Kyushuu

Roadtrippin' in Kyushuu for Golden Week. So if you see a blog entry sometime in the next 10 days, it's a sure sign that Keanu Reeves has finally broken the internal cryptology of thejeffcho.com and compromised my .NET security.

The Natural

I was shooting for something like Byron incarnate but at least I've got the Wonderboy...

Your Seduction Style: The Natural

You don't really try to seduce people... it just seems to happen. Fun loving and free spirited, you bring out the inner child in people. You are spontaneous, sincere, and unpretentious - a hard combo to find! People drop their guard around you, and find themselves falling fast.

What Is Your Seduction Style?

中和違った漢字

筋肉　（きんにく）
Japanese: muscle.
Chinese: tendon.

皮肉　（ひにく）
Japanese: irony, sarcasm.
Chinese: skin and meat.

未明　（みめい）
Japanese: early dawn.
Chinese: unclear.

酸素　（さんそ）
Japanese: oxygen
Chinese: acid.

用心　（ようじん）
Japanese: careful, cautious
Chinese: to dedicate, to be engrossed in.

Fat heaven? Fat chance!

A NYT article says that being overweight actually lives longer than people with normal weights.

It being sort of a humor piece written by someone (I suspect) with dubious medical credential and equally dubious pink shirt/tie combo, I decided to google for the medical journals referred to.

Candidate 1 says that the number of deaths due to overweight is actually lower than estimated, a far cry from the conclusions drawn by the happy fatty.

Candidate 2 seems more plausible. It says that being underweight and obese is associated with increased mortality, and though it says that being merely overweight is not associated with increased mortality, from the numbers it looks like it actually has lower mortality compared with normal weight. Though honestly, I don't really know what the numbers mean precisely.

Imprecisely, I think the results mean that, out of all the people who died and whose BMI data is available, there are more obsese and underweight deaths than normal weight deaths, but there are less overweight deaths than normal weight deaths.

I think it's save to say that's not the same thing as overweight causing longevity.

420? 420.

Did not even realize yesterday was 420 until today became 420 in the US.

According to a carbon dating of my lung sample and the blog archives, I would guestimate the last time I smoked circa. July 04. Last confirmed hit: 7/04/04.

420! JEEAAHH!

You may now kiss the trophy

On this special, special day, I will celebrate my championship fantasy team.

Rolling through the head-to-head playoffs, posting a resounding 7-2 over Mark's team and 6-3 against this guy named Metro Stars (verdict: metro), my team, Cho-do, is the champion of Fantasy Pickup.

Final line-up: Brevin Knight, Josh Smith, Reggie Miller, Josh Childress, Drew Gooden, Lebron, Przybilla, Dalembert, Shaun Livingston, Iguodala, KMart, Gazuric, Nene.

Players used over the whole season(in order of perceived contribution): Camby, Bobby Simmons, AK47, Kyle Kover, LaFrentz, Earl Boykins, McInnis, Eddie Griffin, Sura, Troy Murphy, Mo Williams, Shane Battier, Doug Christie, Anthony Johnson, Mike James, Brian Skinner, Earl Watson, Dale Davis, Brendan Haywood, JWill, PJ Brown, Dan Dickau, Jamaal Magloire, Jason Hart, Lorenzen Wright, Donyall Marshall, Joe Smith, and a big big applause to Michael Olowonkandy and Keith Van Horn.

Now, for the end season's award:

MVP: Lebron. Doubters?

Coach of the Year: Me.

GM of the year: Me. For drafting Lebron in the second round with the 15th pick; signing free agent producers Iguodala, Simmons, Kyle Korver, Boykins, and Brevin Knight; big time waiver steals of Camby, LaFrentz, and Troy Murphy; trading away Van Horn for Dalembert (a so-so move trading an over-rater for an under-achiever); productive short-term renting of Mo Williams, Sura, and Griffin; and timely late-season lineup shufflings with Reggie Miller, Joel Przybilla, the Josh's, and Shaun Livingston (Go Clips). 43 moves in a season seems a bit of an overkill however.

Strongest categories: steals, blocks, rebounds. I don't think I ever lost those 3 categories over the season. Who says you can't win fantasy with defense?

