Going to OKINAWA!!!!! MY host family is taking me there for 5 days 4 nights. this Will be great! I leave in a few minute, got to run fast, bye bye!

http://kazenotayori2.blogspot.com

So I'm looking though My list of referals( a referal is a site that links to my site) via the tracker that I have and I see a blog, Ok Ill check it out. Some Japanese ?guy? near tokyo linked to my Japnese blog site and wished me luck. If you go to that site you won't understand it but, you can see me name in English letters.

I thought that was cool, I have sites that link to me. Which means I have content hat people find interesting... and there isn't much of that in my Japanese site. very VERY sparse info and broken sentences. Oh, its like my English section with less updates. If you didn't notic you can click that Japanese flag near the top right of the page and see the Japanese site. Or just click here

I'm gonna keep a look out for more. that was intesting reading that guys blog.... Yes I could read it.

http://briannasr.blogspot.com/

This is a site I found interesting. He's an Aussy from down-under. THats what I made of it at least THere are minimal typos and he has been here about 2 monthes now... He teaches English with NOVA an English school that is all over Japan and in almost every city.... He does like nutto though, that is weird.... *shivers* I can eat vegimite but nutto.....

WOOO I'm a happy camper right now.... I got a gmail account! That is one gig of e-mail storage for FREE! from google! www.gmail.com

It is still in Beta testing but look soooooo nice! and I have a GIG of storage! a GIGABYTE!. My yahoo mail is already yelling at me too buy more storage becasue I have been keeping my e-mail while in Japan. now once I find a way to get this old yahoo mail transphere I will never need to delte a mail agian!!! When it goes public I want to get all of my family on gmail. off of spammail i mean hotmail. Hotmail is horable. the storage is small the spam filters DON'T work well and they use pop-under ads....

a google serch of gmail will give you tons of info on the service. Its pritty nice. THerre is the whole privacy thing, but that is more of a conspiricy therory than anything... I thin kI would trust google over any other web site on the net.... Maybe that is a bad thing.... Still not gonna give out personal info to google but they can hold my mail for me.

I had heard about this a long time ago and wanted in to the beta testing but its closed and invite only. How I got an invite? thats a secret.... :D Because there are few people tha thave accounts I was able to get a REALLY easy user name to give out... dawonn is memorable by ME becasue I see the reson behind it..... anyone that knwos me can remember the new one.... YATTA! no excuse for no e-mailing me!

I'll tell you how it is from the inside, I think there might be a secracy thing were you can tell about it spacificly untill it is made public. I think it will be soon though. THere are sites taht have all the goods for you if you really want to read about it.

I accully wanted to tell everyone about my 2 bike accedents that happend 2 days ago.... that got over riden by my getting a gmail account!. well the front wheel was totald and I got a few minor injurys.... It was on the day of the sports test too...... I have to post about that too... how about tomarow or so....

I'm happy, じゃね

More hazing and making the Freshmens lives miserable has been going on, but now ITs really calming down. So far.

There is a sports test tomarow. they record our times in various events and stuff and compare it to the year before. I havn't got a year before so I just get to see this years data. SHould be interesting,

Kendo!!!!

Kendo IS still great, some of the freshmen are playing now. they are good compared to me. But they all are nowhere near the others. THe Captian of Kendo opens right up on them and today one guy walked away with an arm that was redder than a tomato. meanwhile, THere was a mesuring tape in the locker room and I had all my armor on, click click click click My waist wiht armor on is smaller than it was when I got here. SCORE!

Oh in related news, Kumakou told me to bring my Armor home to America in July! やった[yay]!!! New kendo armor costs around 2000$ in Japan for a quality set. {this set that I have} It is kinda old and there are lots of unused sets in the kendo room that havn't been used in a very long time and they were debatin gweather to though most of it out. I might also get to bring a set home for a friend to I can keep pracitcing in America. But why did my frined have to Spend all his money a couple weeks ago? Shipping It gonna hurt I think. Speaking of witch I need to send them boxes out tomarow. I may take a holiday from Kendo tomarow.

Matta ne.

