It's been a (Japanese) Minute (dunno what that means really..)

Why am I posing next to this strange object? Read on to find out (Pictures HERE)

Hey all!!! I am still alive and kicking. Well...I don't really kick, but I'm peddling. So I'm alive and peddling. Woo hoo!!!

Ok, first of all, Summer vacation was way to short. It was the longest set of vacation that I would have for the year, but it was still way to short. I went to Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. While in Osaka, I went to Universal Studios Japan. THAT was fun! I won my first awesome stuffed animal because I knocked down the three bottles with the bean bag ball. Yes, I knocked all of them off of the platform and I won *drumroll* COOKIE MONSTER!!! yeah!!! I had a good time. I road Spider-Man (in Japanese), I watched Shrek 4D (In Japanese) I saw Peter Pan (IN JAPANESE!!!) and I ate food (in English, because...well...wait...nevermind). I had a good time. Osaka and Kobe were not as fun as Tokyo, and this is possibly due to the fact that I went alone and didn't really have a plan. I kind of winged it. Good thing was, I did make a new friend in Osaka who offered to show me around more next time I was in Osaka. She (badabing!) was nice.

Well, summer seminars are over, and now begins the month of September. And even though we have to get more new students, even though work is still kind of a stressful environment (ok, not really), and even though I still have a devil child I want to chuck through a solid immovable wall...guess what?! IT'S FOOTBALL SEASON!! YES! In one week it is going to be football season and yours truly has a pass that he bought on the internet (only for international users, sorry guys) that let's him watch all the games, even after they've aired, in pure unadulterated unfiltered HD and he even can have multiple games on the screen at once. Dude...can you say stoked? Cause I can. STOKED!!!

So, quick story. Funny story. I'm teaching two four-year-old's and when we teach new vocabulary, we teach it twice, and then we do a small activity where I get the children to say the new vocabulary 3 times fast. For example, if the vocabulary is "apple" I say "apple" once and they say "apple, apple, apple" as fast as they can (good for the memory). Well after that, we are supposed to do something fun. Do a little dance, roll our tongue, make a boom boom clap beat on the floor (yes, I actually do it, and they like it). Well, one of my kids wanted to act like Parukia (he is a Pokemon, and he's really strong). Sometimes I do Superman or Batman with them, but he wanted to do Parukia. So I said (because I didnt really want to think of an idea) "Sure Nao, go ahead and be Parukia." So we went ahead and did our three times fast and then I looked at him and said, "OK BE PARUKIA!!"

Picture this.

A kid get's a big burst of energy.

You don't know what he is going to do.

He shakes his head from side to side as the energy is building up.

He utters some inexplicable language that neither makes sense in Japanese or English.

He runs as fast as he can (or so it seems).

He slams into the wall, falls down, and is OUT.

That was Nao's impersonation of one of the most powerful Pokemon in the Pokemon Universe.

I did not understand. But what I did do, was..

Laugh...LOUDLY!

It was hilarious. The boy didn't hurt himself, but he acted as if he hit the wall too hard, fell down and then was out. He acted like Parukia. I didn't get it. The next time we did three times fast he falls down and acts like he is getting choked to death. I just looked at him, smiled, and laughed.

It's incidents like that that (1) get me through my day when it is sometimes dragging for whatever reason and (2) it reminds me why I took this job in the first place (besides all the yellow fever I seem to be catching ;)

I'm still as happy as ever here, but I am definitely looking toward my life AFTER Amity (notice I didn't say after Japan, I'll let you chew on that). But that is such a far way away (not until May) so I am enjoying the moments I have here at Amity.

Ok world. I hope all is well with everyone. And remember, perspective is not EVERYTHING, but it's at least 110%...at least. Be cool.

-Jeremy aka the winner of having the most fun at Todd and Machiko's wedding (my ex-coworker and her husband who works at AEON, the adult sister school of AMITY in Tottori).

It's been so long!!!

No one told me that I had this on my head, I was trying to look sophisticated...hahaha pictures here

Hello world!! I know it has been a VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRYYY long time since I have last posted. I apologize, but yet I'm not to sorry. Life has been crazy busy the month of July.

The first weekend I went to an enormous beach party with 100's of people. I was able to get Saturday off (and so was Becs) and we danced the night away Friday and Saturday and during the day Saturday I just enjoyed being on the beach with friends. It was some of the most fun I've had in my entire life. I met a bunch of new people (included two mixed babies, one of which was Mexican and Japanese and the other which was Caucasian and chinese...oh gosh I love this country, they were girls obviously ;) I made new friends from Okayama, Tokyo and other parts of Japan. It was quite the experience, but since it was indeed a party, I will stop at the fact that it was "fun" and not go into too many more details (and it's not because I don't remember, haha).

The second weekend in July was possibly better than the first; I did something that I've never done before. Check that; two things that I've never done before. I went Canyoning, which is basically going into the bowels of a mountain where there are rivers and waterfalls and ziplining, splashing, and exploring in nature. It was probably one of the most amazing things I've ever done in my life. That was until the next day when I, Jeremy White, went White Water Rafting. Yes people, White Water Rafting. I never knew that such an activity could be so fulfillingly fun in a way I had never imagined. I went with other foregin friends and we had a blast. We were going through the rapids with our Australian guide (Mezza, who was cool as heck) yelling "FORWARD TEAM! BACK! GET DOWN TEAM! ALRIGHT TEAM GREAT JOB PUNCH THE AIR! YAAAAHHHH!!!|" It was genki (energetic, fun) a time as I think I've had in Japan. And that was the other great thing, I was doing this IN Japan!!! There were about 5 other boats all with Japanese people (we were the only foreign group that day), and they were awesome. At certain times Mezza would let us know that it was ok to jump out of the boat and just let the current take our bodies downstream. This had to be the one of the most fun parts of rafting for me. I would just do a backflip off of the boat, land in the water, float down the river and yell "I'M FLOATING DOWN A RIVER! IN JAPAN! WOO HOO!!!" and then I'd start singing some Frank Sinatra "Fly me to the MOON!!" It was so peaceful (and yet not, because it was WHITE WATER RAFTING!!!).