Weakest categories: 3-point and free-throw. Not even Kyle and late-add Reggie can save that.

Defensive player of the year: Camby. Though played in only 66/82 games, Camby still averaged 10, 10 and 3 blocks with plenty of timely monster games that saved the week.

Would-be defensive player of the year: Andre Kirilenko. 3.3 blocks plus a steal and a half is nice, wish you could've played in more than 41 games though.

Draft steal of the year: Lebron. Easily the 2nd best fantasy player of the year behind KG. Again, 15th pick.

Free-agent steal of the year: 3-way tie between Bobby Simmons, Andre Iguodala and Brevin Knight. Hard choice: points from Clippers (16 and 6), all-around defensive consistancy (6rb and 1.5stl from G/F) or assists from Stanford (8.9 for the season, are you kidding?). I love you guys more than everybody else, apparently.

Underachiever of the year: 2-way tie between JWill and Dalembert. Not much to say about these 2.

Jeff Cho, SG/Free Safety

Played basketball tonight. Made some open jumpers, grabbed a few rebounds, threw some nice passes, and laid out a few hits.

It all started out during warm-up. We do a 3-on-2 full-court drill after the layup lines, and I was on offense. I caught the pass on the left wing, saw this zit-faced skin-and-bone high schooler was just slightly out of position guarding 2 guys, so I took it to the hole. It wasn't a high percentage shot, since he could have recovered in time to put a hand in my face--and that he did. Poked his finger right into my right eye and popped out my contact. I coverd my eye and stopped. This zit-faced fucker grabbed the missed layup (it drew iron) and threw an outlet to his teammate which returned the pass to him for a layup. Through my still-seeing right eye I saw him high-fiving his teammate. The fucker did not even bother to apologize.

I ran to the other end of the court, thought better of it, returned to the original side and began looking for my contact. Other guys stopped the drill to help. Zit face came back to help too, but he walked around first and started checking the bottom of his Reebok. The contact was found at the opposite side of the court. I spit on it and popped it back.

I sat the first game, which might as well because the zit-face sat too. We both played in the second game on opposite sides. It's on, and it was meant to be.

The game (a 15 minute run) started out slow and tepid. A new guy showed up on our team, an self-annointed point guard with a lot of flair but under control. We all played a little bit tentative in the beginning. I assisted a couple of his baskets so he started passing it to me. Finally catching the ball where I can do something with it, I did.

Then on one play, the skinny zit-face rebounded one of my missed floater, and sprinted down the sideline. I cut him off at about mid-court, and instead of pulling up and maybe go towards the middle of the court or pass to his open teammate, he put his shoulder down and decided to beat me down the line. If that's not disrespect, I don't know what is. So I flopped my left arm up like I was playing defense, and cocked my right arm and gave him a forearm. It wasn't overly malicious, and I do it quite often actually to put the other guy out of balance. I thought it was a rather gentle tap, but you wouldn't guessed it from the result--I laid him out like a free safety on an airborne wide receiver.

Of course, I didn't apologize either. I ran down the court straight to my part of the zone. Fuck him. Having honed my chops on the blacktop battlefields of suburban Southern California, I too can be a nasty badass in Japan whose best basketball player is a 5'9" buck forty who plays like a Earl Boykin on speed (Yuta Tabuse).

The problem with being a badass is that you've gotta live up your rep. I know I gotta so I'm gonna. I hit a floater, a 15 footer, and a 3. None forced, none with more than 3 dribbles. I made outlet passes to the Trinidadian(sp? Trinidian?) in open court, a lefty shovel bounce pass (just a step ahead of the defender) to the guy who does nothing but pass and layup when open, even that guy with headband with absolutely no skill hit a 2-foot bank off my lob. I was doing it from the defensive end too, I was put at the bottom of the zone and I was pulling down plenty of rebounds. I hid behind the top of the zone and popped out to deflect or steal a few passes. But anyway, I was playing really well and swagger is setting in. Meanwhile, I stuffed the floppy-haired tall guy from behind and he fell down backwards (it was one of those jump-ball type blocks). According to Jap. rule (personally I think there's a big difference between Jap and Jap.), a block that nasty has got to be a foul .

