Golly

my car. wanna buy it? hehe

2008-07-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

Chasers War on Everything - Piss Funny Clip on the Apec Security

2008-01-07T09:07:00.001-08:00

this is a piss funny clip from The Chasers War on Everything, a really funny show in the abc in oz. the APEC summit for climate change was being held and security was supposed to be tight as due to have world leaders such as george w himself in the country. so the boys from chasers decided to test out the security and made themselves a fake motorcade with osama bin laden in the car. they managed to get through with ease which is quite scary when u think about it. anyways, its all pretty self explanatory so enjoy.....

They finally meet each other on Christmas Day in Japan.

2007-12-26T05:43:00.000-08:00

My parents came to Japan to spend Christmas with me so i thought it would be a good opportunity for Mika and my parents to finally meet each other and have a nice Christmas dinner together. The thing is though that both my parents and Mika's parents cant speak the others languages so it was left up to me to be the translator for the night. It went pretty well. except for a couple of times when i started speaking in Japanese to my parents and in English to Mika's parents.....hehehe.

Stephens Choice Song of The Week

2007-12-16T09:04:00.001-08:00

Maximum the Hormone - Koi No MegaLover

Heres an awesome Japanese band that i have just come across and seen live in august. they are part metal/punk/hip hop and are a great act to see live!! And their name is "Maximum the Hormone" so what else needs to be said?

Last Day in Japan with Adam

2007-12-16T06:09:00.000-08:00

Here are some final picks with Adam before going our separate ways. Mate, it was awesome to have u over here and hopefully i can make my way over there to see ya in England soon.

Heres a pic with Mika's brothers Hide (left) and Kengo (right....and also the older brother). Dont know why Kengo found he needed to make that face.
this is at Mika's place
Mika's parents. Her dad had just woken up (it was late at night) to take that picture with us.

Saying goodbye to Adam in central Kobe
we went and had a beer before seeing him off

then off Mika and I went to enjoy our 4th Year Anniversary in style!!

Safe Travels ADAM and see you soon!!!

Adam in Hiroshima

2007-12-16T05:23:00.000-08:00

So we got up on Wednesday and headed towards Hiroshima. Thankfully, I have an awesome road map so we got around ok. This foto was only part of the long, huge bridge that joins Shikoku to Honshu (the main island of Japan).
after a couple of wrong turns, we found an awesome free park right in front of the Peace Park.
This is an awesome sculpture that is designed so u can see both the everlasting flame and the ABOMB DOME.
a close up. under the marble is the register for all those who have died from the bomb.
here we are. NO, WE ARE NOT AMERICAN!!! HEHEHE!
Childrens Memorial Statue of Sadako, the poor little girl who died from radiation poisoning and tried to make herself better by folding over 1000 paper cranes.

The A-Bomb Dome

This is inside the Peace Museum. Heres a before shot of Hiroshima.

And here is the after shot. It was pretty intense in there. You really need to go in and check it out for yourself.
Afterwards, we went to check out Hiroshima Castle. Obviously, it was destroyed in the blast and they did pretty well to restore, but compared to some of the other castles that both Adam and I have been to, this was pretty average.

Before getting back in the car, Adam and I went walkabouts in the city. We came accross this girl who stood outside a chemists and quite literally screamed out in a high pitched voice for people to go into the store. We both found it quite amusing and annoying at the same time. and then after a bit more wandering about, we jumped back in the car and head back to Kobe to stay at Mika's so Adam could catch the Shinkansen on Thursday to get him to Tokyo.

Adam in the Inaka pt2

2007-12-16T04:27:00.000-08:00

So, on last Tuesday, I made Adam get up early and come along with me to work for the day. My school allowed me to bring my brother to class with me so he saw what i do most days..... which isnt much, ay? hehe. welcome to the JET programme!!

Anyways, Adam came to school, met all the teachers and the people from the Board of Education in the morning and then came along to my classes with the 3rd graders (who are awesome compared to the 2nd graders) and they had some telephone conversation skits to perform in front of everyone and Adam. Then, Adam gave a little Self-Introduction in front of everyone and they asked him a lot of questions. The first question was, "Do you like your brother?" hehe. Adam said, "Sometimes!" hehe. Adam did well coz it is very hard getting up in front of a whole bunch of people.

After the classes, all the 3rd grade girls came running up to Adam and pretty blatantly flirted with him. They asked him if he had a girlfriend and he said YES. In an hours time after lunch, almost all the girls at school knew that he had a girlfriend much to their disgust. they told him to break up with her and go out with them. so there u go Adam..... if things dont work out for kate u have some 14-15yr old girls waiting for ya back in the sticks in japan. AHAHAHAHHA!!!

At the end of the day, Im in charge of the English Club so i got adam to cook something up for the kids and to try speak in English with him. We wanted to make ANZAC biscuits but we couldnt find all the ingredients here so we made choc chip cookies instead. they went down a treat.. VERY NOICE!!

Unfortunately, no fotos were taken by me that day so apologies. After work was over, we went to the big shopping mall and bought some presents and went home to organise our trip to Hiroshima.

On Wednesday, after sleeping a little bit longer than we shouldve, we got all our shit together and jumped in the car and drove to Hiroshima. It was a pretty ordinary day and thankfully we didnt get lost. more to follow this post.

Adam's trip to Urban and Rural Japan (Pt. I)

2007-12-14T06:07:00.000-08:00

It's been ages in posting but hopefully heres the start of many more posts to come. this week has been a busy week....... but not workwise. My brother, Adam, came to see me for a week in Japan on his way to live in England (yet again). I wasnt able to pick Adam up from the airport when he touched down in Narita (Tokyo), but he did an amazing job of getting to Kobe. We were a little bit worried coz we hadnt heard from him before he got on the Shinkansen but we figured hed already gotten on it in a hurry. but we didnt know which station he was gonna get off on so Mika and I went into central Kobe for a couple of cheeky beverages before finally getting a call from adam to tell us where he was. He wasnt hard to spot once we picked him up coz he looked like a hobo waiting outside a convenience store with a couple of empty beer cans on the ground and was getting waived at by various japanese people. hehe.

so we got him back to mikas house where he said gday to her family before crashing from exhaustion. The next morning we had to take the Highway Bus back to my hometown in Kochi Prefecture and arrived there just after lunch. at home, we had a bit of time to spare to kick back and relax before going to an end of year party and welcome to kochi party for Adam with my English Conversation students.

My English Conv. class had prepared questions and something to present to him all in english with me before he came. they were amazing. we had the party in a private room at some nice hotel on the ocean and they had some really nice fresh food waiting for us once we arrived. Adam digged in and tried everything and i just told him the way they drink with each other over here whilst my students tried chatting to him about different things.

They even got him dancing their local tradition dance.....AHAHAHAH!!!

The next day, we were a little hungover so we had a sleep in and then i showed him the village i used to live in. i was expecting a bigger reaction as to how rural it was but he seemed to like it, although he probably could never live in a place like that.

But the scenery here is really beautiful.

This is the Nagase Dam which u could see from my old apartment everyday. unfortunately its not as green as it usually is and the water level has dropped down a bit but its still a good pic!

I took him around my town in about 5 mins....yes, its that big! but we popped in at my old Junior High to say gday. it was cool to show off my bro for a day....

Then, after checking out where i used to live, we drove into the main city in Kochi and checked out one of the main tourist attractions, Kochi Castle.

I actually forgot to take a pic of the castle itself coz ive been here so often. the view from the top is pretty good.

That bloody hat of Adams never came off his head! but i spose he got his 9 bucks worth!!

Outside the castle gates

Then we went to Katsurahama Beach.

They have a statue for their local hero, Sakamoto Ryoma.

He was a General (i think) of Kochi Pref. and protected them from many invasions.

Thats the beach.

You're not even allowed to swim in it!

Much to Adams disgust.

Theres a little temple up on that mountain.

Theres also a small aquarium which has some cool dolphins and whatnot in it.

Anyways, after that, it got dark and we went back home to get some rest and so i could cook up Adam some food i usually have for dinner in Japan. I got a good review.

anyways, i will write more soon coz, Adam went to my school the next day. post laters!!

Stephen Sensei Favourite Song of the Week

2007-11-12T09:27:00.001-08:00

COG - What If

So here is the long, anticipated new single to Cog's new album, set to be in selling like hot cakes in stores throughout australia. This band has to be my most australian band at the moment and i think if you watch this you can see why. Enjoy.

LONG TIME NO SEE!!

2007-11-12T09:16:00.000-08:00

gday everyone. i know its been ages since my last post but i should be continually updating my blog from now on now that i have a computer at home now and the internet.

So stay tuned. I'll let you know what ive been getting up to soon.

Good Morning Mr Stephen!!

2007-04-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

So, its been awhile since my last post! i spose uve all been wondering whats been happening? hehe. Well, spring came, bringing some lovely cherry blossoms with it, some of my students finally graduated and are going on to senior high school, i went back to Australia for the easter break and mika has come back to kochi for a few days for me. so it all sounds like ive been enjoying myself! i have except for the lovely changes my BOE has made to my job moments after school had finished for the year. more on these lovely events once i get the fotos up and everything. stay tuned

Stephen Sensei's Most Listened To # 9

2007-03-26T22:41:00.001-07:00

Sly - THE CAT EMPIRE

Nothing much to be said on this great aussie band other than they are awesome to see live! great track! puts u in a great mood guaranteed and u'll be wanting to do those awesome dance moves towards the end of the track. U MUST AT LEAST CHECK OUT THIS SONG! U WILL LIKE IT!!

...On a much brighter note....

2007-03-08T23:10:00.000-08:00

at least having scenery around like these fotos i took yesterday at work, puts me in a good mood. While its not cherry blossom season just yet, a few trees have been sprouting up around where i live. here are some awesome pics (if i do say so myself) that i took. please tell me which is the best foto.

i think this one is the best

along with this one with the dam in the background

PISSED OFF!!!!!