At random times when we weren't in a rapid, I would sneak over to some of the Japanese boats and pull someone off of their boat and into the water. Mezza encouraged this because he said most of the Japanese people keep their feelings bottled up during the work week and for a lot of them this is a time to let loose. That was definitely the case as they had no problem with me pulling them out of their boats and into the water. Everyone got a good laugh. That is something I must do again before I die. And if you havent (and you arent nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant, don't have chronic back pain and are in possession of all your limbs) I suggest you do it, it's a memory that will stay with me forever.

The following weekend my family came into town. We went to Matsue and visited a 400 year old castle, we saw the birds, that I saw the month before, and we took a boat ride. I love my family, but goodness it was very mentally draining getting around Japan when I am the only one who can read and the only one who spoke a decent bit of Japanese. Every time I turned around I heard "Hey Jeremy what's this? Hey, what do you think this is for? Hey why do they have these? Hey jeremy..Hey Jeremy..Hey jeRemy, hey..." AHHH!!! Ok I'm exagerrating a little bit, but it was mentally draining. We went Karaoke, we went out dancing, and we even went out to eat the last night they were here to a place where WE get to cook in front of ourselves (yeah, those Japanese restaurants where they cook in front of you in America don't exist...but you can cook in front of yourself with raw meat here).

Overall, the family visit was great. I got to show off my Japanese skills, I constantly corrected my mother who was butchering the Japanese language (Love you mom) and I got to be a tour guide. It honestly doesn't feel as if I'm 6800 miles away from home. The only downside is that I heard it took my family 5 days to recover after they got back to the States, ehck.

Then, the last week of July began hell weeks. At my company we have a season called Summer Seminar Season. This is where my company makes most of their profits throughout the year because children that go to the shcool can take four or five extra lessons during their Summer Vacation to get more practice. In addition this sets up Amity fincancially for the rest of the year. Read between the lines because I'm not about to talk bad about my company. Anyway, scheduling more classes means more classes that I have to teach. Usually in a regular work week I teach around 27 classes a week, give or take a couple. During the last two weeks I have taughtover 65 classes. I had a lot of days where I had 8 classes scheduled (do the math, that's a class every hour except my lunch break where I get an hour, so yes, all day I'm teaching). But, even though the season isn't over yet, the brunt of it is finished, AND today is the first day of my 9 day vacation. I will be going to Kobe Japan and traveling aorund that area to Osaka and Kyoto, so plenty of pictures will be taken and plenty of relaxing and having fun will also be done.

One funny story before I close this out. My kids are hilarious at school. One example of this is yesterday I had a boy named Kodai. He is 9 years old and extremely smart with his English. He can't have a conversation with you, but his listening skills and his understanding of grammar, past, and future tense and his vocabulary is wonderful, even better than some of my high school kids (actually, most of my high school kids). Yesterday we did a warm-up where I asked him to make an adjective and noun combination starting with "A". And I gave an example, "amazing apple." He didn't totally understand at first, but most of the word combinations he gave after we started were adjective and noun combinations (some were verb and noun, but still starting with the same letter, so he was doing good). We got to "S" and he said "Super Sunflower" and I proceeded to talk in a super hero narrartor voice and say "SUUUUUPER SUNFLOWER!!!" and he started laughing and I started laughing and he said, "Teacher Teacher!" and he acted like he was the Super Sunflower and he did his super power and then proceeded to sneeze uncontrollably. He was trying to tell me that the Super Sunflower's power was making people sneeze. So everytime I would say, "SUUUUPPEER SUNFLOWER!!" he would start sneezing. Hahahahaha!!! Gotta love these kids.

OH! Announcement!!! Football seasons starts soon! That is all (GO COWBOYS!!!).

-Jeremy aka the drained person who is now happy and resting on his glorious 9 day vacation.
Enjoy the Videos! Karaoke!! (not with the fam though)

Oh! And I have decided to extend for four extra months. Will I be here past the end of May? I am not sure, all I know now is that I am definitely staying here an extra four months (past February 2010). So if I decide not to extend again and come back to the states I'll be in the States at the end of May 2010, that's an "if". But, let's take one thing at a time.

SURPRISE!!!

Well hello everyone. I told you I had a surprise for you, and hopefully you all enjoy it. It's not terribly long, but each video is about 9 minutes and 8 minutes long respectably. Watch the one on top first, then the one on bottom. I am showing you around my apartment, talking about how awesome Japan is, and basically just kind of talking randomly about things I've been doing. I don't go into a lot of detail, it's mostly a tour and me just being me, but I hope you enjoy it none-the-less.

I got that BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Dozo Dozo (please), Enjoy!!! I got that BOOM BOOM POW! I'm so 3008, you so 2000 LATE!

So, this post might not be too long, but it's just to let you all know that I'm still doing well. I have been pretty busy these past couple of weeks like I always am what with learning Japanese, playing video games, going to work, sleeping and eating, life can get pretty hectic. Not to mention all the time I spend on the internet as well (oh yeah, and throw watching TV into there too, American AND Japanese). So forgive me for not posting as much, but I'm sure you all understand why.

In the next few days I WANT to have a big surprise for you all on this blog, but I'm not 100% sure it will happen, so keep your fingers crossed and don't get TOO excited (but get excited non the less).

Well first of all I would like to announce that I am officially (because it's been for about a month now that I've been like this) down to around 208 pounds. For those of you who were around me before I left you know that I was at a good 220, and that was AFTER I had lost 10 pounds being around 232 when I graduated from college where just 8 months before that I was about 245, so yes, I have dropped a ton of weight (and oh boy you can tell...well..maybe not with my shirt on ;)

I've tightened up a lot since I've been to Japan. I will accredit that to riding a bike everyday. And when I say everyday I literally mean every day. It's interesting how much more fit you are when virtually everywhere you go you have to ride your bike and it's amazing how much money you save when you don't have to have any type of car maintenance.

Speaking of bikes, I got a new bike. Her name is Molly and she's the best thing that's happened to me in Japan (as far as transportation and bikes go). She's a Mustang. No, I'm not talking about her speed. She's literally a Ford Mustang. "But Jeremy, Ford only makes cars! What are you talking about?" In Japan, Ford also makes bicycles. And Chevy also makes bicycles, I even saw a Lamborghini bicycle and a Cadillac bicycle. Yup, that's just how we do it in Japan.