So, my all-around play was finally getting noticed, and the intensity of the games picked up. It was the same team the next game, and the zit-face was sitting. This other guy, donning a spiked mullet with bleached bangs (I wish I had a picture), apparently the hot shot from some local high school (I heard he once scored 40 in a game), was going to do something about this nonsense about me. He proceeded to miss threes and gimme 15 footers, turn the ball over, and dribble off his feet. I stayed focused because I know when he gets hot, he gets HOT. Meanwhile all his mustard was missing the dog by miles. On this one play, he was dribbling down the middle on a 3-on-2 fast break and I was chasing. I saw him look to his right, and then proceeded to put on 15 fakes--which gave me enough time to close down the open guy on his right--finally he threw a wrap-around, behind-the-defender's back pass right into my hands. It wasn't like I reached and barely made the interception--I stood there, with two feet on the ground, facing him, and caught his pass with both hands as if it was intended for me. It was just too much, and I let out a loud "Ha!" as I dribbled down the other end. Maybe it was TOO much...he did not look pleased when I came back for defense after laying it in with my left hand. His bangs may have looked a little bit whiter too.

Another trip down, another 2 on 1 fast break led by the hot shot with the mutant mullet, and I was in the middle. He danced down the lane and stutter stepped with the ball in his right. I've been watching him play for a couple of months now and I've seen that move a zillion times: he doesn't have the handle to cross over. I bounced right, and so did he. Now for my philosophy on taking charges: I will take a charge, but since you just don't call charges in pick-ups, I make it a point to make it a hard one: you will have to either flat out punk me and go around, or take a hit--none of that Vlade flop. I'm not really sure if my feet were even set (it probably wasn't) or if I was standing my ground (I may hvae leaned a little). But I could say that it definitely wasn't a NBA charge: he ran into my shoulder, and I dropped him. I stood and picked up the ball, threw it down to the streaking Trinidian and a late whistle blew (the guys sitting ref the game). I don't know how I'm doing this, the last time I checked I only weighed like 66 kg.

The gauntlet was thrown down, but I sat our team's last game. I laughed it up while watching on the side with the Trinidian Rodrico and Adam. We even took uniformed team photos after tonight's games ended since the league is starting in May. Our team name: Bacchus. I was number 24. Just googled "24 nba." to check my NBA alter-ego. First hit: Jerome Beasley of the Miami Heat. Not much of a player, but I like the sound of that.

I left soon after the team photo, but I probably should have backtracked to retrieve my wallet. Which one was mine you ask? The one that says "Bad Motherfucker."

Laid back.

新大山町

Today the new Daisen-cho was formed, by combining Nakayama, Nawa 名和, and Daisen together into one big city. This has been in the pipeline for months. 合併, or this kind of municipal merging, is apparently happening all over Japan in an effort to somehow increase or ration funding. Pretty soon it will all be a big-ass Japan-cho.

It hasn't made a difference to me yet, as I am still on last year's contract with Nakayama which is good until August. After this August I will become a Daisen-cho ALT, with a different pay scale (=pay cut of yet unspecified amount) and possibly different duties (=maybe including part-time at an elementary school).

But for now, the only impact the merger has made on my life is a damn good lunch of 赤飯 and deep-fried shrimp:

Craigslist Housing + Google Map = Brilliant

Wow. I wish I had this when I was surfing for apartments in DC and SF.

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(added 4/19/05)
Was playing around Google Map. The Satellite feature is also pretty cool.

中山中学校 Home Page

It's 中山中学校's home page! Click on 給食 on the left and follow 給食献立表 to take a guess what I will shit tomorrow!

中和 kanji

丈夫 （じょうぶ）
Japanese: (people)healthy, (thing)strong.
Chinese: a full-grown man; husband.

顔色　（かおいろ）
Japanese: complexion.
Chinese: color.

人参　（にんじん）
Japanese: carrot.
Chinese: ginseng.

師弟　（してい）
Japanese: teacher and student.
Chinese: a fellow student with lesser seniority (先輩の反対のようだ）.

