it's been a while, and yet it's all still the same...
hmm...well...Looks like it's been another month, and I've yet to post. Why? well mostly because nothing is really going on. Graduation was last friday...I had to say goodbye to my boys. ::sighs:: I'm gonna miss those boys...a lot...These are the boys who argued that I should visit Africa becasue Africa has diamonds, and (according the them) I am as beautiful as diamonds...hahaha. These are the boys who call out to me during lunch break, and drag me out to play REAL tennis, you know with that hard green ball. These are the boys who see me walking by and engage me in a short game of catch. They challenge me to a race. They ask me to try and steal the basketball from them. They ask me for random words in english so they can translate their friend's nicknames into english and forever one of my third graders will be known to me only as "eggplant"...These are the boys, who, if they catch me out outside of school, will hollar out to me and chase me down to come and talk to me in a mixture of english and japanese, just becasue they're curious to know what I'm doing. ::sighs:: yes...I am gonna miss these boys...so very very much. And yes, I did take pictures. And, instead of threatening to post them at a later date, I'll go ahead and post them...now...as I don't have anything better do do. Although I suppose one could argue that I SHOULD be sleeping. But in light of the nightmares I've been having recently...I'm not too eager to go that way.
there are only a couple pics, so I'm not gonna link them, I'm just gonna post them here...but since I'm just gonna put them here, they'll be behind a cut.
Right. First pic.
So, this is me and...the boys who normally hang out on the stone step, or playing basketball. Far left is..."Eggplant", then Kentaro(actually a soccer player...like his twin brother) and next to me is Ippei(he played the EVIL Momotaro at Culture Festival), he also ALWAYS calls me "Rebek!" as does Kentaro...ANYTIME they see me, or at least so it seems to me, and infront is Gen...well, Genji. He's probably the first boy that ever called out to try and talk to me...he's the first one who tried. So, I'll always have a special place in my heart for that boy. He's a basketball player. He's also the one who dubbed "Eggplant" Eggplant...apparently his head is very...eggplant-esque. But yeah, Gen...was probably one of the sweetest boys I had.
Next
This is me and the track boys. On the left is Keisuke. He's insanely good at english, for only having 3 years studying it. He's just...shy about using it. His listening comprehension is impressive. I can say pretty much anything, and never fails, one of the kids will ask him "what'd she say"(in japanese) and he'll have a pretty DAMN accurate translation ready. Damn impressive. On the right is magic boy Kentaro. And I say that for a reason. He does...magic, honestly! He is really good at slieght of hand sort of things. First time I met him, I'll never forget, because he asked me for the magnet I was using to hang up a picture on the board. So, seeing no harm, I put it in his hand. He proceeded to perform a little slieght of hand trick, and made it "disappear" only to have pull it out of his pocket for me with is other hand. He smiled.
Related note...
Magic boy Kentaro is again on the right. The boy on the left is Taiki. He's the boy who always asks me to run with him. His english is also AMAZING! He always talks to me in English. When he asks me to run with him, he asks in English, when he commented that I was faster than he thought I'd be, it was in English. When he asked why, again English. I looked forward to seeing him after school every day out running with the track and field club, because he would ALWAYS talk to me. It was pretty much guarenteed.
and...
Here's me with the 3rd grade tennis girls. Sadly...I only know the girl on the far right's name is Tomomi. I just...never managed to learn their names. But they were always insanely sweet to me. The girl directly to the right of me was a pretty fierce tennis partner. And the girl on the left HATES english. lol. She told me, once, but was terrified to do so at the time. It made me laugh.
last pic
The baseball boys. Or some of them anwyays. Actually, far left is the Kyushu Kendo CHAMP, Seiya. He also BAWLED his eyes out through the ENTIRE graduation cerimony. He's a sweet kid. I can't for the life of me remember the boy to the left of me...and I feel really bad. Onishi is on to the right of me. For claiming he couldn't do English at all, he sometimes surprised himself with how much he could understand when I would talk at him in english. it was funny. And Kenta is on the far right, infront of Onishi. Was always really lively, but never could manage to motivate the boy about english. He normally played basketball with Gen during lunch break.
righto
so that's that. Well, that's graduation at Kicchu at least. I didn't go to the Munechu one. I feel a bit bad...but well...my boys at Kicchu kinda pull my heartstrings more than the entirety of the other school. Yes, I am a bitch.