So, you might be asking why I got a Mustang. Well, it's definitely not because it's a Mustang (because all of you that know me know that I can't wait to get up inside my Camaro named Isabelle whenever I come back to the states). It was because it was the best bike for me. Long story short, I've put too much time and effort into the bike(s) that I've had already (I was able to borrow a friend's bike when my spokes broke on the bike that was given to me) and I needed to buy a bike for myself with bigger tires (Editors note: Please reference the blogpost about my bike and a curb). So I got one that fit with me and it just so happened to be a Mustang. Molly is black and silver and she's awesome and she treats me well. I love her. Anyways.

Quick funny story. My kids have been amazing (well...90% of them have..about 10% of them have been well...let's just say I want to toss them off of some sort of high ledge...with water beneath, don't worry, I don't want to kill them). I had a private one time lesson with one of my former students (because the school year ends in march) and he is about three years old. The lesson went awesome, but the funniest part was when I said "Atsuke, how are you?!" And he kind of stayed quiet for a second...thinking...and then he boldly and confidently stated with his hands in front of him folded very respectfully, "My name is Atsuke!" I couldn't help but laugh. After then end of the lesson I asked him again and he said it again in front of his mother, his mother was all smiles. He's a good kid.

I have found out that my favorite class that I have all week (which I have tomorrow in fact, Fridays) is a class that can be the toughest to control. I have three three year olds. Two of them you are all familiar with; Tomonori and Ayumi (both boys) and one new child, her name is Sora (beautiful name really, because it means Sky). They are all getting SO much better at having fun when we are supposed to have fun and then sitting down and listening when I ask them to sit down and listen. And they get SUPER excited when they speak English. Tomonori is the best one at speaking English, even though he doesn't always want to. Ayumi is kind of in the middle but has a great memory, and Sora just repeats EVERYthing I say, which is really good for her English skills because she's constantly speaking English.

Anyway, that's just a quick update. Some of my family is coming to visit at the end of July, so I'm really excited to show off my Japanese to them and introduce them to all my new friends and co-workers. Until next time! じゃね！！ (See you later!)

-Jeremy aka "I gotta feelin...."

The Yes Man

Hello WORLD!!! Pictures Here

I am finding out, day by day, the benefits of saying "Yes" to things. I'm not talking about an extreme "yes yes yes yes yes" to everything like Jim Carrey so carelessly did (but I do love ReDAH BUULLSSZZZAA!!). I am speaking of when life hands asks you if you want lemonade, and you've never had lemonade before, and lemonade has the chance to be one of the most positive and best experiences you've ever had in your entire life; you know what you say? You say, "Yes Life, I would like some lemonade."

When you make yourself more open you are that much more likely to have unique adventures, experiences, and an overall good time. Ever since I have come to Japan I have been under the montra of saying "yes." Obviously I don't do everything, but as I am getting older (yeah, it's olDER not necessarily OLD, so don't start with me about "Oh Jeremy you arent OLD", but I am getting OLDER, so hush) I realize that life is short and the time I will be in Japan is shorter than my entire life span, so you know...what the heck, let's do it. "It" can mean a number of things. "Hey Jeremy you want to go explore Tottori?"

"Yes, Let's do it!'

"Hey Jeremy, you want to go Karaoke with us?" (and I never went Karaokeeing in America)

"Yes, Let's do it!"

"Hey Jeremy, you want to come meet a bunch of people you don't know at a Street Fighter Four tournament?"

"Yes, Let's do it!"

"Hey, Jeremy, you want to go out of town for only a day and a half to a place you've never been?"

"Yes! Let's do it!"

I'm trying to get as much experience as I can. Granted, I haven't said yes to EVERYTHING, but God knows, I've said yes to a lot more than I might have if I was back in the states. Call it having my joy at a level it's never been, call it maturity, wisdom, or a realization of ones location, whatever it is, I'm definitely taking this montra with me for the rest of my life.

So I say all that to say that I said "yes" to a trip this past weekend. I, Rebecca, Todd, and Machiko all went to a place called Matsue. It's about 2.5 hours from Tottori by train and it's another small town, but with a bit more sightseeing and it's more tourist friendly.

From the first hour we were there we had an idea of what we were going to do, but what we planned to do that actual day was spur of the moment. We decided to *drumroll* go to a bird sanctuary. Now, for those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, a bird sanctuary is basically a zoo, but with only animals who are birds.

People...I saw (cue the Sound of Music) Penguins and peacocks and white flocking geese, Emus and Toucans and Falcons that feast, owls and flowers and bright colored trees, these are a few of my favorite things!

And I saw orange birds, Flamingos, ducks of all kinds, Pelicans, and SO MANY OWLS!!! It was amazing. If you've ever been to a bird sanctuary, you get to buy food for the birds and they come right up on your arm and eat the food. Usually you might think of bright colorful little birds doing this, but no, I had a Toucan. That's right, Toucan Sam was on my arm eating fruit that I had bought for him. It was one of the greatest things ever. Especially when the other Toucan decided he wanted to try to scare Toucan Sam away and he landed on my shoulder. Well neither Sam nor his intimidator left my arm/shoulder and I had two CANS (Two Toucans) on me at once (just a small play on words...laugh people, it's a joke).

Later on, I got to hold an Owl. I got to pet said owl, and the owl was AWESOME! It wasn't anymore than about 8 inches tall, it was one of the coolest things I've ever done, especially since I really really like owls (and a small part due to the fact that I'm on the fourth book of Harry Potter, which I did see the "Hedgwig" owl as well).

After the totally awesome Bird Sanctuary, we went out to eat, went to a movie and went back to our hotel. The next day we went to the Matsue Castle that had been built over 400 years ago and we got to see a mid-level Samurai house that had also been built almost 400 years ago (I think the official year was 398). I bought a Samuri sword (that is only about 7 inches because it is a keychain, because real Samurai swords are illegal in Japan) and was acting like I was a Samurai part of that day. After the Samurai house and the Matsue Castle, we went on a boat ride.

