Stephen Sensei's Most Listened To #6

Kenji - FORT MINOR

only just got into this band. its a bit hip-hop/rap and it has the rapper from linkin park in it. this is not one of their singles but a really good rap about what linkin park rapper's grandfather went thru when he lived in america during the second world war. i recommend u listen to it. its really good

LET THE HULA HULA GAMES BEGIN!!! YEE-HAH!!

SO..... Second day of the mid year conference was more up to par than the night before. after keeping ourselves amused at the conference keeping tally on who made some stupid comments, we got ready and put on our lash hats and boots on and started the night off in Hirome. Much banter, curry and beers were had before we headed to some random sports bar with a whole bunch of JETs to drink ourselves stupid for 2-3 hours! we even got stamped on entry! proper good!

look at me mum!! ehehe
one of the highlights of the night. we were successfully the loudest people in the bar doing a classic game that flinty taught everyone. there were barnyard animals and noises and everything! absolute comedy! YEE HAAH!!
then we got a small group of mates into another couple of hours of all-u-can-drink karaoke. this is how we ended up of about 4 hours of non-stop boozing.
there's mike (aka. shovel boy), duncs and mike busting a rhyme

theres the genki karen, courtney and dashing dan. hehe

and theres tom, ?, erinn, paul's NZ chick and paul the wall!

and heres dan again with dillon, flinty and patrick!

my fav pic!

i dont think i have a straight face in any of these pics

nope, not one!

look closely at karens face. absolutely comedy!

for awhile there i was the only one to get their shirt off. i dont care, ive been going to the gym

flinty felt sorry for me i think so he gave it a go. in this pic he looks like mario enjoying some pasta
paul and mike got surprisingly close toward the end of the night. NIPPLE CRIPPLE!!
i have no idea what we were singing (i dont think anyone else did either)

but that stage, most of us went on to some club or went for a drunken conbini run before staggering home so we could wake up in time for the next day of the conference. good night, bad hangover the next day! i like!

For a good laugh, here's a link to a vid i took at Karaoke of some of the boys getting well into a backstreet boys track!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_4qX7hEYmg

News just to hand....

In order to show you how much i live in the sticks, it came to my attention yesterday that the Senior High School in my Village/Town, will be closing after this year to new students. They will still be open, but only until this years 1st year students graduate on their 3rd year. Crikey! its ok though, coz i dont teach there anymore, but shit..... there are more students in the Senior High than in the Junior High where i teach.

Cold inaka weather in the mountains

Last night it rained a bit and to show u how cold it gets up here, it actually snowed up in the mountains not too far from where i live. I had a little free time between classes early this morning so I took the opportunity to take some snaps. they turned out pretty good. About an hour after I had taken these pics, at about 10:30, most of the snow had already melted away. i hope it snows more here. fingers crossed ay. hey, school gets cancelled if it snows heaps.

Stephen Sensei's Most Listened To #5 and New Year Resolution

run - COG

Welcome back to another week of Stephen's most listened to. This week i decided to dedicate this song to my New Year Resolution. Its quite a catchy tune and the band is awesome. And theyre Aussies too. Their sound is new and fresh and it is amazing how they can get a sound like that from only a 3-piece band. i hope you enjoy it.

ALT Mid-Year Conference Day One

Last week we had a 3-day conference in Kochi City for all ALT'S (my job) and JTE's (Japanese Teacher of English) and we learned about the joys of team-teaching and so on and so on. being a second-year JET now i actually knew what they were talking about and the most challenging part of the conference was keep awake and to keep tally of all the gay comments that our friend knobchops made (wanker)! After the end of the conference on the 1st day, most of us checked into a hotel and then put our drinking caps on and went out on the town. All lot of the JET's who liked safety in numbers went bowling, but i instead opted out to go out with my good mates, and get quite lashed at dinner and then at the cheeky pool place. Here are some of the highlights that made it onto camera of the night.

Duncan decided to snort 7spices with Carl.
And this ladies and gentlemen is the face of absolute shear pain and stupidity. its amazing what u'll do with a few beers in ya.
Then it was off to the pool place for some more drinks.

and after doing a thousand, IT WAS TIME FOR THE GUN SHOW! how many did u do? OH, I FEEL THE BURN.

After we got sick of bowling, we met up with some of the other JETs in Obiyamachi and tried to get them to go to Karaoke. but they all wanted to do what the cool cats were doing and opted out. So, Flinty, Karen, Mika, Paul and myself went to the Irish Pub and downed a few cheeky pints before calling it a night.

Mysteries of the Human Body Exhibit

In case nobody has heard of it, there is an exhibition which has been touring all over the world, providing a good opportunity to familiarize ourselves with our own bodies. Over 700,000 people came to the exhibition held in Tokyo last year and there have been over 4 million visitors to date, all locations added up. The exhibition utilizes precious specimens and pictures and materials to demonstrate the mystery of the human body. The show includes exhibits made directly from actual organs - some of them open to touch. The human anatomic specimen on display is real and have called been made possible with the recently developed technique plastination. Plastomic anatomic specimens make possible semi-permanent preservation at room temperature, with no odor, or staining while preserving elasticity.