And let the Hazing begin.... ;D Naguta Keike gave a talking to the JOHO['Information System' which includes all computer courses] freshmen. I only cought the end of his speach but they were all looking pritty scared... none were makeing eye contact with anythign but their desks and feet... they all yelled really loud 'I understand!' at teh end... he had complete attectino and contol of that room. After, maybe caused by Keike, there were three students bowing and saying good afternoon/Morning to everyone that walked by that wasn't a freshmen[I'm not a freshmen]. That was fun, almost all the second and third year students walked by them after that, I bet their thoughts hurt after lunch break was over. :D

I'm taking physics. And he had English printouts from a book. It loks like its about as old as the school, 106 years old. Its called "Advanced Collage Physics". I read the chapter on speed and velocity. A simple concept that a 6th grader can understand; maybe a 5th grader. The way it is worded made my head hurt... and it made a couple referaces to caculus..... My head hurt, I need a dictionary for one word, My head hurt.

But for cleening, My group has..... The administrator room....... *Bun ban BAAAAAAAAMMMMMM* NO ONE like going in there.... There is one really scary guy in there and he is way bigger than I am...... A Japanese that is bigger that me is odd, THAT much bigger is scary. But so far so good, I met the Vice principal and talked to him a while... He didn't know ther was an American at the school!!!! They also feed us dongo once... Wasn't to my likeing but I didn't turn down the bear-guy.

It was an Interesting day.

All the First year students(AKA Freshmen) we intorduced and stuff today. The cerimony included us singing the school song at the new students and stampeading them during the first "OSE!"(like a greating but only kinda.) For once the guy holding the flag, a friend of mine, held the flag high and at the proper angle... that was a first accully.

Then after a few people seid things I don't have a clue about, THe brass band gave a performance..... They are that good. The band won the 2nd best in teh nation tital at a compitition and I see why. THey played 5 songs and did all the marching and danceing you expect of the second best High school band in the country. I was amazed at the people with the tubas, the though them in the air making them spin and cought them, then played more..... If you ever held a tuba, you'd know why that is impresive....

I was gonna cause HAvok fo rth eFreshmen JOHO system students(My class) but I lost my Fist year student badge.... I was gonna go pretend to be new and just cause random Havok, but.... Oh well. It was all right when walking thought the hall a freshmen bowed to me and yelled "Konechiwa"[Good Afternoon]... That was cool being on the reciving side....

YOSHIA![Alright!] I'm off to burn in the 27 degrees celcius weather. ATSUII[Its hot]!!!!

I can officaly shop in Japan, I seen a discount on CDs on a flyer. went to the advertised store and bought 10 CDR discs for less than 2$. Yea, I could have gotted 200 for 30$ butI don't have 30$ to blow In a past post I mentioned finding a masive 4.5 gig file to test the connection here... I'm gonna, Um.... test the Burner in this system. :D It works good, I get on at night and work on my blog, mail, webcomics taht I like, and recently I found out how fast a T3 optical fiber line is. :D I love technology, One of the reasons I came to Japan, TECH! So, I'm accomplishing another of my goals for coming to Japan by burnign CDs of game Demos that this computer is to slow to play!

For the IRAAj employee who runs across this, No music was DLed during the "test", only game demos from Gamespy.com. :D Have a happy, legal, downloading day.

Well, Its been a good week, I didn't know a week had gone by though. I have a couple boxes of clothes I never wore that I brought here reader to ship home. I'm trying to get people to buy some Shinais, bamboo kendo sticks, So I can ship them all at once. They are too big for the airplane, and probly too expencive to send them home by air, Ship is the way to go. I want to have friends buy a few so I can fight them, how will I do that without armor you ask? Taht is a good question..... Very carefully... ^_^

I found out how fast this host familys connection to the net is kinda. I have 5 gigs dled in 2 days and the busy light on the modem never blinked once. I also found out how slow the computer in my room is... I think it needs RAM, badly. Oh well, I don't use the computer much anyways. Just my cellphone.