2007-03-08T22:15:00.000-08:00

Fucking stupid work! The people in my BOE are fucking retards. Last night, I hear a rumour from one of the other ALTs in my city, Erinn, telling me that all of us 3 ALTs' positions are yet to change again. And what i heard has really made me worry about what im going to be doing for the next year or for however long this change is going to last. Today, whilst teaching in Tosayamada, i decided to go into the BOE to see if there was any truth to the rumour i heard last night. It was all true!

So this is what i have been told. They are changing our positions so they can stop me and Erinn from teaching in our towns more than what they are doing now. At the moment we all work at least 2 days a week at the primary schools in Tosayamada, and the rest at the primary and junior high schools in our own towns. And this is absolutely fine, whereas ADAM (AKA KNOBCHOPS) has it the easiest and is only working at one school in Tosayamada. Anyways.....
The changes under consideration are as follows:

ALT JOB # 1
There will be one ALT who will work at all the schools in Kahoku and Odochi. They both have one primary school and one Junior high school. And this will be rationed out to 3 days a week in Kahoku and 2 days a week in Odochi. So this means the BOE (ie the bitch of a BOE HEAD) doesnt like where Erinn and i live so shes not gonna let us teach there anymore.

ALT JOB # 2
There will be one ALT who will only work at Kagamino Junior High School all week. This junior high is in Tosayamada (the bigger town) and will no doubt be going to Adam yet again.

ALT JOB # 3
There will be another ALT who will only go to all the primary schools in Tosayamada, meaning that Erinn or I might have to move there. At the moment i can only see Erinn or myself doing this job so i would really like to know who's going where. This job will entail going to Yamada Primary (which i already go to) once a week, Kuzume Primary (which i go to) once a week, another primary (i dont go to once a week) and the other two days rotating around the other schools.

None of us no where we are going to be assigned as they are still planning the changes. But with less than a month now until the new school starts, i wish they would pull their finger out of their arse because i would really like to know. to them, its not a big deal. hey, they havent even bothered to ask us if we agree or have any opinions ourselves on the change, but hey, were foreigners in Japan and have absolutely fuck all of a say in the matter. i had to go there today to ask them if we could possibly sit down and discuss this and they told us to wait until they had finalised everything and until after all the graduations are over with, which leaves them with the 2 weeks in the spring break before school goes back to tell us. that really is going to help u fucknuts! Most of us ALTs will be travelling during the spring break here so we wont be able to sit down with each other at all during the holidays.

I swear to God this has made my day! how retarded do they have to be to make these kinds of changes at this time of year, just a few weeks away from the new school year. They have been thinking about how they can change our roles for at least half a year now and havent come up with anything concrete or found the need to tell the people in question about their ideas for the change. So fucking unprofessional!

Stephen Sensei's Most Listened To # 8

2007-03-06T23:13:00.001-08:00

Monsters - SOMETHING FOR KATE

heres a band i recently started listening to again. they are a great aussie band who i have seen numerous times. they are quite an easy band to put on the stereo and chill out to. To stick em in a genre id have to say they are a rock band with a mellow element. this song is quite good and from their 3rd album Echolalia. I tried to find a song from their 2nd album Beautiful Sharks, but i couldnt find anything to put up. I recommend tho having a listen to some of the songs off their 2nd album coz it really is a beautiful album to listen to and u will find urself singing along to many of their songs.

Hanshin Tigers Baseball Lash Weekend 2007 AFTER PARTAY PICS!!!!

2007-03-06T22:03:00.000-08:00

anyways, so after we all got back to flintys we had chilled out for a bit before we headed off to a nice italian restaurant for some food and all the booze we could fit in in two hours. many f an intellectual conversations were had as well as some food and then we headed off for karaoke and went to the booth we trashed the year before after the hanshin game. the owner actually let us pissed gaijin back in. here are some fotos i think noone will get angry at me by putting up.

heres me looking quite intellectual with the reading glasses i found. apparently they keep spare reading glasses in this place so the old people can read the karaoke book. anyways, i may look sober here but i really wasnt
heres a sexy foto of some of the girls!
and i think im trying to lead the people into singing along with me
everyne look at the camera!
ur still not looking flinty!

i think any foto after this one i took i am banned from posting about so....

heres the sea of people who crashed at flintys place. thanks again flinty and karen for letting us stay

....somehow the glasses found their way home with me. ooowwww!! headache

some incoherent rambling...

2007-03-06T21:09:00.000-08:00

it had been brought to my attention that all i do on this blog is post about me getting drunk with my mates on the weekend. while everyone is entitled to their opinion, what the hell else is there to do in Kochi other than getting on the piss occasionally with your mates? there is nothing wrong with it unless it is in moderation....hehe. hello people, we do live in the Drinking Prefecture of Kochi so i say do as the Romans do while your here. I've met heaps of great people and friends while being here in kochi because of a few bevvies. doesnt make me an alcoholic now does it? it is just part of the culture here in japan. and while most of the people in my town think i drink every night, i am continuously telling them i dont, which is the gods honest truth. during the weekdays, i never feel the need to touch a drop unless invited to an enkai or whatnot. other than that, on the weekend in order to keep my sanity for being in the sticks all week, i often go out for a few cheeky beers like any other person my age would do with their mates.

I am here to assist in teaching english and to help internationalise some of the people in my town. This cannot be done in the school alone and so occasionally i go to the local waterhole and start chatting with the locals. for such a small village and there being a lot of old people here, i think my village has slowly become quite accepting of its local foreigners who have called this place home over the past 8 or so years. dont get me wrong, there is still a long way to go but just the fact that people come up to me and arent afraid to talk to me, signifies how the JET programme has had some kind of an influence in japan. and being in the inaka, that is a fucking huge step for the folk here.

take this as an example, last weekend while at the local pub, before the place closed, some guy there that i had passed in the street and exchanged greetings with every now and then invited me back to his place to have a couple of beers with his wife. we talked about heaps of cool stuff, they asked me about where i live in oz and what it was like etc. it was probably the closest thing these people would ever have to going overseas. they in turn told me a few things about Odochi here that noone had ever told me about. it was cool. u would never have this kind of experience in Australia, because people just dont trust each other there.

but then u have some people here that just think all gaijin need to be put on display and be made a big spectacle out of. we are sometimes the source of conversation for japanese people and it makes me sad sometimes to be a part of. especially for some of the people here who dont know the local dialect. they want u to speak in english to them and think we're so cool if we say "HELLO. HOW ARE YOU?" and there are others who just blurt out random english to be cool in front of their friends and the foreigner. then u have the ignorant people who think we are aliens and feel the need to feel ur teeth to see if our teeth are similar to the more superior japanese person. but these kind of people can be found anywhere in the world.

anyways i enjoy posting about my nights on the town with the boys as im sure those who were invloved enjoy reading them and checking out the fotos i put up. at least i will have something to look back on when im in another part of the world somewhere doing something else.

They Took Our Jobs!!!!

2007-03-01T22:43:00.001-08:00

DERKA DERRRR!!!!

Hanshin Tigers Baseball Lash Weekend 2007

2007-02-26T23:08:00.000-08:00

well... i sit here on a tuesday arvo in my BOE, still tired from last weekend's lashing. the beer monkey definitely came out victorious. It all started Friday evening when i drove down to Flinty's for some pre-match beers with some of the usual crowd. i wish they couldve told me when i got there they werent drinking that much because after a lovely bottle of Kobe wine and a few beers, i was in quite a festive mood. Woke up the next morning hungover and with a killer headache. hehe. but that was until most of the boys and i decided to crack open a beer (like any normal person would at 10am) and slowly get into the festive spirit so we could have some great baseball banter. The thing is every year there are two teams, the Hanshin Tigers and the Orix Buffaloes, who have pre-season baseball camps in Kochi and while they are here, they have a couple of exhibition matches both in Aki City (where we went) and in Kochi City. Hanshin (balck and yellow) is usually the stronger of the two teams.

So anyways... once we arrived, we got our tickets from joel and then proceeded with the gun show! Can u feel the burn!
i reckon we had the best view in the stadium, just not the best seats. look behind flinty and i and see how steep the slope was that we were sitting on. we also had to climb up that once the beer was flowing quite regularly. surprisingly enough noone stacked it too badly. hehe.
theres matt, coutney, kaz ad paul (in the black shirt with his ninja armband... ooh scary.. hehe)
here are some of the other JETs who came to watch. they also helped us cheer on Lin and the tigers... well everyone except for arniel. I swear the entire crowd there were going for Hanshin except for arniel (and he copped a bit of shit but he was a good sport about it).
an action shot of the Hanshin Tigers batting ( i think this was Lin). If u look toward the left of the sign u can see a guy dressed in white leading the unsuspecting crowd in the hanshin dance. he was such a spanner but provided all us JETs with some comedy entertainment once the baseball was boring.
there were flag wavers and everything. that old guy almost had a heart attack. get this tho, he is a member of the Private Cheerleading Team for Hanshin. how comedy is that.. damn silly ojiichan.

during the sixth innings before hanshin were to bat, it is tradition at all hanshin games to blow up these big penis shaped balloons

like this

and then they all let go of them. when there are more people around, it looks amazing!

Unfortunately though, Hanshin ending up losing (and the day after in Kochi as well i heard) but for us foreigners we stayed there until the end of the match seeing as tho most Japanese Hanshin fans were all pissing off home with 2 innings to go.

me and jess

anyways, once some of us decided to head back to flinty's for more lashing, we took some fotos, had a cheeky coffee and then got on the train home.

more info on what happens next later. stay tuned!

in the classroom!

