well together!

I ate lunch in my school cafeteria on Monday for the first time. One of my fellow teachers came along with me to introduce me to the staff. As I first entered the cafeteria, I was shocked to see how nice it was. At my old school, the cafeteria staff consisted of some old guy and a young kid. At my new school there were 6 ladies cooking up a storm! The selection was excellent and I even got a tray! That made my day right there. My test was to order the same thing that I always ordered at my old school, curry rice. So came my piping hot bowl of curry rice, with a side of macaroni salad and tea. Delicious! Much better than the goo I was served before. At that point I knew, this year was going to be good. haha

Typical bowl of Curry rice w/pork cutlet. Delicious!

peace

vince

p.s. here is the link for my high school's website! http://www.osaka-c.ed.jp/kunijima

A Fresh Start!

2010-04-13T13:38:00.005+09:00

Hello everybody! I'm currently in my school right now, and there is a teacher's meeting going on. That means I have so much free time. Anyway, I'm sorry that I have failed to maintain this blog. It's quite out-dated and frankly sucks. However, I have decided to write a few things that have happened in the last 4 months.

I have decided to extend my stay here in Japan another year. I actually made that decision 2 months ago. I will begin my new contract from August 2010 to August 2011. It will be my 4th year in Japan. Something that I really never thought would happen. When I first came to Japan, my thought was to stay 1 year and get some experience. Since that time, I've grown accustomed to my life here, and enjoy it. My job is stable and the income is fine. Not to mention all the perks of living the 8th largest city in the world. :) I'm just not ready to give it up just yet. I want to make the most of my time that I have left in Japan.

January was a strange month actually. I came back from my trip back home in Texas with a "dude, Japan sucks" attitude and a larger waistline. Of course that usually happens when you come back from holiday. Life went on as usual though. My school situation was not so good. The students were great (most of the time), but other factors were holding my experience back. I chugged along through the rest of January and February by playing soccer and playing lots of video games.

In March, the Japanese school year ends and so did the high school careers of my 22 senior English students. It was sad to see them go. I taught them for almost 3 years and we had a very good relationship. I really liked them, even though they always slept in class. After a week of ceremonies and goodbyes, the school year ended. The beginning of my interesting work-free March began. In the middle of March I got a phone call from the Supervisor of all JET teachers in Osaka. He told me that the Board of Education was going to transfer me to another school. This is normal for regular teachers in Japan. They are regularly transferred to other school in March. However, this is extremely rare to see a JET teacher get transferred to another school. JET teachers usually spend their entire length of stay at the same school. So this came as a big surprise to me and and all my co-workers. A few days later I decided to start taking all my belongings out of my desk and back home. I was to report to my new school on April 7th for the first time. In between that time, I had a few days of holiday so I went to Tokyo to visit a some friends. I had such a good time and it made me forget about the nervous feelings I had in my stomach.

I reported to my school on April 7th with my suit and shiny shoes. I was led into a small conference room with 8 other people in suits and shiny shoes. They all looked at me quite bamboozled at the fact that a foreigner walked in. Anyway, it turns out that all these teachers were transfers as well. So basically they felt as bad as I did. That really made things easier to bear. After a short meeting with directions all in Japanese, we were led to a larger conference room. In this larger conference room was every teacher and staff member at my school. We were about to be introduced to every one. Wow, I was so nervous. Right before I entered the room, I was tapped on the shoulder by a teacher. He was speaking English! The first English I had heard in hours that day. He told me that after I was introduced, I could just leave because I didn't have to go through the entire meeting with the Japanese teacher. (the perks of being a foreign teacher) So I was introduced with a bow and I just left the room. And that was my first day at my new school! The next day was the opening ceremony for the school. The new teachers were introduced to all the students in the gymnasium. That was nerve wrecking but not as bad as the day before.

That Friday was the "Goodbye Ceremony" at my old school. I was invited to go. So I had to show up at the Principal's office at 8:30am. When I arrived, the Principal told me that I was to give a speech to the students in which I said goodbye. There were 7 teachers leaving the school, so the order in which we gave our speeches. Of course, I was the last one. Let me preface this by saying in the morning I didn't eat breakfast because I was too nervous. I also had this stupid idea to chug a Red Bull right before I arrived at my school. So there were at least 900 people inside the gym. The departing teachers, myself included, were led down the aisle and to the stage, where 7 seats sat lonely. Yes, we had to sit on these seats while we waited to give the speech. So, we were on this stage with every single student and teacher looking at us. One by one we gave our speeches to the students. Some long, some short, some sad, some I couldn't understand. The whole time I was shaking uncontrollably because I was nervous and that Red Bull was destroying my nerves. My time came and I attempted to give a speech in Japanese. I succeeded at talking for about 30 seconds until I somehow forgot how to speak Japanese. I had to ask one of the English teachers to come up to the stage with me and translate for me. Yeah, probably the first time that has happened at that school! haha Anyway, everything went ok I guess. And I said my final goodbyes to my students and fellow co-workers. As I pedaled away on my bicycle looking back at Matsubara High School, I was happy to leave that school but sad to leave my students behind.

That weekend I went did a lot of drinking, talking, dancing, cherry blossom viewing and other nonsense. Perhaps too much stress needed to be released! :) I decided that this new school year was going to be different. I want to make a greater effort to make my classes great. I'm going to get much more social! I'm going to reduce my gaming. I'm going to run a lot more! I'm going to write more BLOGS!!! hahah This is becoming a New Year's Resolution now! :) I might as well change a few things since I'm basically started a new chapter in my life here in Japan. I've got a new nephew coming in a few weeks. I cannot wait to see his face when I go back to America for my cousin's wedding in August. This is the end for now of my unnecessarily long blog post. Take care of yourself, where ever you are!

peace

vince

p.s. title...that's what she said.

View of Tokyo skyline from the Metropolitan building in Shinjuku.

Another view with Mt. Fuji in the background.

The most famous crossing and possibly the busiest crossing in the world in Shibuya Tokyo. World's busiest Starbuck's is right under the big screen.

Cherry Blossom viewing parties in Osaka's beautiful Castle Park.

The Moat of Osaka Castle with some Cherry Blossoms in view.

The Return

2009-12-28T13:20:00.000+09:00

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?

2009-10-09T11:42:00.000+09:00

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!

2009-10-07T14:47:00.000+09:00

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

2009-10-06T14:46:00.001+09:00

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!

2009-09-25T09:00:00.005+09:00

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!

2009-09-17T23:09:00.002+09:00

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

2009-09-11T08:51:00.004+09:00

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

2009-08-31T21:03:00.004+09:00

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!

2009-08-26T11:04:00.003+09:00

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! :(

2009-08-25T22:15:00.003+09:00

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

2009-07-21T23:18:00.006+09:00

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?????

2009-07-10T08:51:00.006+09:00

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?

2009-07-06T12:17:00.002+09:00

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

2009-06-25T13:25:00.003+09:00

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!

2009-06-16T21:39:00.003+09:00

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!

2009-06-10T20:05:00.006+09:00

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

2009-05-26T14:33:00.007+09:00

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

Monkey Madness

2009-05-07T15:43:00.004+09:00

So this past weekend was fun. I went to an Outlet mall in a place called Rinku Town. The outlets there are quite good. I was able to pick up some nice clothes for about $100 US. On Monday I went to Kyoto. We went to a Monkey Park called Arashiyama Monkey Park. There are about 150 small Japanese monkeys at that park. They walk around wild there. So it's possible they could attack you, however that is unlikely. The monkeys were very cool. Many of them were cleaning eachother off and combing eachothers hair. They use their hands just like we do, and their hands look just like ours! It was weird to see that. We had a few days off this week because of the Japanese holiday "Golden Week". It's basically a reason just to have a few days off. I don't think anybody really knows the reason for the holiday, but they all take the days! So did I! haha Well enjoy a few photos of the little buggers that I saw.

peace

vince

I wonder what happens in the Auto Toilet.

Arashiyama

Man pulling cart!

Let's Boating!

Hanging by the tree, not a worry at all.

Bamboo Forest

Race fun videos!!

2009-04-28T22:15:00.002+09:00

Hey everybody, sorry this is so late, but it took quite a while. I uploaded some videos of the race. Check them out!

peace

vince

MotoGP race Video

More MotoGP race

SuperGT race Start!!

SuperGT race

Walking around at the SuperGT race

Yellow Flag Caution

Race Finish

Race fun

2009-04-20T22:04:00.005+09:00

I went see a race yesterday with my friends. The name of this race series is called Super GT. It is quite popular in Japan. We had to travel north to Mie prefecture. It was about a 2.5 hour journey. I was nice to see the country side in Japan. Living in the city gets a bit dull sometimes and it's great to see some green. We had a really great time out there. We were there from about 10am to 5pm. So we had a full day of car action. I got a bit of a sunburn, but it's all good. I took loads of pictures but here a few for you to see. The rest are on Myspace.

peace

vince

Views of Japan

2009-04-05T20:43:00.007+09:00

Over the past 3 weeks I have taken a bunch of photos. I think photos can be much stronger than words. So just enjoy some of these...

Hanami Time!

2009-04-02T14:33:00.003+09:00

Hello everybody! I have been away for a few weeks sorry about that! Nothing good to write about actually.

Well the Sakuras (Cherry Blossom trees) are just beginning to come out now in Japan. They really are pretty. In Japan, there is a tradition called Hanami 花見, or Cherry Blossom viewing. Basically you go out to the park and sit under the tree with friends, food and drinks and just enjoy the afternoon in the park. It is really nice! I was planning a Hanami party for April 11th, but I don't think that is going to happen anymore. :( I will try to get it going for another day. If not I will go out there by myself and take some photos for the blog. Anyway, look forward to that in the next few weeks.

As for school, well I am actually excited. The new teachers came in today, and there are about 5 new teachers. I was surprised to hear that I will be working with 3 of the new teachers. I'm really looking forward to working with them. I met one of my new teaching partners today and she was so shy. She just graduated from Uni, and has never taught before. So she was asking me to help her out a lot. I would consider myself a decently experienced teacher. Now I think the classes will under my control, which is great because I can some of the crazy ideas I have in my head for lessons!

I will go to a really small BBQ on Saturday for my PTA class. I'm looking forward to that, because I can eat and drink all I want! :)

Anyway, thanks for reading the blog. I'll talk to you soon!

peace

vince

Is that sweat I feel?

2009-03-19T08:18:00.003+09:00

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been about a week or so since my last post. Life has been a bit slow the past week. No school last week, except for 2 days, gives me far too much time to myself. I spent my time studying a bit of Japanese, cooking and playing some games. I This week has went by quite fast so far. Tomorrow (Friday) is a national holiday. Of course I don't know which holiday it is, but I'll take it anytime! It so happens that tomorrow is my co-worker/friend's wedding party. I am looking forward to the wedding party. This will be the second wedding party I have been invited to since I have been in Japan. I think that I am considered a pretty good friend of my co-worker. Actually, I don't even consider him my co-worker anymore, just my friend.

If you have been following my blog over the last year and a half, then you remember when I blogged about the last wedding party. If you are new to Japanese style wedding parties then let me give you a short description. First of all, you are given an invitation to the wedding party, on this wedding party invitation is, as you might expect, a map, directions, description of who is getting married and the price. Yes that's right, the price. You basically have to pay to go to the wedding party. Now to an American or a Westerner, this would somewhat seem quite strange. And in a way, it is. However, if you think about it, most of the time at an American wedding, the guest will bring a gift for the couple, or leave money on the money tree. So I guess it comes out to be the same. The wedding I am invited to has a hefty price tag of about $90 US. I'm looking forward to going to the wedding party tomorrow, I'm guaranteed to be the only foreigner there!

Well I will be back　soon with an update! Thanks for reading.

peace

vince

p.s.- Today I was riding my bike and it wasn't so cold, and I felt a small bit of moisture on my body! Hence the strange title! haha Just so you know!

Osaka Jo Castle Park

2009-03-07T23:16:00.005+09:00

I took a stroll around Osaka Jo Castle today. If you want to know about the Osaka jo castle check it out here. Meanwhile, enjoy some photos!

peace

vince

Rain + Bike = epic fail

2009-02-27T08:40:00.002+09:00

Hello everybody! Sorry it's been about a week since my last post. A lot of things have happened this past week!

First off, today is raining like crazy. I normally love rain, but when I have to ride my bike in the rain it really sucks. I get to work all in shambles. My jeans are soaked with water and my bag is a bit damp. Ah well! Last weekend I had a small gathering for my co-workers at my apartment. I made it a Tex-Mex party. So I cooked up authentic Chicken Fajitas (if you don't know what these are click here for English or here for 日本語。） I also made some Guacamole, Nachos, and warmed many flour tortillas. My co-workers really loved the food! One of them told me that it was the best "Mexican food she had ever tasted!" Of course fajitas aren't exactly Mexican food, but I love them. I had quite a bit of chicken left over, so I ended up eating fajita chicken for 2 days.

