Well, Im all settled in to the new place, also I am +1 new Sony Bravia 32in TV. My Indian tv had a meeting with the corner of a mirror that it just could not miss. Yumi, being sweet and willing to replace something that she broke (dropped the mirror) bought me a new terebi. This one is pretty cool. It has an ethernet port so I can hook it up to my internets to watch streaming video and surf the net. This comes in handy if I want to rent a movie from amazon.com or something. It uses a similar interface to the PS3 so Im somewhat familiar with that. Also with that ethernet port I can network it and as soon as my HTPC is ready I can stream video to it wirelessly if I hide my comp upstairs or in the closet.

I got all my furniture and assembled it all no problems. My place feels much more cozy and lived in now. Im glad. Though I am still the only guy living here at the moment. A few other people seem to be moving in, but I'm sure the place wont fill up till the area is completely finished (next month? I guess its too cold to pour concrete or something.) Its been really cold lately, should be getting a little snow in a week or so.

Today, I was supposed to meet up with my old host mom and a good chunk of her ex host students, I woke up at 11am today and needed to do laundry and stuff and her place is like two and a half hours and 1000 Yen away via train, so I told her It was too expensive and blew her off. No big deal on my part. I mean I feel a little guilty but it was a crappy experience and I dont give a shit about the previous host students. Also Im sure she really doesnt care that I didnt make it as we never really had a good relationship, as was shown by her just dumping me at the train station closest to her house after I asked her to help me move out by taking me to a station closer to where I was gonna move. Also she didnt email me on my birthday or anything.

Recently on myspace Robin's ex or someone copied her account and tried to get me to add them. They sent me a really strange message that didnt make any sense since I had been talking to Robin all along. I know that dude blames me for their relationship falling apart. You know, rather than the fact that he was fucking around on her quite a bit. I think its because I was close to Robin and hung out with her a lot. Meh, who knows. I think tonight I'll take pics and video of my new place now that I am somewhat settled (still need a few things and havent hung my art up yet). Ill be sure to post it on here for those who wish to see.

Well, my birthday came and went and today its Christmas. Birthday was pretty lame, I went out shopping with a friend and his *ahem* underage (16YO) lady friend. We ended up in Roppongi and had a Peking Duck with all the extra shit. It was delicious as usual. What was weird was that the girl, despite knowing that I am not available and her being very young compared to this old man, kept on staring at me and then was touching me and stuff. I had to stop her when she kept on touchin my ass and running her hand up my leg. While we were at Starbucks and my friend was in the bathroom she mouthed to me "fuck me" to which I replied "what the fuck?!" After that incident I left and had dinner at a bar with Yumi. She wanted to take me to a nice place but I wasnt gonna eat much anyway so we went to a bar. The food there was ok (Tacos, TACOS! but they were weird Japanese tacos with goofy shit like egg salad or sausage in them, only one regular style taco with meat and cheese, etc) and the drinks were expensive. The equivilent of $7 bought me a margarita that was a little bigger than a shot glass. Fuckin lame.

Oh and only a couple gifts this year. Yumi got me a new man purse and a bottle of booze. She is also gonna buy me a TV stand for my new place. From my family I got about 80 fucking towels from my brother and Futurama: The beast with a billion backs, which I already have. I specifically asked for the new Futurama DVD called "Bender's Game" but for some reason I didnt get it. From my mom I got "The Dark Night" which is awesome. I was kinda pissed about the towels because I asked my family to just send me money for Christmas and my birthday as shipping stuff is really expensive. That and I really dont have room in my place or need so many towels. I think he sent two colors (blue and green) and about four of each size (total of 25 because there was also one bathmat). My box from my mom was supposed to include my blender I left in the states but with all the goddamn towels there was room for only a few other things. I was pretty mad to find out that it cost my mom $85 to send that to me. I could have bought the towels here and not so many of them. Plus I would have bought ones that were going to match my bathroom colors.

