Lost...in Kawasaki

Dunno if I can be bothered giving a day-to-day recap of the last two weeks. Instead, I'll just give a rundown on the exciting happenings in no particular order.
Had my vacation during Golden Week.

About two weeks ago, I recall inviting Joseph to the Antique & Junk to hang out and have a few beers. We met up with Matty B and his band, Habi-Habi (don't ask me what the name means, I forgot to ask!). They played a bit of music and later, Joy turned up. We enjoyed many a conversation over drinks in the cosy atmosphere of Moco (Moco is the japanese name). A little later, Kim and Kame turned up and things really started to pick up, as we were all extremely drunk. I can recall Joy being quite excited about meeting Kim and began keeping a tally of how many times Kim swore! At which, Kim became even more drunkenly amusing. Not long after, we split up. Kim, Kame and I went to Avenue, an open-karaoke bar down the street in Noborito. Whereas, Joy and Joseph chickened out at the thought of public singing and headed to King of System. Avenue was really fun and afterwards I stayed at Kim and Kame's house. I recall this being before Golden Week (I believe it was the last day before my vacation technically started - I had three lessons the next day due to getting time off through over-time), because Kame dropped me off at work in his cool sports car.

On many nights during Golden Week, I can recall going out with Hiromi to various bars in Noborito and meeting quite a few of her friends (I'm sorry, half of their names elude me). The most I can say about these nights is I always learn more Japanese vocabulary than expected. After realising that I write down every word I learn, they start writing down words for me. In fact, on one particular occasion, Jun started writing down various parts of the human anatomy (no, not arm or leg or nose or something boring like that!)

On one fine day, Hiromi and I began playing Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana). As I've already beaten the game through twice in English, we decided to play it through in Japanese. We played it using the always amazingly accurate ZSNES and my PS2 pad converter.

On another occasion, Joy, Hiromi and I proceeded to Shimo-Kitazawa where Joy had these mad scientist scheme to buy me a hippy shirt and put lipstick on me in order to take pictures of a overly-metrosexual James.....alas the shirt was never bought due to my lack of funds (which have completely dwindled, but more about that later), but the lipstick was already on hand and had been purchased by Joy. So, the photo session began....and ended rather quickly after I became quite embarrassed. Whilst shopping at various clothing bizarres, we stopped off at Freshness Burger, a rooftop French-bar which I believe to have been called CICO and the ever-popular bar with second-hand books all 500 yen each (is this Heaven's Door Joy or is that something else?).

A bunch of Hiromi's friends had a BBQ down by the Tama River on a different day. Joy and I joined them as the drunken festivities lasted most of the day. I found myself communicating with various people on various topics with little-to-no Japanese. I also found myself telling a Japanese kid what to do with my Pokemon in Pokemon Diamond.
After enjoying a fine afternoon, we retired to one of their houses and played Nintendo Wii (Hiromi and I falling asleep for an hour simultaneously in the midst of this (it always seems to happen!)). This was my first experience playing the Wii and I was thoroughly impressed (despite there only being Wii Sports available to play).

Hiromi decided to take me to Machida Squirrel Park on a separate day during Golden Week. The novelty of feeding squirrels sunflowers seeds was surprisingly amusing! After this short, but interesting visit, we proceeded to another park across the road. This was the first nature reserve I had witnessed in Japan and it was actually quite large. We had a nice walk and ate lunch there.

At this point , I must point out that for some of the duration of Golden Week and thereafter (still 4 days 'till pay-day), I've been basically broke. This is due to too much heavy drinking with my friends on way too various an occasion. Subsequently, many memories of the past couple of weeks are quite hazy (although the good parts remain rather vivid) and Hiromi has been assisting me with food and festivities (Thank you so much!!!!, I owe you heaps after payday!!!!). On a couple of occasions, she has cooked dinner (which has been delicious as usual) and the other night, I actually cooked for once!

I spent quite a deal of my time during Golden Week also working on the Platters website. Not much to say, apart from the fact that is was more work.

I seem to recall some lousy work party at the start of this week that wasn't actually what I expected. I was expecting to go to an Izakaya, as that's what the Japanese staff had planned. But as usual, everyone wanted to be hokey and American as possible and went bowling (unfortunately, I hadn't been informed due to my absence in vacation and was dragged along to this borefest). Thankfully, Hiromi and I both had places to be, so we departed not long after the party began.

Last night, I spent some of the night hanging out with Matty B and Joy at Moco/Antique & Junk and then went to a Hawaiian bar in Mizonokuchi where we ate steak and watched surfing vids.

The rest of my time the last couple of weeks has been spent watching TV and movies. I remember falling asleep during movies we rented. Also been watching the usual doses of South Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad and Lost (Lost is getting so awesome and I just discovered that there will be 3 more seasons! )
Looking forward to seeing Spiderman 3 next week after pay-day.