2007-02-26T22:53:00.000-08:00

I realised i dont ever really take any fotos of some of my classes so when i taught colours to the primary school kids, i decided to make them play Twister. it sounds like an easy lesson, but i had to make at least 3 other twister mats for em to play on. and then getting them all to shut up so i could tell the next person their move was an extra-challenging thing to do. but all in all, the kids had a good time with it, especially if they were sore in the arms and legs. hehe. here are some fotos of the 3rd graders. they have to be my favourite 3 nensei's i teach.
heres one of the mats i made. still useable. i made it out of the paper tablecoths they use at enkais (japanese parties). quite sturdy.
there were some hilarious poses
... especially this girl. but she loved it!! hehe

Were we really that stupid when we were that age?

2007-02-18T22:59:00.000-08:00

Today, i had the absolute joy of teaching my favourite 5nensei at Yamada Elementary... NOT! i swear to God they shit me to tears. It makes u wonder what we were like when we were that age.
Today i taught the kids the phrase "How old are you?". Simple enough right. We went through numbers, did a quick game and then went to the main activity which was BINGO. Now, kids here do bingo quite a lot but this was a little different. I made a sheet with nine faces on it, leaving one in the middle blank for the students to draw in their own face. under all the faces was written "I'm _____". I told the kids, after desperately trying to get their attention, to just write their favorite number from 1-12 under their own face. Then i told them to draw their own face. I repeated the just write a number only under ur own face about 5 times and there were still some retarded kids who wrote a number down under all 9 faces!!! DAMN MONGOLOIDS!! how hard is it to follow instructions? i did the same class almost with the 3nensei and they grapsed the whole "write under only ur own face" concept that i had told them time and time again.
Hey, i know this is only a small thing but knowing i have to teach those damn 5th years on monday mornings puts me in a shitty mood for the rest of the day! hehe

Stephen Sensei's Most Listened To # 7

2007-02-15T23:40:00.001-08:00

Bondi - COG

well heres a solid live video by COG when they performed on Channel V awhile ago. This is apparently an old song of theirs i recently heard and i havent stopped watching it. its an awesome song. the guys voice is amazing and i still cant believe they can get that sound from just 3 people.

Mountain Boy's Update!

2007-02-15T23:29:00.000-08:00

So this weekend mika is going back to Kobe to live there for a bit and save up some money. We're driving there on Saturday and hopefully go out for a couple of drinks or whatnot together before i have to drive back home on Sunday by myself. Its gonna be weird not living with her. i suppose im now too used of someone cleaning the house and cooking most of meals for me...hehe. Mika wishes everyone well and she'll be back for visits every month or so, depending on if she can take holidays. have a good weekend peeps!

Warning: The following engrish may be offensive to ur sense of humour

2007-02-12T22:03:00.000-08:00

Not that i have been keeping an eye out for funny english (it just keeps falling in my lap), but i have found a couple of classic shirts which make absolutely no sense. here are said shirts:
For those unfortunate enough not to be able to read this it says: "ALL STEADIES. The taste of a new sense. Anyone is cheerful and safe only with The food 1972 which gives all a dream MASTER COCK. A free feeling thinks that you may take it to all VERY GENTLE PEOPLE. American cherry pie Type 2"
NO MORE CONCENTRATE. If you sould like to come, I will waiting here. We cannot help comming if you are busy. When you get tired, walk slowly. It's OK. But you must over this slope sooner later. After later ～

WHAT THE HELL ARE JAPANESE PEOPLE ON WHEN THEY WRITE UP THIS SHIT?!?!?!?!

Hisashiburi Update

2007-02-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

Well, heres what has been happening up my end of the woods lately (and i do mean woods). Lately some difficult decisions have had to be made, some not yet decided.

On the positive side, i have signed the recontracting papers meaning i will be staying yet another year on the JET programme in the inaka until august next year. From there, i dont know yet.

Mika and i are doing well but we both decided that for now it would be better for her to go back to Kobe temporarily so she can save some money up. She hasnt managed to find a job here in the 6months shes been here (or hasnt tried.....i dont know) so for now, shes going back. she got her old job at the video shop which is good. I'm not a big fan of the whole idea at the moment but think that some time away from each other at the moment would be good for the both of us.
Also, just yesterday i bought a return ticket to Australia to see my family and friends. got it pretty cheap too (or so i thought until i got raped by the departure and airport tax), the ticket cost me 67000yen ($700) and it all up ended costing me 114000yen ($1140). but hey thats pretty good seeing as tho i'll be able to be home with the family for the easter long weekend! i'll be gone from the 4th April till about the 14th April. YAY!!

So not much else has been happening of late other than work and occasionally hitting the japanese beer with the boys. but have been mostly trying to save up some coin because women are bloody expensive creatures. hehe

hope everyone is doing well! keep in touch peeps!

Stephen Sensei's Most Listened To #6

2007-01-30T00:03:00.001-08:00

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!!

2007-01-29T22:47:00.000-08:00

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....

2007-01-24T23:55:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-23T23:07:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-23T22:30:00.001-08:00

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

2007-01-22T23:35:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-22T22:51:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-22T22:09:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-16T00:32:00.001-08:00

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!

2007-01-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-08T22:22:00.000-08:00

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.

i think it was a christmas party...

2007-01-08T21:57:00.000-08:00

As it just so happens, Karen held a Xmas party at her place in Noichi and because its probably best not to remind her of some of the things that happened, i will just post a few pictures of the night.

there were a couple of marriage ceremonies somehow performed during the evening. please explain

I'm trying to eat Mika's bling-bling

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2007-01-08T21:50:00.000-08:00

Well, gday everyone. Hope u had a good start to the New Year. why not keep it going by looking at some lovely engrish goodies i found over the xmas break.

....yeah! need wet tissue wipes. why not wipe urself off with some GOON!

...no. it is not a shop for cannibalism!

Merry Christmas EVERYONE!

2006-12-22T00:15:00.001-08:00

hey everyone! this will be my last post for 2006 because i will be going to Kobe with Mika for Christmas until January 3rd'ish. Thank you to all for such a great year and heres to enjoying next year too! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR WHEREVER YOU ARE IN THE WORLD!

Stephen Sensei's Most Listened To Music #3

2006-12-21T23:53:00.001-08:00

Home Again- SHIHAD

Probably one of the better rock bands that i have seen live. their gigs are always amazing even if they do actually come from New Zealand. hehe. This fits my mood the best at the moment heading into Christmas. i cant im not homesick and that itd be awesome to go back to oz for a bit but heres a song for those back home. I'll be home again soon folks.

2006 Winter ALT Soccer Tournament

2006-12-20T23:22:00.000-08:00

Well, earlier this month our ken got together another bunch of men and women and we went to partake in some bonding rituals through soccer. hehe. it is safe to say that us boys sucked and the girls, as usual, played much better than us. but we didnt let any team beat us when there was alcohol invloved so i think we can all keep our heads held high in the sky for that. well done boys. anyways, here are some pics i got off monica ofsome of the weekend and of me. i couldnt be arsed writing captions now, so will edit this later.

"The stocking is in my box."

2006-12-12T22:03:00.000-08:00

well..... i found it quite difficult not to laugh when i heard my JTE say this during class this morning as im sure you all do. come on....its funny!

Some Great Autumn Shots

2006-12-05T22:31:00.000-08:00

Well, its winter now in Japan, and it is frickin freezin where i live! But not too long ago toward the end of autumn there were some lovely red leave trees in bloom about a half hours drive into the mountains from where i live so one i went to take some fotos to show you all. some of the fotos came out really well and really captured the beauty of where i live. enjoy

i really like this pic cos of all the different colours.

if u zoom in on this pic its like ur going right down the river

probably one of the best fotos ive ever taken.

and this is the second

its such a shame that there is only a short space of time that u get the chance to see this once a year.
Yosh, now its time to freeze my bollocks off! Thank god for Kotatsu's!!

Here are some sexy fotos for ya!

2006-11-27T22:36:00.000-08:00

On Sunday 26th November, 2006, i once again took part in my town's 49th Annual Kachin-sai Sumo Tournament, sumo diaper and all. I heard some of the locals telling me before i was too inebriated after the tourny that it was held to comemorate a tragic fire that tore through Monobe Village about 50 years ago....... so there you go. Anyways, the tournament includes anyone who can get a team together of three or more. They range from my Junior High school to the staff from my town office and the fire brigade. i saw many old faces from last year and also brought a bit of internationalisation to my town by inviting an american friend of mine, Charles who wanted to give it a go. We got my JTE's husband involved in the team too and called ourselves the International Relations Team (国際交流チーム）. All week, i had been dreading wearing a mawashi (sumo diaper thing) but somehow wasnt embarassed as much as last year and managed to have a good time. But i think the fact that having a 193cm tall American with me helped that....hehe... cheers Charles. I was in more matches than last year which means that I did better than last year but still didnt break my more than 2 win record from last year. anyways here are some pics for ur amusement. prepare for some of the most sexy fotos in the world. just remember it was really cold out there. hehehe. honest!

Note: this is how sumo is supposed to look.

And here are the champions! The guy on the far left is a 2nd year senior high student and he came first in the Individual category and then continuing from the left is my Junior High Schools team with Mitsuki (3rd year), my Deputy Principal Taniuchi Sensei, and one of my 1st years, Yoshiki. They won the group tournament which is awesome to say the least.

And here's my team with Charles, myself and Tamura (my JTE's husband). dont laugh....hehe

here is Tamura in action. he was quite an asset to have in our team, having at least gone to practise once before turning up.

and here the secret weapon. Charles did really well and my plan of intimidating our opponents worked to some extent.

theres urs truly and my best side

or is it this one? i forget

and then heres a picture of me stacking it yet again and losing a match. sorry team.

my deputy principal did awesome for his first go at sumo but hurt his arm toward the end and couldnt compete. he looked buggered all tournament. and hes the PE teacher at my school

the winner of the invidual tourny. unfortunately charles had the fortune of going up against him on his last match before we got kicked out of the competition.