I cannot explain to you all the serenity I felt on that boat ride. You know how everyone wants to go to Venice to experience the boat rides there because that is what Venice is so famous for? Well, I can gaurantee you that in Venice they don't have a Japanese tour guide who sings three songs of Enka for you on a 45 minute boat ride that spans 3.7 kilometers. The weather could NOT have been any better. There was a slight breeze, it was in the 70's and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. The other great part about the boat ride was that at times we went under VERY low bridges. During these times the roof of our boat had to be dropped so low that me, Todd, Machiko, and Rebecca had to either get on our stomachs or backs with the roof of the boat maybe 9 inches in front of our faces, if that much. Now, you might thing this was uncomfortable, but it was only us on what was a decent lenghted boat. In fact, I looked forward to the times we went under the bridge, I really wished that the boat ride had been a couple of hours because I could have fallen asleep, going around the river in Matsue, easily.

We were only in Matsue for 1.5 days, but it felt like at least twice that because we did so much. For those of you that know me, I love to sleep, but as of late, if there is something unique to do in Japan that requires me to get up early, I have found myself not so tired throughout the day and being very glad that I got up rather than stayed in bed. Obviously I wasn't going to stay in bed out of town, but even in town I decided to get up one day when I didn't have to. And boy, was that something else seeing some of my former students (from last calendar year) do ballet.

So the next time someone says, "Hey, you aren't doing anything, and neither am I, let's go check out this thing neither one of us has been too" say "yes" and see what happens.

Disclaimer (read in the voice of Morgan Freeman): Jeremy White is by no means encouraging the use of unprotected sex, alcohol abuse or drug use, the above article is stating decision making as far as outdoor adventures, places to visit, and other things to do that do not include "experimenting" with things that most people know are just stupid to say yes too. Thank you.

-Jeremy aka the yes man

Oh, and I would like to give a shout out to my cousin Morgan who was recently in a play and from what I understand she did an awesome job. Oh, and my sister had an EXCELLENT semester GPA wise this past semester so she deserves a round of applause too. Congrats girls.

It's been a while

This picture has nothing to do with the post. Only about four people I know will appreciate this picture, three of them are related to me. Do you know who you are? (Well actually one of them might loathe me for it, but I know she secretly loves this character ;-)

I know everyone, I know. It has been quite a while since I have written on my blog. You know, this thing called life sometimes gets in the way of blogging and the fact that I just haven't had any major stories after Tokyo. So this next post is just my thoughts of Japan so far and a little small story as well.

First of all, besides my high school classes and my parent classes, my favorite classes have to be my Baby classes. I teach two classes where the students are barely even two years old. I know, you are probably wondering, "Jeremy, how in the world can you teach a child another language when they haven't even come close to mastering there own and barely know two words in their own language?" And my answer would be simply, immersion. That's how you learned English correct? You didn't know the difference between Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian or some strange language native to somewhere else you've never been or heard of. You didn't know anything. But what you did know was that when someone pointed at a piece of fruit and said "Apple" you started to understand that that weird looking thing that you have never seen before is indeed called an "apple" and so you start to call it "apple". Although, many of you probably said "mama", "dada" first.

Which leads me to my next story. Usually you have as many moms in the baby class as their are babies, seeing as most moms only have one "baby" at a time. Well, in one of my baby classes I actually have two to one. I have a mom, and her two twins. One of them is a boy, Masayuki (MAH-SAH-YOU-KEE) and one of them is a girl, Fuka (FOO-KAH). They are both wonderful babies, even though sometimes they can throw their little fits and decided they want to be angry or sad, or cry, for seemingly no reason. They might not be re-uping to come back to Amity after the end of the month and my manager was hoping that the last few classes they had with me would be good so that the mother will consider staying on and continue. Well folks, I might have struck gold. A week ago I am having a BLAST with these babies. I'm teaching them "Orange" and "an orange Orange" and I'm teaching them "strong" and "happy" and "angry" and all sorts of stuff. When all of a sudden, after we are having LOADS of fun, Masayuki stands up and screams at me! He screams: あかさん!！！！ Since most of you can't even begin to read what I just wrote, let me tell you in English. He screamed, "MOMMY!!!" (Okasan). At first, I thought I heard him say this, but I wasn't sure if maybe he was just speaking in baby language. So after the third time that he said it, I looked at his mom and said, "What did he say?" and she said, "He said Okasan, mom." And I was just amazed that he SPOKE! Granted, it wasn't in English, but that's ok. We had a tremendous class that class (cause there were very little tears and a lot of smiles from both of the babies). What seemed to me to just be a "good class" actually turned into something I couldnt even have thought would have ever happened.

The mother told my Manager that her son was calling ME mommy. Something I thought was funny, but just silly, nothing meaningful. But, from what I understand, in Japan at least (because I've never come across this, in this situation, in America), if a child that young starts to call another person that they KNOW is not their mother, MOM, then they REALLY like that person. And aparrently he doesn't do that for many other people. Let me repeat, because he called me mom does not mean he THINKS that I'm his mom, but in the Japanese way of undersanding their children, it means they are really comfortable and they really like the person that they are calling "okasan." And let me tell you guys, that touched me. I was pretty happy, I didn't know how to react when I heard that. Here I am, have been here for 3.5 months, from a different culture, country, and upbringing, and I'm connecting with children like I would be connecting with them back in America.

One thing I've learned since being here in Japan is that, kids are kids. And I'm not sure exactly what I'm about to say here, but go with me on this (whether you understand/agree or not). It's very interesting that what makes kids laugh in one culture makes kids laugh in another culture. It's very interesting that the mundane things children do in one culture to keep themselves occupied (such as spinning around, running, jumping, pretending to be their favorite Super hero and so on) is the same thing kids in another culture do. I have felt the same Joy from working with kids in America that I do with working with kids in Japan. For all of you who figure that Japanese children are these robots who say, "Yes, No thank you" and "Sorry" all the time, you need to wake up and realize that kids are kids. I cannot speak these childrens language (yet :-P) but I can understand them. I cannot comprehend everything they are telling me, but yet I an relate to them. I cannot ever and will never be Japanese, and yet emotionally they couldnt tell me apart from any other one of their energetic Japanese teachers. Who I am on the inside, who they are as children, I can relate. I can relate whether it's my wonderful kids at Oakhurst (who I have now let Jenny adopt :-D) or whether it's my kids here at Amity. Kids are kids and no language, cultural, upbringing barrier changes that matter. That's why, from a teaching children perspective, it doesn't feel much different than if I were in America, it's WONDERFUL.