Speaking of bitches...At the school that hates me, I was commanded to make a "cultural poster" for February...yes I did already have a Valentines poster up...but she wanted to know about festivals...you know, where the whole town gathers together, dances, wears costumes, has fireworks, celebrates some tradition...ya know a FESTIVAL...I told her...we didn't really have anything like that in America. Everything I could come up with for this time of year is religion related (ie EASTER) and I was told that I'm not allowed to teach religion. SO...back to the drawing board for me...after a lot of thought, I turned to her and said "well...February is Black History Month"
teacher "Black history month? Oh! you mean that NEGRO thing?" (HER WORDS, NOT MINE, this is a DIRECT QUOTE!)
me ...(no words...just stared at her with mouth agape sputtering)
teacher "what?"
me "you really shouldn't use that word. Thats a REALLY bad word."
teacher "oh, well, what should I call them."
me "um...they are people too you know. The politically correct term is African American. Black is also acceptable."
teacher "right, well you shouldn't do a poster about taht. The kids won't care. It's not like blacks are important or anything."
me "I...I can't believe you said that."
teacher "What, it's true."
I walked away at that point, shaking my head. And went straight to the computer, to wiki, to do some research to shove down her throat the damn it, blacks are people too, and they DO matter, and the kids should know. I was mid search through some old slave history stuff when the principal walked up and asked me what I was doing.
me "some research. It's black history month"
principal "what? but don't you still have that segregation stuff. Whites better blacks bad thing?"
me "um...that's supposed to be over..."
principal "but you still have it."
me "i guess so. but that's racism. it's not how most things work. It's not legal."
principal "you're just saying that. We japanese are better than that."
me "oh really? you don't think there's racism in japan?"
principal "of course not! We're better than that"
me "yeah, right. Think about it. Take a gaijin, a foreigner, like...ME. How are we treated? We are treated as less than japanese, worse than japanese. We aren't good enough."
principal "well, that's becasue it's right." he laughed, clapped me on the shoulder, and walked off to the principal's office
The racism of this country kills me. I...yeah. it kills me.
um...the weekend after Valentines found me in Kumamoto with Akira. We went to a doll festival display museum thinger in another small village called Hitoyoshi. While we were walking across a brige he looked down at the water and asked me which way the water was flowing, and I answered him, with the correct answer. He wanted to know how I knew, as the wind was blowing the top of the water in the opposite direction the water was actually flowing. I pointed to the white water breaking around rocks, and told him I knew because of that. He was impressed. So I asked if there was a prize for getting the right answer. He laughed, so I pouted a bit. When we got back to the car he gave me a kiss, and said that was my prize. I laughed, but it was cute. We also wound up hauled by a little old man into his house to look at his rock collection, I am not shitting you. This little old man pulled me and Akira into his house because he wanted to show off his...rocks. And no, they aren't especially special rocks...they're just rocks he picked up because if you look at this one the right way it kinda looks like a bear...or this one is spiffy because water wore a hole in it, or this one is cool because if you spray it with water it looks like a waterfall. Etc. It was all stuff liek that. It made me and Akira have a huge "WTF" moment when we finally escaped his house. I also discovered that if he's drunk enough, he starts talking in..."Engrish"...really...it's adorable. I told him so and patted his head as I made sure to keep my other arm around his waist so he could walk. It was really funny. He had a drinking party the night I came in, so he was well beyond smashed. The cab driver also found it hilarous. Especially because I answered him in Japanese. (i tried the response in english...once...but he didn't understand...so I just stuck to japanese)
I also went to Fukuoka recently, to spend some time with Richard. We went and caught a pretty kick ass movie Dororo. At least, I enjoyed it a bunch. After that it was a lot of Gun Parade Orchestra, which has since consumed my free time, quite effeciently really. It's essentially a dating sim, with a war game thrown in. Like any other dating sime, you play as a high school student...only you're also a newly drafted soldier in the seemingly never ending war against the aliens. So, you go through every day trying to make friends and lovers out of your classmates, and yes you can do girl-girl, or boy-boy love relationships. Any pairing is allowed. Score? But, on top of trying to get them to like you, you have to study and train for war. Why? becasue you DO go to battles. Sometimes, you'll finish your morning classes and the sirens sound, meaning no lunch for you young soldier, to WAR! and who gets killed in battle...can greatly influence the game...so...um...don't let your love intrest die, they don't come back. There is just so much to do in this game it's insane. of course, I'm currently frustrated beyone all reason with it, as I've been stuck on the same damn day all week. My character came with proficiency in hand to hand combat, so I maxed that first without paying any attention to the skill of shooting...unfortunately...where I am in the game, we have a large quantity of arial enemies...and well, I'm sure you guessed who wins THAT fight. ::sigh::
I did also beat Kingdom Hearts. It was spiffy. And well, that's about all I have to say about that. Though the final boss fight was a bit tedious. The Sephiroth fight was pretty damn cool. Maybe it's getting to hear "one winged angel" the whole time in the background...but yeah...definitely cool.