Weekend forcast: momentous chunks

This is a big Saturday in Tottori-shi, THE other passable city (nearly 2 hours away from Yonago) in this BFE.

12:30 - 15:30
ALT vs. CIR (basically an ALT with better Japanese) volleyball tournament.
18:00 - 21:00
Movies night at James. The Incredibles.
21:00 - indefinitely
Subo and Rachel's birthday costume party. Theme: Superheros.

Of course I wouldn't miss the volleyball tournament. The Incredibles sounds nice too. But the real event is the costume party. It will begin at Afterhours and then moved to Headspin, the other monthly big party with DJ's and all. I even got two puns for my conceptual Superhero costume: 肉まん (pronounced "NikuMan," or meat bun) and サラリーマン (pronounced "SarariiMan," or salary man). I must be a genius.

Problem: I have school on Sunday. It's PTA open house day, and I have to be at school at 8am (a good 1.5 hours away from any whiff of party).

To make it to work on time, assuming that I am staying in Tottori for the night, I would have to leave at 6:30am at the latest, probably earlier just to be on the safe side. If I had to wake up for the early long drive I just don't think that a night of carefree fun would be possible. Of course, I can also leave early the same night, but I will probably get even less sleep and have even less fun.

I think I will have to skip everything besides volleyball. I picture myself leaving the gym as inconspicuously as possible to avoid poisoning the entire Tottori-shi with my rancor.

As Simona might say, this blows chunks. Momentous chunks.

Form 4868

Just finished e-filing the extension form, now awaiting confirmation number. Feels so anticlimatic after all that fussing about. It could also be the fact that I won't be getting a refund check in the mail this year.

Tuesday ramblings

(9:57) Another school day filled with nothing for me to do. Just came back from proctoring the science test for the first period and finished 1.5 days worth of Japanese lesson on particles は and が. Continuing for more.

(9:59) Yet another interesting Japanese linguistic nonsense:
今度 (こんど）1) this time 2) next time.

(10:21) While studying, it has ocurred to me that it would really help if I started blogging in Japanese. もしそれをしたら、日本語の程度（ていど）に進めて、いろいろ分からない言葉を練習できる。At least,それできっと新しい単語がなかなか増せる（もす）。じゃあ、いまから始めると思います！

(10:35) 以上に書いて、直ちに（ただちに）EーメルでDr. Funkensteinのコメントをもらった。すごい早く！

(10:42) 早くも - already.

(10:53) SATYのジムに入ってから（or, 入った時以来）、水泳に練習しています。一週間に一回と二回泳いでいます。毎度少なくとも（すくなくとも at least [number]) 200mで泳いでいます。 でも、水泳は苦手（にがて）なんです。

(11:04) Wow, that took like 10 minutes. Not only do I suck at swimming, 日本語はも苦手なんです!

(11:06) A good prep for conversation in Japanese: find 10 different ways to say I suck at Japanese.

(11:09) ぐずぐずしてない！日本語を勉強に戻せ！ (note to self: look up the -ろ imperative form in the CLAIR book 3)

(12:11) レスンは二つを終えりました！またTaxの支度に必死だ！

(12:21) Oops, I forgot the tax documents at home.　どうしょうかなあ？ All I really need to file is form 4868 but I still need that Japanese equivalent of W-2...

Monday ramblings

Just returned from a 15 minute bathroom getaway. I must still be recovering from that pork-cutlet curry Saturday lunch-dinner. Is there a lunch-dinner equivalent of brunch?
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(9:21) The beginning of the year is starting out slowly for me. Classes don't start until this Thursday. Today's schedule:

1st - group-building activities in new classes (学活).
2nd - student council orientation for new 1st years.
3rd - club activity orientation for new 1st years.
4th - class representative election.
LUNCH
5th - group-building activities in new classes.
6th - 地域生徒会 election. Some kind of student council election, but for different municipalities within Nakayama.
CLEANING
FINAL CLASS MEETING

