Big in Japan

Or at least, in Matsudo.

Went to the Shin Matsudo festival on Sunday with Saki, and was surprised by the number of my students I ran into. I guess I shouldn't have been, but it was cool nonetheless. Every couple of minutes some group of kids would come up to me and poke me, say hi, giggle, ask me for money, etc. I was kinda surprised by the number of kids that were all "money please!" but what really got me was when more than one of them actually dove into my pocket in search of coinage, a few attempts of which were successful. The usually gave it back, however, when I didn't put up too much of a fight. Haha guilt factor.

The biggest shock for them was that I was with my girlfriend, and that I didn't make any attempt to hide that from them. A couple outgoing JHS gals remarked with visible, uh, what's the word in English, damnit I'm forgetting my native tongue, zannen, that so-and-so would be shocked to hear the news. I have little doubt that every kid in any school anywhere knows that I'm taken now.

I ran into Koizumi sensei as well, and she lured me and Saki into playing the little waterballoon fishing game they had going on. I managed to snag 4 of them before my hook broke, much to her and Saki's shock and amazement. Especially since Saki only got two. Mwahaha. I gots da madd skills. I'm all up in your festivals, winnin your prizes.

Every day since school's been out I've ran into students out and about, which is just weird. I guess most of the time they'd be at school so I wouldn't see them, and now that they're on summer vacation, we're all out at the same time, so it makes sense.

I went out on Friday with a bunch of the people from the kokusai kenshu-kan from Senshu University where I did my study abroad in 2003. It was really cool to see thm again, especially since my Japanese has gotten much better, and I can basically talk about whatever I want now, and understand whatever they're saying too. The reason for the little reunion is that Tomomi is back in Japan for a little bit, an impromptu visit, so we call got together to say hi. We went to karaoke, and then went to a chanko-nabe restaurant until late. For those of you who don't know, nabe is a kind of stew, the chanko variation of which is basically just a more massive version that sumo-wrestlers eat to pack on pounds. Good for groups. Couldn't imagine trying to eat that between two people. Saw some familiar faces tho, always good. Saw the gal, Midori, I almost, but never, dated. For a moment I was tempted to wonder what things would have been like, but it never went any further than that. That's a first, so, good signs abound.

Saturday, what did I do Saturday...hell I know I did something. Went out....or something....oooh wait, lol the Kenshu-kan thing was Saturday, what did I do Friday....oooh ya, went to D's with Nathan for a chat and some Mexican food. That's right.

Sunday after festival I stayed up late with Saki playing drinking games and talking in my room. Odd, that for how many times she's stayed over here, that was the first time we had ever done that. Anyway, was good fun, until we played the evil dice game of retarded drunkeness, and I wound up much like the title suggests one would. So, Saki got to see me drunk, and then it was her turn, and we opted to just talk instead of dig ourselves sick, lol.

Monday we basically slept in, and spent the afternoon playing Parappa the Rappa until she had to go home. I know, I know.

All this week I'm coaching for the speech contest, wooo. It's just like all those wonderful, wonderful lessons I had at Nova teaching JHS students for their Eiken exams. They never went well either. Except this time around I get the benefit of being able to speak Japanese, and the Japanese teacher is there with me. Kinda fun, come to think of it, since so much of what I do is a joke anyway, I can actually teach a bit now. I hope I have a chance to leave a good impression on the teachers.

It's hot these days. I'm sportin a nice little sunburn I managed to pick up in 45 minutes of walking along the river with my shirt off. I've offically busted out the Cool Salon, which means summer has offically started. The official start, in case you don't know, is when it's hot enough for even me to be uncomfortable. Dave, however, managed to get like 2nd degree burns on his legs from going to the beach on Saturday. That boy is a lobster. His calves and ankles are swollen from the burns. Gotta be careful out there, folks.

In other news, my computer kick an exorbitent amount of ass, my girlfriend is kinda hot, I got a haircut, I weigh 74kg (I'll let you do the math), which, to my chegrin, is up 1.5kg from December, but then again I was impoverished at that time, and I got Diablo II to work. We took down the first 4 bosses of BT in the first 3 days ever being there, and I topped DPS on Supremus, which is just monumental. My trip to America is 2 weeks off, and I still have no idea what all to do when I'm back. I'll be 26 sometime in the near-ish future. Yuck. But, everywhere I go, as long as it's in Matsudo, people know me. I'm big in Matsudo.