I have also finished listening to all of the Sword of Truth books out as of yet, and am spazing...and eagerly looking forward to the next and FINAL book coming out...sometime this year...in theory.
Um...today found me in Oita, shopping. I bought myself a nice long black coat. It's sexy. I like it at least. I also really wierded out some boys in the mens clothing section, becasue not only was I perusing their stock, and...ya know, shamelessly checkin them out (hey, I can LOOK! I'm not gonna TOUCH!) But I also found stuff I wanted to try on. And actually what I ended up buying was not the shirt I initially tried on, rather a shirt the boy picked out for me, cause I mentioned something about the shirt I tried on being nice for a girl becasue it kinda shows a bit if the chest. And he was like, OH well you should try this on then! And it's essentially a rounded neck shirt, but in the center of that arch, there's a triangle cut out that goes right down the clevage line. yeah...it's cute. So, I bought it. He told me they get all kinds of new stuff in all the time so I should be sure to keep coming back...I told him that I didn't live in the city so I didn't come very often, and he said that was too bad, cause he was hoping to see more of me around. I just kinda half smiled and laughed. I ALSO found a shop that sells peircing jewelry, AND the gentleman working there told me how to get somoene ELSE to peirce me...so I don't ahve to do it myself...cause I seriously couldn't. My hands are so not steady enough. Sadly, by the time I found this shop, it was past the time at the hospital that does the piercings...so...He told me the times and where the place was and such, and I promised to come back at a later date to pick up the jewelry, and go get my industrial done. FINALLY. I'm thinkin in 2 weeks. Next week will find me in Kumamoto again, for Akira's b-day.
So, aside from craptacular dreams (ranging from being raped by my little brother, to being eaten alive by a wolf, or captured by the Yakuza...no need to elaborate on what happened to me there, and being drowned...again by my little brother, and in a plane wreck, and ripped apart by the crawly ghost thing from the ring/the grudge...and that was just LAST NIGHT'S), sorrow over never being able to see my boys again, and this scratch in my nose that HURTS like a bitch any time i breath, move my nose, touch my nose, or just think about it, life for me is...business as usual. I'm doin alright. and I think it'll continue that way.
Tomorrow will either find me in Beppu doing some more shopping (i'm on a quest for some shorts...as summer is just around the bend...already...) OR sitting at home on my ass doing laundry...no matter waht I do laundry HAS to get done...soon.
but yeah.
it's WAY past bed time. something tells me my dreams or my neighbor's brat of a child will keep me from getting any good sleep tonight...but I have to try.
Maybe tomorrow...if the weather is as beautiful as it was today, I'll go ride out to the seaside shrine and take real pics with my real camera, not just my cell phone.
maybe.
for now...sleep.
i need to find the motivation to get back to exercising...so I can get back to losing weight or toning up at least.
good night folks.
there are only a couple pics, so I'm not gonna link them, I'm just gonna post them here...but since I'm just gonna put them here, they'll be behind a cut.
Right. First pic.
So, this is me and...the boys who normally hang out on the stone step, or playing basketball. Far left is..."Eggplant", then Kentaro(actually a soccer player...like his twin brother) and next to me is Ippei(he played the EVIL Momotaro at Culture Festival), he also ALWAYS calls me "Rebek!" as does Kentaro...ANYTIME they see me, or at least so it seems to me, and infront is Gen...well, Genji. He's probably the first boy that ever called out to try and talk to me...he's the first one who tried. So, I'll always have a special place in my heart for that boy. He's a basketball player. He's also the one who dubbed "Eggplant" Eggplant...apparently his head is very...eggplant-esque. But yeah, Gen...was probably one of the sweetest boys I had.
Next
This is me and the track boys. On the left is Keisuke. He's insanely good at english, for only having 3 years studying it. He's just...shy about using it. His listening comprehension is impressive. I can say pretty much anything, and never fails, one of the kids will ask him "what'd she say"(in japanese) and he'll have a pretty DAMN accurate translation ready. Damn impressive. On the right is magic boy Kentaro. And I say that for a reason. He does...magic, honestly! He is really good at slieght of hand sort of things. First time I met him, I'll never forget, because he asked me for the magnet I was using to hang up a picture on the board. So, seeing no harm, I put it in his hand. He proceeded to perform a little slieght of hand trick, and made it "disappear" only to have pull it out of his pocket for me with is other hand. He smiled.
Related note...