Before the closing ceremony they got Charles and i up on stage to do a MUSUBI which thankfully wasnt a proper match but we had to do everything up to our first contact with each other. they then, to both of our surprise thanked us for coming and presented us with 5000yen each! BACK OF THE NET!!

i cant kneel well

im pretty sure i wouldve lost that match if it went any further

all in all it i had i great time. it wasnt as embarassing as i thought itd be and will cherish this experience for a long time. that, and the fact that all participants got 4000yen for turning up and join in on the contest. 9000yen to wear a sumo diaper, now thats a good incentive. drinks on me!

THE MARS VOLTA CONCERT- Zepp Osaka

2006-11-20T23:35:00.000-08:00

HEY! HEY! How are ya doin? Anyways, i have just come back from Kobe after spending the weekend over there and while i was there i had the great pleasure of watching one of my most favourite band, the Mars Volta. im sure you're all shocked that i didnt say Metallica but they are completely different bands. For one thing, it is extrememely difficult to classify The Mars Volta into one genre of music coz they have so many influences. Im rambling now so here was how the concert went.

Got there on time, bought a great shirt, put my shit in a locker, bought a beer for each hand and went to stand to wait for them to come out. Met some JET from Kagawa, had a beer and chat and then the band came out with some rocking beats that noone had ever heard. Omar had gotten rid of his famous afro that he's known for and sported an actual normal haircut and Cedric kept the aff, but did some wierd parting the front of his down thing. quite funny. the mars volta are quite different than the usual band as they are known for their long songs(up to 30 mins) and they like to jam and experiment up on stage. so anyone who didnt know this would be in for the shock of their lives but for me, they were awesome. they came out with some pretty catchy rock tunes that u were able to groove along to and they just went to show how good they play together live as a band. i honestly think that they just winged it for over half of the show but they are that good, they can get away with it. for the first hour, we were treated to about 3-4 different songs that noone has ever heard on any cd and then in the last half hour they finally played 2 songs we all knew from their latest album 'Amputechture'. those songs rocked live as i have only seen them play songs from their 1st album. but it was definitely worth going to see them live and i look forward to their next cd or tour. tanoshimi ni! next up might be seeing TOOL play live again in Osaka in February!

Funny pics of late (at least in my eyes)

2006-11-20T23:25:00.000-08:00

.....hehe.. what a great shampoo. why have i only heard of this now. found this at mikas parents place.

on the way to kobe last weekend i drove by a used car dealership by the name of ULTRA-POTATO... why would u call it that?

yes, inspiration boys and girls... makes u really wanna drink coffee

Yoko's visit to Kochi

2006-11-20T22:11:00.000-08:00

A couple of weekends ago (on the long weekend), Mika's best friend from Kobe came to visit us and check out Kochi. It was alright, but as i was the only penis there i had to make certain sacrifices to my usual weekend routine.......hehe
first, we went to the lovely kochi castle after some grub at Hirome.

This is Mika's friend Yoko. Some of u who went to Awaji around this time last year at the soccer tournament might remember her by the name, C#%$ BLOCK!...hehe

this is from the top of the castle...YAY!

im Yamauchi-someone and that is Mika as Kazu (i think)

and then the roles changed

we then spent the rest of the arvo at Katsurahama and stood in front of the statue of Sakamoto Ryouma san
and watched the sun go down

the next day i showed Yoko around where i live

this is at one of the 88 temples in shikoku

then they dragged my sorry arse down to the shittiest excuse for a museum, the Anpanman museum, which is a museum of a popular cartoon character which was made by a guy who lived in the town next to mine ages ago.

this is Anmpanman....... not fucking impressed ay?

then took them to a lovely waterfall which is one of the top 100 in japan.

heres mika and i. YAY. the next morning (sunday) Yoko left to go back to Kobe. end of story....

2006-11-08T00:25:00.000-08:00

Halloween in Kochi!!!!

the boys singing our now traditional karaoke anthem!! how many calories u kill off from that song?!?

2006-11-08T00:23:00.000-08:00

Halloween in Kochi!!!!

this is scary in mores way than one. GO PAUL AND MIKE!!! Give us more of that Saturday Night Fever!

Halloween in Kochi 2006

2006-11-08T00:10:00.000-08:00

So.... not too long ago it was Halloween and it seems to be the tradition for a lot of the JETs to pop into Kochi City for a cheeky night on it at Hirome Ichiba. This year was no different from last years as we all (mostly all) got pretty well off our faces with no thanks to all-u-can drink karaoke and Chuuhai's.
This year i actually had some kind of costume and went as a samurai teacher/person in charge of drinking! hey it was better than last year when i went as a confused VB hat wearing leprachaun.

that nose, had a big mole on it and it was very hard to drink my beer with it on.

heres matt and karen in their great homemade caveman/woman costume. i still wanted to see them as harry potter and his broomstick but hey.... we cant have it all....hehe

mika came along as a witch and looked very cute.

note: matt had nothing to drink. does it look like it here? hehe.... sorry flinty

one of my fav pics except for my lovely drunken double chin showing. and theres mike as the SCREAM character....spooky! WASSSSUP?!?

my god, u can see all the sweat going into the song. hehehe

and we just so happened to bump into dan along the way after karaoke heading to the party. legend

its safe to say we were all pretty battered!

my fav costume of the night, Mr. T. who u talking to fool?!?

and theres erinn and malia with mika and I

paul got pretty hammered and probably doesnt remember me taking this foto of him when we got back to flintys.

The next day (Sunday) i had to go to work and staggered in an hour late feeling like shite! but it was worth it! i had a pretty good night! and i also managed to take some videos of our time at BIG ECHO. enjoy them above.

2006-11-07T17:33:00.000-08:00

Chopper does the Horroscopes

comedy chopper!! GO GEMINI!!! thats a top mustache chopper!

2006-11-07T17:12:00.000-08:00

Debauchery up at Paul's

sorry for the shitty quality. u cant really see all too much but that might be a good thing me thinks as this is border line to a god knows what duo rendition of the backdoor boys I WANT IT THAT WAY! GO DUNCS AND PAUL YOU SEXY BITCHES!!! hehe ... (more)

2006-11-07T17:11:00.000-08:00

Debauchery up at Paul's

HONEY FLASH!! GO PAUL!! u sing that shitty Japanese song boy!! and great moves doug!!

2006-11-07T17:09:00.000-08:00

Debauchery up at Paul's

.....because we're staying alive, staying alive. A-A-A-A STAYIN ALIIIIIIIVE!!!!

Debauchery out west at Paul's

2006-11-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

A few of us boys got together a couple of weekends ago because we all miss the lovely game of cricket. and paul had just come into contact with a cricket bat and some stumps so what better way to enjoy the last of the warm weather with some beach cricket

HOWZAT?!?!?

good times!

and there were times i want to forget!!!

and theres duncs in amongst it all

heres a game! who looks the scariest in this foto. i have no idea what or why we took that foto!

and here is mika doing very well with putting up with some drunk lads

uh-oh. theres trouble. why are our eyes closed?

they are way too happy singing to backstreet boys together

anyways keep posted. vids of the night soon to follow

COP THIS!!

2006-11-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

Guess who is going to see one of their most favourite bands in a couple of weeks time? Yes, that be me bitches!! Finally got my ticket and am pumped! The band: THE MARS VOLTA!!!! HELL YEAH!!! they are playing in osaka on the 19th which is a sunday so i got the next day off lined up too! cant wait.. its gonna be well wicked!!!!!

Kochi University of Technology's Open Day/Festival

2006-10-20T23:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, it only started out being only Mika and I who were going to this and the next thing i know we bumped into some familiar faces. At first we met up with Erinn and her boyfriend, Tsuyoshi and then we ran into Paul, Jason (with woman), Yuri and Nathan. Pretty much during the day at the festival they had various stalls of different styles of cooking, live bands and plenty of entertainment to keep everyone there.

This was the main stage. I always drive pass this uni but was shocked to see how big it was and how many people my own age actually lived around where i live. hehe

This is a arm-wrestling tournament where they had one person from each food stall come to represent their stall in an all-out weak-arse arm wrestling comp. some japanese people are so weak its ridiculous.

Being that i live in the inaka (countryside), another main attraction was the Kakashi Contest, or the Scarecrow Contest. Yes, im not joking, heaps of people from all over Kami City went mad making these stupid scarecrows. This one i liked in particular. It is of an old drunk guy who has a red face from drinking too much sake, he is holding a sake bottle in one hand and a steering wheel in the other and the theme for the piece is "i dont think i should be driving!"

Once it got dark they even had a BMX demonstration

And a really famous DJ in japan called DJ KAORI to come to play in my hick ass part of the woods.

other than being fit as, she was actually not too bad a DJ. but then again, i forget when the last time i actually went proper clubbing was.

this is my fav pic. well taken i must say!

paul was so happy he thought he was in Ramsay Street. silly english people.

she is toight! toight like a toiger! rrraaaww!

they even had a street dance battle.

all in all, it was a pretty good festival to check out and a good way not to spend a shiteload of money on a saturday night.

2006-10-19T00:24:00.000-07:00

Chopper tells Australia to Harden up

...fucken comedy!

Johnny and Imo's Farewell Bash

2006-10-18T23:02:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was Flinty's mates, Johnny and Imo's, last night in japan so in proper Kochi style we all went out. Matt, Karen, Johnny, Imo, Mika and myself. We met up with some other JETs at Hirome and thats when things started to get blurry. It was quite a good night. Took many comedy pics, of which some i cant post on this blog but please enjoy some of the pics of the night!

Dont ask me to explain this. It was quite entertaining.

Johnny the top spy!

this is Hirome and Matt talking with Dee

Mika and Imo at Karaoke. the most behaved people in the booth.

