Friday 6/2 Don't Worry, There's Plenty of Mister Jeff to go Around

Well it's currently Friday night here and I'd like to say that everything is packed and ready to go. My plane will arrive in Lincoln around 6pm central time. I would love it if people called me at 417-5290 around 7pm to say hello. I will probably be tired and want to go to bed, but I'd love to chat with anyone. Do you guys like that title? Read on to find out why that's THE greatest title ever. Oh and a word of caution. If it seems like, based on this post, that I have an incredibly huge ego, don't worry. It was only for this day. HA. Too bad it's not like this everyday.

We would've liked to go earlier, but today was to day that we attend classes with Ms. Michaela at Nakagomi Junior High. We had 4 classes today, and we learned the day before that we would actually be a big part in the lesson plans for today. Pretty much for all 4 classes, we would introduce ourselves, say what we like. Answer questions from the kids. Then we would ask them questions. Note that all of this is in English. The whole thing was to introduce more of the American Culture to English Class. Pretty cool.

Now Ms. Michaela has told us this whole trip that American guys are pure studs to Japanese women, especially teens. But when the first question to me during Q + A was, "In America, are you popular with the girls?" What can I say. I said eh a little bit. Then I said, "Oh. but I have a girlfriend, so I'm not too popular." Well the girls didn't like that response. A little later I was asked to be someone's boyfriend. Well I'm pretty sure I said something like, "Well I already have a girlfriend" or something. But I stood with these girls for a nice picture. Oh and for an in-class assignment they had to do this worksheet. We graded them and signed our names on all of them. There were even little messeges on them. Like "Do you like Japan?" "What Japanese food do you like?" and the girl that asked me that first question wrote, "I Love You" on her sheet. Ahhh women.

Yes more and more questions came about ladies in America. Ryan and I answered what we could but guys, these girls really like American guys, I mean really like Americans. It was almost scary. Just like elementary school, we would go around saying hello to everyone in the halls. The girls would get all shy and giggle. Seriously though, where the hell was this when I was in junior high? I could've used this 6-8 years ago. Man, anyone could.

My favorite thing about this day was what the girls would call us in class. You see. Japanese people have their family names come first. So when they say a teacher's name, it's her family name, but also the first name that appears. So when they say Mic's name, it's Ms. Michaela because that's the first name that shows up. I don't know if the teacher's made them, but I think we liked being called Mr. Jeff and Mr. Ryan. It has a good sound to it, don't you think? So everyone would call me Mr. Jeff and I would be loving it.

Yes, we were big time celebrities again, but this time maybe B-List. I actually think we hit the A-List in elemantary school. Today, Mic and I figured that we were those dreamy guys that you see on the WB. They aren't really big stars, and they may not be able to act the best, but they are very attractive. We weren't big stars, but we sure were good looking. That was enough to attract every girl at school, and a few autographs.

What can I say? I loved it. Every class the girlfirend topic was thrown out, but it was all pretty much repeated stuff. Like what sports, food, music, and games we like. Walking through the halls drew out lots of "hello"s and "my name is"s and giggles of course. We took many pictures and the girls absolutely loved it.

Remember my quest to Nagano? Well on the way there, in Komoro, I was switching trains. I was changing platforms when a girl and her little brother walked by me. The little boy said "Hello" to me and I responded. I began thinking if this boy was at the elementary school that we were at on Tuesday. Well they left, and as I was standing around and the little kid ran back up the stairs and starting talking to me in very basic English. The kid was like 7 and it was so cute. After like 10 seconds the girl runs up, grabs the kid, smiles at me, and takes him down. What a crazy experience. I told Mic and Ryan about it the next day. However, it gets crazier. After one of our classes, this very pretty girl comes up to me and tries to ask me a question (she didn't have a class with us she just walked by). The teacher helped her and it turns out her question was, "Were you at Komoro station 3 days ago?" I couldn't believe it. I confirmed that she was the girl with the boy and we had a good laugh about it. I later found out from Mic that she was a 3rd year student and still hardly knew any English. Not a good student. It really didn't seem like she ever went to class either, because I think she was following us around quite a bit. I'm kinda mad I didn't get a picture. This might've been my favorite girl just because we remembered each other from Komoro Station. I don't know how to spell her name but it sounds like eye-ray.