One of the reasons I adore this country so much, is because it seems like everything, from the advertisements, to the dramas on TV, to the video games, cartoons, and movies, they just seem so lively all the time. So full of energy. I know some of you don't understand (and some of you will never understand) my obsession with certain video games and cartoons that originated in Japan. But to put it simply, it's because it always seems so full of energy. I have not felt hardly ANY negativity from these people in Japan. Seriously, NONE. There's been "I wish this would be better" or possibly "I don't understand why this is this way" but as far as the negative feeling of something, I've never gotten that. Whether it's because people are so good at locking it up in public, or maybe it's because I don't speak the langauge; but I have to admit, I am good at reading peoples vibes, I've always had to be since I always had to be aware of who was talking to me for what reason back in the states, and I'm telling you all, the people in Japan that I have met, the ones that I now call my friends, the people that I pass on the street, the people that work at the local convenience store or the mega store down the street, I have not felt a negative "I hate my life" vibe from anyone. I just havent. And I don't mean to say that EVERYONE back in America has a negative vibe, but some of the places I've lived, the people I've met, the people I see just in their everyday life, some of them (obviously not ALL) seem to give off this strange negative pessimistic vibe. I just don't feel it here and that's one of the reasons it's so peaceful.

Please don't mistake what I'm saying. I'm not saying it is easy for everyone to be optimistic ALL the time and I'm not saying that I've never been mad or angry with the world and I definitely don't know everyone's personal life and what they are going through. So I'm not preaching that all people should try to be more optimistic, understanding, or positive, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying I have not felt it out here and that's a huge reason why I feel so comfortable and am cherishing the time I have here.

But yeah, I hope you all are doing well. No pictures this time, but I am going out of town this weekend and I might have some for you then. In the meantime, be cool.

Jeremy aka Am I sure I'm not Japanese? Not even a half a percentage?

TOKYO!!! トキオ！！！

There was much more to Tokyo than this...but by Golly Gee Wizz Bonkers this was a fun part, but not the best, keep reading and see what I mean. Pictures here!!

LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, IT IS JEREMY WHITE'S LAST NIGHT IN TOKYO!! AND WHAT IS HE GOING TO DO?! Well, I'm not quite sure, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be resting it up....but that could always change;) (read about Day 6 to see what I decided to do).

Time to rewind. I got to Tokyo last Wednesday April 29th. I go back tomorrow to Tottori and let me tell you, a week in Tokyo is enough. Obviously you can't see everything, but as far as my geekyness and curiosity of Tokyo is concerned, I am well satiated.

On Wednesday I arrived and didn't really do too much. A friend of mine from high school who has been living here for three years met me at the train station and took me to look around a bit of Tokyo. At this point I wasn't sure of the difference between the blue line to Ueno and the Yamamoto line to Harajuku, I was just following her while at the same time wanting to just lay down and go to sleep, traveling takes a lot out of you (especially when you were up at six in the morning because your bus left at 7:15).

She took me to TGI Fridays (yes, TGI Fridays!) and we ate and then she took me to my Hostel (which is named the NINJA, how cool is that?!) and I got some much needed sleep.

Day 1:

The next day I decided to do my first big of exploring. FYI, this is probably the first time I've every done something like this, which is to say, I never just rome around somewhere alone just to explore. But I gotta tell you, that is a heck of a way to learn a new city and to experience a new culture. Anyways, for all of you geeks out there (and nerds and otaku too) I spent the day in Akihabra (yes, be jealous). For those of you who don't know the difference between Akihabra and Shinjuku or Shibuya, let me fill you in, Akihabra is THE place for electronics, Anime, video games, arcades, and collectible figurines. Akihabra isn't a building, it's a district in Tokyo. I walked around Akihabra all day. I played Tekken 6, Street Fighter IV, I bought an authentic Goku outfit, some Final Fantasy VII figurines and some Dragon Ball Z figurines. I beat a guy (who was Japanese) in both Street Figher and Tekken 6, I felt very good about myself after that.

Interesting story. Remember how before I told you that the DVD shops in Tottori were really just "adult entertainment shops", well folks, I did it again, and seriously it was a true accident. I saw a BIG building that was six floors that looked like it was an anime type of building. I took pictures of it (it's the big Green Building in the pictures). So I decided to go inside and have a look around, after all, it was in Akihabra. As I walked in I realized I was not in Jeremyland anymore, I had officially stepped into "toys for adults" "instructional videos for adults" and "posters and dolls devices to use for adults only" shop. Six floors.... I decided "Hey maybe it's just this floor" and so I went up...nope...the entire six floors was dedicated to this *ahem* "theme". So after the second floor (or was it the third) I made my way down and out. I didn't feel too dirty as I did see quite a few couples looking around.

I bought a pair of glasses (that make me look pretty smart) that have bit of UV protection in them. They are pretty cool glasses. The reason I bring this up is because of the fact that I went to ANOTHER Arcade and played Dance Dance Revolution X, the problem was I was stuck on beginner mode, I couldn't figure out how to get it to Standard mode. Anyways, I put my glasses inside my backpack where I figured it would be safe. After my semi-boring time on DDR (because of the difficulty mode) I picked up my backpack and headed to the next floor. When I went to go look for my glasses I realized they were not there. I had JUST bought them that day and I was just talking to myself asking, "Jeremy..come on..really? You JUST bought these? What the heck?" So I began to retrace my steps, floor by floor to see if I had left them. You should have seen the way people were looking at me when I went back over to the DDR machine and tried to poke around looking for where exactly my glasses could have fallen. I would have said, "I'm sorry I'm looking for my glasses." But the only two words I know in Japanese from that phrase are "Gomenei Sai (which is sorry)" and "Watashi no" (which is my). So I'm missing some pretty crucial words for the understanding of what it was exactly that I was trying to do.