Last Friday was my last class for this school year. The school year ends in March here in Japan and the new school year starts in the beginning of April. In my class we conducted an interview test. It was fairly simple, because I just asked for the students opinions about various subjects. My goal this term was to get the students to be able to tell me their opinions, even if they were in the simplest form. I would ask them "What do you think about _____?", and they had to respond to that by saying "I think that ______ because ______." Then they would have to ask me a question the same way. I was quite pleased with the results. Almost every student was able to have a small conversation with me. I was happy to talk to them about things. Honestly, I wasn't even marking them while we were talking. If they tried I gave them the points they deserved. Everybody is different, therefore I have to mark them differently. After they finished the small test they had to write a a message or comment on the class. I received a lot of funny, cute and sweet messages about the class. Most of my students have excellent English writing ability. So the messages were great. They were happy to talk, and they looked forward to the next year, so do I! ;)

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I didn't have to go to my school. They were only testing and interviewing the new junior high students that were entering my school in April. I mainly just hung out at home and relaxed. Tonight (Friday) I have to attend a dinner for my PTA English class. The students in the class (mainly parents and the lot) want to go eat sushi with me, so I have to go. I plan on eating absurd amounts of sushi. That's another good thing about Japan, sushi is quite cheap! Especially at the supermarket, where you can usually grab a decent sized sushi for about $3!

I will try to take a photo or two tonight! I'll be back real soon with an update! Cheers!

peace

vince

Walking around

2009-02-18T22:38:00.003+09:00

I was walking around today, and I thought you might like this picture. You can't see this in El Paso! :)

peace

vince

Dotombori area or Osaka

Happy Sunday

2009-02-15T22:07:00.005+09:00

Well, this weekend was quite interesting to say the least. This morning was bloody amazing. The sun was just shining so nice. I washed my clothes and hung them outside. I then began to take a walk down to the electric town to buy a game. There were loads of people out and about this afternoon. I guess that sun just brings everyone out. I went out and took a few more pictures today. I'm going to try and do this more often, so look forward to that.

For Valentine's Day, I made Tex-Mex chicken fajitas, guacamole and soup, with tortillas. It was really good. Everyone seemed to like it. I think there is nothing that compares to the fresh taste of fajitas with guacamole, oh delicious. I hope you all enjoyed your Valentine's Day. I got 2 candies for Valentine's day!!! From my students! woohoo!!!... Be back soon, until then, enjoy some photos.

peace

vince

my fajitas, guacamole, soup and tortillas in a towel :)

a typical street in my neighborhood

7-11

actually, i don't know what this is.

a giant fish (fish market)

old men playing mahjong, they are there every sunday.

it's the big sale.

aftermath of delicious ramen, at a place called "al pachino ramen".

2009-02-13T19:34:00.005+09:00

Hey everybody! I just wanted to share some of the pictures I shot with my cell phone the past few days. I hope you enjoy. Comment if you wish!

peace

vince

A Valentine's Chocolate my student made me

Dotombori Area in Osaka, about 10 mins from my apartment.

View from my apartment balcony

View from the balcony of my room

Elevator at my apartment, 8th floor :)

My door :)

Leave your shoes here!

My room

My favorite Tako-Yaki shop by my apartment, one guy cooking, another buying. Tako-yaki is fried squid in batter. An Osaka traditional food!

Intersection next to my apartment building.

In front of my apartment.

Bike parking at my apartment.

Mail boxes

Would you like to buy a subway ticket? :) Subway ticket machine

Subway station gates, close to my apartment.

Waiting for the train. This train station is close to the school I work.

The lonely train station

The train has arrived

Valentine's Day

2009-02-09T08:47:00.003+09:00

Well it's the time of the year for love and all that. Valentine's day is coming and all of the marketing magic that comes along with it. I have to admit, I have enjoyed Valentine's Day in the past. I know it's a special day for people all over the world, and I suppose a miserable day for others. Anyway, I thought you might be interested in how Valentine's day is viewed over here in Japan. In Japan, Valentine's day is reverse, that is, girls are supposed to give boys something. I believe that most girls will make chocolate at home for their boyfriends or their good friends. I remember last year, some students brought me some home made chocolate. Lately I have seen advertisements for watches and cologne, etc, so I think that more luxurious items are now being marketed over here as Valentine's day gifts. Now apparently the quality of gift is supposed to show if a girl is interested in you or not. (this is what a co-worker told me, so it may not be true) That does make sense though. I wouldn't give an extravagant give to just anyone either.

So you are probably wondering what the guys have to do on Valentine's day. Well that is what "White Day" is for. What is "White Day"? It is March 14th, and it is a day that the guy is supposed to return the favor he received from his female friends. All the men's gifts adverts come down and all the women adverts go up. hmmm... So white day is a day for giving back for the guys. So this all leaves me in a predicament... I'm American, so should I celebrate Valentine's Day like I would in America? What about this "White Day"? 2 gifts? Too many questions over here. haha

Well I'm still going to celebrate Valentine's day the American way and Japanese. I'm going to make a hybrid holiday! Do you have a good name for my new hybrid American and Japanese Valentine's day? Let me know! I'm going to take a few photos of the Valentine's day displays this week, I'll post them up later on.

I'm interested to see how this week turns out. Be back soon!

peace

vince

p.s. become a follower!! look to the right side and click on "follower"

Let's Wipe!

2009-02-07T18:05:00.003+09:00

Here is another lovely gem I found in our bathroom today. This is my tissue box. Make sure you wipe that! Let's all wipe together everybody!! You wipe me and I will wipe you!!! We can throw it away too!!! :)

Comments

2009-02-06T08:47:00.001+09:00

I fixed the bug with my comment box. It was supposed to be showing underneath each post. Now it will open in a new window. Anyway, comment away people! haha

peace

vince

Life Saving Sandwich

2009-02-05T10:38:00.002+09:00

I went to the local Circle K this morning. I picked up this interesting sandwich. It's always good to know a sandwich could save your life. Oh Japan...

2009-01-30T09:15:00.002+09:00

Today in my class, we got off on a politics topic. I asked the students if they ever had such a gathering for a president in Japan, like Obama did in America. Most students told me that they truly disliked the current prime minister of Japan, Aso. Well, honestly I have no idea about the president or politics in Japan. I asked them about the local Mayor of Osaka-Fu, Mr. Hashimoto. Apparently they don't like him either. I asked them why, and the reply was... "I don't like him because he won't let us bring our cell phones to high school!" From what I gather, he is trying to implement a big change in the lagging Osaka School system. After years and years of neglect, it's good to see at least something being done in the schools here.

Thanks for the suggestions for the party that I want to make. I'm still thinking about it, but I will let you know what my party theme will be. Today I only have 1 class this morning. Afterwards I will go home. Usually on Fridays I have 4 classes to teach. However, the Senior students have finished school already (even though graduation isn't for another month???). So that leaves me with one class on Fridays until at least April. Until next time folks...

peace

vince

Just life...

2009-01-28T12:40:00.003+09:00

Well it's Wednesday, and you know what that means! Well actually I don't really know what that means... Anyway time for a new post!

Ok, well things have been going well the past few weeks. Last Friday we had a party for my room mates birthday. We invited about 15 people I suppose. I think a few people didn't show up though. We had a great time. All we did was buy cups, plates and forks. People brought, food and drinks. The party was definitely in Japan, because the food was sushi and Japanese bread. There was a cake for my friend and we ate that cake quite fast. Everybody was chatting, and at midnight we started to dance to salsa music. My room mate is a salsa dancer so he was showing us some moves. We probably danced for about 1 hour or so. By that time the alcohol had set in, and we were all pretty smashed. The last person left at about 2am and I just fell asleep. I had to wake up early in the morning because I had a private lesson at 10am. Unfortunately I woke up with a pounding headache, but a bit of coffee took care of that problem.

At my private lesson there were 10 people from the community. I showed them pictures of my trip back to America. They had many questions and seemed generally interested in it. It was an easy $50 dollars. Plus they gave me some coffee and sweets. Sunday was relaxing and ridiculously cold. I went walking around in the shopping district here. I ate a chicken kabob too! This week at school is going good as well. My students are starting to understand how to give their opinion about things. When I asked one of my students today if she believed in aliens, she said "I hope that we can meet them one day", I was really happy that she told me how she felt. Sometimes it's quite difficult for a Japanese student to tell you an opinion about something. I really don't know why though.

I have been able to drop about 6 pounds since coming back to Japan. I think I gained 15 pounds when I went back home. It was not good!! I ate everything you could possibly imagine, except McDonald's...:) My friends here told me that I had gained weight too! All I really have been doing is just eating what I normally do here in Japan and I lose weight. I think I lose weight because of all the walking and bike riding I do everyday. I probably walk at least 30 minutes a day. I ride my bike about 4 miles a day, so that is probably the reason for my rapid weight loss.

Last night I went shopping for some jeans and a couple of pillows for my bed. I went to GAP because I know that I can wear those jeans. For some crazy reason, the jeans at GAP are about $125 each. I don't remember exactly how they are back in America, but I know for sure they aren't that much. So basically I just left that place. If they aren't on sale, I won't buy them! haha I went over to French Connection and there was a big sale! I saw some really nice jeans that were priced at $145, but they were %70 off! So I tried them on and they fit great! I was quite happy about that. When I left, the girl asked me if I was from the United Kingdom, I said... of course! haha :) I then ventured to buy a couple of pillows. I hadn't changed my pillows since I arrived here in Japan. I bought some nice fluffy ones along with pillow covers. Everything came out to $35 dollars! Good times! Last night I slept on those pillow like a dream.

I am thinking about throwing a party soon at my apartment. I was thinking a clothing themed party, for example a "white party". But that is kinda played out. Maybe a "black party"? Give me some suggestions OK! I want to do this soon!

Ok, well enough about my life. I wanted to share with you some musical suggestions for this evening. I hope you will give them a whirl in your mp3 player or what not.

The first band is called The Apples in Stereo. They are really good. A bit of an indie rock type of sound, but amazing stuff.

The next band is called Playradioplay. They are from Texas and the new album is so originally titled "Texas". I can't really describe the sound. Maybe a mix of "the postal service" and pop punk. Good stuff.

Ok that's enough for today. My blog is being renovated right now, so I hope you will like the new look. Cheers

peace

vince

Change

2009-01-21T10:51:00.004+09:00

Well as you all know the American Presidential Inauguration was today. Actually in Japan it was early this morning. I stayed up all night watching and gazing at the pictures I witnessed live and on the Internet via MSNBC.com. I have never seen such a beautiful scene in my life. I have traveled many places in the world, but I realized that I have taken for granted the beauty of my own country. I have never been to Washington D.C. but I know I am definitely going to try and make in next time I go back. I just kept thinking about the history of that place. All the people that worked in throughout the years for equality, if only they could have lived to see it. I envy the people that were able to see it in person. I am looking forward to this next president. He seems to be a great man with a following like no other. Should be interesting time ahead for America!

Today in my class, we got off on the topic of Obama. I don't know why, but the Japanese are in love with him. My students had so many questions about America and Obama. I taught them a little about the slaves in south, segregation, human rights, MLK, World War 2 and the Iraq war. They really don't know much about history. I showed them how minorities were separated by using the water fountain example. They were really shocked about this. One student told me that he disliked what the Americans did to the "black mans" as he said. I told him that I agreed with him. However I continued to tell him about how the Japanese in World War 2 took Korean people as slaves to build their military installations. They had no idea! I was glad to teach them a little about the world. It was truly fun, and that is the way education should be. Heck, they even learned a bit of English too!! I really had thank my teaching partner though! She helped me translate so much, and it was soooo helpful to me. I'm really starting to think that my plan about teaching English by using current affairs is a good and feasible idea! I just hope the next presentation will go just as well! :) Be back soon!

peace

vince

From the desk of binsu...

2009-01-20T10:19:00.003+09:00

Well I just finished two classes right now! They went pretty good. I gave a small presentation on the drug war in Juarez Mexico(the city across from El Paso). They were blown away by how many murders there were last year... about 1800. Perhaps I scared them about Mexico though! Oops... At least they learned about something, and they learned in English! Life is going good lately. I'm really trying hard on my new years resolutions. I think this year will be a great one! I was thinking about how my blog has somewhat become a small diary of sorts. At first I wanted to dish out all this info about Japan. But I realised, it's really hard to explain or for people to imagine your lifestyle here. I put pictures up and stuff like that but they don't do the story justice. I hope some people can come over here so I can share with them a bit of my lifestyle. As for my blog, well we'll just see what happens. Gotta go with the flow. Take care all, and I'll talk to you soon!

peace

vince

p.s. here is a pic i just took with my cell phone! search for things some of you have given me :)

Reflect

2009-01-08T07:40:00.003+09:00

Well I am in the Denver Airport right now. It's a nice airport. If you ever come by here, you should definitely go eat at Heidi's Brooklyn Deli. The best sandwiches I have ate for a long time. Anyway, I was really happy to go home. I have gained a new appreciation for my family. They are the best. That's mainly who I saw when I went home. I saw a few good and friends, but it was mostly family time. I truly enjoyed it. I really like Japan, but I love America. As much as people love to complain about this country, you really don't appreciate it until you leave. Anyway, I just wanted to say... Don't take for granted what you have.