Let's see, any more stories? Well we met all of Ms. Michaela's good students and some of the suck-ups. One of them lived in Georgia for 4 years so she knew lots of English and she loved it when I told her class that my favorite baseball team is the Atlanta Braves.

You'd think we'd get tired of all the girls following us around but you know what? I think I'm entitled to one day of something like this. I know I have a girlfriend but this is besides the point. I've lived 21 years and have never been very popualr in school or with the girls. Sure they are only 15, but it felt good to be around something like this. Ha what am I saying? But I did have a blast today at school. I wish I could go back some other time but oh well. They want me to send a pic of Richelle with Ms. Michaela to class someday so they can see what kind of woman can tame me. HAHAHA!!!

Man I've lost it. Sorry I'm just having fun. Ahhhh what a day. I won't forget this. Well time for bed. I think I will post some pics first and maybe a "Goodbye" post. Cya!

Oh and by the way. When I get home, I will no longer respond to just Jeff. My name is now Mister Jeff.

Thursday 6/1 - The Begining of the End

Well I'd like to start off by saying Congrats to the NE baseball team for landing a #6 seed for the tournament. That means if everything goes as planned this weekend (we win), I will be going to more baseball games next weekend. If anyone wants to go with me and Ryan let me know and I will get tickets for you.

Well I woke up late again. I sure am going to miss that on Monday when classes start again. I didn't do too much, except for starting to pack and talking to Richelle. When 6pm came around, Lisa picked us up and we went to Baskin Robbins. I guess it's a tradition for the girls on Thursdays so we just tag along. After we got back we said our final goodbyes to Lisa. This girl has done everything for us. All of our car trips to Baskin Robbins, canyoning, strawberry picking, and to some other stores. She was by far the coolest person that we met during our stay here.

Well we made plans with Marta and Radey to play cards tonight. We played crazy 8s, go fish, BS, and Egyptian War I think it was. Not too bad. Well we said our goodbyes to them too. We had hung out with these girls maybe 3-4 times each, so we kinda felt like friends. It's kind of sad saying goodbye to people that you just met, had good times with, and know that you most likely won't ever see them again.

Well that's pretty much Thursday. Lots of packing. Lots of trying to pack I should say. Lots of cursing took place trying to pack. I'll tell ya, some of the junk I bought does not pack very well. Looks like my 400 yen table skillet won't make it back after all. Dang. I like that thing.

Wednesday 5/31 - My Own Mystic Quest

Just so you know. I just posted my Elementary school day post right before this one so check it out. I have a few videos on it too, but the sound doesn't catch up to the video, so it sounds a bit off. I'm on a pretty nice laptop, so I don't think it's just the computer so someone let me know. Also it was been brought to my attention that the Mortal Komabt character's name is Raiden, not Rayden. Wow, sorry I botched that one. I haven't played MK in ages.

I wanted to go back to Nagano City today. The place that has Zenkoji Temple and the Raiden hats. Those hats were the reason that I forked over 2500 yen for train tickets to get back there. I ended up having a pretty fun adventure. Those hats weren't my mystic quest though. It was navigating my way thought the train system, getting to Nagano, then finding my way to the Temple. All those little shops are there. They seem to have more authentic stuff there. Also, many cups and keychains and other things all have Japanese symbols on them. That's the stuff I like to buy and bring home.

Well I don't know the train system too well outside of a 5 minute ride. It's all pretty basic really, if you look up all the train times and platforms online the night before, which I did. One difficult thing though. There are many different railroad lines, each intersecting another at certain points. The Koumi Line, which is what I'm familiar with, stretches from Komoro, past Nakagomi (us) and Koumi to Kabuchizawa. At Komoro, the Shinabao line (I spelled it way wrong) runs though it. From Katarizawa to somewhere near Nagano. So I take a 20 Minute ride from kita-nakagomi (our station. 15min walk away. name means north of nakagomi) to Komoro. Then switch trains to this different line. Then ride it for an hour to Nagano.

