T’was the night before my birthday–well, no, it was the morning before my birthday and all through the house. Actually, I dont have a house its more of an apartment.

Miah, Adam and I set out for the “Otaku Store” to get a game for my birthday and instead of riding bikes or cars we walked there.  Now, on bikes its not that bad of a ride, but walling takes a good 1.5-2 hours getting there.  It was nice to get out and walk forever.  The weather was pretty hot so we walked and drank liter bottles of Pacardi Sweat while on our venture there.  When we got there there was much discussion about which game to get or what will be coming out soon but in the end Miah got me Oblivion.

On the walk back there wasnt as much talking since we were so tired of walking and hot.  Then after a few adventures in Oblivion I took a short nap before getting ready of dinner with kashiko.  We went to the German restaurant which I can never remember the name to, but the food is always good there.  We stopped at one of the malls downtown which had more stuff in it that I wanted that was expected. Then we were going to get some cake for me birthday and it turned out to be A SURPRISE birthday party for me!  I was very happy to see so many people there it made my weekend.  I made sure to thank everyone individually and clink their glass during the toasty part of the night.  The best part was probably the Turkey Ranger cake! I love that guy!

this is one birthday that wont be forgotten anytime soon.

Oh, and I turned 25.

I think Allan put it best describing who I am: Jason [and Miah] are like 16-year-olds in 25-year-olds bodies.

Reason behind this: A few weeks ago we were discussing teaching methods (not as formal as it sounds) and the topic was ‘Can you X? Let’s X Y times.’ Well, My boss Kumiko was talking about it and with her Japanese accent cause “Can you clap? Let’s clap 7 times,” into “Can you crap? Lets crap 7 times.”

Unfortunately, I was not able to hold it in and I BURST into laughter. The kind that that sounds like: …pftBA! hahaha.

I am ashamed. You have to admit, its pretty funny.

I got a PS3 on sunday after Naoki’s race in Motegi. I am happy.

Order was as follows: Miah gets PS3, Andrew gets PS3 (thanks to a great call on my part spotting someone just about to nab the one he was looking at), Adam gets a PS3, Jason gets one!!

Banana Kids PS3s unite!

I found the church I was looking for!! It should have been about a 50-60 minute bike ride but it took me about an hour and a half–maybe more.  The first half of my journey was easy, since I knew where to go.  But after I got to the unknown areas I was completely lost. I  turned right at a convenient store where I landmarked for a right turn but after a good 10 minutes of riding I realized I took a wrong turn somewhere.  I turn around and stop at a store to figure out where I went wrong and make my way back to the  main road.  Turns out there is the same kind of convenient store a block or two right before my turn. GAH!! Japan…

Anyways, I continue and see a few more landmarks and find the university which meant I was REALLY close.  I turn left and find nothing.  I turn around and go a little further down the street which was also a wrong way.  So, at this point I just make a random turn hoping I find SOMETHING since I knew I was close–this is never a good idea in Japanese residential zones because they are ridiculously maze-like and filled with dead ends.  But I see a tower with a cross on it and I remember thinking “this is it!” So I park the bike and walk inside.  Nothing looks familiar.  I go around and find some people who inform me that it was a Catholic Church.  They claim the church I am looking for is WAAAAY on the other side of the city which I knew was completely wrong.

I politely let them finish drawing out a map and giving me directions even though I know its wrong  and head out.  One of the members invites me to get in his van where he take me there where I politely reject.  At this point I gave up.  I figured I should just go back home and recheck the maps and try it out next week.  I enjoyed my little stroll for maybe 10 seconds (not even lying!) where I see a sign painted on a phone pole.  that read: 峰町キリスト教会  This was what I was looking for!!! I turn down the narrow street and FIND IT!! I only made it for the last 10 minutes or so, but it felt right.  I met a Japanese guy about my age who helped out quite a bit. He kinda gave a short little tour of the place.  He was very nice.

Next time lets hope I can remember how to get there.

So the Japanese school years are a little different than American ones… they start in April.  That means some kids leave, kids move up to new classes, and I get new kids.  For the most part it isnt all that bad, but some of my classes that I have had a good grasp on moves up to a new class and then I feel like they arent old enough to take in the material.  Such a strange feeling to get used to or just deal with all together.  I look forward to the time when I am adjusted to this change.

On another sad-ish note, I even had a kid cry last week because he finished his lessons and wouldnt be joining again next fall to a higher level.   But he cried a bit in class already if he didnt do well during a lesson so I wasnt that saddened by this.