Found out my Dad and his fiance, Vivienne have set a date for their wedding; October 6th. Strangely coincidental thing about this is that my birthday is October 5th, my sister's is October 8th and my Mum and Dad's wedding was also on October 6th! So, I gotta start saving up for a plane ticket to Adelaide in October.

Earlier on in the week, I also had a very interesting day; which I can divulge more about later next week.

Been searching around and found some more to add...

21st August:
Not alot has happened lately....
I got my mobile phone, which totally rocks, so many features..
Saw a couple of weird things working the other day:
1. Saw a guy with a school-girl uniform on the train (WTF?)
2. Looked out the window at work and saw some dude in his underwear throwing buckets of water at air conditioning units
Went to the supermarket (bottom floor of the SATY building), was an interesting experience. I really gotta pay more attention, because I bought a package thinking it was dehydrated vegetables with gravy, turned out just to be gravy! LOL Food isn't as expensive as I thought it would be though, reckon I'll go and buy a whole bunch of food to make my famous spaghetti and vegetable curry stir-fry (OK, maybe it's not famous, but I've never heard anyone complain...)
Went to a couple of video game arcades and had a bit of fun, they're quite cheap here.
Apart from that, I've settled into work nicely and am still having the time of my life!
PS. I got my computer up and running, now for the internet!

Reply to a reply:
Since I'm teaching English, the whole 'being stuck' thing is easy for me to pick out now.
The most I did on the train today was catch a giant wasp and stopped people from potentially being stung!　LOL
I also got lost in Shinjuku trying to get my traveller's cheques cashed (but managed it) and also signed up for the internet (50 MBps!! The fastest we have in Australia is 1.5 MBps (well, it's changing slowly, but anything over that is nowhere near unlimited), so you can imagine my excitement!).

30th August:
Had my welcoming party for work Monday night.
It totally rocked, we sung lots of karaoke and got really drunk.
Everyone is great at work and all is well.
The female japanese staff dubbed me the 'chick magnet', although I'm still hunting for authentic truth. ;) (not too keen on dating the staff just in case it goes wrong)

I got my camera working, so when I get the internet working, I'll turn this thread into a blog and start uploading photos.

One word of advice to anyone who signs up for the internet, sign up at a computer store that has a BB sign-up stand (LAOX for instance).
Sign up with them and then when the internet company wants you to confirm the date for the NTT (phone company) serviceman to come to check your wall socket and set up your phone-line, also get the computer store to ring them. It will save all the hassle I went through.
I get back on the internet with 50 MBps on thge 21st of September.
I will hopefully be going to Budokan Hall in October to see WWE.

6th September:
Some things here just weird me out, like I went to a swimming pool on a Tuesday and it was closed?! Again, whatcha gonna do...
The autumn weather is starting to show itself; it's not humid anymore, the temperature is dropping and it's been raining all day today. I like experiencing this new climate. I come from the driest state in the driest country in the world (South Australia), so it took my body about a week to acclimatise and stop dripping like a leaky tap! LOL
Not much else to say, I went to Akihabara (the Electric Town) last week - Total Otaku Heaven. I hope to go to Odawara next week and check out the castle and the beach. Also, seriously considering going to Tokyo Disneyland! LOL
Overall, I still love it here and don't see myself dropping into this deep depression that alot of teachers claim to get.

10th September:

Life is pretty average. My friends tell me white men are king here and I should wait for them to come to me. Gotta make more friends definitely 'cause my room-mates never go out anywhere where-as my work buddies do. I'm pretty burnt out from everything this week, but thank god it's my weekend. Gonna throw myself back into the website work (www.platters.com.au/www.alicencetochill.com.au) tomorrow and forget about everything else. Going to see sumo wrestling on Tuesday, should be interesting!
Teaching work is progressing as it should be, more training soon.
Not much to tell apart from the fact that life doesn't change no matter where you go, but to quote Ned Flanders "Keep that chicker chin up!"
I watched NOAH last week (I think it's on again tonight), but they showed 2 NOAH matches (one had 2 Cold Scorpio in it), but so much Kanji, it makes it so hard to report the names! The third match was highlights from a ROH match with Kenta Kobashi in it. I will wait until I get the Fighting Network until I start reporting I guess. This NOAH show on network telly was only half an hour.

13th September:
Finally finished the website work, apart from the buttons on the Chill website (but all functionalities are up to date).
Still enjoying the job; had my three-week observation today, which was awesome! Will have follow-up and kids training pretty soon. (Don't quite understand the chibi lessons - teaching 2 and 3 year-olds who haven't even started on kanji yet, but I guess some parents are either obsessive or need a cheap day care! LOL)
Didn't go to the sumo, we got lost along the way, turned up late, missed out on the cheap seats and didn't want to pay anymore than the cheapest (LOL!). Saw some great sights along the way though.
I know it'll take a while to meet a woman, but am totally not worried because of the comments/looks I get from students/total strangers. Life is what you make it and I wanna make it great!