It's not the easiest. Online has the start and stop times which are most helpful. Because you can't understand what the guy on the PA is saying. This means that you must also pay attention. Online has the timetables of arrivals and departures. For Example: Saku-Daira is Between Nakagomi and Komoro. One side of the the table says for Kobuchizawa(another city) and the other says for Komoro. Of course there's no English on this so we have to look online at the times. Then if we want a different time, we just go and look on the timetable at the station and find the one that has the same times that we found online, then find one that's earlier or later. It's sounds complicated, but it's hard to type it out. It's really simple actually.

Since some of the things are only in japanese, you have to be alert. This means knowing the exact time that the train stops at your city, know how long before the next train leaves when you are transfering, and making sure you're at the right station. There's also purchasing your ticket. I won't go into detail but as long as you stay in the same line, it's easy. It's all automated too.

Sorry for the explanation but here's what I did. Note that this is easier than how it sounds.
9:34am my train leaves for Komoro. 9:54am arrives at Komoro. I have 33 minutes of transfer time so i go to my platform and check out the table to make sure I'm at the right place. When I got to my platform (got there quickly) I saw a train that had only symbols on it. Doh! The internet said P3. But on platform 2 there was a train that said for Nagano on it. Before I can get everything sorted out the train leaves. I found our a few seconds later that at 9:58am, this train leaves. My online source didn't think I could make it in 4 min, so it neglected to tell me. Of course I could've hopped on it. It did say for Nagano. But because the online thing was wrong on P3, I decided to wait 33 min like I had planned. It would've worked, but I still made it. that was a 1 hour train ride. It turns out that the online thing said P3 in Nagano. Who cares where I get off. No one ever needs to know that.

So I get to Nagano and find my way to the Temple, which is 1.8 km away. Maybe 1 1/4 miles. This wasn't new. I shopped, got my Raiden hats, bought lots more stuff, then I realized something. I didn't have anyone making me feel I had to rush, I didn't have anyone talking me out of buying some stuff, and this would pretty much be my last shopping trip for my stay here. Well I made it worth while.

On the way back to the station I stopped at Mickey D's and headed back up. One problem though. It was 2:25. I wrote down a bunch of train times to help me and the earliest one I wrote was 3:49. Well so I just looked at the timetable with the same times I wrote down and took an earlier one. Now I had to buy my ticket for the way back. Skip this next paragraph if you don't want an explaination of how it works. On second thought, just read everything. Okay?

Kita-Nakagomi is just a stop, not a station, so nothing fancy. I go to the machine. There they have a huge map of the whole train system. If I wanted to go to Saku-Daira, I would find the city on the map, and read that it's 180 yen. If I saw saku-daira in Nagano, the amount would be much more. I would put 180 yen in the machine and push the 180 yen button. I get a ticket. I go on the train and when i get off, I simply hand my ticket to an employee. This works for the whole Koumi Line and other lines if you stay on the same one. All these prices are online too. So Nagano says 1280 yen. So we get that ticket. It's a really neat system. However, sometimes it gets a bit difficult when you buy a ticket for multiple Lines. Many machines don't have the right prices for the far off places. Mic has experiemented with this Nagano one so we know it works. But if we didn't know, it might be better to by a ticket to Komoro, staying one this line (Koumi =Green Line). Then in Komoro, we buy a Shinobo (Orange) Line ticket to Nagano. Of course you would have to go to the beginning of the station, buy your second ticket, then go back. The way I did it was just much easier.

So I'm in Nagano, wanting to go back. I arrive at the machines, which are nicer and they have a touch screen. I'm looking to buy a 1280 yen ticket back, but there's a problem. I don't know which one to buy. Let me try to explain this. The machine knows it's in Nagano. There's an Orange button for the Shinobao Line and a Green for the Koumi line (I think). But I'm going on both lines. But they wouldn't have green ticket prices if they weren't for the Koumi Line. The map was all japanese so I couldn't read anyhting. I had a few different options. #1 I was leaning towards getting the Green one (later Mic thougth that would be right). #2 Getting an orange ticket to Komoro, staying on this same line, then buying a Koumi line ticket in Komoro, staying on that line. #3 Asking for help. Of course all I could say to someone is. Su mi massen ... Kita-Nakagomi?