Now you can see the reason for today's extended rambling.
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My to-do list today: 1)update blog for hadaka matsuri pics 2)study Japanese, complete at least 3 lessons lest I want to fall behind against Simona 3)read ESPN (very important) 4)update fantasy lineup against Mark (extremely important, today's the last day of our playoff matchup) 5)file form 2028 (also extremely important as the extension form needs to be filed by Friday, but I'm predicting that procrastination may take precedence) 6)update expenses spreadsheet 7)
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Last Friday was the beginning of year enkai, at Yamato taikan. The third year teachers, the clown group of 瀬川 and 吉田(plus 江原 as an honorary member, who's mostly a quiet backrow'er but occasionally a ragin' drunk), hosted and MC'd the party, so it was a blast. The teachers 応援団 made it's second appearance, as did my student uniform. Skipped the second party early to meet Simona, whose photo was snapped by my teachers as she dropped me off at the restaurant. For some reason everybody treat the fact that Jeff-sensei has a girlfriend seems like the tabloid headline of the month.
---
(10:35) Just finished the student council orientation. The gym was freezing. Next is the club activities introduction, that should be fun.
---
Sites I am reading now:
Paul Shirley's blog on NBA.com
The Man Date.
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(11:45) Returned from the club activities orientations. I think kendo-bu is going to be by far the most fun group of kids. I am really tempted into signing up with Mitsushima. Plus, the ex-principle from the elementary school, a bona-fide joker, English afficionado and 3-dan kendo master, may teach the club.
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(11:50) Re: Mandate.
Wow. I had no idea

that this is the reason why it was really, really awkward when I invited Matt and Ian over for home-cooked dinner in the fall, but the pot-luck thing with Simona and Akemi was okay.

that the empty-seat-between-two guys-in-a-movie thing was standard practice (Mark and I had been doing that since 9th grade).

that this may be the reason why Mark and I only talk about "issues" during TV basketball or video games; or my college roommates only talk about these things after a hurrican drinking session, and that those phone conversations are always kind of awkward.

that poker sessions may serve partly as man date pretense.
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(11:57) Among the many uniquely annoying mannerisms of the Japanese folks, the breath-sucking has to be in the top 5. Men and women alike have the habit of sucking breath through teeth in an audible "Tsss-" for no apparent reason. You tsss when stepping into the cold, tsss right before closing a window on your laptop, tsss as you get up to go to class, tsss as you search for a reply for a difficult question, tsss when you unzip, tsss when you zip up, tsss when you dry your hands...and only god knows how often Japanese tsss behind closed doors.
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(12:12) This past Saturday Amy Hunt, Simona and I drove to Tottori for the ultimate practice. Simona's no athelete and it showed. She was really frustrated about the whole thing, because she sees how much I enjoy sports, how much I wished that she enjoyed sports too(not true, but not completely untrue, if that makes any sense), and how much she does not enjoy it. In my effort to talk her out of sinking into a bout of self-pity, it occurred to me one of the real reasons why I enjoy team sports much more than individual sports.

Team sports are often chaotic. Many players moving on the field/court at once. Plays are made when two or more players see the same moment of order amidst the chaos--the split second before a passing lane opens up, a part of the field clears or some breakdown in the defense--and act accordingly to make the play. It's that mental connection between people, in the precise moment when it needs to happen, that makes a positive play special. It's like two people sharing the same epiphany and arriving at the same point of tranquility in a storm of movements.

Of course, what's even cooler, is when the defense see the same connection forming between the other team, and then acts to frustrate the play before it starts.
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(12:40) Just returned from my 5th bathroom trip to the bathroom this morning. Lunch starts in 5 minutes. I wonder what's on the menu today?

I'm going to send an email to Hugh, I think this blog-style ramblin' might be a good idea for the equally useless YT, if the magzine/website can handle this much inane nonsense all in one day. Stay tuned, it might get interesting...and if it doesn't, I'll make something up.
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(12:44) Tomorrow's schedule
1st - Test
2nd - Test
3rd - Physicals
4th - Physicals
5th - gakukatsu
6th - gakukatsu
Looks like another ramblin' day.
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(13:55) Wakame rice, grilled squid on the cob, spinach salad, an Everything Inside miso soup, and a hybrid orange/grapefruit. Noguchi-san must've taken my hint during the Welcome enkai and cooked the wakame rice. The girl next to me (the starting OP on the volleyball team, do not remember her name) was trying too hard to have a good time chatting up the baseball catcher/captain. A lot of fun she was not. And really, what's more important than making me happy?