16th September:
Hey fellas,
Word up!
Life is pretty damn interesting here in Japan!
Work is good, really easy teaching english. My co-workers are really laid back and funny and half the female students are really hot. Going to see sumo wrestling this week hopefully. I will be getting the internet in 5 days at home! Woo-hoo!
Whenever most of go out, we go to karaoke, so that suits me great!
Lots of McDonalds and KFC here (surprise, surprise) and Wendy's (which is another burger joint, not an ice cream place) Ever since I watched Super Size Me, I've been walking past Maccas and whispering "It's bad for you!"
Watched a clip of the first episode of Thank God You're Here on the website, hope to download the episodes soon (can't get eMule to work at the cafe, only BitTorrent). Oh yeah, in case you didn't know, there are new seasons of Family Guy, American Dad and The Simpsons and they started last week.
Family Guy Quote:
Peter: Hey Bones, can you take a look at this for me?
Bones: What, so you can sue me too?! Damnit, I'm a doctor, not a patsy!
Craig, Swaroop and I have been watching Lost 'cause Craig hasn't seen it (of which the third season starts in October).
Not much else I can recall to tell apart from the fact that the trains suck here during rush hour because you get crammed in and shoved out!
Btw. Platters are still pleased with my work! ( www.platters.com.au & the newly unveiled (but not quite finished) www.alicencetochill.com.au)
Have a good one,
James

3rd October:
Not sure if I want a PS3, I'm thinking of getting a Nintendo Wii (Depsite the name).
Finally, after a couple of weeks, I got the time to re-install Windows and banish this hacker from my computer. The 250 gig-er had a corrupt partition table and I wasn't about to wipe any data off any drive, so I bought a 120 gb for pretty cheap. That brings the tally up 1010 gb.
Been partying alot with alot of new friends and its my birthday party on Thursday.
Have a good one,
James

20th October:
I'm off probation at work and have started teaching kids (which can be a double-edged sword at times). I'm really used to the pace of teaching english to japanese people and enjoy it immensely. Dunno if I mentioned this before, but almost every day we each have a lesson in the voice room; which is a place where people just come to talk rather than a lesson - this is my favourite (unless there are extremely opinionated people in there).
I've made lots of friends and finally got introduced to a japanese guy who introduced me to some japanese girls (2 of which I am doing language exchanges with (I also plan on doing an exchange with one of the nova staff members). As I mentioned in the "girlfriend" thread, one of my language exchanges ended up (almost STRAIGHT AWAY) being more of a relationship thing, so as you can guess I'm extremely happy about that.
My fellow teachers and I often have parties at an izakaya (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izakaya) that has karaoke. For example, my birthday party was at one.
I'm enjoying having this 50 MBps internet (as opposed to my crappy aussie 1.5 MBps connection)
Will go to Tokyo DisneyLand next month, which should be fun (most likely DisneySea) and going to the Ghibli Museum this Monday.
Still having the time of my life, waiting to exhale!

Not much to say about recent events, gotten drunk alot and worked too much.
A couple of notable nights included watching Habi Habi; Matty B's new band at Moco the other night and going round to Tracy and Adrian's apartment for burritos.
Another was the (strangely vague in my mind) night when Hiromi and I went to see Pirates of the Carribean : At World's End in Roppongi Hills where I promptly fell asleep due to overworking (so I gotta watch it again) and was quite sick the next day.
Other nights have included hanging out with Hiromi mostly in Noborito or Machida.

The one thing I did want to mention was that I'm actually changing jobs. I had an interview a little while ago and I'll still be doing an English teaching job, just this time in Junior High Schools. This means I've gotta move out of the Machida apartment, so I'm gonna try for Mukogaoka-yuen or Noborito. But, thank god I'm getting out of this monotonous, dreary job, it's painful schedule and the variety (although not all of them) of moronic, childish, misfit colleagues that I've had to endure.

I've been playing Final Fantasy III on the DS recently using the new SuperCard ONE flash cart. Hiromi has gotten into Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright) as per my recommendation.
I'm thinking about playing Metroid: Zero Mission through once more in Normal difficulty and perhaps even giving Metroid II a stab with a customized GBC pallette.

Lost Series 3 had it's finale last week. Fantastic as always, they just keep spinning the plot around. Quite happy to hear there's going to be 3 more series.

I've kind of killed myself due to overworking the last week or two, so I haven't been having the most memorable nights due to drinking and exhaustion. Here's hoping that this blog will become more fruitful in future posts.

If you honestly think I'm talking about you on this blog, then you're thinking too much. Unless I say your name, then you're probably mistaken. I realize I talked about my co-workers in a rather dark light, but the majority of them are good people. It's just there are a small group of people that work for this company that need to grow up and I guess they're not necessarily my colleagues. I don't think all Americans are bad, I've just had bad experiences with numerous people from that country. I believe that there are evil people everywhere. I don't think I work directly with any of them. I appreciate everyone I work with directly, particularly my bosses.