Stereophonics(?) song 'Dakota'

beer and karaoke. what a great combination

classic foto. u know were in trouble when the eyes are closed mid-song

This foto i like to entitle "Cripple Pissing in Public"

Minnaport Cup 2006

2006-10-16T00:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went to attend the Minnaport Cup for the second year running now. Last year, we all had no idea how to get there so it was left up to us oldies to direct everyone there. But once we all gathered, we put on our reds, not blue KFC shirts, and had a go at the competition. Unfortunately, the competition had more of a go at us and we only managed to tie one game and lose the other 3. Unfortunate seeing as tho we had won last year. I, myself, blame that fucking hot sun for the result but by the end of the day we all came to the same conclusion that we all needed to be more hungover to win games. i agree. here are some pics from the day.

there we all are. isnt that nice? i'd love to wrtie everyones name but i suck at remembering names so if i forget one, then I'll be in the shit.

this is the state we were in after only our first match

no idea which teams they were

there i am in goals, clapping on the other team for missing an easy goal due to the pressure i put on the guy. congratulations dickhead!

solid defence by KFC

me in full stride....hehe

it looks like 3 of our own teammates are gonna run into each other.

2006-10-10T00:59:00.000-07:00

The Mars Volta- Eriatarka

live in London at the Electirc Ballroom. yet another great performance by these guys.

2006-10-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

The Mars Volta - Drunkenship of Lanterns

live at the electric ballroom. im hopefully going to see them live in osaka in november whether i go by myself or not. one of the best live acts around in my opinion.

How are you and Mika going at the moment?

2006-10-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

This is a question I've been often asked my some of my friends and family and i thought it was about time i talked about it on the blog. Dont really want to but at least everything is out in the open. To be honest, things arent going very well at all with us. It is as probably as much my fault as it is Mika's but there are a lot of things that have been the cause of many a fight between us. As you know, Mika is born and bred in Kobe. She has lived there all her life and has only recently decided to try get out of her own comfort circle (ie. out of her parents place) and come to Kochi to live with me, HER BOYFRIEND of almost 3 years.

I was excited about her coming but had doubts to whether or not Mika would like it here. I think i have been trying my hardest to help her enjoy her life here in Kochi together with me. I pay all the bills myself, pay for food, have been very supportive, i have even brought her scooter bike back from Kobe in order that she can get to various places whenever she wants to. I take her out places when i can and have even found a job for her (yes, i did that). And I even bought a new TV! She has been so nice as to cook dinner and do some of the housework for me and for that i am forever thankful. The place is immaculate!

Since she moved here I have tried to keep her busy because i know how absolutely boring it can be sitting in my apartment all day. So I tell her she should go out, see the sights, take up a new hobby, come for walks with me and perhaps try to find a job somewhere so she doesnt have to be stuck at home all day and so she can have some disposable income to use while she is here. Does this sound like reasonable, normal things that a boyfriend would do? To me, it does.

However, since Mika has arrived here, she has become depressed and has hardly no motivation to do anything reasonable at all. Most of this bows down to homesickness and because she misses her close friends in Kobe. and i have tried my hardest to take her mind off that but lately its becoming a real challenge. But there is only so much i can do. Mika needs to take the next step and do stuff for herself.

Not to sound like im a whinging bitch, but since she has come here she has made no real attempt to go out (without me telling her to), to try and find a job, to make friends or to try and like living in Kochi. By pure coinicidence i managed to find her a job recently at my closest convenience store (15 min drive away) and although its not the most ideal job and the pay is quite low, at least she doing something for herself. But since she's started its been nothing but bitching and complaining about it. I didnt make her take the job, and she can quit whenever wants to but at least try to stick at it. and thats what shes doing for now anyways. but if u dont like the job, go and find something for yourself instead of getting people to find something for urself.

Mostly though lately, I miss seeing her happy. She sits at home doing nothing, wont go out to try make friends, wont keep looking to see if a better job comes her way, and be selfish and do things when only she wants to. Now, i am lost for other ways to make her happy, as i am slowly running out of ideas and energy. To top it off, which has really made me start to think a lot about where our relationship is heading is what she has said to me on more than one occasion. First, is that she'd sometimes rather not have a normal relationship like before, but to go back to our long distance relationship. She'd rather not be in a real relationship? Whats that about?

Secondly, she wants me work in Kobe after JET for god knows how long. Now, for me, that is a big fucking decision to make, and sounds rather more like a selfish order to me. Also, she has told me that, she doesnt really want to live in Australia at all. Only for short holidays. Now, i dont know about some people but i would find that to be quite offensive. The main reason is because she says she cant watch Japanese TV and because she cant speak english. The thing is with the english side, she expects me to teach English to her all the time and thinks by only just speaking english with me, she can get good. No, Im sorry but at least try to make an effort by urself to study ur own boyfriends language to show u actually are interested.

Now, im sorry for continually bitching about whats been going on lately but being where i live, i dont have many people i see on a regular basis to turn to for advice. Im a bit lost for what to do, but know if things dont improve soon, i dont know for how much longer we will be together for.

2006-10-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

Choppers List of who can get F**ked

LANGUAGE WARNING HERE!!! this was taken from a recent comedy sketch programme in Australia which has a pisstake on the infamous stand over man back from the 70 & 80's, Mr Chopper Reid. its bloody comedy

2006-10-04T23:50:00.002-07:00

Chopper and the weather

2006-10-04T23:50:00.001-07:00

Chopper on Censorship

dont watch this if u dont like the F word....hehe

2006-10-04T23:43:00.000-07:00

AIR GUITAR WORLD CHAMPION 2006

Japan's Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke was this week named World Air Guitar Champion after performing to hundreds of “air axe” experts in Finland. Sporting a tiger-adorned sweatshirt, aviators and a classic pair of sideburns Ochi destroyed the competition with an elegant but slightly troubling rendition of Jet’s “Are you gonna be my girl”. Check out Ochi’s winning performance

Sports Day and My Five Cents Worth

2006-09-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

So its that time of the year again, time for the schools sports day! My Junior High will be having their sports day with my primary school here in Odochi as there are only a grand total of 120 kids between the two schools. They have been preparing for this endlessly for over a month now and i swear to u the kids must be sick of it. hehe. Nah seriously, all this preparation really takes the fun out it so much that by the day of the event, the kids honestly dont care who wins and who loses. And that is such a shame to see. The other day i asked a kid if they were looking forward to it and they asked the teacher why they really had to go to it.... hehe.

I dont know why, but i was way more excited last year about it than this year coz i know what to expect. Dont get me wrong, it is worth going to check out, but only if u havent been involved in the organisation of the day ie. parents. Some of the events here are fun to do, but have no real purpose. Do you really want kids to be good at throwing a hoola-hoop over some kids head or pulling some kid around on a tyre? Its really just about getting the kids to run in a straight line to the next event and how to clap properly and continuously overuse the word GANBARE!!!!

I saw something on the news awhile ago saying that the level of the kids at school in sport is slowly declining. Kids are becoming really shit at PE!! How the hell can that happen? PE is without a doubt the best subject to do at school. Now, I know that not all kids are good at sports but come on. But think about it, how much time do kids in japan have to run around? Yes, they do have club activities after school, but after that they go home, do their homework, PLAY VIDEO GAMES, eat dinner, WATCH TV/PLAY VIDEO GAMES and then go to sleep. This is just a generalisation but i assume thats what most kids do in japan (if its like OZ).

Their weekend consists of going to school for over half a day on Saturday and then they have the rest of the weekend to do whatever they want. But by this stage, theyre too tired to do anything so they do fuck all (which is really the only thing there is to do in the inaka).

They had a whole day rehearsal of their sports day last Tuesday (a day of my life i will never get back) and watching the kids i was surpised by what i saw. Now, i know theyre just kids but come on, FUCKING RUN!! they had co-ed races and a lot of the boys got their arses kicked by the girls in the running races. call me sexist but, that aint right! it could be lack of motivation by the whole long gruelling process of preparing for the day or they are just honestly...well.... shit.

Whatever it is, something needs to done and fast. I know Japan is addressing this problem but how they go about it, i dont know.

2006-09-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

Lano & Woodley's "The Island" Theme song

heres a bloody hilarious vid i found from the Aussie comedy duo Lano & Woodley. They are really popular in Australia and are like a slapstick comedy team. They had a show called The Island which they toured Australia with and its about them getting stranded on a deserted island. This song is the theme song for the show! its really catchy and worth watching over and over again.

A good reason why there are ALT'S

2006-09-15T00:05:00.000-07:00

I received a lovely fax from the person in charge of the English classes at Yamada Primary the other day letting me know my class schedule for this term. Her English is shitty but at least she tries and u can sort of understand what shes trying to say. She is also the special needs students teacher and she also wanted to also ask me about things we can do during their classes e.g. hand-make ice cream etc. This is what she wrote to me:

Dear Stephen,
How are you?
The day of rain continues.
However, it wishes the day when it makes ice cream and the day of the athletic meet to want you to clear up.
Are you interested in the paper folding? Because an interesting book was found, it this time introduces it.

We are looking forward to seeing you.

School lunch will be served you.

......hehe. absolute comedy! No wonder they need ALTs to work in primary schools.

a bit of good news

2006-09-12T22:41:00.000-07:00

I think Mika has got the job and the convenience store is just waiting for her to give an answer, YAY or NAY. Fortunately, and after a lot of discussion between the two of us, she has decided to give it a go....at least until she finds something better. the main reason shes going to do it is because it is probably the closest casual job she can find. and that she hasnt really gotten off her arse properly to find a good one. But jobs around here are really hard to come by and the hourly working rate is fairly cheap in Kochi Prefecture you see. So congrats Mika and i hope you can hang in there........

Ganbare Mika!