During this trip I ate a lot of food! I surely gained at least 5lbs! I could not stop eating!! haha And if you have ever been to El Paso Texas, then you definitely know how wonderful the food is there! I went snowboarding in Ruidoso New Mexico. It was fun, and my body took a beating! At night we went to look at the beautiful sky with my telescope. They sky was absolutely stunning. I was able to see the Milky Way in the middle of the sky. I spent a lot of time with my dogs too!

Anyway, soon I will be back in Japan. I'm not sure when I will be back in America yet, but I am glad that I was able to refresh myself and enjoy home. Thanks to everybody that made my holiday the best one in a long time. I appreciate it!

I'm going to finish this giant sandwich from Heidi's now...

peace

vince

El Paso

After the Lincoln Trail...

Snowboarding

Ski Apache

At White Sands National Monument

Give me more Santitas!!!

Good fun

El Paso Sunset

Back in Texas

2008-12-20T16:06:00.004+09:00

Well I am back in my hometown. After a 25 hour travel period, a surprise meeting of my buddy pato, multiple delays and a really delicious sandwich, here are a few pics that I took on the plane. Be back later with some more.

News and sorts

2008-12-12T11:23:00.003+09:00

Hello everybody. Well the cold weather has now arrived in Osaka. It's quite chilly in the morning. I enjoy the cold weather actually. Most people really hate it, but it makes me a bit happy. So what have I done since the last post? The big news is that I decided to go back home for Christmas. I wasn't going to go back because it was so expensive. But I found a great deal online and I couldn't pass it up. It was still expensive, just not as much as I thought. I am really happy to get to see my family and good friends when I get back. I'm going home on December 18th.

Last week I had to attend a JET conference in Osaka. This conference is called the Mid-year seminar. It is held for 2 days in December. It is for all the Osaka JET teachers. Last year it was quite bland and I wasn't looking forward to this year. However, I came out of that conference with a lot of ideas that I could use in my class. I went to a Japanese bead making class too. I made about 5 beads with glass and my own hands. It was really nice. I left that conference with a positive outlook for the coming school term. I really thought about what goals I have in my job. I truly want to make communication with my teaching partners better. We talk, but not as much as we should. I already started to try hard this week. I think that if we talk more, our teaching will automatically become better. I'm going to give it a shot.

Last Sunday December 7th, I had to take my Japanese language test. It is called the Japanese Language Proficiency Test or in short the (JLPT). There are 4 levels of the test. 1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest. I took level 3. It consisted of writing, vocabulary, reading, listening and grammar. I'm sure that I did excellent on the listening. However I'm not too sure about the others. The reason I took this test was to see what my Japanese ability is, and to see what I need to work on. I didn't study much for this test. Now I know what my ability is, so I will strive to study starting in January. I will learn much more Japanese next year, that is my #1 goal. At the moment, I can hold a decent conversation with people. However, when it comes to really deep feelings and proper topics, I fear my skills to be below my quality standards. がんばれ！　(you can do it!)

Today, there was an Australian exchange student visiting my class. It was fun to have another westerner in my class. Since I have lived in Japan for a quite a while now. I begin to notice how much all westerners from English speaking countries are alike. It doesn't really matter if you are from USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa etc... we have so much in common. I have made friends from all of these countries. And sometimes I forget that they are not from America. Of course there are a few slang words and accent differences, but at the core, we are just the same. So it's very easy to become friends and chat with other westerners like myself. Some may disagree, but that is my point of view.

So anyone that knows we well or has read my lame blog for the past year or so, knows that I have quite the obsession for finding and listening to new music. I just thought I would take some time to recommend some good music to you while you are here. In a few days I will post up a music player with some of the bands and groups that I recommend. Anyway here it goes,

I have been listening to a lot of this band called "Pompeii" and their new album called "Nothing happens for a reason." They have a bit of an indie vibe to them. The sound is very relaxing with sweet guitars and soft drums for the most part. The lyrics are excellent and I just like hanging out and listening to them. It's good music when you are working on some homework or studying, or writing a bloody blog.

Another band that has taken a lot of my time is "The Bigger Lights" and the new EP called "Fiction Fever". If I had to compare them to another band I would say they sound in between Forever the sickest kids and The starting line. This is only an EP but this band should have a full album out in a few months.

Sorry that was probably lame, but I just thought some people might actually find some interesting new music. Well that's all for this blog. I will try and put another one up before I leave next week. If I don't I will post when I'm back from in the USA. Hopefully after my 21 hour trip from Osaka to El Paso will not kill me! Cheers

peace

vince

No love for Wall-e??

2008-11-27T10:59:00.003+09:00

So today in my "outstanding" English class, we had a test. It was an interview test. Basically I brought the student outside and I asked him/her about 8 fairly simple, yet engaging... well not so engaging questions. Anyway, while the other students waited in the classroom, I decided I would show them a movie. Well the movie I decided to show them was one of my favorite movies "wall-e". This movie has yet to be released in Japan, so they were in for a treat! This movie releases next week in Japan. Well we watched the whole movie, and I waited for a response from one of the 20 heads in my class. I never got that response. Not even a "that was cute!" or a "I liked the movie!". It was complete silence. I thought that I had shown them a damn video of a funeral or something like that. What the hell??? How can you not have a response to "Wall-e". Needless to say I was a bit shocked at this. When the bell rang, they all just got up and walked out of class. Not even a goodbye or thanks. That's the last time I lug my laptop and speakers to class for them. Lame...

On a good note, I got to watch "Wall-e" again. Damn I love that movie. Well gotta get going. Chat with you later! Cheers!

peace

vince

How can you not love this dude?

Long time, no...type!

2008-11-26T15:16:00.002+09:00

Hey everybody! I apologize for the lack of posts on vinceinosaka.blogspot.com. Honestly I lost interest in writing this blog a few weeks ago. However I decided today to keep it going for the time being.

Anyway, the past few weeks have been quite interesting. Let's start off with what I will cleverly title "The Futon Incident". Sweet, huh? So to start this story off I will inform you about the Japanese Futon. It's not like what you know as a futon in the West. These futons are placed on the floor and you sleep on them. They are filled with various goods like cheap polyester to the oh so lovely down feathers. You have to put these futons outside at least one a week to air them out and get some sun. So on a Saturday a few weeks back, I decided to place my nice fluffy futon outside hanging off the balcony with a couple of harnesses attached. I left to the grocery store to buy some goods to cook. When I arrived back home, I didn't see my futon hanging off the balcony. I peered down the edge of my apartment building and it was nowhere to be found! My futon had a bright yellow cover on it, so it wouldn't have been difficult to find. But I never found the damn thing. It just vanished, my bright yellow semi-double pillow of joy! Well, last week I had to replace that futon. I spent a good $200 at the home store so but some winter futon and covers. Somewhere, some dude is on my yellow futon. I hope he is mauled by a tiger or something like that.

I have really been cooking a lot. Not only is it damn good fun. But I am realising that I can cook pretty good! I have been turning out classics like pizza, baked spaghetti, double dipped fried chicken, apple pie pizza, curry honey chicken, fried rice... seriously dude I've been cooking like a mad man!

Thanksgiving is coming soon! I really am going to miss all the delicious food my mom makes. I'm going to miss the football games and just hanging out at home. When you are away for a long time, you start to miss the little things about home. I really don't miss "El Paso" that much, just mostly miss the people that I love in El Paso. I'm not sure of my plans for Christmas yet, but damn I would love to get back home!

Thanks to all that keep reading this thing of a blog. I promise to keep up the stories more often.

peace

vince

Halloweenmas

2008-10-31T18:36:00.006+09:00

Hey there fair people! Today is Halloween! Unfortunately that means nothing here in Japan. Well unless you are talking about superficial displays and decorations of pumpkins and the words "Trick or Treat" EVERYWHERE! Anyway, I gave my students some candy today. I think they were quite happy about it! I also taught them a bit of the history of Halloween, and where it comes from. Unfortunately I have to work tomorrow (Saturday) because tomorrow at my school is an orientation for the new middle school kids. I figured it would be only in the morning. Of course I was wrong and they are actually going to be at my school all day long. In the morning they are going to be treated to a dreadful 2 hour meeting and Q&A in the cold gymnasium. They will join my class at about 3pm, so that means they will be half asleep! WOOOHOO!!! I'm so excited! haha Hopefully it won't be too bad. The good thing is that there is a holiday on Monday. I'm not sure what they holiday is about, but the day is called "Culture Day"!

Ok so I will admit it, today was a little brisk in the morning. In the afternoon it's quite nice though. However, if you walked around the streets here in Japan. You would think you were in Siberia or some ridiculously cold place like that. Every one breaks out the crazy ski gear and beanies etc... I was wearing a short sleeve button up shirt today and my students were dumbfounded at the fact that I didn't think it was cold. One of the items that is I guess "fashionable" is the Russian style hat. I don't know why they are popular, but I'm sure those girls are dying of heat under that damn hat.

Remember I told you it was Halloween today? Well Wednesday I went to Starbucks. The Starbucks is in a cool mall type place. Well when I arrived I found a ginormous Christmas light display. All with Christmas music in the background... I couldn't believe it! It was October 29th... Anyway, I took a few photos with my cell phone, so check them out for yourself. Well I hope you all are doing ok. And sorry to "disgruntled computer guy".

peace

vince

October Christmas spirit!!!

Welcome to the Japanese Classroom...

2008-10-14T15:42:00.005+09:00

Well today was probably one of the worst classes I have ever had. It is an "eiken" class. Which basically means remedial English. And I know why. There were about 28 students in that class and about 24 students asleep. Absolutely no objection by the teachers or anything... lame That would never happen to my class in the USA.

I also went to a building called "Umeda Sky Building" on Sunday. I took a few photos and it was a nice day.

peace

vince

just look at the enthusiasm here, it's thrilling

looking over Osaka Japan

Another view

Umeda Sky Building

Football and Food

2008-10-07T10:24:00.004+09:00

Hello, it's been a while eh? Well it's been quite gloomy (weather wise) lately here in Osaka. Almost everyday there is a bit of rain.

So what have I been up to, you ask?

I've actually been cooking a lot lately. Yesterday I made some baked spaghetti. I think it was probably one of the best dishes I have made in Japan yet. It was quite brilliant, haha. ;) Last week I made some sweet and spicy chicken with a sweet potato. I also made some honey baked chicken as well. I use chicken a lot, because it is so much cheaper than beef over here. Good times.

I've also had a few late nights of watching Football on the tele (my computer) lately. The English league is excellent this year.

Last week I also came down with my first Real cold in Japan. It wasn't so bad. Just that usual "dude, i feel like shit" feeling, you know? This week is a bit slow at work. My coworker called in sick yesterday so my classes were cut short. Today, I only have 1 class so I have a lot of time. I've been studying Japanese a lot lately. I have a big Japanese Language test coming in December, so I gotta get ready for that. I'm pretty sure I can pass that test!

I don't have any exciting plans in the coming weeks. I have nothing to complain about. I'm a lucky guy. Till next time mates.

peace

vince

Finally

2008-09-24T08:56:00.004+09:00

So today I had a "only in Japan" moment. I was going to a convenience store by my school today to grab a coffee. In Japan, they love their bottled drinks. There are so many different drinks. Far more than in the USA. You could probably have a different drink for every day of the week. Anyway, there are always interesting ways that they market these drinks. I saw a new coffee and it came with two, and it said "transformer inside". So of course I had to grab that. As I grabbed my lame coffee. An old dude came up to me and said in Japanese "Oh, you are a foreigner!". And in Japanese I replied "Yes, that is correct, I sure am!". He started to laugh because of my smart ass response. He asked how tall I was and I told him. He said that he was so happy to meet a foreigner. I told him that I was glad to meet him as well. Then I went to the register to pay for my sandwich and coffee. The dude came up to the register and told the clerk that he will pay for my items. I told him "No, no, that's OK!" But he insisted. It was only about 5 dollars and he gave the cashier 10 dollars. He insisted that I keep the change as well. I reluctantly took the change. He said that I just made his day happy. It was quite interesting. The funny thing is that the store I went to was the same store that the crazy lady screamed and ran away from me! haha What a difference in opinion here in Japan. There are people that just love foreigners and those that completely hate them. There is really isn't a medium. The man said that I made him have a happy day, however he did the same for me as well!