I head downstairs to the first floor and play charades with the attendance to tell him I had lost my glasses. He understood a bit of English (like a lot of people in Tokyo do surprisingly), and I was able to tell him I had lost my glasses and ask him if anyone had turned them in. After a bit of waiting I found out no one had found them. I almost gave up when I decided to retrace my steps ONE more time. I headed up each floor and tried to remember exactly where I had gone after the DDR machine to see if my glasses could have fallen here...there..anywhere!! All of a sudden, on the fourth floor sitting on the counter, where an attendant should be, are my glasses! WHAT?! NANI! SUGEI!!! Yay! I put them on and just smiled the whole way down the elevator. I found the attendant who was nice enough help me earlier and he looked at me and said, "Congratulations!!" All I could do was smile at that point because I thought I had lost my glasses forever and then this guy, who barely knows any English just told me congrats. It was a good first day in Tokyo after all!!

Still staying on the first day (Thursday), I went inside of a hobby collectors shop and found *drumroll* a TON of Final Fantasy VII; Kingdom Hearts; and Dragon Ball Z stuff!!!! I asked one of the workers there if they shipped things and unfortunately he said no. This is probably a great thing because if I would have bought half of the things I wanted to buy that were too big with me to take home I would have spent a LOT of money (one figure I was looking at that was SWEEEEEET was over $400...but mom it was AWESOME...I didn't buy it don't worry). He told me that if I was REALLY interested in figurines and statues and busts that I should go on the second floor. He shouldn't have told me that...I went to the second floor and people...literally..my heart pace sped up and it seemed as if I was slightly hyperventalating, yeah, it was that serious. They had the most AMAZING things (the $400 figurine..yeah..it was there..and I took a picture of it). Seriously, whenever I have my own house, I'm getting a "trophy" case JUST for stuff like this. I am going to be serious about collecting some of this stuff when I actually have a place to put it all!! Geez! It was AWESOME!

So yes, that was my FIRST day in Tokyo, and by golly it was good one.

Day 2:

So the next day I know for sure that I am going out. Going out to a gay club no less too. And if you are shocked and you have all these questions as to why (and no it’s not because I’m gay you jerk ) then, dozo dozo, please keep reading.
I woke up and had no plan in particular other than to go to *da da da da * POKEMON CENTER!!!! So I asked the lady at the front desk of my hostel and she gave me direction on how to get to the land flowing with Pikachu’s and Naetles (Turtwig for all you English speaking folk, which frankly is EVERYBODY reading this). Well, I hope on the train and get to where I am supposed to be. I ask around when I get off of the train where the Pokemon Center is (I swear the “where is” phrase has come in handy so many times since I’ve been here, it’s wonderful). They directed me toward Pokemon Paradise (not the name of the place, just a name I came up with for it) and I was off. As soon as I saw the big letters P-O-K-E-M-O-N I immediately lit up with a smile only known to those of you who have seen me graduate and or those of you who have seen me with a realization that “Hey, I am actually in Japan.” It was one of those smiles that was literally ear to ear and had I kept smiling like that I would have been sore. So I walk into the store, mostly filled with kids and younger teenage girls, and I go nuts, I grab a basket and just start grabbing little Pokemon things here, little stuffed Pichu’s there, some Pokemon badges and postcards here, a keychain for my phone there. All the while just taking in what is actually a small store by most standards. It was amazing though because I had made it to the one place in Tokyo that I really really wanted to go. Was it as amazing as I had hoped? No, but was it amazing, absolutely :-P.

From that point on I had a PDF of “things to do” in Tokyo on my iPod touch and for the rest of the day all I did was look at that PDF and then say, “Ok, I’m heading here, then I’m going here, and I might as well check out here.” So first I went to one of the most popular temples named Sensoji Temple. It…was…AMAZING. The problem is I didn’t actually get to experience the Temple on the outside because it was still under construction, but the good thing is that it was still gorgeous walking around leading up to it. There were SO many people (as you will see in my photos). I was there by myself, but it was not hard finding someone to take a picture of me underneath the entry-way, on the road leading up to it, or even inside if I had wanted. Being the ridiculously “I’d love to be in THAT moment” guy, I turned on some eastern flute tunes (you know the kind you hear at the spa) and I just walked and looked at this wonderful bit of artistic goodness known as the Sensoji Temple and all it was made up of. I gotta say, it made me really feel like I was in Japan (which I was…duh). After I bought my Pikachu shaped lollipop thingie at a kiosk (which ended up breaking by the way…sadness) I was headed back to the station to go to the Edo Museum, which is a museum all about Tokyo’s history (see mom, I actually take in all the cultural things too, it’s not all Pokemon, video games, and partying for me ;).
But anyway, on my way out a guy said hello to me. I took out my earbuds and said hello back to him. He started talking to me and asked me if I understood Japanese (in Japanese) and in Japanese I told him I only understood and spoke a little. As he is still holding my hand from the first shake, he then proceeds to say “Are you from LA? NY?” I told him, “No, I’m from North Carolina.” (this convo is taking place in English by the way). After I told him my name and where I was from he then proceeds to turn around and lift up his shirt so I could see his back. Immediately I knew what was going on. For those of you who don’t know, tattoos in Japan are considered highly highly highly inappropriate for one huge reason. If you have Tattoos it signifies that you are part of the Yakuza. And if you don’t know who the Yakuza are, go watch a movie, they are the Japanese Mafia. So I saw his Tattoo (which practically covered his entire back, but looked rather old in my opinion) and he turned back around and pointed at himself and said, “I’m Yakuza, Japanese Mafia”. At that point I patted myself down,…wallet…check…keys…check…change..check…all my stuff in my backpack..ok..check..phone..phone…ok check.. So at that point I was trying to get away from him as fast as I could, but I didn’t want to be obvious about it, I didn’t know how many Yakuza were around watching us and I definitely didn’t want this dude coming after me.