Played basketball during lunch. A running layup against 康介石田(Kousuke Ishida the high jumper), a couple of assists, a bunch of rebounds and bunch of outlet passes to a trigger happy 小椋健史(Ogura Kenji).
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(14:20) What a day, consisting of very little of what could be considered constructive. I think I should start studying Japanese now.
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(14:25) Just overheard from Honda-sensei, my JTE: "xxxxxxxxxx, xxxx, xxxxxxxxxxxx, ジェフ先生と光嶋先生(Jeff-sensei and Mitsushima-sensei)xxxxxxx, xxxxxxx, 面白いねえ！”followed by giggles from both Honda and Ogura-sensei's. Interesting. I might call it hilarious.
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(15:21) Spent the last half hour skimming over IRS documents. The whole thing is actually so straightforward I can't believe I've been putting this off for so long. Of course, I could be dead wrong and end up being fucked.
---
(15:28) El Tigre wins the first in 10 and the green jacket in a playoff against DiMarco. Love that Sunday cardinal red. He screws up big, but he recovers even bigger.
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(16:27) Email from Mark:
From: "Mark hutchison"
To: Jeff Cho
Subject:RE: links
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 00:04:58 -0700

Man that was a disappointing end to a season. Go kick Metro stars' ass.

-Mark

Booyeah.
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(16:59) I'm outta here.

Jalen Rose-the comedian

Who knew?

"There's always going to be criticism when your name is Jalen. You have to wear a bulletproof vest and be ready for it."
– Jalen on himself

"Was it for Richard Jefferson?"
– Jalen after hearing that Carter had been traded to New Jersey

"I'm a GM in fantasy basketball and I'm a GM on PlayStation, so on PlayStation I probably would have got a little more, but this is real life, so I don't know."
– Jalen on the Vince Carter trade

"He probably was a little tired from All-Star Weekend. While he was running up and down the court throwing it off the backboard, I was laying on the beach drinking a fruity drink with an umbrella. So I probably gave myself an unfair advantage on that one."
– Jalen explaining why he outplayed Carter two days after the All-Star Game

"I've got to stop this. My entourages are getting entourages."
– Jalen on the trouble of finding tickets for everyone when he returns to Detroit

(And my personal favorite ... )

"Like I told the guys earlier, once he turns 21 and is able to drink, it's over."
– Jalen after LeBron scored 56 on the Raptors

brainfart

just spent the last 20 minutes looking for my glasses. found it underneath my washer. don't ask.

Free at last

Me: (sip tea, clear throat) I've been thinking, I think I want to stop the carpool thing starting next week.

Courtney: (almost immediately) That's cool.
Amy: (silent)

Me: It's becoming more like a chore than fun. Plus I really enjoyed driving to school on my own during Spring Break.

Courtney: That's alright(or something to that effect).
Amy: (silent).

Me: (looking around) Is that okay with you guys?
Courtney: Yeah.
Amy: Yeah. (pause) Now that the weather is nice I can walk to the station without going through piles of snow.

Me: Plus I kind of want to stay after school occasionally for the ekiden club (a complete lie at the time, but this morning while standing outside I actually did get invited to practice with the ekiden club after talking with the track coach, and my new JTE asked me to try the kendo club with him).

So, free at last. How does it feel? Kind of like this guy (courtesy of Osteen).

新しい学年が始めたねえ。。。

My school celebrated the new school year for me by assigning me to clean the bathrooms next to the club locker rooms, at least for today, perhaps for the new year. Awesome.

I also had to make a short speech to the 2nd years, in Japanese. That was pretty nerve wrecking, but they laughed and giggled at my attempt the whole time pretty easily so I guess it went okay.

中日 Kanji

工作 （こうさく）
Japanese: 1)handicraft, woodcraft; 2)maneuvering, manipulating
Chinese: Work/job.

工夫　（くふう）
Japanese: idea.
Chinese: effort.

意思　（いし）
Japanese: intention, resolution.
Chinese: meaning.