Tuesday was a Japanese holiday. Something about respecting dead family members?? Anyway, the important thing is that I had the day off. I cooked a lot yesterday. I cooked some Tex-Mex fajitas for me and my roommate. I had marinated the chicken for about 8 hours. I made some Guacamole, Refried bean, salsa and some veggies. We had a Tex-Mex lunch complete with flour tortillas. My roommate completely loved it. He was eating giant tacos! He had the perfect Taco technique, which was quite surprising since he is from Boston!! haha ;) I had a great day. Anyway, I finally made a long blog post. I hope you enjoyed it. I will try to get some more stuff up here more frequently ok! Take care

peace

vince

p.s. here are some pics of the coffee and transformer toy

Rain

2008-09-16T10:03:00.002+09:00

So it's been raining the past 2 days. Yesterday was a foggy day. It also happened to be a Japanese Holiday. I think it had something to do with old people. Like, respect for the old people day, or "Don't kick old people day", or "Don't knock over old gimps on their bicycles" day. Anyway, it was nice. I cleaned up my apartment, it was and still is pretty bad. My room is quite nice most of the time but the rest is in shambles, it needs a proper tidy up. It was quite cool yesterday because of all the clouds so I was able to just open up my balcony door and feel the cool breeze. My roommate's girlfriend cooked us lunch while we cleaned up the apartment. She made some tasty Chinese rice mixture. It was damn good and I really enjoyed it.

So last week I showed my students the DVD that I worked on. Their response to the DVD was basically silence. No emotion, reaction, comments etc. It was so lame. I even asked if they wanted a copy of the disc and nobody responded. Sometimes I really think to myself, "what is the point of me teaching here?". My other classes are very funny and happy except this one class. The atmosphere is similar to a damn funeral in my class. Oh man...

For those of you who read my blog, I'm sorry that I haven't exactly put anything exciting up on my blog for a while. I really haven't been doing much traveling or sight seeing to put up cool pictures or videos. I just can write my life here. I hope to go somewhere cool soon though. Maybe just a weekend and getaway from the big city for a while. Well I hope everyone is doing great. I will talk to you soon. Much love to all the people in Texas that are suffering from Hurricane Ike.

peace

vince

Death of a Legend

2008-09-08T19:26:00.002+09:00

This post has nothing to do with Japan. It's all about my hometown, and a local hero and legend that passed away Sunday afternoon back in my hometown of El Paso Texas. Have you ever seen the 2006 Disney movie called "Glory Road"? Well Mr. Don Haskins was the focal point of that movie. He was the first coach in College basketball history to win the National Championship in 1966 with 5 black players in the starting line-up. He won the only National Championship for my University, UTEP. That all sounds amazing, but what Don Haskins means to my city is much more than basketball. He was probably the most well known and respected figure. Everybody knew who he was and he was damn humble. I've never met Don Haskins in my life, however he has somehow touched my life to write this blog. I think it's just because I grew up hearing about the story of Don Haskins and even saw him coach many games as a young miner fan. Well I just wanted to share that story with you. I was quite sad today when I heard about this. Well rest in peace Don Haskins.

1930-2008

peace

vince

Long time no see

2008-09-07T22:23:00.002+09:00

Hello all you!! Is there any one still reading this blog? Well I had a pretty good few weeks. My birthday was quite lame. I ended up eating ramen at a ramen shop across the street. I'm waiting for the box my parents are sending me. I look forward to getting that box! :) Thank you! I have been editing the commercials that my students made last week. Some of them were quite lame. Most groups completely forgot what we were doing, so they made these really horrible commercials. I had to edit them completely! So they would be decent. Some of them I added some ridiculous things in them so you have to watch them. Well I'm doing pretty good. I hope life is treating you well. I'll talk to you soon!

peace

vince

Getting a bit cooler

2008-08-27T09:00:00.002+09:00

Hello everybody, it's been a while! I have been quite busy lately with moving and all that. We are almost done with the apartment so when I get that done I will take some photos of the place.

Next week is my birthday, I think it will probably be pretty boring. I wanted to go out, but I'm not sure what will happen. I don't think people in Japan actually care about birthdays, or maybe they do. I just never seen anybody say "happy birthday" here. Anyway, I should have some stories pretty soon, since school is starting this week. I will be back with some videos and stories soon. Sorry for the quiet summer of posts here on my blog.

peace

vince

p.s. my school sent out a memo today to tell everybody to make sure and check the students hair color. Yeah, instead of care about the grades or homework. The teachers check hair color. That's pretty lame... oh man

Quite a while

2008-08-13T10:00:00.004+09:00

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I guess I have been lazy. Well actually I am putting more things up on my MYSPACE page. So check that more often.

First off Happy birthday to my brother Danny! I love you dude! I hope your day was good!!!

Well last weekend I finally moved into my new apartment. It is freaking huge. My co-worker helped me move. We managed to pack my entire apartment into his van. I was damn surprised at that marvelous accomplishment. We have a giant living area and a fairly large kitchen. My bedroom is kinda big with a nice view of the city. It is a big difference from living in Matsubara. The cool thing is that I will save so much money because I won't have to pay for subway and train fees anymore. I can just ride my bicycle everywhere. On Sunday Tom and I went biking around our area. We found a bunch of cool places. Just few essentials are needed right now. I am looking forward to having some friends over. It will be great and so convenient.

Yesterday I went with my friend Tom, to Nara Japan. It is about 40 mins away from me. There was a lantern display there. I didn't really understand why there were lanterns everywhere, so I was a bit confused, but it was nice to see. We fed deer and ate candy apples. The deer are funny! When they see that you have some crackers to feed them, they will surround you. And to get your attention they will pull your shirt with their mouths or bump you with their antlers. It was really funny, but kinda scary when 10 surrounded you, while they were biting your ass! hahah We had a good time there. It was really hot outside though, and it had just rained so the humidity was killer. I had never been to Nara before so I was glad to go. I want to go again during the winter time to see how it looks in that season.

I was looking for tickets to go home for Christmas to the USA. The tickets were about $1,800 US Dollars. That is crazy!

Well that is enough for today. I hope you all are having a splendid week. Are you enjoying the Olympics? Take care everybody...

peace

vince

click this link to see my pics on myspace of the nara deer adventure! :)

Burning up

2008-08-04T10:09:00.004+09:00

It has been very hot here in Osaka lately.　　Humidity seems to have been kicked up as well.　　This weekend was nice. On Friday I wanted to check out a giant fireworks show, but I wasn't able to go. I was able to see some of it thought from my apartment. There were people climbing up to the roof of my apartment with beers. It was quite funny. Saturday, I just relaxed and I cooked dinner for me and eri. I made some Pepperoncino Pasta and Sirloin Steak. It was damn good! haha I had a bunch left over too. We enjoyed it! Sunday I had to go to Kyoto because I put together an English project with my Eiken English class. Actually only 5 students volunteered and only 3 showed up. Anyway, the point of the project was to interview foreign tourists in English. For example one of the questions was "How long will you be in Japan?". We went to 3 tourist areas in Kyoto and asked 3 groups of people in each area. At first the students were quite reluctant to talk, but after the first one, they became excited. Every time they saw some foreigners they stalked them down and asked them questions. We recorded it and took a photo with the victims. haha It was really fun, however it was really hot outside. So my students were practically dead by the end of the day. We had a great time. I did some sightseeing as well when I was there. I took some videos and loads of pictures. We took a taxi to one of the tourist areas and I took a video of that. We went to a conbini called "Family Mart" and I was quite sad that I didn't find a family on sale. I arrived home about 6pm, so it was a long day. Since I worked on a Sunday, they let me have a day off this week. So I picked this coming Friday.

By the way, I am moving to my new apartment this coming weekend. I decided to throw away my current shit bed and buy a futon for the mean time. The person that lived in my apartment before me left me a bunch of SHIT so I will have to throw away most of it. However, all I really need is my Xbox, TV and clothes, my desk and a futon. It's all good yo! I am planning on taking some videos of our ridiculous attempt at moving this coming weekend. Hey I was thinking about making a podcast for my blog. What do you think about that? I think I will ask my buddy Tom to join in. Just an idea I'm throwing out there. Let me know what you think. The podcast will probably be about Life in Japan, Video Games, Music, Movies and random things in life.

So last Thursday marked 1 full year in Japan for me. This year has gone by so fast. I experienced many ups and downs. I have met many people and great friends. I have even managed to meet an amazing mate. I never would have thought this would happen to me here in Japan. Well I'm looking forward to this year as well. I have no idea what will happen this coming year. All I can say is that I know that I will do my best. The rest will follow through.

peace

vince

me and the students at the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto

students and teacher!

hello!

the nice golden pavilion in kyoto

my students interviewing a german chick

i bet they were hot

widescreen view just for you!

cooling off in the heat of kyoto

last but not least here are some ridiculous videos that i made. REMEMBER after the video finishes press menu and my other videos will be on the right side. just click the little squares and you will see the video.

searching for a family at family mart...

p.s... RIP bennigans... i will miss your amazing Guinness glazed bacon cheeseburger...sad times...half off burger Wednesdays was the shit...

If you like video games...

2008-08-01T04:38:00.001+09:00

Just launched last week. I thought I would spread the word and post a ridiculous video they made! It's quite funny. If you life video games, check out this site. www.giantbomb.com

A few videos

2008-07-26T17:32:00.002+09:00

Here are some videos that I shot yesterday on my way home. I was bored in the train so I decided to pull out the camera. You will be going on the train from Tennoji Station to Amami station (where I live). We will go to the convenience store, then walk to my apartment. Enjoy!

peace

vince

part 1

part 2

Life is good

2008-07-22T22:04:00.003+09:00

Well I really can't complain this month. I'm moving into a new apartment next month, my friends are great, I got a new TV today, and love is in the air! If only my family was closer to me here. It would make everything so much better. The past few days I have been so happy.

School is on summer vacation now. However, I still have to be at work. Why? I don't know, and I don't even do anything. Today I just studied Japanese at my desk for about 3 hours. Then I ate lunch, played some basketball and went home. Not much to the day. I came home and waited for my TV to arrive at my door. I set it up and then did my evening run. Today I ran from my apartment to 3 train stations south and back. It's so humid here so it's very easy to sweat and lose fluids. It was a great run. Well I just wanted to give a quick update. Everything is going well. Here is a pic of my new setup. When I move to my new apartment, it will be way better! See you! :)

peace

vince

p.s. i saw wall-e last weekend on my computer, it's amazing! it's not coming out in japan, so that's a pity. i also downloaded the dark knight. it comes out here in about a week or so. i will definitely go see it in the cinema.

my xbox 360 and my new tv! 22 inch hd! not so big but good enough for my apartment!

i love wall-e, i don't care how gay that sounds haha :)

Hey there

2008-07-16T21:16:00.004+09:00

So I'm not going to South Korea anymore. It sucks, but hopefully I will go somewhere this summer. Today I went with my buddy Tom to sign for our new apartment. It's going to be awesome. It's really big and we can't wait to have some Rock Band parties. Hopefully someone will actually come to visit me this year.

I had forgotten about this but...Tuesday morning when I was riding my bike to school. I stopped by my local convenience store to buy something to drink. As I pulled up in my bike, there was a lady leaving the store. She saw me and literally screamed out loud and ran like she had just seen a ghost. I put my kick stand down on my bike, all the while staring at her. My stare was a blank stare with the universal face of "you are a fucking idiot!". I literally stared at her for about 5 seconds, then for some reason I looked around for a camera like in the show "The Office". Unfortunately the camera crews were not around... oh well... haha Anyway I walked into the convenience store to buy my damn tea. When I walked out, that biatch was still standing there. So when I got on my bike and rode close to her, I yelled out "BOOOOOO!!!" She yelled and ran like a stupid gimp. It was quite hilarious. Oh some people are so ignorant. Just thought I would share that stupid story with you.

I was reading some journal entries that some JET participants have wrote in this years JET Journal. They are quite good. I finished reading them and felt a bit envious of those JETs that are living in small towns and on islands in Japan. They seem to be learning much more Japanese and enjoying local life quite much. Of course there are perks to living in the giant city of Osaka, foreign food stores, cinemas, entertainment, night life, many foreign people. But is that really better than the island? I really don't know. I'm sure that there are pros and cons to both situations. I really want to visit some JET friends that live on an island or a tiny town in Japan. I want to experience that feeling of being there. I will gladly open my doors as well to anyone that comes to big Osaka too! :)

So as usual I have been listening to a lot of music. I feel like typing a lot today so I will recommend some new music for you. Farewell, Ace Enders and a Million Different People, The Morning Light, The Maine, Hit the Lights, Beat Union. Check 'em out if you want to.

peace

vince

here is a little pic of osaka that i took a few days ago with my phone...

Bummer

2008-07-15T21:04:00.002+09:00

So looks like there was a scheduling issue with my trip to Korea. I might not be going after all. We are trying to reschedule for the following week, but I think the price will change dramatically. This sucks... Anyway I'll let you know.

peace

vince

Ups and Downs of Life

2008-07-14T11:13:00.003+09:00

It's strange how things change so quickly. How one day you can be completely distraught and depressed. To being strong and wanted. Life works that way, and perhaps it's just for the best. Last week for me definitely had it's bright spots, and unfortunately some very low points as well. I'm not going to go into detail about the low points. I just felt horrible because of some circumstances that arose. Anyway, I'm doing better now. I still have hope, I'll just take it day by day...or whatever that cliche is...