2006-09-11T00:43:00.000-07:00

Recently, on one of my occasional trips to the local conbini, which is a 15min drive away, i noticed that they were looking for people to work there and immediately told Mika about it. I know its not her ideal job (but its fairly easy) but she called them up about it today and she has an interview tomorrow for a job there. The hourly isnt that crash hot but good luck Mika and i hope u get it. My wallet says good luck too......hehe.

Are some Japanese people really this stupid?

2006-09-11T00:37:00.000-07:00

today, while waiting in between classes, the math teacher at Yamada Primary came up to me and asked me with a dead serious face if we had LIGHTNING in Australia. What a fucking retard! No, apparently Australia is another planet with a completely different weather than Japan. I didnt say that to him, just looked at him with a "are you serious?" face and said, "Yes, of course!" and then pissed off to class!

Memories of a K-Truck

2006-09-10T23:58:00.000-07:00

The day after Flintys birthday bash the weekend before last, i took mika back to kobe so she could help look after her nephew who came from Nara to visit for a few days and to pick up her scooter bike and bring it back to Kochi. Items needed were:
- plenty of Aquarius (due to the large hangover)
- the essentials in clothing
- Mika
- rope
- a tarp mat
- road map
- money
- a rental K-truck (mini truck)

God, for those who know me know how much i love shitbox K-cars and it hurt me to book one and drive all the way to kobe and back in it. The result was a little Mazda K-truck.

it has to be the most uncomfortable car in the world, and is definitely not made for tall gaijin! U cant put the seat back as u have a wall right behind u so u r left sitting upright and with ur legs spread out. to make matters worse, it only had an AM radio so i couldnt hook any music up to the car.......banging!!

We drove to Kobe and arrived late on Saturday night and then i had to get up and leave back for Kobe at 9am to get the P.O.S (Piece of Shit) back to the rentacar lot, late that arvo while mika remained in Kobe. lucky! We got the bike up on the truck, tied it up and then i left

i had a ball riding the POS back as it can really go fast and is it quiet drive. i swear i thought it had a lawnmower for an engine!

REEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

shit all over K-cars!!!

so i got the bike back in one piece after it decided to fall over a couple of times on the inaka roads where there wasnt anyone to help u tie it back up

but it was worth it as mika's scooter is awesome fun to ride! U just have to watch out for those bloody Lawsons!

2006-09-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

flintys birthday bash small vids 6

whenever ur at matts on the lash, u know we're all starting to get a bit tipsy (hehe) when the guitar comes out! happy birthday matt!

2006-09-07T23:48:00.000-07:00

flintys birthday bash small vids 5

Dee and Karen are telling us how shit the bananas are and flinty is giving us some lovely poses, thinking i was actually taking a foto of him.... comedy!

2006-09-07T23:45:00.000-07:00

flintys birthday bash small vids 4

this is Karl, showing us how he can dance! hahaha! GO SON!! ... (more)

2006-09-07T23:44:00.001-07:00

flintys birthday bash small vids3

we played a drinking game where if u lost u had to act like a seal, sounds and all. this is paul my attempt.....comedy. probably the only one who could do it properly...hehe

2006-09-07T23:44:00.000-07:00

flintys birthday bash small vids2

we played a drinking game where if u lost u had to act like a seal, sounds and all. this is mika's attempt.....comedy

2006-09-07T23:43:00.000-07:00

flintys birthday bash small vids

we played a drinking game where if u lost u had to act like a seal, sounds and all. this is paul the wall's attempt.....comedy

Flinty's Birthday Lash

2006-09-07T23:41:00.000-07:00

Somehow the theme was u had to bring some beginning with 'M' so Mika and I brough a Mickey Mouse and Mr Incredible mask, Milo and a magnetic dart board

Mr Incredible (matt) and Mickey(???)

The winner of the best 'M' present went to Dave and Fumi, although they werent very original in bringing in a mat.

Paul got 2nd prize and got a monkey face mask set (notice he is wearing the nose on his knob!)

we saw it! we saw it!

who are these guys?

ud be surprised and a bit scared to know that that is actually Milia and Karen under those masks

hehe

me and karl...legends!

happy bday mate

still bragging about the monkey costume

the guitar came out and Karl felt that there needed to be drums as well.

did you hear that noise? oh yeah, its us waking up most of karen and matts neighbours

.....true love.... hehe

karen and I proving that i actually can still smile for fotos while drunk (there ya go mum)

Mika and Fumi became quite good friends. big shock tho is fumi is actually a couple of years older than mika

Mark, Milia and Sim(?)

We were still going into the wee hours of the morning and decided to leave flintys for a bit. Karl decided it would be a great idea to tie the monkey tail around his waist to make it look like he had a .............

we werent drunk at all

And a big thanks to the night staff at the lawson for letting us use their car park at the end of the night whilst flinty had passed out back at his pad.

Iya Valley and being a guide to Mika's friends from Kobe

2006-08-31T23:46:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, after the lovely friday beach lash, mika and i went to the mountains for a quiet night in before waking up early the next morning to show a couple of Mika's friends around Kochi coz they had driven up here for the day! Seeing as tho they live in a city i decided (thats right, I decided coz japanese people have brain cramps if they have to decide shit) to take them to Iya Valley, which is just out off the border of kochi in Tokushima. Mika and i had never been there as well so we all got in my car and made the trek into the valley.

Our first stop after a lovely lunch was to see the Pissing Boy statue......comedy! but great view!

..hehe..

Heres a bit of a full frontal view

The two on the left are Mikas mates from Kobe. I honestly hadnt met them more than once so i didnt really get along too well with them. How big is that guys head?!?

its funny because its a statue of a boy pissing!

Then after getting a little lost, we found Kazura Bridge, which is a bridge made from vines and wooden planks to walk on and shit. Every 3 years they have to change the vines. It is quite scary to walk across as Mika soon found out.

U pay 500yen to cross this bridge and its constantly moving and swinging around and shite.

its best not to look down too much or else your in the drink. and ud better take one beam at a time and hold onto something.

Mika was scared a bit and is trying to smile but cant quite manage to get that worried look off of her face

... see its still there.

view from the bridge

Biwa-taki (Biwa Waterfall)

We didnt have have time to show them more and they had to work the next day so we left Iya quickly and i took them for a quick look at Kochi Castle before sending them off.

Beach Lash in Shirahama (White Beach)

2006-08-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

im almost going to give up writing comments on some of these fotos. last friday, a few of the old kochi crew mixed together with some of the new kochi crew and went to camp on the beach and have a few QUIET bevvies with each other. Unfortunately the beers werent as quiet as we imagined; resulting in the following fotos!

meet Carl. he is so happy to have his picture taken....hehe

this is keyon (aussie matt's bf) and i think Milia(?)

heres another newbie, a fellow (not gay) australian called Davo and his missus Fumi

u can always tell when carls had a few bevvies. he goes exploring and climbs shit.....hence, this big ass rock.

flinty is showing us all that he in fact does have nipples....cheers for that buddy!

flinty, carl and myself: teaching the newbies how us kochi Jets are supposed to drink

chick magnet

....hannabalism?????? please explain!

....................

............ slur ................

Then at some stage during the night (god knows when) dave and keyon decided to get firework action

or something like that

flinty started trying to bury himself but he didnt want to lose his beer

no comment

great night.....definitely have to do it again before it gets colder here. oh yeah, and mika did come along, but she just didnt manage to get into any fotos.

2006-08-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

A cheeky ride thru town

vid of mika and i riding a jinriki-shi (human drawn cart) through Yufuin, a town famous for shopping and its onsens

Escaping Typhoons, Kyushuu Trip to Oita Prefecture & Meeting Mika's Relatives (Part II)

2006-08-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

Day 2 and the second day we stayed at Mika's Uncle'S, we headed to the lovely town/city (?) of Yufuin which is about a 40 minute drive out of Oita city. Its quite popular for its onsen like Beppu (but i didnt get to go there yet) and mostly for its long street full of all kinds of different shops. So pretty much if ur a woman, this place is for u. and it is hell for all boyfirends taking their girlfriends or going with a group with which the majority are missing a certain male bodypart.

We mostly just shopped (ie. window shop) through every store.......puff, pant , choke, deep breath. then mika and i decided to do something together (enter sarcasm) and ride on a Jinriki-sha (like a human-drawn cart that seats only two people). It was the first time i had done this and it was quite fun and lazy watching some some guy dragging my sorry ass around on a hot summer day.

There were plenty of foto ops and i even managed to take a small vid of it.

the ride was a bit expensive tho...ie.10 mins was about $30, or 30mins for $80. luckily we just got the cheeky 10min ride which was just enough and mikas aunt paid (yet again) for everything we wanted to do. The cart went around this lake and he showed us some temples and shit......great stuff.

i dont know whether this foto is cute, scary or plain weird. is she thinking shes gonna shoot that duck or stick her finger up the ducks..............

(right to left) Mikas Grandmother, Mika and Mika's grandmothers sister

On the Monday night we stayed at Mika's grandmothers place.

Then left the next morning to catch the ferry back to the inaka in Kochi.

Nice shot. KAWAII NE!!!

I bought a new shirt with which the kanji reads, "SAKEYOUJIN". translation is "alcoholic". perfect shirt for those nights out on the town/inaka.

This probably shouldnt have been the last foto because when we arrived at the ferry station, there was no ferry because MIka just happen to stuff up the reservation and booked the ferry for 3am thinking it was supposed to be 3pm. silly girl. so we ended up staying another night at mikas grandma's then got back into Kochi Wednesday evening. Definitely have to go back to more of Kyuushuu sometime soon.....hey! free accomodation....hehe.

2006-08-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

Spot the Beer Monkey

Here is a vid of the monkeys feeding in their sanctuary in Mt Takasaki, Oita Prefecture, Kyuushuu, Japan. I wonder if u can find the beer monkey in amongst them all? hehe.... anyone want a monkey?