提出　（ていしゅつ）
Japanese: to submit, turn in (report).
Chinese: to offer, bring out (opinion).

Temecula tidbits

I was probably still asleep when the Temecula folks left Nakayama this morning.

Overall it was a pretty tepid experience, but there are several things I did remember.

The principle of Maguerita middle school, Karen Hayes, asked me if I wanted to become a teacher. I told her honestly that I have no idea. Later, while we're waiting for that night's party to begin, she gave me a 30 minute lecture about how she has found her life's passion in teaching, how she looks forward to working, how she has raised two perfect sons who love her and her husband, how she love her town, how they have a nice house that feels like a vacation home, how she's not rich but she has sailboats, campers, ATVs and Harleys, and how she owes all this to GOD (she even paused for a half second immediately upon mentioning this) and how she must the happiest person on earth. All while I was imagining putting my fist into her bloated face like a malformed pizza dough. I hate small town American Americans.

The subdued flirting between Alice (or was it Alex?) and 河端寛郎 (Kawabata Hiroaki) was interesting to watch.

It was a lot of fun actually to play with all my students. Hiroaki, 中川幸希(Nakagawa Kouki), 原田泰季(Harada Taiki, the one with overhead pumpkin) joked around all weekend, mostly with 3rd grade stuff like padding on shoulders and making faces. It was nice and fun, but I think the elementary school behavior lost me some respect with other kids, most notably 柴田理愛(Shibata Satomi, from the 2nd to last pic with the V). In contrast to her usually genki self, her sometimes dismissive replies to my approaches could be a direct result of such immature behavior, or it could be that snowball to the head on Daisen.

Oh yeah, we played snowball fight on the Daisen hills on the way to the temple. What started as me playfully making a snowball snowballed into Everyone Against Jeff snowball fight. I hit Satomi with a solid headshot from at least 25 ft, and she grazed an icy one across my ear from no more than 5ft and it was pretty painful. 中田有紀 (Nakada Yuuki, Chika's brother) somehow hit me square on the forehead with a behind-the-back throw (if I had the ability to rewind the action and watch it from 3rd person POV, it'll probably look like I somehow saw the snowball coming from behind, bent down and turned around so that I can be hit right on the head). I also had a few nice decoy hits. The snowballs were cold and hard, but I felt the love.

On the same 新大山町 tour, we also saw the 退休寺, which had a nice view of bamboo forest and LIVE monks! The beach near Nakayama was also nice, where I found a foot-long sea cow.

That night's party was okay. The old lady from the tea ceremony the day before gave me a set of 銭太鼓 (zenidaiko, traditional Japanese juggling drum sticks filled with coins) to play with. Nishiyama was there too and we chatted briefly and awkwardly. My new JTE, 光嶋-sensei(Tetsushima, or Teshima, I can't make sense of the strange Kanji pronounciation) showed up also. He was helping out with cooking yakisoba while wearing a Oki Island wrestling club t-shirt. He is 25 years old, just a couple of years removed from college, swam in high school (something I'm currently trying to pick up) and wrestled at the last highschool where he taught. His English isn't great but we'll get along fine.

Kyoko Fukunaga the music/English tutor dragged me aside at the party and congratulated me on my English teaching. Apparently 3 of my 1st year students just started taking English grammar lessons from her, and she was really impressed with their pronounciation. Somehow I get the props but I'll take it.

The Matsue trip was pretty forgettable. The Adachi art museum was nice but small, and the garden was indeed as pretty as they've been telling me. Skipped Matsue castle to read my book. The boat ride was pretty boring with nothing to see. The greenhouse orchids at Tottori flower garden was nice, but nothing was blooming outside the greenhouse. Naturally I did not have a blast shopping at Jusco. I conjured up a hangover headache to excuse my lackadaisical behavior throughout the day, but I think that might actually work against me in the end. Well, Honda-sensei definitely rolled her eyes hearing that at the end of the day. I did get Ms. Kaneko's card and her promise to show me around Fukuoka when I visit, so I guess it wasn't entirely a waste of a day.

