Celebration Weekend

Saturday a few friends treated me out to dinner for a birthday celebration. Full cast was Michelle, Tuan, Leigh, Chiyuki, Sara, and myself. Claude, whose birthday was also supposed to be celebrated, wasn't able to join due to family problems in Tokyo.

The night was a blast. We had dinner at this small restaurant called Garamu in Saza. I think we scared a lot of the customers away with (my) alcohol-induced noise. Good food and it was a really nice, comfortable atmosphere. Great food and great company make a great night.

Afterwards we hit up karaoke at the Media-kan down the street. I've been down there before with the teachers at my Jr.High, so it was mostly due to my recommendation that we went there. Sang the night away, then was dropped off home to call it a night.

Today, met up with the same cast of characters (minus Chiyuki) and we went to Sasebo for some (delicious) Thai food. We've always heard about this restaurant, but everytime we try to visit, it always happened to be closed. This time, we were early enough to catch them during business hours. Afterwards, we rolled to the Yamada Denki because some folks wanted to go shopping.

So that was my weekend.

Oh, and I watched the Kamen Rider Chou Den-O Trilogy: Episode Red movie early Saturday morning. Really cool and lived up to my expectations, which was a typical Den-O story with lots of Airi-neesan. The other attendees were either parents or children. Fun times though. I got my commemorative Ganbaride card, and I can't wait for 2 weeks when Episode Blue comes out.

Movie was followed by a visit to the Camera no Kitamura store, where I purchased the awesome Canon Powershot G11. The G12 is expected to come out in August-September-ish, but I didn't want to wait that long to spend more money haha.

Ran into Carol, Rachel, and Troy in the Yonkacho shortly after making my purchase, and hung out at this small cafe in one of the side streets until I had to meet in Saza with the rest of the folks.

Alright. Nap, then last minute lesson planning!

27

Another birthday has come and gone; I am now 27 years old.

Birthday weekend was pretty chill, and not as hectic as if I were to celebrate it in California. California would be dinner with all the friends and probably video games until the crack of dawn, and then -maybe- some Mexican food haha.
My Japan birthday was basically hanging out with former Eikaiwa students the night of, and then hanging out with the usual bunch of ALT friends for an afternoon picnic in the park and movie at night. Pretty chill, but I still want to go karaoke.

Payday is this coming weekend, and I'm pretty torn on what to get with the money I saved up since last month (no travelling = more spending money for fun stuff). I know I'm definitely getting a Canon Powershot G11, and most likely another Lubitel 166+ since (though I may just wait for the summer), like an idiot, screwed up the last one. But the big inner debate comes with the big-big purchase. I don't know if I want to get a new HDTV + PS3 + games, or get a new laptop since my current one is dying very quickly.

Today is both my elementary schools' Undoukais. I'm torn by 1) which one to go to (first), and 2) if I should go at all. I'm really tired and feel like sleeping in.

Maybe I'll just go later in the day...

GTG Magazine Article

I'm currently writing an article for Green Tea Graffiti's magazine. The title is "Life in Japan".

I'm doing my best to write the article without bad-talking too much about Tokyo. Haha!
Can't help it, a lot of folks hold this idea that Tokyo is synonymous with Japan. In other words, when folks say "I want to go/live in Japan", they really mean "I want to go/live in Tokyo."

Don't know how far the magazine will reach as far as readers go, but hopefully I can debunk some of these myths. I'll post when it's finished and revised.

Golden Week

I think I'm one of the only JETs who are staying home during Golden Week. But it's okay, I rather save money after two months of spending nearly everything. Especially February...two big trips in one month will kill you haha.

I really wanna start buying stuff too. This is the stuff I want to save money for (not in any special order)

-a new couch
-Canon Powershot G11
-new TV (maybe a Panasonic)...around 30" would do. I was aiming for something closer to the 42" I have back in the States, but I compromised.
-PS3
-maybe a Wii.
Half of me wants to ship over my Wii and my XB360...but I don't want to have all that junk here...well at least not yet.

So other than saving money, what am I doing for Golden Week?

Finishing Avatar: The Last Airbender, catching up on Dexter, and other miscellaneous shows. Maybe even catch a flick or two at the cinema. What a great vacation. ^^