So I engage it a bit more small talk and he keeps saying, “Nice guy? Nice guy?” and I wasn’t sure whether he was asking me whether I was a nice guy or whether he was a nice guy , so if I remember correctly I think I said , “Yes you are a nice guy” and then he said to me “You are a nice guy.” And he is smiling the entire time. After we said our goodbyes, I walked with a little more pep in my pace back to the station. I had just tried to be recruited by Japanese mafia….oh man..that makes me so cool!!! :-D The only reason I know is because I asked my friend who has been living here for three years and she said, “You don’t have to know Japanese to say ‘Give me your money’ plus you are tall black and scary and they try to recruit foreigners. “ So yes, Ladies and Gentleman, I Jeremy had the possibility of being Yakuza. What have you done with your life? Ok anyway, moving on.

So I head to the Edo museum, and I only have an hour before it closes. So I’m walking rather quickly, while still understanding that an hour is a long time. I see replicas of modern Japanese houses, theaters, old Samurai Warrior family emblems on a vest of some sort and all sorts of other things. It was actually really cool and I’m glad that I went (don’t worry mom, I saved the ticket for your scrapbook). After I left the museum I decided to go to Harajuku to go to the Meiji-Jingu shrine. As I got off of the train however it was getting dark and not to mention I ran into an army of emo’s, punk rockers, and hip hop Japanese people who all seemed to be coming from one central location. Apparently, this little backstreet that I just ended up following people down, had a lot of shops, a lot of narley Japanese people, and it was a lot of fun. I bought a Marvel Comics backpack while I was there and I just walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere. The Shrine would be there another day and I decided people watching and some more potential shopping isn’t all a bad thing. It was a lot of fun.

Ok people, I know you are probably still wondering, “Why did Jeremy go to a gay club?” If you said cause I’m gay, you suck because that’s not true. If you said because I want to be gay, you must not know how much I love women. And if you say because I have this weird fetish for seeing a guy on a guy, then you are just sick. Think logically about this, why would I go to a gay club? First of all, I didn’t go out of sheer randomness, my friend (who is a straight girl) invited me. Are you even more confused? Ok, here’s the answer. When I was told that we were going to a gay club, I immediately said “Cool, but you know I’m not gay right?” and my friend said, “LOL, yeah! I am taking you there because their partying there is so awesome that all the straight people go as well.” Well I have to admit, it was a fun time. Sure I saw some things there that I would have rather not seen in person, but I did get to dance with this really cute Japanese girl who was straight. It was funny, I kept getting asked, by GIRLS, no less, if I was gay. This one girl in particular I asked her if she was lesbian and she said no, then she asked me if I was gay and I said no. Then I asked her if she had a boyfriend and she said no, then she asked me if I had a girlfriend and I said no. Then we proceeded to dance for the next hour. It was a blast!!! Oh, by the way, the clubs stay open really really late because the train and subway lines don’t start up again until 5 AM, so yeah, I didn’t get back to my hostel until 7 AM because we had some Wendy’s afterwards. Talk about being tired…

And that my friends…was day 2…
Day 3:

Day three started late because I got back so late. I didn’t wake up until about three and then I met up with Amy and Becca (because they had got in that day) and Tom (who teaches at an Amity very close to Tokyo). We just walked around a bit and then decided to meet up later to go to dinner and then we were going to go to a club that attracts a lot of foreigners that night. The club was crazy. This club had a rule that I had never heard of before. The cover was free (that sounds great right?) but you have to keep a drink in your hand the entire time or you will be asked to leave, or buy another drink. Needless to say, I had to get pretty creative, because one, their drinks were expensive, and two, I wanted to stay in the club but didn’t always want to be drinking. The last two hours I switched between holding up a drink that was on the table that I was sitting at with these girls I met (more on them later) and me finding an empty bottle and filling it up with water so that it looked like an alcoholic drink.

Anyway, back to the girls. OH! But before I talk about them, I have NEVER been in a club where (A) it was so packed that the entire crowd moved if like a mouse on the floor on the other side of the club shifted it’s weight just a tiny bit. It was insanely wall to wall and (B) there was actually a guy who came in a wheelchair twirling on the dance floor. I don’t want ot come across and prejudice because I was proud of him for doing his thang, but DUDE, there’s hardly enough room for ME let alone a wide wheelchair!!! But I mean, obviously I didn’t get mad or anything, that’s just mean.

Ok so back to the girls. All night I’m using what little bit of Japanese I know to impress the ladies (heh..alllriiight). When suddenly I said SOMEthing to this one chick (she doesn’t remember exactly what I said and neither do I, it has less to do with the alcohol and more to do with the crazyness of how we met than anything). So I walked up to her and said something in Japanese, I don’t even remember, it was probably like, “Are you ok?” because she had tripped or something, I don’t know. But anyways, all I remember is her saying back to me in perfect English and answer to whatever question I was asking. To which point I busted out with a Japanese version of “Woah” and said, “ETO NEI!!!!” even though that really means something like “hmmm (like you are thinking).” Her and her friend started laughing. Not a “Wow he’s stupid” laugh, but a “Aww that’s cute” laugh, trust me on this. So I attempted to speak more and more Japanese to her at which point she said, “I’m not Japanese.” And I was like , “Gomenei..I’m sorry.” I come to find out, her friend is Japanese, but understands English and she is a Vietnamese Singaporean who actually speaks three languages, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and English. You don’t understand how happy I was to find someone at that club that wasn’t a foreigner (westerner or European) who could speak English, it was amazing. We went to a room with a lot of tables in the back of the club and we just talked and talked and talked for about an hour. At which point I gave her my info and we planned on meeting for dinner on that Monday :-D. I left the club with her and her friend and they showed me how to get back to the rail lines (and yes, it was 5AM again). I went back to my hostel and had an awesome sleep and relished in the fact that I had just made a new friend…

Day 4:

Sunday was Sunday. I slept in (thanks to the no guilt I felt because I was on vacation and because the girl I had met the night before from Singapore..hey that rhymes…told me she looooves to sleep too…so it just confirmed that it’s alright for me to sleep too). I didn’t sleep in as late as I did Saturday, but I slept in. When I woke up I decided to go see the famous Emo Harajuku girls (I know Paige, I know…it’s on). They were cool and all, funky even….but what really made my day was something that someone else on that bridge gave me. About eight people gave it to me and I also gave it back, it was probably one of the best gifts in Tokyo that I didn’t even think to ask for or look for. Ladies and Gentleman…I got a FREE HUG!!!! There were people standing on the bridge where the Harajuku Emo girls were and they were holding up signs that said “FREE HUGS!!!” At first I was a bit skeptical. I thought maybe they’d reach for my wallet or something (hey, I love this country, but I was in Tokyo and a lot of foreigners roll through there, it’s not like Tottori, I was a bit more wary of my stuff, give me a break). So I’m looking at them and saying out loud, “Really though? A free hug? Really?” So I walk up to them and received a free hug. It was so very pleasant and wonderful. And you know what else I got…a smile. It was turning out to be an awesome day.

