Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sakura Time!
Hey everyone, sorry once again for the lapse in posts. I've been busy I swear! But hey don't worry about that, head on over to my Flickr and check out all the beautiful colors springtime in Japan has to offer!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Lifeness, Lifeitude?
Hello gang! Boy has it been awhile or what? Ok quick check list of some things that have happened in the last month!
1. Got a 3-year visa from Japanese immigration!
2. Got my 外人と六書 aka Alien Registration Card (sorta like an American green card)
3. Moved out of my brother's into his neighbor's spare room (home stay).
4. Been teaching some private students.
5. Got a job at Interac and am just waiting for my schedule. Should start in March.
6. Been doing a lot of design work for my brother's yoga studio as well as for some other fwends.
7. Might be starting up a video advertising company with a friend I met out here!
8. Finally started to shift into high gear with the Japanese study.
So really a lot. I haven't updated my Vlog in a few weeks but I'm hoping to remedy that soon. Had some really great conversations with my brother and we're getting along really well. Looking forward to doing more design work for him as I've had a ton of fun with it.
Not much Japan specific news. Had some ume wine the other day... It was delicious but strong!
Yeah so like I said, I'll get to working on the Japanese specific news soon. And I know I said it before but I'll start writing more here.
Until then...
~=&=~
1. Got a 3-year visa from Japanese immigration!
2. Got my 外人と六書 aka Alien Registration Card (sorta like an American green card)
3. Moved out of my brother's into his neighbor's spare room (home stay).
4. Been teaching some private students.
5. Got a job at Interac and am just waiting for my schedule. Should start in March.
6. Been doing a lot of design work for my brother's yoga studio as well as for some other fwends.
7. Might be starting up a video advertising company with a friend I met out here!
8. Finally started to shift into high gear with the Japanese study.
So really a lot. I haven't updated my Vlog in a few weeks but I'm hoping to remedy that soon. Had some really great conversations with my brother and we're getting along really well. Looking forward to doing more design work for him as I've had a ton of fun with it.
Not much Japan specific news. Had some ume wine the other day... It was delicious but strong!
Yeah so like I said, I'll get to working on the Japanese specific news soon. And I know I said it before but I'll start writing more here.
Until then...
~=&=~
Saturday, February 6, 2010
I Lied.
Yeah so in my last update I said updates were a'comin. But they didn't. Such is life. I have been trying to stay abreast (haha) of my Vlog which you can view over here. Just to save you the trouble here's the latest iteration of it.
Hope you all enjoyed that. Anyways, there's so much I want to tell each and every one of you but just not enough time or desire to type it all out so I'll just hit you up with this fancy numbered list.
1. Got 2 job offers. Nova and Interac. They are both conditional on me getting my visa.
2. Still waiting for my visa, I'm thinking another 2-weeks and I should have it.
3. Have been spending most of my time walking around, going to interviews, trying not to go stir-crazy in this tiny town, and doing a lot of yoga and Tai Chi.
4. I think I've lost like 10lbs.
5. Made some good friends.
6. Seen some VERY interesting people.
7. Taken a lot of pictures, need to upload them however.
8. Got my first ever paying design job.
9. Been helping my brother make videos and flyers for his Yoga school.
And that's all I can think of right now. Not so much I suppose. I'll try to make my next update more... interesting. But until then, keep it real people!
~=!=~
Hope you all enjoyed that. Anyways, there's so much I want to tell each and every one of you but just not enough time or desire to type it all out so I'll just hit you up with this fancy numbered list.
1. Got 2 job offers. Nova and Interac. They are both conditional on me getting my visa.
2. Still waiting for my visa, I'm thinking another 2-weeks and I should have it.
3. Have been spending most of my time walking around, going to interviews, trying not to go stir-crazy in this tiny town, and doing a lot of yoga and Tai Chi.
4. I think I've lost like 10lbs.
5. Made some good friends.
6. Seen some VERY interesting people.
7. Taken a lot of pictures, need to upload them however.
8. Got my first ever paying design job.
9. Been helping my brother make videos and flyers for his Yoga school.
And that's all I can think of right now. Not so much I suppose. I'll try to make my next update more... interesting. But until then, keep it real people!
~=!=~
Monday, January 11, 2010
Updates Are A'Comin' Paw!