Fast forward a few days. I got my new apartment. Its nice and actually kinda big for being in Tokyo. Ill post pics in a bit. I have been going nuts buying furniture, I am going with pale colors combined with slate colors for my living room and most of the place. I am thinking to maybe go a bit brighter and poppier with my toilet room since its so small. Im feeling the whole Mid-Century Modern thing for my furniture. Ill pick up an Eames chair that I like, in the future, it should match a rug my buddy is gonna give to me. So far what I have being delivered in the next couple days is: Dining table/chairs (Eames/Herman Miller style), Ikea Couch, shelves and bed, and my TV stand. I still need to order that one chair, a coffee table, and some cabinets and shelving for my kitchen. There are a lot of other odds and ends that I still need but Ill eventually get them. Also, due to shit exchange rate, I spent a lot more money than I was planning.

After I moved some of my stuff in we had the gas and cable hooked up. This is when I found out that my TV (32in Sony Bravia, bought from some Indian Guy) happens to be an Indian TV that uses a different RF connection then Japan and the US (PAL vs NTSC) which is funny since its supposed to be a "World TV" that works with PAL, NTSC, and SEACAM. This sucks because that means I cant use it to watch my free cable I get with the place (I still get to enjoy the free internet at 8Mbps, kinda slow for Tokyo but way way faster than in Spokane, If I wanna pay $40 a month I can get 160Mbps net, pay $60 and I can get 1Gbps!). I will have to either A) buy a digital Tuner box to hook up to it (maybe used, Ill have to hit Akiba), B) build a Home Theater PC with a digital tuner (planning on this anyway), C) get a cheap or free VCR with BS/CS controls to hook into the wall then hook it up to my tv with composite hookups. I think for now Ill rock the VCR if I can find one someone is just giving away.

So Today is Chirstmas. It really doesnt feel like it. I long for the happy memories of a big ass Chirstmas tree and presents, my  mom making homemade cinnimon rolls, and sitting around in my pajamas all morning playing video games and chillin with my brothers. Back in the states we usually would celebrate Christmas with my dad on Chirstmas Eve. See my Grandparents and all my cousins on that side. Eat ham, play pool, watch movies, and do two gift exchanges. One for real gifts the other for joke $1 gifts. The joke gifts were usually pretty classic (one year I bought a 50 cent roll of aluminum foil, about 1 square foot, and wrapped the box with the foil that was in it. Another time my dad gave a 6" measuring tape, it looked like it would be much longer, had the full size measuring tape body and everything.). Early Christmas afternoon we would go to my Aunt or Grandparents place on my dad's side and eat Bakala and Aiaoia. I am probably butchering that Italian but its a tomato/veggi based cod soup and the other is spaghetti noodles with olive oil and a mixture of romano and parmesan freshly grated cheese. Christmas night we would go to celebrate with all of my family on my mom's side. This usually meant more presents from my grandparents and my godmother/aunt, a huge feast of turkey and all the other goodies, plenty of pie and sweets, and then everyone settles down to Hot Buttered Rums, Gin, Champagne, and wine. Really good times.
This Christmas, no tree, opened my two presents last night (ugly shirts from my mom, and a belt from Yumi), had a roast chicken leg and some random other food and Christmas cake. All in all it was pretty meh, I just dont feel in the Christmas mood. No snow, tree, lights, family, etc. I think today I might go with some friends for Nomihodai/Tabehodai dinner (all you can eat/drink booze).

Here are pics of the furniture I bought:


Tubelor Brick Garbage can, bags are covered up by the outer shell: (black)



This table but white with black chairs:



Above shelf is about 7feet tall, I got it in black, gonna hack it into my bar area.

Ah, so today is moving day. I never realized how much shit I accumulated since being here. When I moved in I only brought a suit case, a backpack and my man purse. Now that I am leaving I have the suitcase, 2 big ass clothing store paper bags (very sturdy), my murse, and a messenger bag. I already brought the backpack full of stuff to the new place.