Oh I forgot. Try to get this. There were 4 machines right? There were 2 more to the right. Exact same deal, but they had thick orange tape on the ground marking a little line for the machine. Above the screen was a big orange sign that read something. Exact same machine. So I was like Great. So are these two for if you are buying one ticket for the whole thing or not.

Well I consider myself a smart kid and I was pretty sure either #1 or 2 would've worked (they really would have) but I was approached by the nicest lady. She soon learned that I couldn't speak Japanese so she tried to use her best English. Note: I've learned that quite a few Japanese people know some English, maybe through schooling or something, they are just kind of scared to use it. They may just be shy because they don't see many English-speakers and they may think it's bad English. This lady did pretty well though. We chatted for a bit then she tried to help me. I showed her that I knew how much money I needed, but I was pointing to the different sets of machines. I don't think she was sure exactly, because she asked another guy for help. I'm sure they both had some idea, but to make sure, the lady was kind enough to take me to the ticket office and talk to a person. So I got my exact ticket. These 2 people probably had no idea about the Koumi line. See, I was pretty far from home at this time. And Mic nor I never mentioned anything about this before my trip.

Well I checked the timetable and learned that I have a train coming in 5 min. This was still 90 min before my earliest written down time. I arrived at Komoro. Now since I am earlier than my times, I had to check the table to see where to go next. Luckly there was a train just about ready to leave. My transfer time was only 5 min this time. Booyah! I come home and share my story with the other 2. Mic knew exactly what I was talking about, but she didn't know for sure either. If I had to guess, I would've been right, but sometimes it's fun to ask someone, "(point) Nagano?" Just to make sure. What a fun trip.

Sorry to bore all of you, but this train system is really something special.

Well we got home, bought stuff for sushi, and had it again tonight. Man for some reason, it's very refreshing. We don't put raw fish or anything in it. In Japan they don't use crab, or carrots, or cream cheese, or boiled eggs, or peppers. However they do use cucumbers!!! and rice and seaweed wrap. Whatever, our Americanized sushi is the bomb.

And I just got done typing two of the longest posts ever in a row. I think I will go sleepy now. Got a big day of packing tomorrow + it's ice cream day with Lisa.

Tuesday 5/30 - School's Out!!!

Wow this wins for being my longest post. It's very cool though. Make sure you read it. Mic and Ryan both have their own stories to tell. Make sure you check their sites out. If it's pictures you want. Look for them on Thursday.

This may have been the most interesting day ever. Today we went to Joyama Elementary School. Michaela usually teaches junior high, but for a few days she's been teaching little kids because her usuals are taking tests. On Tuesday (day 2) we accompanied her and helped her teach. We taught 4 classes in the morning for 45 min each. You know those little kid teachers that act very entusiastic? Well we have to make learning English fun for these little 7-10 year-olds.

We started the morning by being picked up by a teacher at 7:40am and taken to school. We sat in the principal's office for awhile while having fun watching Mic and the P try to understand each other. We met another teacher who knew some english, so we chatted with him for a bit. We were led outside where all the kids were there doing some stretches or little games or something on a big dirt field. Then they all ran back into the school. Here's a fun little video of the youngest kids being the first to run in.

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

Cute huh? The young ones all wear little hard hats when they walk to class. Little yellow hats to protect them I guess when they walk on the side of the road. I may have some pics of that. I don't think they have them on in the video. Super cute though. But this wasn't the only time we will see them.

I need to tell you guys about our uh... status at this school. You see, these kids don't get to see many foreigners. And to have one come teach an English class, that's just awesome. For today though, they had 3 foreigners hang out with them. They would not waste any time instantly making us the most popular kids in school.

All these little kids would come up to us and say whatever English they know. "Hello" is about is. "My name is ----" was also a common one. "Goodbye." So we say that to about a thousand kids. Many kids, especially the girls, we're very shy, so some would greet us in groups. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. Don't worry though, it gets cuter. When we'd walk through the hallways, kids would be out and wave to us and greet us.