Hey gang. I know it's been a long time and I hope you can forgive me. I will tell you this, I have been busy and have some fun stories to share. . . Though not just yet. However, in place of those oh-so-awesome stories I leave you with some pictures, and links to more of the like :)
~=^=~
~=^=~
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
New State of Mind(fulness)
Living on the Farm, Day 4: So I've been residing at my friend David's house the past 4 days. It's been really great. He lives on top of this hill in Kamakura. He's got maybe a 1/2 acre of land with a little organic/permacultureish farm going. I haven't really gotten to work in the garden yet (did plant some shallots though!) but hopefully when David gets back in a few days he'll start showing me how everything works.
It's so quite up here, and with all the rain it's been super peaceful. I do have to say the commute to and from town can be a little tricky. See we're on this hill, and the only way I know how to get here from town is this long, windy, narrow, overgrown, jungle of a path filled with snakes, bears, spiders and narrow passages. Possibly ninjas.
Walking home has actually been a real treat. I get some exercise, I get to be in nature, and I get some time to decompress away from anything resembling society or technology. That's really great. However when it's late and has been raining like it has the walk home can also be pretty freaking terrifying. Like tonight...
See, if you go back a paragraph and a half you'll see that I mentioned snakes and spiders and possibly large mammals that might want to kill and/or eat me. Oh and ninjas, but we'll get to them in a minute. Now snakes have never really freaked me out. Maybe it's from growing up in a place that was covered in rattlers or seeing my fare share of garter snakes and even handling a few boas. I'm fine with them. Spiders? I mean we're not talking daddy long-legs, not even black widows. I don't even know WHAT these are. I mean their webs are huge and TOUGH. I hit one the other day with my head and I bounced back. ME! I'm 6' (~183cm) and about 155lbs (~70kg I will learn the metric system dammit!). This web probably weighed ounces. OUNCES and I'm the one who was taken down. Add to that the fact that I had a spider about the size of my hand suddenly interested in my head and whatever nutritious delights that lay within. Combine all that with darkness and you can imagine my trepidation about walking home in the rain.
Oh so nature wants to kill me. Big deal, nature will kill any one of us without a second thought. But what about ninjas? See, I don't know why they might kill me or what I may or may not have done to deserve such a death. I started to think about it like how in America you sometimes have to worry about incurring the wrath of gangs. Like wear red or blue through certain parts of South Central, LA (or conversely drive through South Central, LA) and you may get shot. Look at a group of people wearing gang paraphanalia and weilding hand guns and you may get shot. These rules make sense to me and I feel that in 28 years I've become pretty adept at not getting shot/stabbed/jumped in various rough neighborhoods in America. However, that knowledge helps me not in the land of the Ninja.
There's a little Shinto shrine at the bottom of my jungle mountain path that I climb home. I stop and say a little prayer there on my way up. What if that's like their turf? For all I know I've now associated myself with some faction of Ninja and the next time I'm alone at a train station I'm going to be ascended upon by any number of silent assassins. But aren't the shadows a ninja's turf? I mean, they're like, everywhere. So hopefully they'll forgive my gaijin ignorance and stick to murdering each other and random samurai. Or delivering pizza. I honestly have no idea what ninjas do in the 21st Century.
So yeah, that's where I'm at. In a beautiful chill house up on top of a mellow hill overlooking some beautiful houses all the way to the beach. I can see a lighthouse at night. Come visit me. You may have to fight for your life on the way but trust me, you'll be glad you did.
~=@=~
It's so quite up here, and with all the rain it's been super peaceful. I do have to say the commute to and from town can be a little tricky. See we're on this hill, and the only way I know how to get here from town is this long, windy, narrow, overgrown, jungle of a path filled with snakes, bears, spiders and narrow passages. Possibly ninjas.
Walking home has actually been a real treat. I get some exercise, I get to be in nature, and I get some time to decompress away from anything resembling society or technology. That's really great. However when it's late and has been raining like it has the walk home can also be pretty freaking terrifying. Like tonight...
See, if you go back a paragraph and a half you'll see that I mentioned snakes and spiders and possibly large mammals that might want to kill and/or eat me. Oh and ninjas, but we'll get to them in a minute. Now snakes have never really freaked me out. Maybe it's from growing up in a place that was covered in rattlers or seeing my fare share of garter snakes and even handling a few boas. I'm fine with them. Spiders? I mean we're not talking daddy long-legs, not even black widows. I don't even know WHAT these are. I mean their webs are huge and TOUGH. I hit one the other day with my head and I bounced back. ME! I'm 6' (~183cm) and about 155lbs (~70kg I will learn the metric system dammit!). This web probably weighed ounces. OUNCES and I'm the one who was taken down. Add to that the fact that I had a spider about the size of my hand suddenly interested in my head and whatever nutritious delights that lay within. Combine all that with darkness and you can imagine my trepidation about walking home in the rain.