Mika forced me to go along with her to see this exhibition while we were in Kobe. It should also be heading to Kochi in the next month or so. It was a definite eye opener boys and girls. These are real people who have died and been cut up for us all to see. I personally, wasnt too happy about the fact that we had both eaten lunch prior going to this but anyways, it is something that i think we should all see to satisfy our own curiousity. The highlight for me was holding an actual human brain in my hands to see how much they weigh. they are heavier than u think. Also, looking at the unborn fetuses and the adult who body sliced into little tiny pieces definitely got the stomach churning. it was just freaky to see these people, who have only possibly been dead for a few months on display. But the thing that got to me the most were the eyes, if u go, avoid looking them in the eyes ..... hehe. anyways, I'm gonna post a few pics i found on the net so if u dont wanna see these pics, then please scroll quickly down to the previous posts.

New Years Party Shenanigans

OK. so its taken me pretty all of January to write about what i did almost a month ago but here are some pics of what i got up to NewYears Eve with Mika and her friends in Kobe.

So to start, Mum, heres a pic of me still fairly sober. hehe

Every year it seems Mika and her friends reunite from different parts of Japan for a New Years bash. i went last year but there wasnt as many people as this. There were 16 people in fact. But the guy who organised the bar, forgot that it was small as hell and we had a ball trying to sit everyone down around the tables. at least their was beer.

There was a lot of love that night.....hehe. thats Komacchan and Isao (both have gf's, dont worry).

heres a funny pic. take a look at the guy in the middle. apparently this guy is trying to become a japanese comedian and is training up so he can get a go on tv sometime.

This guy in between us is Kuri, the guy whose party i went to last time i was in Kobe. he's quite a cadbury but seemed to forget that after a few bevvies. in short, it was safe to say that he spent most of his time making love to the porcelain bowl after midnight.

this is the other half of the table

After we waited for it to clock over 12, we put our drinks up in the air for a bit and then headed as most people do to Karaoke. We had a huge room but not everyone could make it. cue in time for lots of beer.

all i can say about this guy is that he teaches maths at a school in Nagoya. comedy

there's mika and CB looking a bit tired, but it was about 3am at this stage and they are old girls....hehe.

Then, out of the blue, Mika got a call from her little bro Hide saying that he was in the booth next to us. so i kept drunkily changing karaoke rooms, in order to get everyone fired up. i often kept going intoHide's room and had some drinking games with his boys. it was classic.

its safe to say i dont remember much after this ....

.... and this.

It was a good night. we all got home around 5 or 6am and then slept for most of the day feeling sorry for ourselves.

Stephen Sensei's Most Listened To #4

SHIHAD - Alive

Well here's a great tune by a great rock band (even if they are from New Zealand). I think its a great song to start the new year off and will kick everyone into gear good and proper. enjoy Shihad again..... your welcome Vercs.

hanging out with old mates!

Just before the New Year, seeing as tho i had some free time on my hands, I called up some of my old mates that i met while on exchange in kobe and we went out on the booze like always. so i met up with my 3 mates who used to go to my soccer class once a week. Only this time, they were at an actual legal age to drink....hehe. it was cool. we went to the old yakitori izakaya and had an all u can eat/drink course for a few hours. Seeing as tho they, were now 22, not 19, i thought they could all handle their booze quite well, but i was wrong. we didnt drink ourselves stupid but the word, CADBURY kept popping into my mind.

This is me with Kyou and Jin (left to right). Kyou's face isnt usually that red (it only takes him a beer to become bright red).

This is my good mate Naoya. We used to keep in touch with each other but he kept changing his email address. We had a chance encounter last year sometime when i went to the movies in kobe with mika. And decided to catch up the next time i was in kobe.

At my favourite Yakitori joint, Tori-no-suke!

Then i invited the boys to go to a local bar i frequented coz i was good mates with the owner/master, Nasubi. He was just closing up when we got there but he let come in for a beer. which turned into about 4 or 5 for me. he's a bloody legend. i always enjoy going there. its good for a laugh.

The boys were a bit lightweight so we ended drinks short after that and went home. it was good to see them, and get out of mika's place for a bit too.....hehe

Xmas Eve in Kobe

The night before Christmas Eve, Mika and I were invited by a couple who attend my english conversation class, Michiko and Yan-san, to a lovely home-cooked meal on a proper dining table with knives and forks....and STEAK! mmmmm. Thank you very much. they are such nice people.

The next day, Xmas Eve, we packed up early and started off our Christmas holiday by taking the long road through the mountains back to Kobe. By the time we got there we only had a short time to relax before dressing up and heading into Sannomiya (in the heart of Kobe) for a lovely dinner. Afterwards, we met up with Mika's best friend Yoko (a.k.a CB) and her boyfriend and had a couple of celebratory drinks together before calling it a night.

this is now the 3rd or 4th time i had ever seen Mika in some sort of dress without wearing jeans. she looked very nice, but cold at the same time. Japanese sense of fashion sure is weird.