Escaping Typhoons, Kyushuu Trip to Oita Prefecture & Meeting Mika's Relatives (Part I)

2006-08-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

The week before last, and after the mammoth summer sonic weekend, Mika and I yet again went on a small trek to Kyushu. I have never been to the island of Kyuushuu and thought it would be a good chance to go and also meet some of Mika's relatives (arent i a good boyfriend...hehe). Anyways.......... we almost never went because of the Typhoon scares in Kyuushuu when we left. We got up on the friday morning and the ferry people told us that they were still running so we decided to brave it head out. So we headed out in my car to the most western part of Shikoku and took the ferry (along with my car) to Saiki-shi in Oita Prefecture, about an hours drive away from Mikas family in Oita-Shi. But before we got to the ferry in Kochi, we were faced with......

all these lovely big waves which made our 3 hour trek across the ocean to Oita all the more enjoyable. Both Mika and I felt crook as a dog, and were so glad to get there and stand on solid, ground again. But once we got there, i was only raining a bit and there was no trace of there being a typhoon anywhere near us. So I spose that was pretty good luck.

Once we got to Mika's Uncle's place, we went out for yakiniku and beer with the family. This started the evil weekend of Mika's relatives constantly force-feeding beer and food into me. they are evil....hehe. just kidding, i was blown away by the hospitality of Japanese people when they go to visit relatives. Honestly, besides transport costs to Oita and back, i barely bought anything by myself, her aunt bought almost everything for us. CASHBACK!!! Hopefully though, if they came to visit us, i sure hope they dont expect us to pay for everything.......that would hurt my wallet very much.

OK, so this is a pic of Mika and I with Mika's cousins (top to bottom), Tomomi-chan and Momoko-chan. They were really cool!

Here are the drinkers of beer, and not that chuhai shit! Cheers. No seriously, the guy is Mika's mothers younger brother, Minoru and his wife (i forgot her name...what? Mika kept calling her aunt all the time!).

The chick in the middle is actually the older sister of the chick on the left

So here are some Kawaii (cute) fotos of some of the monkeys at Mt Takasaki where we went the day after we arrived in Kyuushuu. It is a huge sanctuary in the mountain just for the monkeys. There are like almost 800 of the dirty little buggers there.

This Monkeys saying, "OI! get your arse back here and...........

.....suck on my titties!" hehe

CHEESE

gday monkey! stop playing with yourself.....dirty little monkey!

This is a very cute foto of a baby monkey alone, looking for his mother

YAY! he found her!!!

"oh well, that was good but lets go check out the Aquarium nearby!"

Pretty much over the road from the monkeys is a big aquarium called UMITAMAGO (translation: Ocean Egg). it was prety good, and recently rennovated. This is the seal show.

But one scary thing was that the staff let the everyone come down and touch the poor seals.

We could actually smell his bad breath from where we were standing.......bloody rank. But we got him to jump off that rock, which is actually quite a way up, into the pool. Back of the net!

Now! Who is that sexy guy with the sunnies on? hehe

2006-08-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

Star Wars Nerds- Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

This is one of my favourite vids where this puppet dog, who is known for ripping the shit out of everyone goes to a Star Wars Event or something and just absolutely has a blast paying the hell out of everyone.......
"Burger King, where all Dragon Masters eat!!"
"I am a stormtrooper." "You are a huge nerd!"
AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

2006-08-23T23:46:00.000-07:00

Crazy German Guy

this is some scary but piss funny shit! all he wants to do is play Unreal Tournament! Mum, if u ever thought i was obsessed with computers, then look at this kid!

THE MAMMOTH SUMMER SONIC WEEKEND- DAY FOUR, Kosui Festival 湖水祭り

2006-08-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

After the festival, everyone went their own way for the night and we all met up by the Akashi Suspension Bridge in Kobe around lunch and drove back to the Prefecture known for not much at all! hehe. anyways, pretty much as soon mika and i arrived back home in Odochi, we had about only half an hour to relax before we had to go to my local town/village's festival, the Kosui Matsuri! The festival happens only once a year during the summer holidays and is a festival to celebrate and remember all those who had passed away whilst building the dam. It is also to pray for rain for the farmers crops and to pretty much get pissed, dance around a stage and watch some fireworks! I enjoyed it this year because i knew a whole lot more people than last year and also coz Mika came and made some friends. It was also an excuse for me to drink for the fourth day in a row! hehe. here are some pics.

This is the kiddy group dancing like the yosakoi dance down my absolutely huge main street.

This is one of my primary school 2nd graders. he's quite annoying at times but is still a good kid

this is the obaachan group loking very cute in their get-up

last year i joined this group and dance at the head of the group but because i got back so late i didnt get to join in this year......zannen.

apparently this is the local mascot. i felt sorry for the poor guy who had to wear that

This is the row of different stalls selling random food and toys and shit in Odochi Park.

....ERRR.....gotta say something manly now......METALLICA!!!

The obaachans are showing everyone how to do the random dances on the stage. Everyone else dances around the stage in a anti-clockwise direction

still hitting the beer!

This foto didnt turn out too well. when it got dark they put a whole bunch of floating lamps into the water with everyones wishes on it and let them float around the dam all night. it was really beautiful to see. pity the foto didnt turn out too good

My Junior High set up a couple of stalls and made me buy a lot of shit i didnt want to....bastards...hehe. they did really well and earned about 23 man (A$2300).

everyone getting their groove on.

i noticed i was the only person dancing and holding a beer at the same time. u probably werent allowed to do that but noone could dare come up to tell me that. last year i had a beer in both hands.....it was great!

most of the girls in the yukatas used to be my 3rd year junior high school kids. it was great to see them again!

having a cheeky dance with mika, who seems to be having a great time........phew!!

the obaachans looked great in those outfits so i had to.....sorry

And the grand finale was a great fireworks display!

Luckily, no fires were caused by the falling ash of the fireworks this year!! After it ended, mika and i went back home and took a big sleep! i was completely exhausted! It was one of the best weekends ive had since coming to Japan!!

THE MAMMOTH SUMMER SONIC WEEKEND- DAY Three, The Event (part 4) METALLICA!!!!!

2006-08-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

....and then there was metallica!!!

Lars on the big screen

Master of Puppets

Yes, i was there!!!!

yet another perfect guitar solo from Kirk

"ONE"

RRRRRRRRROCKING!

And to finish the day off, i took this great pic of the band saying thankyou to the crowd together. This has got to be my favourite picture! We all left completely stoked by how good they are! great set, and a great end to a great music festival!

THE MAMMOTH SUMMER SONIC WEEKEND- DAY Three, The Event (part 3) METALLICA!!!!!

2006-08-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

This is what we were all waiting for! Words cannot describe how awesome they are to see live. I t is their 20th anniversary/birthday for their Master of Puppets album so they played every track from that, one through to the end. Then they played all their other classics! In total, they played for a mammoth 2 and 1/2 hours. we were all rooted after it!! there are so many fotos that i cant be arsed to write comments for them, all u need to do is look at them to realise how much they rock live.

THE MAMMOTH SUMMER SONIC WEEKEND- DAY Three, The Event (part 2)

2006-08-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

While we were waiting for the next band to play, Paul and I went to the goods stand and i bought this cheeky Deftones t-shirt as a momento of my time at summer sonic. Proper bo'a tells thee! There were so many fit japanese promotional girls walking around in hardly anything and dickhead here forgot to take fotos of them so sorry!

But they didnt have just music. They also had some Japanese comedians who are always on tv variety shows at the arena! This guy is hilarious. He is called Neko (cat) Hiroji.

The next band up was Zebrahead. They were awesome live and its surpirsingly the first time that i have seen them live. Ive liked them for a good while now and they are really popular over here in Japan. Even my girlfriend loves them and theyre on pretty much most karaoke song lists.

it was well hot around! i was sweating like a .............

and to prove that i was actually there...

i think they were playing one of the hit songs called Anthem.

They had two bigscreens on both sides of the main stage but it didnt really matter for us gaijin as we can actually see clearly over all the short-ass japanese people.

Then had a cheeky celebratory beer after they finished......beginning to get pumped now for some band that starts with an....ummmmm...... 'M' i think

And what way to get really pumped for M than the Deftones!!!!!!!!

Mate these guys were amazing! Its about the third time ive seen them but they played a lot of their new stuff and some from white pony. i think they even played a new song somewhere along the way.

Paul had only ever heard their Around the Fur album so he was left going, "derrrr, what the hell is this song?" while i was rocking away by myself.

RRRRROCKING!!!!! i wish i knew if there is a rock on symbol on this computer!!

this is me directly after Deftones getting ready for that band u might have heard of before

BRING IT!!!!!!!! (>_<)

Go away Paul, get over it man, the chick ditched ya! theres something better in the next couple of minutes!!! ROCKIN!!

THE MAMMOTH SUMMER SONIC WEEKEND- DAY Three, The Event (part 1)

2006-08-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

Strap yourselves in again for a huge post. And this is only Part I. Well...... what can be said for day 2 other than awesome. FUCKING RRRROCKING!! It started after we all caught some beauty sleep, had brekky and left for the festival, which was.......

....here. But before we get there, we had to make sure that we were rock so.........

.....because have i mentioned yet that we were going to see this band by the end of the night?

First band up was Stone Sour. This was a recommendation from Jason and they seemed to be solid and a great start to the day. I think this band has Slipknot singer and maybe (wasnt quite sure) Queens of the Stone Age's ex bass guitarist, Nick Olivieri.

So after that we went to the Aqua Stage and had some cheeky tacos and some beer while Jason and Yuri watched some shite band somewhere.

Heineken was the only thing on tap but we ganbaru'd and drank enough of it.

