Kickin A' in the big Juh-A-...uh...Pan.. Hello!
Hrmm it's been awhile again hasn't it? Let's see if I can throw out a short bit of highlights:
Weekend Excitement in Chronological Order (as far as I can remember)

Bus Trip (Nissinkan日新館, Windmills郡山布引風の高原(Kooriyama Nunobiki Plateau Wind Plateau), Woods of Zelkova磐梯熱海のケヤキの森散策)

Abukuma-Dou

Undoukai

International Day at Xavier Middle School

Tokyo/Tukuba Daigaku(筑波大学)

Bus Trip
The bus trip was pretty sweet. The idea was to get half of the people to be Japanese and half to be foreigners. It was like an International exchange bus trip. I'm not sure how much international exchange actually took place. It seemed more like it was a chance for the foreigners to meet other foreigners living in Japan. But I guess I'm grateful to have found some other foreigners in Kooriyama. First, we went to the windmills on Nunobiki Plateau. Which honestly, between you and me... it was ridiculously lame. They were  just these big metal ... win..windmills. But I guess the people in the area are really proud of them.. or maybe they're just really rare in Japan so they're automatically like a sweet tourist spot. So that .. was.. yeah..
Then we went to Nissinkan 日新館 which was a samurai training school way back in the day. It also has Japan's oldest pool within the compound. I got some pretty cool pictures of the grounds and I had a chance to shoot a long bow. The art is called kyuu-dou 弓道 or ("the way of the bow"). We also painted some red bulls called 赤ベコ塗り. The bulls once painted are traditionally placed at the entrance of Japanese homes to protect them from evil spirits I believe...
Neeeeext, we headed over to the Woods of Zelkova. I'd actually seen a picture of the woods before I came to Japan so I was excited to get a chance to visit. The woods were really beautiful. There was so many shades of green that it was almost intoxicating. Like my eyes were being sucked out of me by a million different shades of the same color.

Abukuma-Dou
This was a great trip to the local "cool place to go touristing" in Tamura. (yes, that is a verb) The cave or caves I should say are a natural formation due to years of water flowing through the rocks. I've got some pretty sweet pictures of this too for your viewing pleasure.  Benno, Jenny, and I went to the caves with 亮 (Ryou) and 明美 (Akemi) two of our Japanese friends who speak excellent English. After we were all enthralled by both the beauty of inside of the caves as well as the exquisite beauty of seeing the caves from the outside, we headed back home to Funehiki. On the way back I managed to spill Georgia Emerald Mountain Blend (The most delicious drink known to man) on myself so we decided to stop back at my place so I could change my shirt. So after I changed my shirt we went out to get some food at "Benno and I can't remember the name of the place" but it was good. I had some garlic gyoza, curry rice, and ramen (yes, all 3). It was amazing. After that we headed to Kooriyama and went bowling. Somehow bowling is actually kind of interesting in Japan. It must be the loud loud pop music they have playing or all the countless high school students that just give it that younger feel rather than the older men that look like Al Bundy.. .. feel that I always got in America when I went bowling.

Undoukai
"HOLY SH*T those kids are cute" was the general theme of the day. The entire day was dedicated to proving to parents of the children that attend the 幼稚園 right beside our aparment, how terribly cute their kids are. The children performed countless dances and little mini shows. There were also a number of races and competitions and it was so much fun watching the children being serious and competitive at such a young age. Once again I have some pictures and videos of the event =).

International Day at Xavier Middle School
Have you ever wanted to be a superstar? Have you ever wanted to feel like you were the coolest person on Earth just because you're you? That's how I felt the whole time I was at this private girl's Catholic middle school in Kooriyama. The idea was to pack as many foreigners into the school and have them talk in English about schools in their home countries. There was about 15-20 foreigners and strangely ... I was the only American. I was so surprised. But I felt really cool =). There were a number of people from Canada, Britain, and Australia, but nope no other Americans. The entire day pretty much consisted of them treating us like we were God's gift to Japan. Most of the day they spent thanking us for coming and then for an hour and half or so we talked to them about schools in our respective home countries. It was so much fun and I would love to go back some time soon. The girls at the school even gave me a blow up ガチャピン doll. Which is currently attached to the back of my 赤ベコ in a precarious position that I would rather not elaborate upon.