Takashi just started highschool this spring, Spring is when Japanese Students start the school year instead of Fall in America. His school is 30 minutes away by car and almost all uphill. He dosn't want to wake up early to go up a mountian on a bike every morning. It is quite a long way from the house, so he will stay in the dorms at the school. Kumakou, my school, also had dormatorys for students. He has been doing cleening all the time at his dorm. All the freshmen have to do the cleening pretty much 100% of the time. His school Is a High school and collage mix. He will have classes mixed up and leave high school with a collage degree, i think he has 6 years to go there though. norma Japanese high school is 3 years. Junior high is 3 years long as well.

Meanwhile, I am a 2nd year student now. The was one day of scoll last week for us. We changed classrooms and listened to the staff introduce themselfs along with a new principal. That was a long time to sit on the hard floor. Our new room is one room down from the old one and is a little smaller. Just a little though, we have more windows though, I think. Real classes start tomarow. The second year students have a choise in there scheduals, physics or chemisrty an World or Japanese History. I took World and physics. I have secret love of pyhsics, I like the theorys. I hate proving them... MATH!!!! But chemestry is math only, and a few pouring chemicals together. I took world history because as much as I want to know about Japan, it would be a class the biulds on past knowlage that I don't have. I couldn't dream of passing it in otherwords, World history I have a little knowlage of, I may pull a D or even a C in world history. Thats what most of my friends are taking as well.

I feel Curplue-tunnel creaping in, matta ne.

Oh, so I'm eating dinner and my host father says, "oh, your going to a new host family tomarow."

That is my excuse fro no updatesa and e-mail cheecking. bUt I did findout I NEED to send stuff home Via ship now. the suitcase was filled up, both of them. with stuff I bought while here and school unifore things. I've got a box filled with clothes I have yet to were while in Japan and have no plans to start doing so now. I'm still keeping many that I will more than likly not wear but Oh well. My suitcase just reaches the limits of the airlines now, so t's allll good, for now. I also have a box of nothing but homework and papers form school that took 5 kilos just by itself that I will SHIP home. I won't need any of that immediatly when I return and I don't need it now. so off it will go. I wonder what it costs to send Via ship.... Lot less than goign over my limit on the plane thats for sure.

I broke down and bought 3 kendo shinei sticks. I was gonna get 4, but decided to get 3 only and use the money saved for a littl annoying kid that can't use a computer so its ok to talk about him here. I got him 2 shinei so we can fight when I get back. Without armor.... that might be a little dagerous, but i think a pillow will work out ok for practice. :D :D :D I need to get money from other people that want a stick so we can fight and stuff, they are really cheep so e-mail me if you want one! I'llsend them all at once to save shpping. probly by ship so it will be about 3 monthes form now before you see you bamboo beauty. Kumamoto have the lowest cost sticks in Japan, not substituting quality I suppose. they have more expenciveones too, but the cheep onse are good forf practice and stuff.

I want a metal sword!!!! If I hav e money after buying gifts, I'm gettign one..... Everyone that comes to Japan have to Buy a swrod right? 300$ of shining beauty, And I know how to wield it too, kinda. We been studying in Kendo how to use metal swords. even though we only have wodden ones and bamboo sticks.

HARAHETA!!!! matta ne.

SO I just got back from Oita. It was all teh Exchanges tudents in this district together and we saw a bunch of bissnesses. I Had a cold th ewhole time, but it was managleable. We seen all kinds of thinks in Oita, Including being invited to the opening Debut of a aquarium, it was invite only, so that was cool, it still smelled of fresh paint. They had all the typlical things. Penguins, dolphins, a turtul, otters, walrusus, and fish. accross the street was teh monkey place i didn't get to see the last time i was in Oita so I walked over there, and there we a lot of monleys. a lot of monkeys.

I'm on a putz of what we did I'm too tiered to remember.(Still have that cold.) we seen a huge budist temple that is famous in Japan. Also, we went to a musuam that told about the anceint tombs in Japan. I didn't Know Japan had tombs. they looks like gigantig keyholes. I have picutrees and stuff. From Oita and Osaka, I have over 200 pictures. My host father let me borrow his camera and I LOVE that little thing. It is 1/3 the size of my good one and 2 times as powerfull. And its stylish.