Did talk briefly with Brenton and Laura, 2 of the high school students of the trip (11 total, 1 principle, 1 chaperon, 5 middle schooler, and 4 high schoolers). Nothing impressionable, although I didn't try very hard to make lasting impressions out of them. I mean, they're American high school students. Where I come from, they're dime a dozen.

Naspal Town housing price

林原-san once told me, during English conversation class, that houses in Naspal Town cost 300 million yen. That's 3 million dollars! Despite the fact that Naspal Town is located in the area of Nakayama nearest the onsen and has natural hotspring pumped into the house, it's still hard to imagine there being 3 million dollar homes in the boondock that is Nakayama.

But I've finally figured it out! There is a sign on Rt. 9 where we turn right, saying that one 坪 (tsubo) costs 4.6 man. One tsubo equals 3.3 sq. meter or 35.58 sq. ft. So, Naspal Town costs about 1292 yen per sq. ft.

A 300 million yen house (3 million dollar home, as we were told by Hayashibara) would be 251,608 sq. ft, or 5.8 acres. That's a damn big house. Hayashibara must've had the zeros all mixed up.

But, according to Diane, people don't buy houses per se in Japan. You buy land plots and then build your own house on top. Most houses in Japan aren't built to last very long, as a result.

However, those plots in Naspal town still don't look like 6 acres to me...

Random porn question

Why do the actors and actresses always refer to their body parts using the third person? For instance, if my neck was sore and I wanted some girl to rub it for a few seconds, and she agreed, I wouldn't scream at her, "Oh, yeah, rub that back!" It's my back, so I would use "my." And yet, in porn movies, it's like they're disassociated from their own body parts.

A cruel April Fools

I got an illegal overnight parking notice this morning leaving Simona's place. I promptly ignored it.

Everything was okay on my drive to school. But after lunch, when I was about to go to Yukokan to join the Temecula visitors, the car just died. I turned the ignition but not even a peep from the engine. It was quieter than a silent fart.

The teachers helped me jump it, push it, and kick it around to no avail. I ended up riding a flat bike to Yukokan and paying \7540 for a battery exchange.

Perhaps someone got way too upset about me taking up the guest parking spot? A cruel April Fools' day joke perhaps?

The Temecula cultural exchange activities went okay. In the morning, they did karate, kendo, and judo. I just stood around and took pictures. In the afternoon, they did soba-making (which I have done before and missed because of the car problem), origami, calligraphy, ikebana, and tea ceremony. Again, I just stood around and took pictures. Although I did show my Japanese students how to make a paper cannon and the response was phenomenal. We ran around the hall and snapped those fuckers at each other. It was fun goofing around with my students. I think some of them had fun too, but I am afraid that I may have lost the respect of others by acting not unlike a 10 year old with insufficient Ritalin dosage.

Oh yeah, and 小倉泰史-sensei also made me a t-shirt, as a test for the school t-shirt:

New email signature

Special April Fools candidates:

"I'm tellin' ya man, to be able to stroke it like that must be some kind of feeling"
-- Dick Vitale on J.J. Redick

"There's Fredo, there's Sonny and there's Michael. The Godfather handed it over to Michael. I have no problem handing it over to Dwyane."
-- Shaquille O'Neal on comparing Penny Hardaway and Kobe Bryant to Dwyane

"Just as Jesus sacrificed himself for all of us, maybe this is a chance for me to do that for my team. The inferno could be like the hell, and then I could, you know, step up and take the place of somebody like Christ did for us on the Cross."
-- Cowboy John on volunteering to take The Miz's place in the Inferno on the "Real World/Road Rules Challenge"

"Call me a whore, call me a slut -- don't call me a liar."
-- Tonya explaining why she slept with Robyn's boyfriend, then was upset that Robyn didn't believe her on "The Inferno" Monday night

"I can't believe I got my butt whooped by a homosexual, but a lot of gay folks are strong, you know? They're always going to the gym."
-- James the Redneck after losing to Coby in a mission on "Survivor"

"In the end, those of us who walk away not winning win more than just a loss."
-- Audrey after getting fired from "The Apprentice"

"Like I told the guys earlier, once he turns 21 and is able to drink, it's over."
-- Jalen Rose on LeBron James