I asked my host mom to drive me down to the place in Yokohama (Ill be crashing in Hiyoshi for a week before I get my new apartment in Kawasaki), I even offered her gas but she said no. The furthest she will drive me is the fucking station near here. What a load of shit. So since I have so much I am going to take the suit case to 7-11 and have it shipped via a service, it will cost me a bit but will be totally worth it.

For my move to Kawasaki I am hiring a moving company since I am also moving a big tv, washer, and refrigerator. So moving should be much easier that time around as they will load and unload everything for me.

My last breakfast was somewhat uneventful. Kiyomi asked me what I thought of the host family experience. I acted like I didnt understand what she was asking since I didnt want to tell her that it pretty much sucked.

On the plus side though, last night I went with the family and Kiyomi's friend to an Izakaya in town. I got fuckin obliterated. I started the night with two large mugs of beer then moved to finish off a 5th of Jinro Korean Soju (Vodka) with soda water and grapefruit juice. I got home and hopped on the computer. I talked with some friends for a few minutes then out I went. I woke up at 3:30am, but I still had my pants on (unlike last night) and the heater was blasting again. After I woke up I talked with Rashwan a bit then tried to go to sleep again. That wasnt happening. I laid there for over an hour and could not sleep. Finally I passed out again. It was pretty uneventful sleep, but god my stomach hurt this morning. I think I will put off drinking for a little while (at least till my birthday).

Gah, I just want to get out of here, I dont want to move my shit though, like I wish there was an easier way because Im gonna have to ride 3 different trains with all my shit and then a bus (maybe Ill take a cab from the station to the house, save myself the pain in the ass bus ride.

Ahhh, so I am almost done with the whole host family thing. For the most part it sucked bad. I had to ride the train super fucking long every day and would rarely get a seat. Also making friends was tough since I was so far out and it was tough to get to town and back home for dinner.

School was ok this semester. I probably failed my Japanese class, or if I passed I am just going to retake it anyway because I feel like I didnt learn shit. It sucked because the teacher wouldnt go outside of the book and barely knew how to answer any questions the class had about stuff. Genki sucks dick as a book too. Also we would often not go over some parts of chapter but then would have a test on it the next class period (happened with vocab and kanji a lot!). Though now school is over for the semester! I got blasted in Harajuku yesterday but more on that later.

Ok, so as I said, the Homestay is almost over, in fact I move out tomorrow! I got a new place lined up in Kawasaki, but it is SO new that I have to wait till the 20th of December to move in (two days after my birthday) since its not finished being built yet. Its a pretty nice place and for a decent price (only $670 a month) the main area is about 23 square meters, but then above my kitchen, bathroom, toilet, and space for my washer is my loft bedroom which is the same size as the living room. I have been going nuts trying to find stuff for my new place, especially considering my very strained budget (hooray for student loans getting canceled due to shit economy). Hopefully though, I will get new student loans for next semester, otherwise I will be fucked.

So a few days ago I was chilling in Shibuya waiting with some friends for another friend and the editor of Brutus Magazine (national men's fashion magazine) approached me and asked if I would like to possibly model suits in a future issue. I said sure, he took my info and a few pics of me. I was pretty excited by the prospect of having a job, and being in a magazine, but I got an email from him saying that they have another model for this winter's issue. So I got turned down this time but he said they will keep me on file for the spring issue. So that leads me to yesterday. I was just going to go home early in the morning (didnt make it home the night before...), but got an email from my friend Nayo. He said he was going to help our other friend, John, sign up with the model agencies he works for and wondered if I wanted to go. I met up with them and I applied at three different places.
I made a really good impression at one place and the photographer girl kept on touching me, like in an encouraging way. She may have had the hots for me though as when she was taking my measurements, she got to my chest and was like "Oh! *poke* *Poke* Muscle!" and I was like "yeah." She asked me if I work out and stuff and I told her not much anymore (which is the truth, I have kept all the weight off but have actually lost a lot of muscle since I stopped going to the gym, 72kg for the win).
After the second place we went to we picked up some lunch and then met up with Nayo's friends Keiko and Francesca (to be called Chess from here on). Nayo wanted to use Keiko to get girl's attention to talk to us so we could nanpa them. The first girl ok looking and her friend was really not good at all. She was half Spanish half Philipino and only spoke Japanese, the friend was a Japanese but spoke really good English, which was weird. Nayo got the girl's number and then found out she was only 16! After we left them we were like awwww shit she is 16 man, thats fucked up. We nanpa'd a few more girls then decided to head to a bar for happy hour. Best choice I have made in a while.