February 14th weekend – Andrew and his fiance Gina came and visited Japan where they saw(kind of) Mt. Fuji and toured Tokyo.  Kashiko, Andrew, and I came down in the afternoon and toured them around the city.  We saw the Ueno art museum, the Sony Building in Ginza that had musical stairs that would go up and down a musical scale–pretty awesome with a lot of people. We made our way to Harajuku and showed them some video arcades where Andrew and I lost to a business man at Street Fighter 4.  After that we made our way to Shibuya to sit and chill in the Starbucks and watch all the people crossing.  Hyumi and his girlfriend showed up and enjoyed their company until we got hungry where we took Andrew and his sweetheart to an awesome restraunt with an electronic touch screen menu.  They loved it.  So our last stop was back at Shibuya station were we showed them Hachiko statue and then said good-bye to them.  I was so glad to see them for a day in Japan. We then went to Club Asian where there was a lot of dancing and loud music.  It wasnt bad, but clubbing isnt all that awesome–neither is staying up all night long.  But with a little ramen afterwards and a sleep on the train back home it was a good day.

February 21st weekend – There was a performance day at Yurikago so Miki, Kashiko, and I had to go and watch and give a little speech.  I liked dressing up so it was pretty fun. Then we went to Nasu with Kashiko to hang out with Aya and Kashiko’s family where we saw Kashiko’s niece  I fell asleep pretty fast at Aya’s  but it was still fun. I got a haircut so it was a good weekend.

March 6th weekend – I think I went back to Tokyo to hang out with all the Banana Kids guys for a night.  It wasn’t all that exciting.  I got to play puyo puyo with Dustin on the way down and got a couple japanese books at Tower Records so it wasnt a total loss.  There was just too much drinking and hitting on women for me.  I would have rather gotten there early and done something a little more exploring like.

March 20th weekend – went to Fuji Q highland with Kashiko, Andrew, Hyumi, Akiko, Adam and Ma-chan.  We left at 4am-ish saturday morning for the 4 hour drive down to the amusement park.  It was really fun. The rides were really fun and completely worth it. And seeing Mt. Fuji durning the whole thing was great!  There is the worlds scariest haunted house there (3 hour wait) and it was…meh.  The scariest thing was Kashiko screaming all the time.  She actually was so bad that I took her out and waited for the others to finish.  But the ferris wheel was awesome and so was the pizza-la ride at the end of the night. But after we were done we ate at an okonomiyaki place then went to the hotel.  IT WAS SO NICE SLEEPING IN A BED. I got to sprall out in my bed and crashed so quick in that thing.  Next day we walked around a small town near the lake at the bottom of mt Fuji which was ok.  I would have liked to have just went home.  Got to see a couple swans though.  Drive home was rough too.  Kashiko’s car had some problems in the way back and we found our her car had an extra liter of oil!  With that drained, we took a look at the Kyushu fair at the pit stop and left.  Had some problems keeping up with Hyumi but we still made it home.  Ate sushi before we went home.  It was a good weekend.

Been working on lots of flexibility stretches and I don’t see much progress.  I hope I can find the motivation to keep it going.

OK! So today was the day for our big treasure hunting adventure!

The sky was a dark gray blanket of clouds that never shifted in the long hours of hunting.  The air was very chilling that bit at the fingers as we eagerly leaped out of the car ready for the hunt. Even as we left the car we could see our target: the red and white tower which held a gazebo close by that held our hidden prize.   The Hachimanyama park started with a huge set of stone stairs that converted to dirty paths and plastic logs for stairs on the way up to the dark wooden gazebo.  As we arrived the the wooden structure our search was paused by a peeking kitty head above us.  The cat was a little scared at first of we three giants nearing it, but one pet from Kashiko and the kitty submitted and let us all give it a couple scratches and photos.  Around this time the chilling rain gently started to fall.  Back to the treasure hunt, I started searching the side of the gazebo as I hear a faint “I found it!” from Andrew.  The box was a lot bigger than the first geocache and the trinkets were a little more varied.  I picked a small japanese flag pin and Andrew took a “Travel Bug” (i think thats what it was called) which is like a little dog tag that is used to see how far around the world it can go.  Pretty cool since he will be going back to the US in a month or so.

Our next treasure was located in Orion-square in the outside stage area of the mall.  This one was said to be small and a little hard to find due to ‘geomuggles’ (people who dont know about the worldwide sensation) passing by so much.  We search for a long time with no luck.  The cold weather was probably a big factor in the ending of this search.