.....because have i mentioned yet that we were going to see this band by the end of the night?

ROCKING!!!!

But during our lunch break we came across a small Japanese old school punk band called B-DASH. They were awesome.

and found some great T-shirts!

This guy was even dancing his heart out to some shitty Japanese girl rock band. Their voices were that high and annoying that im glad they dont have much glass arounf at rock concerts.

stay tuned....more to come!

2006-08-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

The Cat Empire performing "The Car Song"

For a cheeky breather between these mammoth posts i thought itd be good to show u some of the bands who i was fortunate enough to see last weekend. This is The Cat Empire. An Aussie band with a great reputation for their live acts. This song is one of their newer songs off their last album and is what they started off with at summer sonic when i was there. Apologies for the sound quality but u can hear everything pretty well. This vid was taken at one of their performances at Shepherds Bush Empire, London.

THE MAMMOTH SUMMER SONIC WEEKEND- DAY TWO, The Event

2006-08-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

After waking up a little bit worse for wear after the last nights lashing, we had some brekky, got changed and made the trek to Day One of the Summer Sonic Music Festival. Yuri said that we werent allowed to take our cameras there so i only managed to take some snaps from my mobile. apologies. thanks for that Yuri.....hehe. NOT!

Anyways.... we all arrived TOGETHER and walked in the blistering heat for like 10 mins to get our 2DAY TICKETS and then went straight to the main Open Air Stage to see the end of 10years, who seemed pretty good!

I had recommended to everyone to go see Ellegarden, a Japanese punk band who sound awesome and sing most of their songs in English. And they didnt disappoint. They were well WICKED!! hehe. They finished just after lunch sometime and there was nothing in particular to see at that time so we followed Yuri-chan to check out some hill-billy band called Mando Diao. We only saw a bit of this as Paul and I figured that this would be the only time to get in a cheeky beer or two and some lunch. I'm still trying to figure out why Jason decided to go back into the city at this stage for lunch when there was plenty to see and do at the festival but anyways he left and paul and i sat in the undercover watching the big screen of the open air stage.

After lunch, it was about 2pm and we both had a couple of beers and then headed back into the heat of the main stage and watched Fall Out Boy, a kind of pop-punk band who i had only recently come to like.

They were pretty solid except for when they were speaking to everyone in between songs.

Honestly, sometimes bands should just shut up and play their songs and not come out with shit about how playing here has moved them so much.......HURL! But one thing good came out of Fall Out Boy was that some random hot chick from england came over to say gday and hooked up with Paul for a bit ( i guess he put his sexy face on). They got talking and she invited him along to go see a couple of his favorite bands as in the Kooks and the Arctic Monkeys. This left only Yuri and I together so after the lovely Fall Out Boy was over, we headed to the beer tent for some refreshments....of course!

We got to the beer tent and stayed around there to watch The Lost Prophets. It was around this time, that i bumped into some cool Aussie blokes and their crew. A couple of them were from Brisvegas (Brisbane) and some others were from Melbourne. Anyways, we had plenty of banter and plenty of beers while the Prophets were playing. I think i managed to squirm in about 6 beers in a hour......WICKED!

The Lost Prophets didnt really play that well in my opinion so me and the other aussies all decided to be patriotic and go and check out The Cat Empire, an aussie band, born and bred in Melbourne.

They played on one of the smaller stages there and the majority of people there watching them seemed to be Aussies. So, of course, the beer kept flowing there with some great tunes and we all pretty much got a bit of a dance going on there. Probably, without a doubt, one of my highlights of the day.

After that, I parted ways with the aussies but promised to catch up to see TOOL with them later that night. So, being pumped full of beer and a great live aussie act, I ventured across to the Mountain (indoor) stage to try and meet up with paul (to see how he was going) and to check out the Arctic Monkeys. Apparently they were running behind schedule so i still got to see a good 20-30 minute set of theirs. NOT BAD AT ALL! But not as good as the last band i had seen. Afterwards, met up with a sweaty Paul, also womanless, and then went to see MUSE. MUSE were fucking brilliant, showing us why they are considered a headlining band. they sound better live than on their albums man, it was WICKED!! RRRRRRROCKING!! So by this stage it was safe to say that i was on my way with the beers and really getting into my music. I was having a great time showing all my rock moves! hehe.

After MUSE, we met up with Jason (finally) and my new aussie mates and went to the Sonic Stage (another indoor stage) and went to see the band of the day in TOOL. Linkin Park were playing at the same time, so it was a pretty good call. what i heard from other people LP were shit! Anyways........ with plenty of beer still in me and a slightly scratchy voice, we got up right close to the stage, but far enough away from the silly moshers (not one band in particular that i would like to mosh to).

TOOL was fucking brilliant. They have a really awesome sound live and everyone who was there really got into it (except for Paul and Yuri who left halfway thru to see Massive Attack). Maynard came out this time, sporting a cool mohawk, with a big ass cowboy hat and only wearing jeans and a big red-neck belt buckle. He did what i heard he usually does, stood to the back of the stage but still in everyones view (in the above pick, Maynard is standing to the left of the second screen from the left). They played a lot of their new stuff from their new album as well as from Aenima and Laterus. There wasnt a song that i didnt know and love.
After TOOL, i was battered. Not pissed (well a little) but dehydrated, tired in the legs and my voice was almost non-existant. i was looking foward to a feed and to lie down on my nice bed in my lovely air-coniditioned hotel room. So after we met up with everyone, we took the train back to our hotel and then went into Umeda for a cheely late dinner before going back to sleep and re-energise ourselves for day two and METALLICA!!!!!!! It was a great first day of music, beer and summer fun!

THE MAMMOTH SUMMER SONIC WEEKEND- DAY ONE (part II)

2006-08-14T23:55:00.000-07:00

No idea what he was singing....maybe System of a Down?

Heres Paul again, pulling the ladies with the help of some Bert Humperdick...or something?

I'm beginning to see what Mika was saying......yes, very similar....hehe....just jokes Jason.

Theyre holding an invisible ball.....proper BO'a tells thee!!!!!!!!!

Honestly....i wasnt drunk!!

A cheeky duet perhaps??? who knows

This wasnt the only time i was caught doing cheeky air guitar to Metallica!!! RRRRRRROCKING!!!!

And u can never go wrong with Jon Bon Jovi's classic, Bed of Roses. The three of us made a new record with a MAMMOTH 17.12 calories wasted! thats gotta be a new world record.....Back of the net!! Its about this time, that we slowly started to lose our voices for the rest of the weekend.

And then u cant top off a night in Osaka with getting run into the boot of our taxi by two other cars! Dont worry.......it wasnt a big bingle, the car behind us copped the most of it from the car behind it!

THE MAMMOTH SUMMER SONIC WEEKEND- DAY ONE (part I)

2006-08-14T23:11:00.000-07:00

Well, strap yourselves in for one mammoth bunch of posts of my lovely long weekend full of mates, beer and great music! Oh, and did i mention METALLICA!!!!!! F%#$ YEAH!! Anyways, it all started on at lunchtime on a lovely Friday! 5 of us got into my car, had a quick feed and then headed for Osaka. My car immediately turned into the karaoke car and we belted out some classic tunes, mostly Metallica and some great renditions of SCRIBE and System of a Down. Once we arrived in Kobe, we got rid of the karaoke cat and one of our passengers (ie, Mika) and headed to our lovely, well-organised (COUGH) hotel.

Then after some bloody awesome directions from our lovely american friend, we kicked back in osaka ate had some cheeky tacos and spanish beer. So let me officially introduce u to the crew from the Mammoth Summer Sonic Weekend:

Here is Paul-the-Wall. He is from England. As u can tell, he is a sexy man and always getting plenty of attention from the ladies.

Here is Yuri-chan, our representative from Japan. She is friends with Jason and Paul and is also named after my one and only Bars here in good Old Monobe. This is her sexy face by the way.

Sorry people, Paul wasnt content with his last sexy face and forced me to take another.

This is our seppi mate, Jason, giving us his sexy face. When i showed this pic to Mika, both he mum and her thought he looked like AJ from the Backstreet Boys....... thats what they told me tho, i really have no idea who anyone is from the Backdoor Boys.....

And here is urs truly, the Aussie talent. Im drinking a great spanish beer.......Back of the net!

stop trying so hard Paul...hehe

Oh A.J!!!!

Good work Paul, it finally paid off!

We then packed up and went for some actually cheap karaoke and started off with some lovely Cigaro by System of a Down.

....and the vein in my neck goes POP!

Thanks for the good times!

2006-08-09T22:40:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems as tho i have now been in Japan for a good year now and have made many new friends, some of which have now gone back to their own countries. To those who have left, thanks heaps for a top year full of beer, karaoke, good times and plenty of classic banter! Living in Kochi, the land of old people and K-cars, isnt easy and i thank u all for ur help over the past year. I hope we can all keep in touch and i hope to see you all again soon. Especially those pommy bastards!! I think I'll be making my next trip over there one day in the near future.
So glasses up boys and a big CHEERS!
And the lovely game of 21 starts to my left, 1, 2..............

A cheeky bit of Internationalisation!

2006-08-09T22:03:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday, I had the pleasure of giving a 2 hour lecture/discussion (completely in Japanese) to some lovely old ladies about Australia and the differences between Australia and Japan. It was a lovley change to my hectic schedule of late (*cough SARCASM cough*) and i got to spend time chatting about my country to people who live in a tiny village about 20 minutes away from where i live and who never really get a chance to get out and about very much. They listened to everything i had to say and now know so much more about Oz than they originally had and realise that it's not too much different than Japan in certain aspects. For example, whenever you ask Japanese people here where i live about what they know about Australia, their immediate response is always "Kangaroos and Koala's". Whilst it does get frustrating at times, i think i did quite a good job in internationalising/Australianising this small group of obaachans (old ladies).