So at the bar, being as it was happy hour, drinks where half price. I got loaded on what is equivilent to $17, on cheap gin and vodka. The drinks were also huge, like pint glass sized. I ended up talking to Keiko most of the night. I found out she lives like one station away from my host family, so we could co-miserate about the commute and how bad it sucks to live in the rice fields. We put away a few more drinks and by the time happy hour was over (*ahem* 7pm), we were both pretty drunk. The 16 year old and her friend ened up showing to the bar to meet with Nayo. The friend took off and Nayo, John and the 16 year old went back to Takadanobaba to "watch a movie." John is gay so he definitely was not a part of what was to happen later, but Nayo was planning on what did happen. He ended up fucking the girl from what I heard, but the girl turned out to be a freak. She had told Keiko that her mom owned a few hostess clubs around Tokyo and that she had dropped out of highschool, etc. Yeah, interesting girl. The group slowly started to fall apart, so Keiko and I decided to go hop the same train together since we live so close. We ended up talking and bullshitting more on the train and drank more on the way home. It was a fuckin blast.

I got home and after talking with my host mom for a minute, went to my room and passed out trying to email someone. I woke up and my heater was still blasting. I passed out some time around 11pm and woke up at 3am. I was on the ground, my pants were missing and I was wearing one sock. I tried to move but was either still drunk or really really hung over, as the world was spinning around me. I managed to find my pants and got them back on, I also drank what little water I had left on my desk and then laid in bed. I was so fuckin dizzy that I couldnt sleep. An hour passed and I finally passed out again. I woke up this morning and felt totally fine,
Awesome!

I had some interesting dreams, but the person that involves will have to hear it for herself, I dont think anyone else will care.

I wish I could go out today also, but this room needs to be cleaned and packed up

Ok, been a while yeah? I have been super busy with life... Work, Hanging out, Finishing school shit, more work, hard goodbyes.

So first: Hard Good-byes. The last week and a half has been pretty tough. My friend group lost three members (Rashwan, Matt, Yuko) as they flew to beautiful Japan. Yuko wont be back in the states till who knows when, so there is a good chance Ill see her more often than others. Matt and Rash will be in Japan till the 20th of August. I will get to hang with them in Tokyo for a week before they leave. Nearly a week after they left, Nora flew back home. Both times teary eyed long goodbyes were to be had. We made the most of our time together as a group, the Spokane group will never be the same with three of us leaving permanently.

Nora's last day here went out with a bang. A group of us (Kyle, Nora, Joanna, Connor, I) went to see "The Dark Knight." Always the drunkard and adventurous one, I requested that Joanna bring 20oz bottles of Tequilla and OJ in her purse. She brought two... which actually turned out ok. Joanna, Connor, and Kyle did not drink. Leaving Nora and me to finish both bottles of (40% tequila) Orange Juice. By the halfway point through the movie we were both pretty well buzzed/trashed. I got up and stumbled to the bathroom to take a leak. GOOD TIMES!!!! After the movie we went to Kyle/Nora/Yuko/Matt's place to chill. Kyle went to bed, then Sammy came over. We decided to stay up till Nora needed to go to the airport (4:45am!). We just hung out and talked and stuff. Nora wrote me a nice letter and bought Kyle and me a Unicorn Vs. Narwhal action figure kit. I totally got the Narwhal! After watching Nora get through security, we (+Joanna) all went to breakfast.