We took a short break the the Parco mall to warm up with some coffee and we warmly drank our warm drinks and made our way to Utsunomiya Castle where our last treasure was waiting for us.  We make a lap around the area while looking for this difficultly declared prize which was riddled “In the 12th slot”  We searched the castle walls where there actually were wall with no luck and lack of belief  that the prize would have been located in such an obvious place. We take a small bathroom break then take another lap with no luck of any clues.  We see a big tree with a huge gap/hole at the base, but with cold hands and the wet ground we didnt stick our hands in.  I remember saying “aw man, if I were to hide a geocache it would be in here!” with that Andrew saw a building that looked familiar from his map and we started searching in that area.  We all then split up and individually started searching with little luck.  The biting rain and the pulsing fingers finally told us we should return when the conditions are right and when we studied the maps a little better, but we now knew the area better which will help in the research.

We then search for a ramen shop that Kashiko wanted to go to which closed down or something.  We leave downtown and eat at eat at another restraunt.

Now that I have researched the map and know the area, I believe that the treasure was in the tree trunk that I was so hesitant to put my arm into.  That tree will be my first place to search when the second round begins!

So last weekend Kashiko and I went up to Nasu fo hang out with Daisuke and Aya.  Well, upon my awakening the next morning I was informed that IT WAS SNOWING! I was super duper excited!  Driving around the snow-covered trees was so nice.  When we arrived at Kashiko’s parents’ house I didn’t even go inside and I asked if I could shovel the small driveway/parking area in front of the house.  It only took a half hourish to do, but I was so at home shoveling all the snow.  I wanted to shovel the neighbors yard and the road and the other neighbors houses…

So after the short lunch we took the Wii and took it to Kashiko’s sister’s place to hang out and play Mario Bros. for the Wii.  We played a long time and even beat the game with four people which is NOT an easy thing to do.

The next day, a huge group of us went picking strawberries which was a blast.  Andrew ended up eating 90 berries–I lost count. But after all that eating of berries apparently everyone wasn’t full enough and we all departed for Joni’s parents’ restraunt.  It was a long drive but thankfully Andrew got a hold of some of Ma-chan’s puppets and we were entertained for the whole ride.

The restraunt was good and the food was better!  gyoza, fried rice, ramen… super delicious!  So after all the eating the lights were turned off and Joni came out with a cake and candles.  As we all started singing the birthday song and I figured out who we were singing to(didnt take too long)  and looked as Kashiko who was kinda doing the same thing I was a few milliseconds ago–just singing, clapping, and looking around to see whose birthday it was.  It took her a while, but when she figured it out she was VERY surprised and even shed a tear or two from the happiness.  It was a good day.

BUT IT WASNT OVER!

Kashiko and I, after picking up her car at Kumiko’s we dropped off our movies and picked up 5 more movies and the were too lazy to cook diner.  We called Andrew who was fine with the whole idea of sushi and we picked him up and headed our way to the crowded sushi place.  It was a half hour wait for our table so we crossed the street and through the mall (FKD is the name) and we started looking for a geocache that was in the mall vicinity and WE FOUND IT!!!  A geocache is kind of like a little treasure that is hidden then registered online.  Other people can log in online and search for it. AKA: A WORLDWIDE TREASURE HUNT!!! The geocache was a little plastic box with little trinkets inside with a notebook.  You write your name, the date, and a little message for the other treasure hunters and you put it back.  We each took a little something and I put in one of my DR Suess pins in the box.

So we had so much fun doing it that this thursday we are going for a few more treasures–bigger ones. I will post the results.

You know, from all those years of high school and the hectic schedules of college really takes a lot out of you especially trying to keep a consistent life style and a enjoyable weekend.  Its nice not having to freak out about what projects I SHOULD have been doing and the tests I should have been studying for.  This morning I woke up (and apparently on the right side) at 8am and just started hammering out Troy’s birthday present with a good attitude and a smile on my face.  Its so nice to have the stresses of a student off my shoulders, and for that I am thankful.

Life is a beautiful thing.

Well, its been a good month so far.  I changed the sand in my tank to coral sand and it seems like the tank already has lightened up.  The tank really needed a cleaning too.  Unfortunately, with the cleanliness came a few bad events.  Accidentally hit my shiny blue fish with my net and he died. Little upset over that.  Also, it seems as if the hermit crabs climbing on the plant has led to a weakening and it looks like its dying.  I am really hoping it pulls through and lives.

Working on Troy’s birthday present has been going slow but surely.  I never thought it would take as long as it has been so it will be late on delivery, but I hope he likes what I made for him.  It’s actually really fun.

In other news it has been  fun adventuring in the labyrinth of behind the main road to Banana Kids.  I haven’t really been lost much, but this thing is crazily maze-like.  Pretty fun turning so much and finding all the cool things back there and new roads.

Also! I experimented with the Mexican ingredients and I made a chimichanga and taco shell bowls and it turned out great.  I am looking forward to making more for a party that I will be able to share with some of my friends.