My point...
...
Yeah, so the point is that the car I sold to my successor, Joe, is going through the same death-throws. Homeboy never changed the name on the car in almost 10 months. He has had my name stamp (inkan), and other verification papers I arranged for him since he got there last July. And now he has sold a car to someone else, Blaine's successor. Now that it is May, guess what? A bill came for the road tax...made out to me! How special! Chris notified me of this under the title of "Mike will never die". Why are there so many dumb people in the world. I will have to look into having Joe Kern liquidated for crimes against moi. It is only logical.
...
Yesterday was a LONG and odd day. I headed down to Lomita, a community about 40 minutes south of here (depending on traffic), to give a lecture to 8 girls heading off to Tochigi prefecture as part of a Rotary Club exchange program (I was told that they used to do exchanges with Ibaraki, too, but they got overwhelmed and just stuck with Tochigi alone). Two other JET alumni and I taught them how to behave around a Japanese host family and what kind of things to expect. We did little vignettes, told them a slew of anecdotes, and had a little language lesson. I even brought along my roomates Dreamcast, having rented the incredible SHENMUE to give them a virtual reality tour of a Japanese house in incredibly detail. Alas, the City Hall where we met had a TV from another era...so there was no way to connect the two. I'm still ticked. Especially cause now I have to bring a TV with me, too, next time. In future lectures (there are three), we'll talk about money, drinking & eating etiquette and things to do about town and for fun. More chances for me to blabber on and on about Japan. Rad.
Here's where the day got a little more interesting. Following a little lunch at a fine Japanese restaurant in the area (that area being Japan central for the LA area...Little Tokyo is just more well know...but most people live in Torrence, Gardena and Lomita area), partaking of my favorite: katsu curry...following that, I went to a barbecue party up in Reseda. Rumi, the Japanese girl I met at the George Takei thing I volunteered for had decided to have a little Mother's Day party for people away from home. Still wearing my student uniform jacket, I arrived before everyone else. She had an awesome little house with a pool out back and even a (non-working) jacuzzi. Well done. I met a wide array of people, which is the interesting part. There was a guy who teaches swing (and a few people there also swing...I got some good info). As I was just at the Derby on Saturday night, swinging away with the JETAASC people and Jeremy, I was glad to be surrounded by fellow swingers. We made plans to meet up Thursday for some intermediate lessons down at the Derby. Yay!
I also met a fellow Floridian, from St. Pete, who was actually 16, though we had not a clue until he told us. He plans to drop out, take the GED and enter community college, possibly out here. So, basically he is smarter than us. Good on him! Rumi had also invited a few people from her acting class who could all speak Japanese. Two were from Japan, and one guy, Ricky, was half Korean and half German, from Texas. Definitely had the languages down...excellent. I really got on well with his friend, Shinki, who I found out works just two blocks from my apartment...at a store that sells videos of Japanese TV shows. I am so incredibly excited to be heading there today to pick up a copy of my favorite show, 'Koko Ga Hen Da Yo! Nihonjin!' It will be a great language lesson, as always...though it tends to tire me out from so much concentration. The last Japanese person from her class turned out to be a model and dancer famous for being on Soul Train and the Grind. Total Tokyo girl. After hearing her talk about web pages with Rumi's roomate and how she has a fan club, etc., I thought to look her up when I got home for fun. Turns out she has about a dozen links that came up when I typed in her name. She's made quite an impression on horny little men everywhere. It was weird seeing pictures of her trying to look all sultry and seductive knowing that she is...a total Tokyo girl. People just create some kind of imagined personality for people based on how they pose or the faces they make...it's amazing the power of superficiality. Anyway, her name is Aiko Tanaka. She's very focused on the business aspect of this industry, and now I am aware of just how powerful the internet can be for even the smallest of 'talento'. I'm still too much in the beginning stages of this whole thing to concern myself with that stuff, but I am definitely tucking it away in me mind for when I need it. Part of the Master Plan (tm).