Well I'm going to South Korea. I booked my trip last week, and I will be leaving on July 27th to Seoul. I'm looking forward to this trip. I will take loads of pictures, and I hope to make some sort of lame amateur documentary about it. So get ready for that. I also decided to move with my friend Tom to a new apartment inside Osaka City. Currently I'm living in Matsubara City, which is quite close to my work. The downside is that the area is completely lame. I'm far from most people and it's very boring around here. So Tom and I are moving close to Namba in Osaka City. We will have loads of space there. I'm looking forward to it. Now I just have to think about how to get all my stuff over there...hmmm...

Well I just wanted to give a quick update here. I'll be back soon to write something that doesn't make sense again. Take care...

peace

vince

p.s. thanks for the recent comments everybody! nice to hear from the new people!

Rainy Day

2008-07-08T09:57:00.007+09:00

Hey everybody! Well, today is a very rainy day. Usually I can't hear thunder here in Osaka. But today I woke up to the wonderful sound of the skies cracking! I love it! I have a busy few days. These are the last few days of school until the mid semester summer break. I'm sure that when we all come back in August, the students and I will have forgotten everything that we learned.

Last Saturday night was very fun. I made plans to meet my buddy Patrick in Namba for some drinks and dinner. I brought along my buddy NY Tom along as well. We were set to meet at 8:30pm, but Tom and I decided to show up a bit early to talk about a trip we have planned for South Korea. We grabbed a beer at Zerro (local bar) and started chatting away. Of course we hadn't ate anything, save for a measly salad that Tom bought at a conbini. So needless to say the tall glass of Guinness was having a small effect on him. I'm not going to lie, me too! haha We went to meet up with Patrick at the Dotonbori Bridge (a typical meeting spot in Osaka). Patrick had a head start on us because in hand was a nice tall Chu-hi 8%. Good stuff! We met up his nice friend and proceeded to the nights dinner location. Of course I went to my favorite cozy spot called Bamboo. My friend Levi cooked up some delicious lamb kebab (Israeli style) and others delicious goodies for us. We enjoyed them and had a few drinks. Tom was running low on money so he decided to go to the ATM. However we went to about 3 atms and they didn't work with his card. We thought he was screwed! I had his back with the money so it was all good. After a few drinks and the completion of our dinner. We started to walk to a place that Patrick wanted to go to. It was already about 10:45pm. Tom and I didn't have plans to pull an all nighter so we decided to just meet up with a couple of friends at a bar called Hawaiian Umiya. We said by to Patrick and his friend and walked to meet our friends. By the time we got there we were a bit tipsy and making ridiculous jokes. We met our Canadian friends from Toronto, Dorothy and Yi-lee. We hadn't seen them in ages, so it was nice to hang out for a bit. We had some beers and watched them eat an interesting salad. I can't go into much detail without confusing you, but the conversations consisted of references to "cave mango's", "love" and tongue twisters that I can't remember right now. By the time we looked at our watches it was 11:45pm. Tom's last train left the station at 12:01am. So if we didn't make it to the station, we would be forced into an all nighter. So we took our drunken selves out of the bar, and proceeded to run wildly through the streets of Osaka. Similar to what you might envision a group of cavemen to do...or something like that. I remember Tom dropping his cell phone. I yelled to the the Korean guards outside the consulate "Hey, we are visiting you soon!". And other random things. Anyway, Tom made it back to the train on time and so did I. It was a good night.

Sunday, was just wonderful. I went to the Osaka Aquarium. I was very humid and hot. But that didn't ruin the fun. The Aquarium was very nice, although there were so many kids there. The best animals I saw were, the Otters, Sea lions and of course my favorite Penguins! I love Penguins. I went to see an IMAX 3d movie, Oceans. It was exciting, not to mention how cool we look with those giant 3d glasses. I wanted to ride Japan's largest Ferris wheel but I think it will be the best at night time. It was just a great day. I can say that it was one of the best weekends I have had in a long time.

Hopefully at the end of this month I will go on a trip somewhere. I am looking to go to South Korea or somewhere in Japan. For sure somewhere though! I will keep you posted on that. Well take care everybody. Sorry for my Giant post today.

peace

vince

Been a while

2008-07-01T08:52:00.014+09:00

Hello again. First off CONGRATULATIONS SPAIN! They won Euro 2008. What an amazing tournament. Unfortuntately I will without football for about 1 month. Oh well... I hope you are well. Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been doing many things, so I have stuff to write about. Honestly, I've just been a bit lazy to type here. Anyway, today is Tuesday and the sun is out for the first time in a few days. However, I'm sure that later today the sun will fall to the clouds again. Personally, rain and clouds make me happy. I come from a hot desert city with about 330 days a year of sun. So rain and clouds were great days when I was growing up. It's actually kinda funny if you think about it. I remember I used to get mad when I would go outside and the clouds were gone in El Paso.

So what have you been up to Vince?

Thanks for asking...This weekend was pretty good. I ate fake Japanese Mexican food at a pretty famous place in Osaka called "el pancho". If you didn't know, I am Mexican/American and I come from a place in Texas that arguably has the best Mexican food in the entire southwest of the USA. So I can tell you right now that it doesn't taste like Mexican food. But it is decent. I was a bit hesitant to take her there because of this reason. Anyway she liked it. I was a bit disappointed with my food. I wish I could show her real Mexican food, it's so delicious. Saturday I woke up late watched a bunch of "The Office" on my PC. Sunday was pretty cool, my best buddies in Osaka, the famous Tom, Tom and I went to a Japanese baseball game. The Orix Buffaloes!!! YEAH!!!! haha That is second team in Osaka, and honestly they are quite rubbish. This was all UK Tom's idea, so if it sucked I was just going to blame him! j/k tom! It was interesting of course. First off, I think baseball sucks, so you can imagine what I think about Japanese baseball. One thing that is very different from American baseball games is that there are sections of fans that just sing and beat drums the entire game. If you go to an American baseball game there is never any people playing trumpets and other musical instruments and dancing. So that was different. The food in the stadium was strange as well. I didn't see any popcorn, peanuts or cracker jack here. More like noodles, rice and bento boxes. We were damn hungry though, so we went to Mc Donald's. The place a foreigner can always go. As we walked to our seats and people saw us, there was chatter among the people that we passed. Comments like "look foreigners"! They were so surprised to see foreigners at a BASEBALL game. I took some photos and I will post a few later on. I also shot a couple of videos as well so that will go up pretty soon as well.

I want to travel somewhere very soon. I wanted to go to this Beach Party this coming weekend, but I couldn't find anyone to go with :( so that really sucked. Maybe I will go to South Korea this month, but I'm not sure. Summer vacation is coming in about 2 weeks so, yeah! Ok I think that's enough for today. On July 31st 2008, will be exactly 1 year I have been in Japan! Wow, time flies so fast! Well take care everybody! Hey is anybody coming to visit me in Japan!? Ever?? Never?? See ya!

peace

vince

ball park

vince, ny tom, uk tom

pitching

cool dudes

kyocera dome in osaka

here are some vids , remember to click menu to get more vids

Happy Birthday Blog!

2008-06-26T20:00:00.002+09:00

Hey everybody! So today is the 1st anniversary of vinceinosaka.blogspot.com. I really can't believe that I have been blogging for a year now. I remember when I first wrote on my page one year ago. I had no idea what would be happening in the year to follow. Well all I can say is that life is really good right now. I couldn't ask for more! Please wish my blog happy birthday! Or you don't have to, but it would be cool. Oh I uploaded my commercial for my English Conversation class. I showed my students today and they laughed kinda hard... They are starting to work on their commercials too. Well enjoy and take care of yourselves.

peace

vince

p.s. hi eri ^_^

I'm alive!

2008-06-24T12:05:00.002+09:00

Hey everybody! I'm sorry that I have failed to update my blog lately. Actually I have been without internet for a few days now. Yes, again my internet has failed in the very "high tech" country of Japan. Perhaps I have the curse of bad internet. Anyway that is one of the reasons I haven't posted anything.

Did you know that my BLOG turns 1 year old on Thursday? Well if you get a chance. Leave a happy birthday blog comment on that day. It would be greatly appreciated... haha Well I'm shooting my English conversation commercial tomorrow. I hope that it will come out soon. I won't have any internet at home so I can't upload to viddler any time soon. But expect the video up in the next week i assume. Other than the internet debacle, Italy lost in the Euro 2008 cup. So whenever those wankers loose I'm happy. Ok well I'm doing good over here. I'll be back soon. Take care everybody.

peace

vince

Too much excitement...what?

2008-06-19T13:27:00.003+09:00

Hey everybody how are you doing? Well I survived the dentist and the barber yesterday. I left my school about 3pm so I can reach the barber right at opening time. He didn't seem too excited to see me. However I realized that his demeanor was this way. He is a pretty nice guy though. We chatted about a few typical things. For example, the weather, baseball and girls. Sounds like a typical conversation between two dudes in the USA! haha Far from it I would say. Next stop was the dentist. The dentist was about 5 minutes from my house. So that was pretty awesome as well. As soon as I walked into the dentist office, a nice looking lady greeted me. I think they were expecting to see me. Anyway, the lady asked me if I was a teacher at Matsubara High School I swiftly replied with a great big "yes!". She told me in some decent English that her daughter went to MHS. It turned out that her daughter was in my class that day! It was quite ironic I think. We kicked the can for a few minutes then I went to see the Dr. He didn't really know English. Neither did the Dental Hygienist. So my Nintendo DS Japanese-English Dictionary came in damn handy! (thanks Danny!!!!) The dental office was all high tech. Everything was handled quite fast and efficient. They cleaned my teeth and fixed my broken filling. It may sound crazy, but I enjoyed it! haha All for a cheap 3,000 yen or $30. Can't beat that...well I guess you could...but you know what I mean. I have to go back next Friday for another cleaning. I think I will keep going for a regular cleaning, since I already broke the ice.

Tonight I am going out with my friends. I'm bringing along my good friends the two "toms". We're going to eat at an Izakaya (restaurant/bar) place. Should be good times. I will try to take some photos and put a few up later on.

At the moment I'm sitting at my desk at work. I have just finished my classes for the day. I am trying an ambitious (in my opinion) project this 2nd term for my 2nd grade students. We are going to make TV commercials in English. I downloaded recent commercials from America and showed them about 30 minutes of commercials today. Of course in typical Japanese fashion they had absolutely no response about them. In order for them to understand the assignment, I am going to make my own commercial. I am going to try and convince students to take my wonderful class in the commercial. I will shoot that lame commercial next week. So expect to see some ridiculous video next week. I hope my students will follow my ridiculousness with me. I can only hope however. Oh, and when they wrote in their journals at the end of class. All the students commented how they love the commercials. Of course I would never have known that since they will never speak a word out loud in class. Kinda crazy if you ask me... Well I believe that my brother and my father are heading to Las Vegas tomorrow. Please be careful driving ok! Oh and thank you SN and Tom for the comments. I appreciate it! SN, don't worry it's all good dude! Good luck with getting ready! And Tom, I'll be checking the blog soon! Well I'll be back soon. Take care y'all!

peace

vince

Hello

2008-06-17T21:06:00.003+09:00

So the weather is starting to heat up here in Osaka. It's no big deal for me since El Paso is hot! I'm just glad that flip-flop weather is back! yeah!!! So what am I going to do this summer? Well, I don't know yet. I hope I can visit somewhere next month. I just don't know who I can go with yet. I want to go to Hiroshima for a few days. Maybe even go see Fukuoka for a few days also. Anyway, I hope something comes up soon. So tomorrow I have to go to the Japanese dentist. Actually tomorrow I am going to get a haircut and go to the dentist. Should be quite interesting haha! :) Well I don't know what to write today. So I will let you know some more good music that I have been listening to lately. Of course I've been listening to the new Coldplay album non-stop lately. My favorite song is "yes". It's just so amazing towards the end. Another good band that I have been listening to, is a band called "goot". They just released a new album called "arranged noise". It's a bit of piano inspired pop-punk. It's a great listen. One more band I will recommend is a band called "Run Kid Run". They are quite good. I can't stop listening to the song on their new album called "One in a Million". Well if you have some time check out some of these bands music. You won't be disappointed.

peace

vince

here is an older song from "run kid run"

We've Only Just Begun

here's the new video from coldplay

p.s. FRANCE PLEASE BEAT ITALY TONIGHT!!!!!

Interesting times

2008-06-14T18:22:00.010+09:00

How are you? First off, I received no response about the JET information. So I'm not going to bother with that anymore. It takes too much damn time anyway. Kinda a waste of time to write all that and nobody even cares. So sorry!

