Yup, my first of a few pictures of Japan.  This was the first one I took though, the Government Building that was like, right outside my window.  Cool times in Tokyo, I need to go back soon, I have been bad about this so far.  

I have been known to enjoy a Japanese robe or two.  


The back streets of Shinjuku.  This is me follwing some people.  Good times.


Keiichi's god damn dashboard monstrosity.  As you can see, it can play any media known to man.  


Matsuri and ladies in Yukata.  Good times in Mito.  I should really cut my hand out of this though.  Oh well.


Ah yes the Hanko...  Whos momentary loss sent me into quite a tizzy, if you still use that word.


My English Club?  Sure.  Guess who is the whitest!  Guy in blue is Justin, who hooked me up my first week or so.  Good dude.  


We will of course save upoading this series of pics when I am not at work.  


Name that video game.


Sweet lord I hated this ugly thing.  Is it just me or does it have "kick me like a football" written all over it?


White guy jumping into family photos number 2


Outside the house of Ai's mother's father's brother.  I thought it was a cool shot.  


70 year old rice paper tracing Ai's mom's ancestory.  Again, thought it was a cool pic.


On top of some huge ass castle.  While I was up here a whole bunch of snakes got released and Samuel L Jackson shot them all up.  SNAKES ON A MOTHA F#$% JAPANESE TRADITIONAL CASTLE!


The Funaki's enjoyed baseball from there... God damn it when can I get this shit in the states?


I sure hope so.  


Nams says "bury me bitch!"


You know are just trying to enjoy the beach when all of a sudden God Damn dirtbikers start jumping all over the place.  Damn it.


Sid and... er... the other girl?  Basically just a nice shot of some of the beach bomb.


I know what you are thinking.  "Rick, this is a blurry picture of shit"  Well, I contest you on this.  Think of it as whatever you want it to be.  I see it as the god damn last picture my camera took before it utterly shit itself.  

So there you have it.  Thank you Hsien for hosting those sexy things.  I will upload more if I feel they are worth it, and if I get a new camera that works.  I am assuming I should since you know, I might want to photographically document my trip across the world.  So yes, if anyone has suggestions for cameras as well, I am open.  

Thats it.  PEACE for now.

Iwaki Beach

Hello from Fukushima

Sunday fun in Fukushima. More on this later. Sorry it wasn't better.

A week in Sanwa

Well, I've been in Japan for a little over a week, and in Ibaraki now for a full week. I am sorry for the lack of updates and pictures, but it seems that I currently have no internet in my apartment. Once that is up, there will be pleanty of pictures and stories. For now you just have my words typed hastely at work.

So far things have been facinating. I find it hard to expound in words really. There have of course been ups and downs. I've been living off about $130 in Japanese money for a week since things with my bank accounts have been a little haywire. I'm down to $60. So yeah, lets hope all gets sorted soon, or I may be panhandling on the streets of Koga. Still, thats about the worst of it, and I'm fine with it.

What I really would like to post is some of the technology I've seen here. Cellphones that make American cellphones look like the large boxy beepers that were out 15 years ago. I can get a 3.1 megapixel phone with video, internet, train schedules and a whole myriad of other things for the low low price of free. This is because these phones are last years models, and it's no longer a cool phone unless it has TV on it. So yeah, that is pretty sweet. I'll have to send some old ones to Maharam's IT department to go with all the European ones that are lying around there. If you are reading this John or Sal, let me tell you, the coolest thing I have seen is my co-workers stereo. This thing takes up half the dash and plays DVDs, CDs, TV, radio, it has a memory card reader, a hard drive and a touch display screen. I think the thing came to 2000 dollars apparently. It is sick. I will post pictures of this monstrosity later.

What else? So much else. I was in a festival in Mito this weekend, dressed in a Yukata and all. A Yukata, btw, is like a summer kimono of sorts. Once again, if I get some pics of it from friends, you are all in on them. The festival, called Matsuri, was incredible. People yelling and singing on movable shrines on wheels being carted around by hundreds of people playing drums. Men and women running around in kimono. Paper lanterns and little kids abound. It was like the entire city's guard was dropped, and everyone was having a great time. Though marching for 4 hours straight did tucker me out I have to admit.

Small fun fact; the Japanese do not have any "God bless you" equilivlant for when someone sneezes. Someone sneezed, I said God bless you, and everyone stared at me like I had 5 heads. Kind of funny. I've definitly had my share of messups thus far, but it has been a very fun learning experiance.

Well, I just got done playing basketball with the guys team, and I am about to fall down. I'll give you guys more info later.

If anyone has random questions or wants me to try something while I'm here and let them know how it is, shoot me an email or leave me a comment.

Later!

Pre-emptive JET strike

Well, Saturday was the NY JET pre-departure Orientation. Lots of fun. Lots of information. I met a lot of people from my area already, which is cool. By area I mean the prefectures near me, about 5 or so of them. I was the only one from Ibaraki though. I did however meet Kawarai, who works for the Tokyo Police dept. He was a cool dude, and told me to look him up when he's back in Japan. I may take him up on it.

The little workshops they had were cool. Just good ideas on what to do and what to be careful of. It's gotten me pretty hyped for this whole thing.

Drinking was also in order post-orientation, and man can JET alums and JETs drink! Once again though, good times. I talked to the President of our JETAA, and I will see if I can do some writing for the newsletter. I think it could be fun. We'll see what happens anyway.

I received some pics of the aparto from April, my predecessor today. I'm not sure if I should post them or take my own when I get there. For that to work I need to fix my camera, which I will need to figure out how to do.

Just bought a laptop. DAMN they cost money. Who'd have thought?

Nothing else fun to report. I need to start linking and getting pictures up on this.

Soon we are off

Well, I wanted to do this, so now I am;

Ta da, Rick's Japan blog.

For those unaware of what the deal is, I was lucky enough to be accepted into the JET program and will soon be teaching/ALTing in Japan. From July 30th, 2006 to July 30th, 2007 I'll be working via the Japanese government in Ibaraki-ken. It's about 1 hour North of Tokyo by train. All sorts of exciting. I'm using this to do a couple things;

Update everyone in "Meat-space-America" as to what I am doing.

Log things in here for myself to track my progression in learning about the Japanese culture.

Post Cool Pictures of me being totally awesome, or being an idiot.

Keep in contact with you.

So yeah, there you have it. For now I'm still in prep mode, reviewing my contract, reading JET materials, etc. Sat. is the pre-departure orientation, so I'll let you know how that goes. Other than that, enjoy!

-Me