Yeah, so the point is that the car I sold to my successor, Joe, is going through the same death-throws. Homeboy never changed the name on the car in almost 10 months. He has had my name stamp (inkan), and other verification papers I arranged for him since he got there last July. And now he has sold a car to someone else, Blaine's successor. Now that it is May, guess what? A bill came for the road tax...made out to me! How special! Chris notified me of this under the title of "Mike will never die". Why are there so many dumb people in the world. I will have to look into having Joe Kern liquidated for crimes against moi. It is only logical.
...
Yesterday was a LONG and odd day. I headed down to Lomita, a community about 40 minutes south of here (depending on traffic), to give a lecture to 8 girls heading off to Tochigi prefecture as part of a Rotary Club exchange program (I was told that they used to do exchanges with Ibaraki, too, but they got overwhelmed and just stuck with Tochigi alone). Two other JET alumni and I taught them how to behave around a Japanese host family and what kind of things to expect. We did little vignettes, told them a slew of anecdotes, and had a little language lesson. I even brought along my roomates Dreamcast, having rented the incredible SHENMUE to give them a virtual reality tour of a Japanese house in incredibly detail. Alas, the City Hall where we met had a TV from another era...so there was no way to connect the two. I'm still ticked. Especially cause now I have to bring a TV with me, too, next time. In future lectures (there are three), we'll talk about money, drinking & eating etiquette and things to do about town and for fun. More chances for me to blabber on and on about Japan. Rad.
Here's where the day got a little more interesting. Following a little lunch at a fine Japanese restaurant in the area (that area being Japan central for the LA area...Little Tokyo is just more well know...but most people live in Torrence, Gardena and Lomita area), partaking of my favorite: katsu curry...following that, I went to a barbecue party up in Reseda. Rumi, the Japanese girl I met at the George Takei thing I volunteered for had decided to have a little Mother's Day party for people away from home. Still wearing my student uniform jacket, I arrived before everyone else. She had an awesome little house with a pool out back and even a (non-working) jacuzzi. Well done. I met a wide array of people, which is the interesting part. There was a guy who teaches swing (and a few people there also swing...I got some good info). As I was just at the Derby on Saturday night, swinging away with the JETAASC people and Jeremy, I was glad to be surrounded by fellow swingers. We made plans to meet up Thursday for some intermediate lessons down at the Derby. Yay!
I also met a fellow Floridian, from St. Pete, who was actually 16, though we had not a clue until he told us. He plans to drop out, take the GED and enter community college, possibly out here. So, basically he is smarter than us. Good on him! Rumi had also invited a few people from her acting class who could all speak Japanese. Two were from Japan, and one guy, Ricky, was half Korean and half German, from Texas. Definitely had the languages down...excellent. I really got on well with his friend, Shinki, who I found out works just two blocks from my apartment...at a store that sells videos of Japanese TV shows. I am so incredibly excited to be heading there today to pick up a copy of my favorite show, 'Koko Ga Hen Da Yo! Nihonjin!' It will be a great language lesson, as always...though it tends to tire me out from so much concentration. The last Japanese person from her class turned out to be a model and dancer famous for being on Soul Train and the Grind. Total Tokyo girl. After hearing her talk about web pages with Rumi's roomate and how she has a fan club, etc., I thought to look her up when I got home for fun. Turns out she has about a dozen links that came up when I typed in her name. She's made quite an impression on horny little men everywhere. It was weird seeing pictures of her trying to look all sultry and seductive knowing that she is...a total Tokyo girl. People just create some kind of imagined personality for people based on how they pose or the faces they make...it's amazing the power of superficiality. Anyway, her name is Aiko Tanaka. She's very focused on the business aspect of this industry, and now I am aware of just how powerful the internet can be for even the smallest of 'talento'. I'm still too much in the beginning stages of this whole thing to concern myself with that stuff, but I am definitely tucking it away in me mind for when I need it. Part of the Master Plan (tm).