I had a pretty good week. Every morning at about 1am I would watch the Euro 2008 matches. I would doze off for a few minutes then get back to the action. It has been a good tournament. Friday was interesting. I was going to Tennoji, so I was walking to the train station. Then there was about 5 police dudes walking towards me. Then the came up to me and asked me for my ID. I said, "sure". I handed them my alien card. Then they started writing things down and calling other dudes on the phone. Meanwhile I was totally looking like a criminal with 5 police dudes around me. Not to mention this drew a small crowd of onlookers. After about 5 minutes of waiting. The police dude asked me for my passport. I told him that it was in apartment. Just to let you know, I don't have to walk around with my passport. That is what my damn alien card is for. I even told him that. Anyway, he demanded to see my passport. So lets just say I was a bit pissy. So him and the other 4 goons followed me to my apartment. So just imagine how that looked. A foreigner walking with 5 police dudes. I was fucking embarrassed to say the least. It all turned out that it was "check foreigners day" or something like that. It was quite the primitive way of conducting a simple check. Ahh well...

Today I went to a BBQ. It was a BBQ for my PTA English class. It included all the members of my PTA English class, and the foreign exchange students. I ate a lot of food. Then we went to go play on these damn giant slides in the park. It was damn fun times. I felt like a kid again! We also played a bit of football"soccer". Then we played this game that I will call "blindfold a dude, give the dude a stick and hit the watermelon on the floor game". There is a specific name in Japanese but I don't know it. Plus, I think my names are a lot more amusing. BBQ in Japan is a lot different from in Texas. The meat is kinda weird and rubbery, and they like to put cabbage on the grill. I never did figure that one out yet though. I sure miss Texas BBQ with lean steaks and ranch style beans on the side, with a bit of potatoe salad and some Sam Adams beer. Oh home sweet home... haha Anyway, I added some pics from the days activities. Enjoy you all! Take care...

peace

vince

p.s. I'm listening to the new album from a great band called Augustana. The album is called "Can't love, Can't Hurt". If you enjoy good music then please pick it up. Or if you are a top 40 person, keep listening to that and don't bother with good music. No offense.. haha :)

here a video from them

here is a video of one of the big ass slides at the park.

grillin' it up yo!

yeah that's a bit hot

penalty kicks

kike and i going all superman style

yeah that slide was freaking huge

yeah we are sooo cool!

kickin' it old school

playing that "game" i mentioned earlier

yep, that's a watermelon alright

the bbq crew yo!

Something new for you... huh?!?!?

2008-06-11T14:11:00.002+09:00

Hello fellow BLOG enthusiasts. How is this fine week treating you? Do you like the new Euro 2008 widget on the top page? If not, too bad! Because it is staying up there until the end of the tournament! As for me, this week seems to be going so fast. This week I have done a lot of test grading and playing basketball. At night I have been enjoying my new XBOX 360 games that I got. GRID and Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Most of my time has been with GRID. If you are a race fan then I suggest you pick up a copy of that game. Or you can just do like everybody else does, and ignore my advice and go buy a shitty game like "the incredible hulk" woohoo! Did you catch the Netherlands destruction of Italy the other night? I hate the Italian football team and their football in general, so it was a good day (morning actually).

Today I was eating lunch at work. Actually it really wasn't lunch, it was just a bag of cereal and I was crunching. I felt a strange crunch and I stopped. I spit out the cereal to find a piece of my tooth filling in there. So basically my tooth filling on my back molar tooth came out. Which totally sucks. I don't think it completely came off, just a small piece. Anyway, I had to call the local dental clinic to schedule an appointment for next Wednesday. So looks like my quest to avoid going to the dentist in Japan has failed. haha I should have some interesting stories next week. ;) Meanwhile I am just going to not eat on that side of my mouth, and just take care of it as usual.

Ok, so I know that some of you are looking for information on the JET Programme. Some of you may be on your way over here in the next month or so. If so, congratulations! You are about to experience something that you will remember for the rest of you life. Excuse me for asking myself questions here...haha

So Vince, what should I bring to Japan? Should I bring a lot of clothes or toiletries etc...?

Well as for clothes, it all depends on how big and tall you are. If you are a smaller person then you should have no problem finding some really nice clothes. If you are like me, a bit taller (6'4, 193cm) than it would be best to bring a lot of clothes. If you are in or close to a big city like Osaka then you choice of clothes will be a lot greater than a person that lives in some tiny town on the coast. So this all depends on where you are located in Japan. One bit of advice I would give you is...Only bring clothes for the summer in your suitcase. Winter clothes are usually bulky and take up a lot of space. You can have family members or friends to send them to you later in the Winter in December. Bring at least 1 suit, and ladies bring a nice suit dress, or pant suit. You will probably only wear it a few times but it is a lot better than trying to find a damn suit in Japan. Oh, one other thing. When you fly to Japan, they will tell you to wear nice clothes on the plane so you will look nice when you arrive in Narita airport. DON"T DO THAT! WHY? Dude, because it will be burning hot and humid when you arrive in Narita. You will hate yourself and be all sweaty when you arrive with 5 bags. Trust me, I learned from experience. :( Plus, wearing nice clothes on a plane is not comfortable.

As for toiletries. Guys, I would definitely bring 5-10 of your favorite deodorant sticks. I have been here for 11 months and still have yet to see proper deodorant. There is American toothpaste here. There is Listerine, lotion, shampoo, body wash etc... Basically anything you like you can get here. So just bring a few things with you so you will have it available when you arrive to your apartment. Then you can go to your local shops to explore. Another good thing in Japan is shopping on line. There is a COSTCO in Osaka. There are various websites that I use frequently to get stuff from the States.

www.fbcusa.com
A great place to buy foreign groceries and other items on line. They ship directly to your home in Japan.

www.theflyingpig.com
Another awesome place to get foreign stuff on line. I use this one the most.

In other words, don't worry too much about toiletries here in Japan. They are easy to come by. And if you have a loving family (like me) they will send you stuff from home anyway. So relax...

One thing I would like to mention to incoming JET people is that you will likely be getting in contact with you "predecessor" or the person whose apartment you will be taking over. Most likely they will want to sell you some of the things that are in their apartment. Now most of the time this is a great idea. Who wants to arrive an empty apartment with no bed or TV (even though Japanese TV fucking sucks)? Just remember that you are not obligated to buy anything from you predecessor. Absolutely nothing! So if you don't want to buy something they offer you, Don't! Also ask you BOE if you some of the things that your predecessor is selling is already included in the apartment. For example, your predecessor might be selling you a refrigerator, but the refrigerator was already in the apartment. They are most likely just trying to shaft you. So be careful. Ask questions, and demand pictures of the stuff they are selling. If a person is serious about selling stuff they will take the time to take photos of the stuff. Again I say this from experience. My predecessor sold me a bunch of CRAP. She sent me these lame pics but I was naive and I bought the stuff. Also they apartment was fucking disgusting. I cleaned that one up immediately. Again this a just a horror story. You might have the nicest predecessor in the world, and they might just give you the stuff and leave the apartment just spotless. So it all depends on that person. Good luck with that.

Ok well I'm sure there are many more things that I am missing here. All I can say for now is that you should just relax. The people at JET pretty much baby you the way through it all. So you will be taken care of. Now for the meantime spend as much time with you friends and family as you can. You will miss them, and something like going to a new and strange country by yourself will test you physically and emotionally. It's always good to know that your friends and family have you back all the time.

If you have any other questions send them of to

trancewave2000@hotmail.com

In the following weeks leading up to the JET Programme 2008 participants arrival, I want to try and answer questions. So send them to my mailbox and I will use my blog to answer some questions. Well take care everybody. If you play on XBOX live add me too! gamertag : binsu 1

peace

vince

p.s. hi eri ^_^

Howdy

2008-06-10T00:19:00.004+09:00

As a follow up to my lame post yesterday I wanted to put a few pics from the weekend activities. Tomorrow I will post some information for incoming JETs. So if you are an incoming JET, come back to my blog soon. Maybe you will actually find something useful on my BLOG! haha Take care all.

peace

vince

p.s. the new coldplay album is lovely

a dude playing the new DDR SUPERNOVA game (he was quite spastic)

yeah Tekken 6

Tom and Tom getting down on guitar freaks

a mall in umeda

me, japanese kid and tom. after we made some horrible pancakes and ate them.

*if you want to know what i have been listening to lately
give this splendid band a chance
the band's name is m83. sounds like the 80's (the good part of the 80's) and that's never a bad thing.

I'll have regular...

2008-06-09T06:55:00.003+09:00

Wow, it's quite a while since I have typed something on here. I guess it is a mix of being a bit lazy and me not having much to write about. Last week at my school was a bit busy. The 1st term has finished and the students had exams.

This weekend was busy as well. Friday night I went to eat. I went to this tiny place by my apartment. I always enjoy that place because the cooks are very nice and they make great food! Afterwards I went home and fell asleep. Saturday I met my friends Tom, Tom and Tom. Yes three Tom's in one night. haha We went to eat Italian food, played some arcades and we sang a bit of Karaoke. It was a good night. Afterwards I went back to UK Tom's apartment. We played some a soccer game on Playstation and watched the opening match of Euro 2008. I slept at Tom's apartment because Sunday morning we were going to do a community event in Tom's city. On Sunday Tom and I went to play games and cook pancakes with parents and elementary school students in Daito city. I was quite fun and the children were so dumbfounded by meeting foreigners. We had a good time.

Back to work this week. I'll be back sometime this week to write something I guess.

peace

vince

June

2008-06-02T20:14:00.002+09:00

So it's June and time is really flying. This month is my blog's birthday. My first blog post was on June 26th 2007. It's crazy that I have almost been in Japan for 1 year. So many things I have experienced here. Nobody has come to visit me so far. I don't know if anyone ever will actually. Anyway May is gone and I hope every one will have a great month!

This past weekend was quite good. Last Friday I had to attend an English teachers party. Actually it was a party for English teachers and Foreign language teachers. There were about 15 people total. We ate at a restaurant that served everything tofu. The bottom floor of the restaurant was where they made tofu. The top of the tiny building had a small restaurant that served the tofu that they made at the bottom. Let's just say it was all fresh food. It was delicious. I was skeptical about eating all tofu, but I was very surprised at how good and filling the food was. Afterwards, I went home because I was a little tired. Well I hope you all are doing good. I have been quite happy lately, I'm a lucky guy! Take care!

peace

vince

The New Video Slideshow

2008-05-29T18:22:00.001+09:00

Here is a video slide show that I have been working on. It has all the pictures that I took during the sports festival last week. It also includes the videos that I shot with my digital camera. I don't think it's that good, but hey try to enjoy it! haha

peace

vince

Thank You!

2008-05-28T23:28:00.003+09:00

Wow! Thanks so much to everybody who has left me comments on the last post. It was really nice to get some feedback. I guess sometimes you just need a little encouragement. Keeping a blog is not so easy. I enjoy it, don't get me wrong. It's just that it's nice to know that some one else is enjoying it as well, or learning something, you know?

Special thanks to the blog reader "gabe" who left a comment. He said he is a loyal reader and I don't even know him! So thanks Gabe! ! :) I appreciate it! If you need any advice on the JET programme, let me know! That reminds me. I know some people are stumbling onto my blog looking for information about Japan or the JET programme. If you are one of those people, leave a comment and ask me some questions. I will do my best to answer any questions about the grueling application process. Or even simple tips that will help you succeed at the interview. Also if you are coming to Japan in the near future, it's best to start preparing now. So let me know if you need some advice. I will be more than happy to help! Once again, thanks everybody. I will be back soon with some new goodies, or lame stories, or something! haha Meanwhile, I have to get some sleep. I'm waking up at 4:00am to watch USA vs. England in Soccer(football)! Hell yeah! Take care everybody!

peace

vince

Can it get any better?

2008-05-27T16:56:00.005+09:00

Well hello random people that read my blog, and regulars. Did you enjoy my previous post? The one that took me hours to do? Well I wouldn't know... anyway

The past few weeks have been really nice. I became an uncle, my brother and my mother both graduated from college. My cousin(more like sister) got a new job and my fathers car finally got painted. Ok, I know that these things haven't happened to me personally but I still feel quite happy about it.

Personally, my work has been quite good lately. I couldn't ask for better students or teachers. Well, I guess I could, but why?!?! haha The sports festival was excellent too. I've even managed to meet an amazing girl. Wow! :)

Have you been keeping up with Science and Astronomy news? Of course you haven't! Did you know that I am a big space freak? Well, just to let you know over the past 10 months, a probe has been flying 400 million miles to the beautiful red planet called Mars. This probe landed on Sunday May 25th 2008. It landed in the northern Arctic regions of Mars to study soil and water ice underneath the frosted soil. Damn, I hope they can find something! One day we will find something, I know it! Anyway, the probe has sent home some pictures from our lovely neighbor Mars!!! Would you like to see them? Then visit this website

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/

It's quite amazing I think. And even if you aren't much of a space freak like me, you will find it remotely interesting. While you are at it, why don't you leave a comment on my blog? I'm losing interest in making this blog lately. Well, anyway take care all. Stay safe and if you have time at night give some love to the stars above your head. Don't forget they are there ok.

peace

vince

Sports Festival

2008-05-23T17:38:00.007+09:00

Well I have arrived home from today's sports festival. I can tell you that today had these things involved:

Sun
Sun Burn
Running
Jumping
Laughing
Crying
Friends
Family
Eating
oh and sun BURN!! :D

and the most important thing that was present today was:

the love and heart of the students from Matsubara High School

Today was just very nice. Remember on the previous post I said that there really wasn't any real sports in sports festival? Well, there really wasn't many real sports. That didn't matter though, the games that the students played were very fun.