Today I got my COE (Certificate of Entry) for Japan. Next stop: Japan's Consulate in Seattle for my visa. It is final, I will be leaving the US on August 13th, 2008! I had a long couple weeks fuckin around with student loan bullshit and getting the right amount of money to cover me, this caused my disbursement to be off schedule... which lead to me not getting into a home-stay in Japan. Instead I will have my own condo in Shinjuku (personally I would have gone more for a place in Jyugaoka or Den en Chofu, but Shinjuku is where the school is gonna put me). So thats kinda cool. I think Robin will get into the same place as me, since we went through similar loan processing hells.

Not much else to talk about. Aaron's wedding is coming fast (Aug 9th), My last day of work is a few days before (Aug 5th). I am packing up my stuff and selling almost everything I own.
Anyone need a laptop computer or a hot hand built desktop?

I got Machine Girl on DVD. I have yet to watch it, but it should be AWESOME!

Thats what I have been doing lately. Since last Friday (they called me in to work) I have been working. My single day off (today) I had scheduled to work with a client. I was supposed to be there about four hours, but ended up staying there about seven. I made $230 though, so I cant complain. I have to work tomorrow through the weekend as well (including the 4th of July...).

It is coming to an end... everyone will leave soon Rashwan, Matt, and Yuko (July 16th), Nora (july 22). I will also leave this town, if I finally get enough money for my first quarter and get my Visa. My mom is supposed to get a Parent's PLUS loan going but she wants me around to help with the paperwork. I have tried to meet up with her for the last week to do so but she keeps on saying she is too tired or she just isnt home when I am. Many going away, sad get togethers are planned for the coming weeks. To my friends out there *Cough* Christine *Cough* you need to make it to several of these times. It may be the last time for a while. I will really miss a lot of my friends. I guess I really didnt think about it till now....

In other news, FUCK, I need to get to sellin all my shit. I also need to take my car back to my old school to have the cam timing checked out. Its having a high rpm misfire.

Hmmm, not a whole lot else than that. I need to work on the picture/video DVDs for everyone.

Been workin all weekend. Yesterday Yuko, Kyle, Nora, and I met up with a bunch of people for Matt from Japanese class' going away party. He moved back home today. We all met at the Viking bar. I had a few beers and we did Bar Trivia. Our team kicked everyone else's ass. Twas great.

Word on the emissions is... I changed my address to my dad's out in the country so that way I wouldnt have to do emissions anymore. My car doesnt feel right still. SO when the summer quarter starts I'm gonna bring it in to my old school again and have them check my cam timing and possibly throw the old ones back in.

Hmmm, what else... I went in for a massage at Strata (my hair salon) , that was really goood, The girl there mentioned how tight and stressed my back muscles are. Funny enough, every non professional I have had give me a massage has complained that their hands got too tired from giving me massages due to this.

I only have one more day of work for the week (tomorrow). We have been retardedly slow lately, so I have been spending a lot of time in my tech center just looking at computers and shit. I think I am going to build a media center pc based on a Pico ITX board in the near future. for those not in the know, imagine a fullfunction computer that is about the size of a playing card!

Yeah, anyways, Ima go. I think I should talk to my mom about student PLUS loans.

Well, today I finally got around to doing some work on my car. I put my summer tires on and tore into the engine's ignition system, cleaned some oil out of my distributer and replaced the cap, rotor, and wires. I then cleaned out the O2 sensor. I figured it could have been something around these two that were causing my car to run rich. Not quite, as yet again I failed emissions. FUCK! My 3 day pass is up, so I am pretty well boned till my next day off (Tuesday), when I will have to head to my old work (Appleway Toyota) and talk to some of my buddies and see if they can basically forge a document saying that I had over $150 in repairs related to emissions, done. That way I can get a waiver and get my tabs. What really sucks is I am trying to save money so I can leave, but I am dumping all kinds of money into my transportation that I have to sell soon anyways. Just pisses me off. One thing worth trying, though, is: my dad lives in Deer Park, I heard they may not have to do emissions there. Solution: Register my car at his house and then buy tabs, problem solved.