Magic boy Kentaro is again on the right. The boy on the left is Taiki. He's the boy who always asks me to run with him. His english is also AMAZING! He always talks to me in English. When he asks me to run with him, he asks in English, when he commented that I was faster than he thought I'd be, it was in English. When he asked why, again English. I looked forward to seeing him after school every day out running with the track and field club, because he would ALWAYS talk to me. It was pretty much guarenteed.
and...
Here's me with the 3rd grade tennis girls. Sadly...I only know the girl on the far right's name is Tomomi. I just...never managed to learn their names. But they were always insanely sweet to me. The girl directly to the right of me was a pretty fierce tennis partner. And the girl on the left HATES english. lol. She told me, once, but was terrified to do so at the time. It made me laugh.
last pic
The baseball boys. Or some of them anwyays. Actually, far left is the Kyushu Kendo CHAMP, Seiya. He also BAWLED his eyes out through the ENTIRE graduation cerimony. He's a sweet kid. I can't for the life of me remember the boy to the left of me...and I feel really bad. Onishi is on to the right of me. For claiming he couldn't do English at all, he sometimes surprised himself with how much he could understand when I would talk at him in english. it was funny. And Kenta is on the far right, infront of Onishi. Was always really lively, but never could manage to motivate the boy about english. He normally played basketball with Gen during lunch break.
righto
so that's that. Well, that's graduation at Kicchu at least. I didn't go to the Munechu one. I feel a bit bad...but well...my boys at Kicchu kinda pull my heartstrings more than the entirety of the other school. Yes, I am a bitch.
Speaking of bitches...At the school that hates me, I was commanded to make a "cultural poster" for February...yes I did already have a Valentines poster up...but she wanted to know about festivals...you know, where the whole town gathers together, dances, wears costumes, has fireworks, celebrates some tradition...ya know a FESTIVAL...I told her...we didn't really have anything like that in America. Everything I could come up with for this time of year is religion related (ie EASTER) and I was told that I'm not allowed to teach religion. SO...back to the drawing board for me...after a lot of thought, I turned to her and said "well...February is Black History Month"
teacher "Black history month? Oh! you mean that NEGRO thing?" (HER WORDS, NOT MINE, this is a DIRECT QUOTE!)
me ...(no words...just stared at her with mouth agape sputtering)
teacher "what?"
me "you really shouldn't use that word. Thats a REALLY bad word."
teacher "oh, well, what should I call them."
me "um...they are people too you know. The politically correct term is African American. Black is also acceptable."
teacher "right, well you shouldn't do a poster about taht. The kids won't care. It's not like blacks are important or anything."
me "I...I can't believe you said that."
teacher "What, it's true."
I walked away at that point, shaking my head. And went straight to the computer, to wiki, to do some research to shove down her throat the damn it, blacks are people too, and they DO matter, and the kids should know. I was mid search through some old slave history stuff when the principal walked up and asked me what I was doing.
me "some research. It's black history month"
principal "what? but don't you still have that segregation stuff. Whites better blacks bad thing?"
me "um...that's supposed to be over..."
principal "but you still have it."
me "i guess so. but that's racism. it's not how most things work. It's not legal."
principal "you're just saying that. We japanese are better than that."
me "oh really? you don't think there's racism in japan?"
principal "of course not! We're better than that"
me "yeah, right. Think about it. Take a gaijin, a foreigner, like...ME. How are we treated? We are treated as less than japanese, worse than japanese. We aren't good enough."
principal "well, that's becasue it's right." he laughed, clapped me on the shoulder, and walked off to the principal's office
The racism of this country kills me. I...yeah. it kills me.