I cringe at the thought of 200 pictures...... That is going to give me carple tunnle alone.

mata ne

I forgot about the most important part of the trip! I accomplished one of my goals for being in Japan! I got on a popular National TV show!!!! Almost everyone Watche Baseball and I got on the TV durnig that game, not just a crowd shot but JUST me cheering and shoutin my lungs out! I was on Tv and the camera was right there in my face and my Phone was going crazy getting mails from people that were watching the game and e-mailing me telling my they could see me. I kinda smilled when I got e-mails while the camera was there, becasue I knew I was on TV at that moment when the phone started vibrating.

That was the best part of the game.

I am finally back from all the running around the country of Japan now. Still going places tomarow, but thats only Aso so its not that big of a deal. I think i will be going to Kumamoto castle again tomarow morning as well, the trees are all in full bloom right now and there are people from all over the country to see our little 'ol castle in Kumamoto. Other than that there is Kendo every day. That is about all of the plans i have for spring break, that was quick so I put it first. now for what I already did.

Fist i went off to Osaka, the second largest city in Japan. My school is really top notch in the baseball section, accually, my school is number one for sports in Kumamoto. In october or smthing we won the regonals and got invited to nationals for baseball. it was 50$ to get a seat on the bus and there were a lot of people. about 45 people to a bus and Kumako had 19 busses go to Osaka. that is a lot of people. well, the bus ride was a long 10 hour night ride and we all woke up in a theme park parking lot, Expo land. I was told it was a great big place back in 2000 when I came to Japan and here I was in the parking lot of the small thing. it saw so tiny. but oh well, we couldn't go in there was no time and it wasn't open.

Off to the stadium that wsa still a was to go but all the bussese had regrouped together and we had a caravan of 19 busses going though Osaka. that was as sight to see. We get in the stadium and see the game befor ours finish up and move to the Kumakou section of teh stadium. we had a huge section to ourselfs, as did the other school.

The game, it was long and we did a ton of cheers and stuff; like the superman thing, and the kumakou hand spelling thing. niether of witch i wish to start to discribe. we lost the game 0-2 but they are the favorits to win and have been doing just that, winning. i think the lost a game today to seikei or somthing, it was in the last inning and I didn't see it. I want them to win becase thta woul make us look a little better losing to the number one team only. Although that was our first game. It would make us #2 or something in my head at least.

after the game we headed all over to Osaka castle, and that castle is quite small compared to Kumamoto castle accually. But the Osaka Castle is more shiny, it was gld a long time ago but now it is brass because people like to steal that amount of gold. All the casltes are the same thogh, except my host father tells me the lighting rod at the top is accually gold but it would take a huge crane and a whole lot more time to steal that then can be done in a night so they leave it there. cool trivia I suppose. In the shop there were little plates that were about 3 inches in diameter. the had pictures of sumo size samurai having sex with the same sized woman.... it was funny. I took a picture. nothign graphic mind you but the was enought information to tell what they was doing...

That was a one day thing, Ride up on a bus the night before ride back the night after and then sleep the entire day when I get back. The day after sleeping i headed to Oita for a rotary convention thing. The average endless talking and telling us we don't know enought Japanese. BUT IT WASN'T THAT! no it was accually enjoyable! we sighseed around oita got into a ew companys that were there and got into the opening debut of a new aquarium in Iota! The Aquarium was across from teh monkey mountian thing thta I missed out of last time I was in Oita. lots of monkeys.. LOTS of monkeys... And then there was alsoa few MORE MONKEYS! a couple hundered were in the park and just walking abround. A couple of them had a fight. that was fun. I'm sure I could think of many other things That i did, but I can't at the moment. It was really fun and enjoyable though, so that was good, now I'm gonna go to sleep.

I havn't had time to get on the Computer in a while here. and It seems that Is how it will stay for a bit. I like it. I should open one of them things called a book and study... I think I WILL! Here i go! this book says "learn" and "Japanese" on the cover. so I think I'll read it.

matta ne!

*Its late and this person is tiered for no reason at all* Oh, I have about 250 pictures to add to the web after getting set p to do so... that is a lot of pictures, need to sort them first. bye bye