Tokyo/Tukuba Daigaku
After I visited the school I quickly caught the Shinkansen down to Tokyo. My plan was to attend a party in Shinjuku 新宿 that my friend was throwing at a Turkish Restaurant. Little did I know that this weekend was going to be a complete flop.. =) First, I messaged my friend Nate on the way down to Tokyo to make sure he was still going to attend the party with me. But unfortunately the night before he partied a little too hard and didn't feel up to going back at it again that night. But I still wanted to see him, so once I got to Tokyo I took a train over to Akihabara 秋葉原 and then caught the Tukuba Express to the University of Tukuba campus. At this point I had spent around ９千円 (9,000 yen or around 90 dollars) in traveling costs. Once I got to Tukuba I was greeted by Nate and his girlfriend Akiko who I also known back at OSU. It was nice to see her since I hadn't seen her since.. ... well.. it had been awhile. Akiko's foot was bothering her so she headed back to the dorms. Nate and I went from there to get some quick food (miso ramen for me) then off to the local arcade. After Nate kicked my a** around in Mario Kart we played some DDR until we were sweating like two American sweaty kids in a Japanese arcade. We got some Aquarius (The second best drink known to man) at the store next door and then headed back towards his dorm. I had been planning to stop by his place to check the address of the party I was going to since somehow I managed to forget to write it down or to write down the number of the host of the party. But I decided that it was getting late (as I  was already 30 minutes late for the start of the party and I had an hour train ride back to Tokyo). So I caught the Tukuba Express back to Akihabara and then I took a local train to Shinjuku. On the way, Ayaka saved my a** by looking up the address of the party for me by checking on the facebook party profile. So I was ready.. I had the address of the place and I was ready to go to the party, right? Oh wait... I forgot... in Japan even if you have the address of the place you'll still never find it. Japanese address systems suck a** if you don't know the area. So here's how it works... You get the town or ku name (ku is for Tokyo small parts of Tokyo), then you get the name of the section of town and the number of the building. Except in Tokyo they have numbered sections of towns and then numbers within those towns. And guess what.. I don't know how the system works... So I spent a good hour and a half or so wandering around Shinjuku asking everyone I could if they knew where the address was. About an hour and a half later, tired, frustrated, and lost I found another station within Shinjuku and took a train from there back to the main station. I called up Nate again to see if I could stay at his place for the night since the party was a bust.
Nate said that was cool but the last train for Tukuba had already left at this point. But, there was a bus that still ran. So I had to rush to Tokyo station and catch the last bus headed for Tukuba. The Last Bus for Tukuba.. sounds like a great Jackie Chan flick.. or not... Anyway, I caught the bus and I was in the process of emailing Nate to that effect when my phone went dead. Da*n... now what..? I didn't know what else to do but just laugh and fall asleep. So I slept a good chunk of the bus trip and was awakened by the announcement that we were almost at Tukuba. I still wasn't sure how I was going to meet up with Nate but I had to try. I was hoping that he would be waiting at one of the 10 or so bus stops within Tukuba... no such luck.. So I rode the bus to the last stop and got off there. After that I just kind of looked up and down the rode and said "sh*t, I'm f*ck*d"... and then I just kind of started walking.. And I kept walking and walking. BTW, Tukuba is a really biiiiig campus. It's really spread out. It's pretty rural-like there's a lot of trees and things like that. It's pretty beautiful at night even. But at this time I was kind of more worried about finding a place to go for the night than the beauty all around me. So I just kind of walked and walked... Finally, I realized how things were going to go down.. I was going to walk to a nice spot out in the woods somewhere and camp out. But first I wanted to find the station so that I could take the first train back in the morning. So I started looking for the station. Wow... did I walk forever ... I finally made it out of the residential area of campus and out to the business and bar/karaoke etc. sector of Tukuba. Once there, I asked for some directions to the station. I followed them to the best of my ability and was still lost. Then I asked again, followed them but... nope... apparently I don't understand enough Japanese to figure out exactly what they meant (or perhaps they were really bad at giving directions since they didn't know how to get to the station as I was really really far away as I would later find out). So I walked in the general direction I knew they had both pointed me towards. This went on for another hour or so. Finally, realizing I had to be in the general area, I asked again at a 7-11. The woman there told me how to get to the station but since it was a little confusing, she pulled a map off of the shelf and showed me exactly where it was and how to get there. Thank you soooooooooooooo much woman whose name I'll never know. I had been so desperate and tired before that point. So with that new knowledge under my belt I set off in the direction of the station and soon enough I found it. By this time it was 5 in the morning and the sun was coming up. I changed my clothes and washed up a bit in the bathroom before catching a train back to Tokyo. Once I got back to Tokyo I decided to just take the Shinkansen home (even though I had reserved a bus ticket home). I really didn't feel like a four hour bus ride and I really just wanted to get home and get some sleep. So I caught the shinkansen back to Kooriyama spending the rest of my money (by this point I had spent around 2万円 (about $200) in train and bus fees. After catching the 9 o'clock mass at my local church in Kooriyama, I headed home to Funehiki on the local train. Being tired as I was, I managed to fall asleep on the train and miss my stop. So I got off at Ogoe (the town where I teach every week) and waited for the next train going the other way. This was a good chance for me to get some pictures of Ogoe and the school where I teach. Those pictures also, I will add very soon.