There were four teams, blue, red, yellow and green. Each group had the same amount of students and they were all mixed up with different grade levels. Each team had a mascot and a theme. The students worked so hard to create these mascots. They created everything for the sports festival, it's just amazing.

There were about 10 different events, a lunch break, class dances and final relay races. Some of the events involved

*giant jump ropes
*throwing bean bags into a basket
*two people tied at the legs relay race
*club relays
*large scale tug of war
*scavenger hunt
*obstacle course race

I ran in the Club relay race with the international club. It was really fun, and we won the race! :) Our shirts looked pretty cool too!

The end of the sports day all the students sat down in rows with their team. The leaders of the teams sat at the front of the rows. The leaders of the teams were all seniors. That meant that it was their last sports festival at Matsubara High School. ..

The winners were announced for various categories like
*best dance routine
*best mascot
*best poster
etc...

The students (leaders) that won were quite shaken up (crying) when they won. At first I thought it was a bit of an over reaction by the students. I will talk about this later...

The final award was for the most points. The winner was the Green team, second place was Blue, followed by Yellow and Red. The Green team was so happy, they all spread tears of joy and also sadness (for the seniors) because it was the final sports day for them in high school. All of the hard work, staying at school everyday until 8pm working on the sports festival paid off. They all worked so hard!

At the end, all the senior students lined up in a large row. While the younger students all sat down looking at them. This was a traditional way to end the sports festival. I thought it was pretty standard until the end. Each senior student yelled out messages to people. It's very difficult to explain here. Each student would step up and yell a message to someone. For example thanking a teacher for the 3 years, or saying I love you to his or her best friend. They relayed words of advice to the younger students and there was not a word being spoken. Complete silence, everybody was listening. I didn't understand everything exactly but just seeing the faces of each speaker was enough. They showed so much love, joy, pain, happiness, longing and heart. I remember I was watching one the members of the basketball club yelling a message to his friends. (they weren't using mics just their own voices) He said something like, "I'm going to miss my friends, but they will always be in my heart when I leave this school". After he said this he started to cry so hard. Just watching him, I felt so bad. If you could have only seen how much they really meant every word!!! It's so fucking hard to explain right here on this blog. All the senior students were so Happy to finish and do well in the the sports festival, but the heartbreak of realizing "this is it". It was just too much for them to bear, so they just had to cry. I found myself shedding a tear or two as well.

Today was a rush of emotions. I learned a lot about Japanese culture today. I might not be able to explain it very well, but I know deep inside me I have been changed somehow. Days like these make me realize why I came to this country. Some of my friends here in Japan say that they hate where they teach. They say that they have bad students and that they don't care about anything. DAMN, I must be so lucky. Because the students at my school are amazing. They have a lot of heart, and sometimes...that's all you really need.

peace

vince

p.s. i'm going to make a video slideshow with all the pictures ok. so be patient... in the mean time enjoy a few photos that i took.

p.s.s. oh and i took a few photos of ridiculous outfits and sportswear, so they will be in the slideshow ok :) don't worry hahaha :)

*****just to let you know that they students at matsubara high school have colors to differentiate grade. for example the seniors wear red, 2nd years are blue, and the 1st years are green. So that is why students have different colors of pants.*****

bean bag throwing game

two people three legs race

obstacle course race

good times

relay run

kickin' it in the sun

pre race festivities (well not really festivities)

(go vince go!) a dictionary was our baton! haha

the posters that the students created (the final score was what you see there)

Green are the champions

Green celebrates

Students Speech at the end (everybody is listening, some are crying)

Blood, Sweat, Tears (hey this really is sports)

this video is of the opening ceremony

the next video is of the ending when they are in line giving the messages
if you want to see more videos click on "MENU" inside the video player and my other videos will appear on the right side. there are more sports festival videos, so please watch them

Paint Me!

2008-05-22T20:08:00.004+09:00

So Today is the day before "sports festival". All the students were practicing for the games tomorrow. As for me, the exchange students and I all made t-shirts for the relay race we will run. We decided to paint our countries flags on our shirts. On the back of the shirt we had our names in Japanese, the team name, our number and our made up sponsor! It was really fun to make. We named our team "the superbads". Of course, in reference to the hilarious 2007 Comedy movie called "superbad". We even drew a fake brand name on our shirts. My sponsor was "McLovin". There was also Mister Donut and McDonald's! We had a great time making these shirts. Afterwards we went to McDonald's!! Well tomorrow is the Sports Festival, so look forward to some good stuff soon. See you, and HAPPY 88Th BIRTHDAY GRANDPA (yes i called )!!!

peace

vince

painting rules

kike's shirt

vince's shirt

suji's shirt (the best one)

back of vince's shirt

back of suji's shirt

back of kike's shirt

back of janne's shirt

kike, janne, vince (suji took photo)

Huh!?!

2008-05-21T15:06:00.000+09:00

Remember I told you that this Friday at my school is a sports festival? Well I was told today that I am going to run a relay with the "International Club". Which is the 3 foreign exchange students and me. We are going to make shirts with our countries flags on them and out "baton" will be an "English to Japanese Dictionary." hahah I think that will make everybody laugh. So definitely watch out for those pictures this weekend ok!

Since the sports festival is on Friday, there was practice today. So EVERY single student and teacher (except me) went outside and did... I have no idea what they practiced. It looked like a jumbled mess out there. And of course the teachers ALL had to change into their "sports clothes". Some of these dudes seriously looked like they were going to run a damn marathon or something. Every one running around like they are in a rush to do something (they aren't). I just sit on my desk and laugh. One lady walked into the teachers room. She had on one of the most RIDICULOUS hats that I have ever seen. It was like a fisherman's hat, except that the "bill of the cap" didn't even cover her face. I'm telling you it was soooooo ridiculous. She had sunglasses on and these sporty looking shoes on. All just to stand outside in the 75 degree weather. The damn hat was even bright white! Anyway, you can just imagine the types of clothes I saw. I should have taken a photo, but I will do that on Friday! :)

Sorry if it seems that I am complaining here. It's just that somethings are so over done here it's unnecessary. My week has actually been quite good. Life is going well. I hope your life is going well too, where ever you are. Oh on a random note, I was looking at my visitor map and I always see Virginia, Singapore and Thailand. Do I know some one there? If not say hi sometime! I would like to meet some people that stumble upon my blog. :) Well take care everybody!

peace

vince

p.s. i always see people (especially little girls) wearing PLAYBOY clothes. with the PLAYBOY bunny on it. i find it so hilarious...apparently word hasn't gotten around in Japan that PLAYBOY is a PORN MAGAZINE! haha

p.s.s. sorry for all my rants today :)

p.s.s.s. does any one that reads this play on Xbox LIVE? if so, let me know so we can play!

Sunny Day

2008-05-17T13:00:00.003+09:00

Hello all! Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Again it's been a slow week here in Japan. Many of the students are busy preparing for the big "Sports Day" next Friday. Sports day in high school here in Japan are very popular. I've heard that there really aren't any real sports played by the students. Just a bunch of obstacle courses to run through. I'm not too sure how this goes but next weekend expect some pictures and videos! It should be very interesting.

I went out last night to Namba and I went with a special friend of mine. We went to my favorite bar called Bamboo. The place is so small but the it is a very intimate place. I have made friends with the owner and we chat about life and just random things. Yesterday was the 2 year anniversary of his bar ( he is from Israel by the way). He was receiving many bouquets of flowers from friends to celebrate. When I left the bar there was about 8 bouquets of flowers. I wonder how many he got throughout the night!! haha I had a great time last night, it was very simple and fun. I don't have any plans for the rest of the weekend, but I hope something will come up! I am watching the NBA playoffs right now on my computer for a little bit of home here in Japan. :) I'm doing some cleaning and washing today ( I know so exciting, but I gotta do it).

Well this blog post is quite useless but stay tuned because I will have a lot of content in the next week or so. Take care everybody!

peace

vince

p.s. my newborn nephew has a name now! his name is nathan, i can't wait to see you buddy!

*this is currently my favorite song from a great band City and Colour, the song is called "waiting" enjoy everybody!

New Addition

2008-05-14T19:25:00.002+09:00

Well, I`m an uncle now. My older brother and his family, welcomed a new baby into to this wonderful and sometimes harsh world. A baby boy! I don`t know the name yet though. Well today was a great day. Things are looking very positive.

peace

vince

おめでとう！ Congratulations!

2008-05-11T09:25:00.009+09:00

First of all, I would like to congratulate my Mother and my younger Brother. They are graduating from college today in the USA. They are probably at the ceremony as I write this now! I just wanted to say that I am so proud of them. They both went through a lot of adversity during college, but managed to keep their head straight and finish it all! I love you!! I wish I could be there to see the ceremony, but I hope to see some pictures later!

Last night I went to my co-workers wedding party in Kyoto Japan. They are a unique couple because they are both teachers at my school. They are good friends of mine, and I was very happy to be invited to the party. The party was similar to an American wedding party. There was food, speeches, drinking, eating, laughing etc. I was the only foreigner there (like usual). Two things that were different from an American wedding party was that we had to pay 7,000 yen ($70 US). Also, we played BINGO. In Japan, they love BINGO for some reason. I have no clue what the reason is but we played BINGO. It was cool because we won prizes, but just kinda strange that the people throwing the wedding party had to give out gifts. Shouldn't it be the opposite? Anyway it was a good night. I hope today will be a good day too! (:D)

peace

vince

Wow

2008-05-08T15:25:00.003+09:00

So today was definitely the first time I have become pissed off while teaching in Japan. I wasn't visibly mad of course, because I am good at hiding my feelings, but inside was an inferno. I have been here for approximately 10 months and this is the first time...so I would have to say that's pretty good.

The day was going quite well. My second class of freshman are very noisy and quite frankly obnoxious. This is mainly due to the lack of discipline in the Japanese Education system. Talking is deemed acceptable and so is sleeping... yeah....

My students were rather talkative today and I wasn't about to deal with the talking today. I had to move 3 students around the class, and one of them I made her sit outside. All the students were very surprised by this. Mainly because there is never any response to their talking in class at all. My teaching partner was supporting me in my discipline rules, so it was much easier. Anyway, one student was talking outlandishly in class. I finally just told him shut up. He said ok, then under his breath he said "fuck you". Obviously the other students didn't know what that meant because they just kept on blabbing away. Meanwhile, I stopped the class and asked the student "what did you say?". He said predictably "nothing". I walked up to him and told him that his not funny in Japanese. He stopped immediately, and we told him to stay after class. Let's just say, he was about to shit his pants. Especially since I walked up right in front of him. Needless to say all the other students got the vibe that something went down, so they changed into the innocent angel student.

After class all the students left, and the one kid stayed behind. I asked him why he said "fuck you". He basically said that he saw it in a movie and didn't think it was that bad to say. I told him exactly what it meant in English while my co-worker translated word for word. I told him that he is a smart kid, and to act smart. He agreed and we had a hand shake, and that was it. He now knows what "fuck you" means. He is just lucky that he was not in the America on the streets saying that. He would have had a surprising result.

Anyway, I was a bit steamed about that. Probably because I was so shocked that someone said that. I used to work in a middle school in El Paso and I never heard a student say that in class. Granted, the student didn't even really know the severity of his words. However, he knows that it is not good so I can't allow that excuse.

I have basketball practice soon and tomorrow is Friday. So things are looking up! Thanks for the comments everybody. Oh and if you leave a comment, leave a name too. Especially because it's hard to know who leaves a comment when it says anonymous. I'll be back soon!

peace

vince

Golden Week...

2008-05-04T18:21:00.007+09:00

So I have had an eventful past few days here in the land of the rising sun! Just in case you didn't know, that is Japan. I have been quite busy lately. Last week I would stay so late at work. Wednesday I didn't get home until about 8pm. This is all because of basketball practice.

Friday was the school "Enkai". This is basically a fancy party for the school to welcome the new teachers. This was my second Enkai. The prior Enkai was in December. It was held in Tennoji (area of Osaka), at a fancy hotel called Miyako Hotel. We all had to pay about $50 for the entry. As I looked at the hotel more, I realized why it was so damn expensive. Well we were fed some expensive, tasty and not so filling food. We listened to heartfelt speeches from outgoing teachers, and nerve filled speeches from the new teachers. I even had to say a small speech. Of course I wasn't told about this so I just said a few sentences in Japanese. I was quite surprised how I was able to do it with no preparation. After the 2 hour event, some of the young teachers (the happy time crew) all came together and we went to go drink and eat more. We had a really great time. I enjoy the company of those people very much. They are so kind to me, and I truly feel like a friend to them. Next week, we are all going to my friend/co-workers wedding party in Kyoto. I am so excited to go there. Next Saturday will be great!