um...the weekend after Valentines found me in Kumamoto with Akira. We went to a doll festival display museum thinger in another small village called Hitoyoshi. While we were walking across a brige he looked down at the water and asked me which way the water was flowing, and I answered him, with the correct answer. He wanted to know how I knew, as the wind was blowing the top of the water in the opposite direction the water was actually flowing. I pointed to the white water breaking around rocks, and told him I knew because of that. He was impressed. So I asked if there was a prize for getting the right answer. He laughed, so I pouted a bit. When we got back to the car he gave me a kiss, and said that was my prize. I laughed, but it was cute. We also wound up hauled by a little old man into his house to look at his rock collection, I am not shitting you. This little old man pulled me and Akira into his house because he wanted to show off his...rocks. And no, they aren't especially special rocks...they're just rocks he picked up because if you look at this one the right way it kinda looks like a bear...or this one is spiffy because water wore a hole in it, or this one is cool because if you spray it with water it looks like a waterfall. Etc. It was all stuff liek that. It made me and Akira have a huge "WTF" moment when we finally escaped his house. I also discovered that if he's drunk enough, he starts talking in..."Engrish"...really...it's adorable. I told him so and patted his head as I made sure to keep my other arm around his waist so he could walk. It was really funny. He had a drinking party the night I came in, so he was well beyond smashed. The cab driver also found it hilarous. Especially because I answered him in Japanese. (i tried the response in english...once...but he didn't understand...so I just stuck to japanese)
I also went to Fukuoka recently, to spend some time with Richard. We went and caught a pretty kick ass movie Dororo. At least, I enjoyed it a bunch. After that it was a lot of Gun Parade Orchestra, which has since consumed my free time, quite effeciently really. It's essentially a dating sim, with a war game thrown in. Like any other dating sime, you play as a high school student...only you're also a newly drafted soldier in the seemingly never ending war against the aliens. So, you go through every day trying to make friends and lovers out of your classmates, and yes you can do girl-girl, or boy-boy love relationships. Any pairing is allowed. Score? But, on top of trying to get them to like you, you have to study and train for war. Why? becasue you DO go to battles. Sometimes, you'll finish your morning classes and the sirens sound, meaning no lunch for you young soldier, to WAR! and who gets killed in battle...can greatly influence the game...so...um...don't let your love intrest die, they don't come back. There is just so much to do in this game it's insane. of course, I'm currently frustrated beyone all reason with it, as I've been stuck on the same damn day all week. My character came with proficiency in hand to hand combat, so I maxed that first without paying any attention to the skill of shooting...unfortunately...where I am in the game, we have a large quantity of arial enemies...and well, I'm sure you guessed who wins THAT fight. ::sigh::
I did also beat Kingdom Hearts. It was spiffy. And well, that's about all I have to say about that. Though the final boss fight was a bit tedious. The Sephiroth fight was pretty damn cool. Maybe it's getting to hear "one winged angel" the whole time in the background...but yeah...definitely cool.
I have also finished listening to all of the Sword of Truth books out as of yet, and am spazing...and eagerly looking forward to the next and FINAL book coming out...sometime this year...in theory.
Um...today found me in Oita, shopping. I bought myself a nice long black coat. It's sexy. I like it at least. I also really wierded out some boys in the mens clothing section, becasue not only was I perusing their stock, and...ya know, shamelessly checkin them out (hey, I can LOOK! I'm not gonna TOUCH!) But I also found stuff I wanted to try on. And actually what I ended up buying was not the shirt I initially tried on, rather a shirt the boy picked out for me, cause I mentioned something about the shirt I tried on being nice for a girl becasue it kinda shows a bit if the chest. And he was like, OH well you should try this on then! And it's essentially a rounded neck shirt, but in the center of that arch, there's a triangle cut out that goes right down the clevage line. yeah...it's cute. So, I bought it. He told me they get all kinds of new stuff in all the time so I should be sure to keep coming back...I told him that I didn't live in the city so I didn't come very often, and he said that was too bad, cause he was hoping to see more of me around. I just kinda half smiled and laughed. I ALSO found a shop that sells peircing jewelry, AND the gentleman working there told me how to get somoene ELSE to peirce me...so I don't ahve to do it myself...cause I seriously couldn't. My hands are so not steady enough. Sadly, by the time I found this shop, it was past the time at the hospital that does the piercings...so...He told me the times and where the place was and such, and I promised to come back at a later date to pick up the jewelry, and go get my industrial done. FINALLY. I'm thinkin in 2 weeks. Next week will find me in Kumamoto again, for Akira's b-day.
So, aside from craptacular dreams (ranging from being raped by my little brother, to being eaten alive by a wolf, or captured by the Yakuza...no need to elaborate on what happened to me there, and being drowned...again by my little brother, and in a plane wreck, and ripped apart by the crawly ghost thing from the ring/the grudge...and that was just LAST NIGHT'S), sorrow over never being able to see my boys again, and this scratch in my nose that HURTS like a bitch any time i breath, move my nose, touch my nose, or just think about it, life for me is...business as usual. I'm doin alright. and I think it'll continue that way.
Tomorrow will either find me in Beppu doing some more shopping (i'm on a quest for some shorts...as summer is just around the bend...already...) OR sitting at home on my ass doing laundry...no matter waht I do laundry HAS to get done...soon.
but yeah.
it's WAY past bed time. something tells me my dreams or my neighbor's brat of a child will keep me from getting any good sleep tonight...but I have to try.
Maybe tomorrow...if the weather is as beautiful as it was today, I'll go ride out to the seaside shrine and take real pics with my real camera, not just my cell phone.
maybe.
for now...sleep.
i need to find the motivation to get back to exercising...so I can get back to losing weight or toning up at least.
good night folks.