That.. pretty much brings you up to the present. This last week has been pretty good and I think I'll talk about the general mood and happenings of my life lately. This last weekend (two days) I didn't really do much (I've been low on money because of my Tokyo excursion and in addition to being forced to pack my lunch every day for school I've also been unable to do anything expensive this weekend). But I was able to enjoy some Fellowship with the members of my team by having dinner with Carrie and spending Saturday with Denise and Patty. Also, today I participated in the Tamura Fuji Road Race. It was a lot of fun and my first 10k race. I've ran longer and shorter races but never a 10k. The race went better than I expected and my time was around 37 minutes. Probably the best part of the race day was that I wore a 鉢巻 (headband) that had 根性 (こんじょう) ("guts" or kind of like "bravery") written on it. The Japanese people that saw it thought it was pretty funny and cheered me on all the more. After the race, most of today, I've been pretty worn out. It was really cold and windy and the cold air just kind of sucked the energy right out of me. But I'm hoping to have a nice little chat with my buddy Ayaka if she ever wakes up.... gosh.. hurry up... =)
Alright that's all for today. If you read this whole lump of dump congratulations! You win the ultimate prize.. ...... ... .... -! The ten or so minutes of your life it required for you to read my blog entry !- That's right! you get them back! Really! I'm going to say a prayer for God to add ten minutes on to your life. Yep, I did it. No need to thank me, it's the least I could do.

Hello. I think my last entry was about my first week. This is now my third week. Things are simmering a bit. I'm starting to begin my life here, and I couldn't be more excited. (Well maybe, in all honesty, I could be.. but nevermind that.) Let's see what's new.... I'm working on getting a cell phone but I need to get my Gaijin card first. I apparently need a special card to certify that I'm not an illegal alien or something. So once I get the card, I can get a 携帯 (keitai) or a "cell phone". I went to Tokyo this last weekend. I'm still waiting on the pictures to find their way to facebook so I can post them here, since I didn't take any pictures of my own haha. I swear I was uh.. so busy meeting people that I just didn't have time to take pictures =). I did meet some cool cats though. I was invited to the BBQ party by an Akiyama san who is a friend of a friend. It was kind of funny how everyone who asked me who I knew was given the same answer "I don't know anyone here". It was pretty amusing even towards the end.
Ah! I also spent Saturday night with another friend's friends playing soccer. They have a team where they rent out a small field by the hour on Saturday nights. I hadn't played soccer since I was a kid, but it was a lot of fun. And according to them I actually played really well. I didn't have nearly the skills of other people but if anything I was fast and I didn't get tired so I was probably one of the most intenste players. That doesn't go so far in a game like soccer.. but I think it was helpful for defense at least. So that was a lot of fun.
I guess the point of the last two paragraphs is that I've begun to do my best to do networking here in Japan amongst Japanese people. I've begun to realize that I don't want to stay in a little village of Americans cut off from the Japanese people around me. I really want to enjoy my time here and make an impact on some people. So the worst thing I could do is just sit in my comfort zone. Let's see what else is up.. Ah.. I've been attending the Catholic services in Kooriyama regularly (though I think I already said this) I've been able to translate the service directly into English so I actually know what I'm saying.
Oh, and work. Work is pretty good. I've been having a good time slowly spreading my personality around the office. I think every day more and more students/teachers are beginning to see the real me which is great. It's not easy to display your personality with massive language/cultural barriers, but I think it's still leaking out of me. If I had made this update yesterday it would have sounded a little depressing. Honestly, yesterday I was depressed about work. I was annoyed with the way I felt cut off from everyone at work. I felt like "they'll never know my real personality, and I'll never know theirs" and "I wish I could understand the jokes they're making and make some of my own..... I wish I could make them laugh". But after I had a nice little run, and some prayer I've come to terms with the challenges that lay ahead. I feel ready to take on the mountainous barrier of the Japanese language/culture.
I should probably go. I would make this a longer update but we have company. I'm joining Nate and Benno to have a little party to commemorate 9/11 (Patriotism and so forth). In the videos section you can see a video taken from the shinkansen on my way to Tokyo (if you like videos of scenery flying by =)
Take Care Everyone!
P.S. Ayaka, thank you so much for the postcard! I hope Europe was amazing (I imagine it was but I still hope =)