Saturday was quite interesting. I decided that I really needed a haircut. So I found a good picture of my hair cut that I got when I was in the USA last month. I put it up on my laptop computer and walked to the local barber shop about 2 minutes away. I walked in and they were so surprised to see a foreigner. I showed them a picture of my hair and used my weak Japanese to explain that I wanted the "Onaji" same cut! The barber guy understood and proceeded to cut my hair. After about 1 hour, a head massage, all scissors, shampoo and tonic application I was done. Let's just say that was the best hair cut I have ever received. The guy didn't even use the oh so famous "buzzers" that are so well used in the states. I was damn impressed. It was about $35 but it was well worth it.

That night I went to meet a friend at an Izakaya "restaurant/bar" in Tennoji. She doesn't know so much English so our conversations were limited. However, we both had some laughs and smiles. I think it went well. I was still hungry after(like always) so before I went home I grabbed a double cheeseburger and McFlurry at Mc Donalds! haha :)

Today I went to the wonderful city of Kyoto(about 1 hour train ride from Osaka), with my co-worker Yamada Sensei. We went toured almost all the "popular" sites. We hiked up the marvelous Fushimi Inari Shrine. We ventured to the beautiful Kiyomizudera Shrine, with spectacular views of Kyoto. Overall, it was a nice day. It was quite hot and we became tired, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the day. I have many pictures and video to show you all.

Did you see all the videos on my viddler? If you click menu on the viddler box there are all my videos so you should re-check them. Anyway, I had a great weekend. I have the next two days off as well. This is all because of what they call "Golden Week" here in Japan. It is basically a series of holidays all jumbled into on week/weekend. Just another reason to have time off (I can't blame them). Well, I'm out, take care of yourself.

peace

vince

p.s. comments?

kyoto japan

kiyomizudera shrine

kimono girls :)

kiyomizudera shrine

kiyomizudera shrine

kiyomizudera shrine

fushimi inari shrine

apparently japan has "adopted" mothers day

on the subway back to my apartment in osaka

here is my viddler...remember after the video finishes click on menu and watch the other videos! :) there are many ok! :)

Yaki-niku goodness

2008-04-29T21:16:00.003+09:00

Today I was invited to a Yaki-niku party (a Japanese BBQ), by my co-worker. I happily went, especially since I love anything that has to do with a BBQ. Well, the host of the party is the leader of the local rotary club. A bunch of his friends were there. It was mostly a party for older people, but they were very nice. There was a guy that came by, and everybody was very excited. I had no clue who he was, but apparently he was a candidate to be the Prime Minister of Japan. I asked more questions, and I found out that he is good friends with the host of the party. Anyway, let's just say that I met some interesting people.

The house that I was at happened to be the home that the foreign exchange student from Mexico was staying. So we just talked a lot and joked around the whole time. Then his sister showed up. She is living in Japan in the same house too, and she is 25. They are both from Tijuana, Mexico. Which is similar to where I am from in El Paso, Texas. I didn't want to say anything but she was very pretty! haha :) We all just chatted for a few hours and ATE a lot!!! Japanese people definitely know how to eat a lot. Especially when it comes to parties. I was welcomed with generosity and warmth. It made the day/night so much more enjoyable. Here are some of the pictures that I took. Comment if you have some time.

peace

vince

yaki-niku

lots of grills

many people i didn't know

exchange student

exchange student's sister and me, and another dude

Language is overrated.

2008-04-27T16:56:00.006+09:00

It's currently 9:33pm on Sunday night. My voice is almost gone due to yelling and a mysterious cold that is going around. My apartment is quiet right now. I can hear a girl singing a song with a guitar somewhere in the vicinity of my apartment. I feel like crap right now, but I will get over it.

Today was the first basketball game of the Matsubara High School. I was quite excited to see a Japanese High School Basketball game. It's very different from the USA. For example, in the USA, High School teams travel to each other's school gym to play. However, in Japan... 12 teams participated in the day long tournament.

The set up was fairly simple. The limited space, and horrible building layout of the Japanese schools made it difficult to find a place to watch the game. Luckily, I was able to go to the "coaches" area. Actually, I don't know if it is really called the "coaches" area, but that's what I'll call it for the mean time. :)

The day started off by me waking up feeling like a piece of crap(sorry I couldn't think of a clever word). I met my co-worker (the basketball coach) at the train station by my apartment. He picked me up in his cool van. We drove to the high school which was about 1.5 hour drive. 1.5 hours, mainly due to the horrible road conditions and overall crappy layout of streets here. :) We arrived at the gym and I started to warm up with the kids. I was doing a passing drill and getting them pumped up for the game.

The game was excellent. At half-time Matsubara was up 52-20. Which was quite ridiculous. I didn't think that they would destroy the other team so bad. The other team made a small but uninspired come-back late in the 4Th quarter. They scored a lot of garbage time buckets, sooooooooo, they managed to make the score look close. I was quite impressed that we managed to pull of 90 points. YAY!

After the game we watched the following 3 games. My co-worker had to referee two games so I hung out with the students while he was busy.

So you are probably wondering why I titled this blog post "language is overrated"? Ok, you probably aren't wondering that, but just start wondering about it now ok! :)

Well, first off, when I started helping out the basketball club, I was hesitant. Mainly because I would have to commit so much of my own time to help. But that was obviously selfish of me to feel that way. Everyday, after the kids destroy me in basketball practice, I am happy. And they aren't my English student, I'm not teaching them how to say "hi, how are you". I'm not helping them learn how to pronounce the letter "A". Actually we can't even talk too much because my Japanese ability is garbage. But, I've learned these past few weeks that in fact, language is overrated. We don't even speak the same language, but together we were able to attain a goal! Sports is almost like a language. It can make you feel horrible, ecstatic, depressed and overjoyed. I love sports. My students are making my time in Japan absolutely worthwhile! I hope you can understand my logic here. Anyway, I gotta go since this post has officially gone on too long. I'll be back soon... enjoy the pics and video...comment please! :) take care

peace

vince

and you thought japan was technologically advanced

Matsubara High School pre-game stretch

tip-off (MHS is in the white jersey)

the literally "standing room only" crowd

to see other videos that i have posted, please click "menu" here on viddler! enjoy!!!

Oh, nevermind! :)

2008-04-24T14:50:00.002+09:00

Hey family, friends and other people who read my blog. I just wanted to quickly say that I am not going to be putting my blog on private anymore. I was going to do it because I have been getting a lot of spam messages on my comments. I have found a few useful filtering tools on the web, so it should take care of the problem. So you don't have to worry about my blog going down ok!

So what else is new Vince?

Hmmm, well as you could probably guess, it began to rain last night. Once again I arrived at school a dripping mess. It's not so bad though, because all the students are pretty much the same way. I've been quite busy the past few days. I have had basketball, and after I get home I just pass out sometimes. It's really taking a toll on my body. On Sunday is the first game. I will be hitching a ride with the basketball coach in his car. I'm hoping to snap a few photos to put on the blog while I'm over there. Look forward to seeing that in a few days. I will be making some phone calls tonight so get ready!! haha Oh, and a quick update; I received my brand new modem from Softbank BB yesterday, and it works like a gem. So Internet is back up! Well take care everybody, and thanks again for taking the time out of your busy day to read my blog.

peace

vince

Want in?

2008-04-23T12:03:00.002+09:00

Hey everybody, so I'm going to make my blog private and by invite only... if you would like to be on the invite list let me know by leaving a comment with your email. Most family and friends I have your email, but some other readers might want to continue to read. Soooo, leave me your email. I'll be sending out an email on Saturday in Japan.

peace

vince

Untitled (actually isn't that a title...)

2008-04-21T12:16:00.003+09:00

Hello and good Monday to you! For a change it is a wonderful sunny day here in Osaka today. I am loving the weather, after the deadful rain last week.

Well, this weekend was quite interesting. I really don't know what to say about this weekend. It was an emotional rollercoaster if you will. I won't get into details here actually. To top everything off, my modem just stopped working the other day. So I called customer service, and that was completely useless. They didn't know any English, and I was even trying to speak Japanese to them and they wouldn't help me. But they would sure damn take my money though right! ahhh so lame... Anyway this morning my co-worker (actually I could probably call her my guardian here, because she helps me with EVERYTHING!!! she is so important to me, and I can call her if I ever have a problem) called yahoo bb for me and she sorted it out quite fast. They will send me a new modem tomorrow morning, which is awesome because I don't have to go to school tomorrow. The students are going on a school field trip. Or what the Japanese like to called it, an "EXCURSION". Oh man...

My basketball kids are getting ready for a big game next weekend on the 27th. I told them that I will be going to the game and they were so damn happy! I guess they just thought that I was just playing around with them. But I actually do care about them. ;) So on that day expect some pictures from a real Japanese high school basketball game! :)

I had two classes today and I had about 20 returning students along with 16 new students. They were so happy to see me and so was I. Sometimes living in Japan by yourself can be quite depressing and sad. But when I come to school, my students usually bring a smile to my face. I know that may sound damn corny or whatever, but it's entirely true!

There is a holiday weekend coming up pretty soon called "Golden Week". I am trying to think of some kind of small trip to go on during this time. I want to see something cool in Japan. If you have any suggestions, send them this way. I will take lots of pictures and put them up on the site. Also any of my friends in Japan reading this, let's get something organized! :)

Well, I have to get back to the grind right now. I just thought I would give a little update to the infamous vince in osaka blog. You know blogging is somewhat strange. Sometimes I feel bad because I don't update much. It's like always on the back of my mind!! haha I do enjoy it though. Sometimes it's just hard to think of something to say. Well take care all...

peace

vince

Rain and bikes don't mix well.

2008-04-17T18:08:00.003+09:00

Well, today as usual, it started to rain as I was riding my bike to school! Oh man...everyday! haha I have been needing to change the brakes on my bike but I have been procrastinating about it! Well today I had a great reason to. I was riding to school and a old lady decided to randomly walk in front of me aimlessly! Since my breaks were...not so good, I rammed into her! I know some of you will laugh about this (like me). Yep, I ran into an old lady on my bike. However, it really wasn't my fault, since she was so stupid to walk right in front of me. Anyway, to keep a long story short, I said I'm sorry and picked up a cucumber that she dropped from her bag! LOL

Of course, it stopped raining when I got to school. As I was leaving about 4:45pm, there was RAIN! But not just sprinkles, it was raining like hell. So I went directly to the bike shop and changed my brakes. While they were changing them, I decided to take a few photos with my cell phone(sorry they aren't so good). EVERYBODY rides bikes here, so there are so many bikes in the store! Well I hope you are enjoying life where ever you are. Be kind and comment. See ya

peace

vince

lots of kiddie bikes too

bike heaven

It hits Japan

2008-04-15T14:50:00.002+09:00

So I was in the subway and saw a Cloverfield ad on the wall. Hmmm, only like 4 months late! haha

New week, good times

2008-04-15T13:36:00.004+09:00

First of all I would like to say sorry to many of you for not calling lately. I don't have any skype credits 'till I get paid so this weekend will be a calling fest!!!

Anyway, the past few days have been quite eventful. School has officially started and I had my first classes yesterday. I have a group of about 60 new kids in addition to the 120 I already had. My English conversation classes are really big this semester. They all seem very Genki (happy) too. So I have a good feeling about this school year. I gave my self introduction to my freshman students today and handed out the class rules. It was an average day. I am going to do my daily writing journal with every single one of my students from the beginning this year. I will keep all of our communications, and at the end of the year they will be amazed at how much they wrote! I suppose I will be amazed at home much I will have wrote too! hahah

My co-workers are as friendly as ever. And I seem to be getting along with them quite well. We have 3 new foreign exchange students this year. A guy from Finland, a girl from South Korea and a guy from MEXICO! I was really happy to see the kid from Mexico. We started to speak Spanish and he felt very relaxed. He made a self intro speech for the assembly here and I translated it in English for him. He is a really nice kid and I think I will be helping him out a lot, this year.

Tomorrow I am going to show my returning students my little video slide show (the one I posted here). That video has been seen almost 300 times on this page, so I think people like it. I made a remix version in HD with different music. So if you want me to post that one up I will. Anyway, my returning students are dying to see how my trip back to the USA was. I will bring them some sand that my mom and dad jacked from White Sands for me. So hopefully they will like that little surprise! I will let you know how that goes ok.

So on a more personal note, I have been taken off the market! I'll give you more details on that when I call you. ;) Well I have to get back to "work" now, so thank you for reading my blog. Take care and be safe...

peace

vince