In other news, I found FRESH FIGS! in Spokane. They are very small organic ones, and not super ripe by any respect, but I've been craving them since August so this is a step in the right direction. Soon as good quality and sized figs are available Im gonna go nuts. I already have a prosutto/Goat cheese/Fig recipe I really really want to eat. There is just something about really good sweet figs, room temp or chilled w/ olive oil. Its a mega endorphin releaser for me. Just like good warm fresh pita bread, hummus, roma tomatos, olives, and feta. My body experiences pure joy when I bite into it. MMMMMMmmmmmm!

hmmm. So today I found out I am not getting any scholarships for Temple... That means for the time being I need to come up with another $10k in loans to get my visa. After that I will apply my ass off for scholarships and other things for money. Shortly after that I checked my grades online and found out that I somehow got a 1.7 or 1.8 in Japanese this quarter, WTFuck. That was the only class I did shitty in and I have no idea how.

Good news from today, I got a haircut:

Ignore my sunglasses as I was about to put my straw fedora on for the ultimate in resort style looks.
Speaking of which I got another camera in the mail today.

Its a Yashica 44, Takes 127 size medium format film (on order as we speak). Pretty slick, has the original leather case and lens caps too. Everything works perfectly, the glass needs to be cleaned, but that will take me only a few minutes to do.


Other good news, I started working out every morning, again, after my two weeks of Finals+Stress+Booze and no working out, My body was showing that I had ruined about a month's worth of work. Running more than 2 miles was tough, but I kept on goin. I am back down to 168lbs at 11.6% body fat, from my high of 172lbs and 12.9%BF after Sat night's Booze filled fun. Both are significantly better than my weight at the middle of summer last year (192lbs Aaaaiiiii, the most I have ever weighed and it was all fat from too much alcohol and not working out)


Last night we had a quickly thrown together BBQ at my place. Twas quite fun, and then the folding picnic bench collapsed on us. Guh, had so much food. I made Ahi Tuna Steaks with Avocado Tartar, BBQ chicken and a Salad. Joanna/Yuko made steak and Stuffed Mushrooms. All the other guys set up tables and shit.

Uhhhh, tomorrow I need to apply for more loans, actually work on my car and then go see some guy who wants me to work for his company PT online while I am in Japan.

Well, as I soon will be moving to Tokyo, I have thought a lot about designing my new living space. I will probably live with a host family the first year (I hope they are rich, hahahahaha) but the second and following years I will have my own pad. Moving and not having any real furnature or anything much beyond my clothes gives me a great oportunity to completely redesign the way I live.

For my bedroom I really dig the look of this stuff:
Bed frame:


Its a bit extreme but very very cool.
Also $15000, just shy of my range of affordability.

So I think Ill go for this set, which is very relaxing and beautiful (and cheap at less than $300 per part):


Woodgrain comforter= teh sex/awesome

This bedframe would go with it:




For my living room, I love this style of couch, but need it in a different color (forest green or dark brown) and perhaps more flat/square


So more like this but without the retarded buttons:


Hmmm, I think I need to do more searching for stuff. I want a lot of light in the living/bedroom and if I can afford a 3rd non kitchen/bathroom I want to make it into my darkened chill spot with a Arabic/Morroccan theme.

Fuckin Emissions testing, man. So today I finally got my car back with a rebuilt engine. My tabs are terribly expired (April 08 Henry Rollins that sucks). I took it in for mandatory emissions testing after failing before the engine was replaced. To my suprise and dismay the car did not pass... again. Emissions at idle are too high. Shit pisses me off because I need to get the tabs renewed so I can drive the next Two months before I leave and sell the car. So I am currently lookin for ways to fix this as cheaply as possible. I have the next 3 days off so I will put my summer tires on, and try to snake my way to just barely passing emissions.

In other news I need to finish my loan paperwork for school and still have to come up with about $10,000 mroe for the first quarter + Fees. Horay for not having money and parents who wont help. So the plan is to slut myself out to 100 fat chicks at $100 each or 10 Really fat chicks at $1,000 each. I did it for nearly 3 years with my fat ex for free so why not turn a profit.

Now I need to go to work.... not with the fat chicks... with computers