Oh so nature wants to kill me. Big deal, nature will kill any one of us without a second thought. But what about ninjas? See, I don't know why they might kill me or what I may or may not have done to deserve such a death. I started to think about it like how in America you sometimes have to worry about incurring the wrath of gangs. Like wear red or blue through certain parts of South Central, LA (or conversely drive through South Central, LA) and you may get shot. Look at a group of people wearing gang paraphanalia and weilding hand guns and you may get shot. These rules make sense to me and I feel that in 28 years I've become pretty adept at not getting shot/stabbed/jumped in various rough neighborhoods in America. However, that knowledge helps me not in the land of the Ninja.
There's a little Shinto shrine at the bottom of my jungle mountain path that I climb home. I stop and say a little prayer there on my way up. What if that's like their turf? For all I know I've now associated myself with some faction of Ninja and the next time I'm alone at a train station I'm going to be ascended upon by any number of silent assassins. But aren't the shadows a ninja's turf? I mean, they're like, everywhere. So hopefully they'll forgive my gaijin ignorance and stick to murdering each other and random samurai. Or delivering pizza. I honestly have no idea what ninjas do in the 21st Century.
So yeah, that's where I'm at. In a beautiful chill house up on top of a mellow hill overlooking some beautiful houses all the way to the beach. I can see a lighthouse at night. Come visit me. You may have to fight for your life on the way but trust me, you'll be glad you did.
~=@=~
Saturday, October 31, 2009
His Holiness the Dalai Lama (HHDL) and Halloween in Shibuya (HIS)
I hung out with the Dalai Lama yesterday. Well by "hung out" I mean we were in the same room together. Actually by "same room" I mean really big auditorium. And really when I say "Dalai Lama" I mean bald Tibetan looking dude in yellow and red (McDonald's?) robes. But I'm pretty sure it was him. He was speaking about Buddhism after all, and samsara, and some other really complex stuff... Oh and apparently there's bingo tomorrow at 3, BYOD (bring your own dharma). At least I think he was. Honestly I have no idea what he was saying. My Japanese is bad enough as it is, but Japanese spoken with a Tibetan accent? Fugghitaboutit! Oh wait... Oh yes I'm being told that he was speaking Tibetan and his interpreter was speaking Japanese. Well I'm just an idiot then and have no idea what language sounds like.
But regardless of any of those sorts of language or spacial boundaries it was a rather moving experience. I think. I dunno I just felt really mellow the whole time. And bored. Yeah I was pretty bored. But mellow. So I guess it balances out. It was really cool though to see so many people show up to hear him speak. People talk about the world being in such a dismal place, but when so many people come to listen to a guy talk about transcending desire and peace can we really say it's all that bad?
After his talk we headed to Shibuya for some ramen and to see all the crazy Tokyo kids dress up for halloween. Forgive me, but by "all the... kids" I mean all 20 of them. But they did have cool costumes as you can see below. I would say "after the jump" but never understood what that meant because I'm not making any jump and it usually just means "after the empty space" so fuck that. "Below" works for me.
Anyways, I didn't get dressed up this year. I'm still getting accustomed to just being here and didn't really have like a group to go out with. Hopefully next year I'll be motivated to don some crazy attire and head out to the streets. We'll see...
But regardless of any of those sorts of language or spacial boundaries it was a rather moving experience. I think. I dunno I just felt really mellow the whole time. And bored. Yeah I was pretty bored. But mellow. So I guess it balances out. It was really cool though to see so many people show up to hear him speak. People talk about the world being in such a dismal place, but when so many people come to listen to a guy talk about transcending desire and peace can we really say it's all that bad?
After his talk we headed to Shibuya for some ramen and to see all the crazy Tokyo kids dress up for halloween. Forgive me, but by "all the... kids" I mean all 20 of them. But they did have cool costumes as you can see below. I would say "after the jump" but never understood what that meant because I'm not making any jump and it usually just means "after the empty space" so fuck that. "Below" works for me.
Anyways, I didn't get dressed up this year. I'm still getting accustomed to just being here and didn't really have like a group to go out with. Hopefully next year I'll be motivated to don some crazy attire and head out to the streets. We'll see...
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