From that point I went to the Meiji Jingu shrine. It was a cool site to see and I had fun just walking around in their park leading up to the actual Shrine. Yet again, I put in my ear-buds and turned on the Eastern Flutes and Strings to really give what I was seeing even more feeling. I also bought a poem that an Emperor had written. It basically said don’t sway when life throws you in certain situations. Remain rooted like an oak tree in the middle of a storm. Really it was saying hold true to my convictions even when times get tough. I had to say that was pretty appropriate because God knows I’ve had to do that many times.

And yes, I went out later that night, I meant to only do Karaoke, but my friends caneled on me so I went with another friend and her friends back to the same packed club as the night before. Two things were different, one it wasn’t so packed, and two, to have a drink in my hand so they wouldn’t hassle me, I just bought a big bottle of this fruit drink that was only like 3.5% by volume. It hardly had anything in it and it tasted like Welches. You woulda thought it was don-Perrion the way the Japanese people were looking at me. It wasn’t NEARLY as expensive and they didn’t hound me the whole night and the alcohol content was low, so it was great. Anyway.


Day 5:

I woke up the next morning and my only plans were to go Karaoke and meet up with those two girls I met on Saturday (the one who is Japanese and the one who isn’t, she is from Singapore and she speaks English awesomely). I went to Ueno park before I met up with the girls and while at Ueno park I saw some Mexican singers, a Juggler (who is Japanese) and something else that caught my eye, a lake where you could go on a boat. But this wasn’t just any kind of boat, you could ride a SWAN boat!!! So I knew that Amy and Becs were there in Ueno park as well, I called them and asked if they wanted to ride the Swan with me. At first Amy didn’t want to do it at all, and me and Becs kept saying, “But it’s a SWAN boat in TOKYO on a wonderful lake!? Who wouldn’t want to ride in a Swan!!?” Amy wasn’t having it, but she reluctantly came with us anyway. We all took turns peddling and driving and ripping on each other for how bad we drove the Swan boat and how bad we peddled while all at the same time waving to all the couples, kids, and parents who were enjoying themselves on what I am going to affectionately call Swan Lake.

That night I went to Outback Steakhouse with the two girls from Saturday. We had a great time. It’s funny because the Japanese girl acted like she needed the Singaporean girl to translate everything I was saying too her. But when I noticed her laughing about an episode of Family Guy I was talking about I knew that she spoke and understood English, but that she would rather just speak Japanese. She used to live in America and she has traveled all over the world (the Japanese girl), so she had me fooled at first, but now she doesn’t ;).

That night I went to Karaoke with Brady, Becs and Aimster. It was fun, we burned calories and sang our hearts out to the point where I actually got tired.

Day 6:

Last day in Tokyo. I decided to head to Akihabra one last time. And I am so glad I did. First of all, I beat a couple of Japanese guys in Street Fighter IV and almost was able to have my name forever engraved in digital form if I had beaten Street Fighter IV the game, but unfortunately I lost in the last round to the Boss character Seth. Oh well, at least I beat some Japanese guys I played against. However, I am not so good at Tekken 6. I thought I was good, but if I’m good then these Japanese guys I played are God. You know the feeling you get when a situation is completely and utterly out of your control no matter how many buttons you press or how many times you move your joystick? Yeah…that was me. I got in a win on one round, and then I managed a few hits here and there…but, if I remember correctly this guy got at least two perfects on me. If not two then definitely one and then his life was only down a little bit for the one that I thought was a perfect. It was humiliating, but at the same time don’t talk junk to me because when’s the last time you even had the guts (or the ability) to take on a Japanese guy in Japan in a fighting game (Adam this totally excludes you)?

The other reason I am glad I went back to Akihabra is that I found the video game love of my life on sale and she was not a toy but a statue. I found Aeirs people…I found her!! And she was 20% off. If you don’t know what Aeirs is, look up “Final Fantasy VII” in a google search. She is the one with a long rod that is wearing a long pink dress kinda thing. She is wonderful, but alas, she died in the video game, and that was a sad day (wasn’t it Shari?).

That day I also ran into a band sorta festival thingie in Akihabra. It was mostly the scream at you bands where you bob your head really hard to the rock music. Paige, you would have loved it. I only stayed for about 15 minutes, but I got to be around Emo’s and shake my head really hard too. It was definitely an experience.

That night I had planned on taking it easy seeing as it was my last night in Tokyo. But, yet again, the two girls got in touch with me and told me they were going out and invited me to go with them and their two German friends and two Brazilian/Japanese friends. The Germans were guys and the Brazilian/Japanese were girls. I decided, what the heck, I’ll go out and just catch a cab back earlier than five (because cabs run all night) and my Shinkansen doesn’t leave until 11:30, I’ll be ok. I went out, had a great time and the two girls said they would be coming to Tottori. So yay, I have new friends!!!

I am on the Shinkansen right now writing this on my computer to paste into a post. I will get the pictures up as soon as I can, but tonight I am just going to relax because it’s back to work tomorrow. I actually miss these kids a little bit, but I already miss my Love, goodbye my Love, I shall see you once more….Tokyo.

-Jeremy aka The Pineapple…Brown on the outside and Yellow on the inside. I realize I am not an Oreo…I’m a pineapple people…a pineapple. If you don’t understand, take a second…