Before this whole thing, Mic said that we'd be like D-list celebrities. So like maybe Angelina Jolie's sister's ex-boyfriend famous. Cool huh. Well, after all these greetings and all I'd say this moves us up to the "sister" level. C-list definitely. Yes my friends, stardom is great.

We went inside and our first class was at 9:05. It was a second grade class. So we have to make class fun. Mic starts out with a little intro thing. Then I would say, "HELLO! (they repeat) My name is Jeff (they say my name), Jeff. I like... Video Games (oooooh videogames!). I like Playstation ( ahhh playstation ahhhhh!!!)." Ryan does his thing. We have a US map and we show them where we are from, and where Ichiro, Matsui, and Jojima are at. We all sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" about 10 times while teaching the kids where each part is. Quite a few kids knew this stuff, but no one this young has an organized English class, so many didn't know.

Simon Says came next. It's kind of hard to explain it to little kids that don't understand a word your saying. But eventually they got it. Here's a neat little video of it. Aren't these kids just precious?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et7fi5FwFC4

Next was Karuta. We taught them 5-11 colors (depending on the class) and laid out colored paper on the floor in the middle of the little groups they formed. We say something like, "Okay, Please put your hands on your head. ... ... ... ... GREEN!" They first kid in each group to slap that color on the ground wins that card.

It looks like a fun game, except some of the little 7 year-olds get kind of sad when they don't get a card, or when someone cheats or says something mean. One time this one little girl was a bit pouty. I saw that the white card was pretty close to her. After she was beaten five or so straight times, I called out white right next to their group and she won it. She looked so happy the whole time after that. Another class at one time had 2 girls and a guy a bit sad. All 3 had red closest to them. Mic noticed this too and she knew exactly which card I would pick. 2 of the 3 won that card. The one that didn't, I don't think she really tried anymore. She was kind of upset the other day, but something later happened and she was all smiles. Here's a video of Karuta. This is by far the best of the 3 videos. We got everything in this one. Oh one more thing. If two kids can't decide on who won, they play janken to decide the winner. Janken is our Rock, Paper, Scissors, except it sounds much cooler. This was the only class that played it on the floor, which made the video extra special. You'll see why with one group.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4R8-s2up8c

Ah we've watched that video millions of times. The best is when they all dive from far away for the card.

Well after each of our four classes we would wave goodbye to the students. They would give us hugs, hand shakes, waves, big smiles. We would be swarmed by the door. As I would take pictures of them, they would all try to be as close to the camera as possible. So I have many pictures and kids waving and giving the peace sign, which is very popular with kids of all ages. Somehow we'd make it out alive and head to our next class. After all 4, it was down to the forbidden teacher's lounge.

Many kids actually go into the lounge and talk to teachers, but you knew that it was just to bask in our glorious rays of ... ... ... awesomeness? Whatever. An unknown teacher came to us and she was going to escort only one of us to our seat for lunch, which was in one of the classrooms. So I went first. Man, being all alone with these guys is tough. Ryan and I had lunch with classes we weren't at for that day. So I had to get up in front of my class and introduce myself, like before. I sat in a student's desk, yeah those foot-high ones. Fun Fun. We had noodles with a beef stew-like soup, salad with chunks of squid (very good), a wedge of melon, and a bottle of milk. Keep in mind these are poritons for 2nd graders. The kids get to janken for the leftovers. They made me do it everytime, but I guess I lost.

Explain something to me here. In Rock, paper, scissors, if you have rock (good ol' rock, nothing beats that!), and 2 people have scissors, and 3 have paper, shouldn't it be a draw? Scissors can go through multiple sheets of paper like no other. And 2 scissors are no match for the strength of a rock right? Well, so I lost the melon. I lost all of them actually. I ended up with extra salad anyway.

Everyone is talking to me in Japanese and I think it took them awhile to figure out that I didn't know a lick of Japanese. Midway through my lunch, most of the kids found a way to be done and started harassing me. C'mon kids, I'm eating here. No, they would all introduce themselves to me, and not go away till I pronounced all 25 or so names correctly. It was tough, but it was very fun. And to see the look on their little faces when I said it correctly. So happy. I finish and put my plates away.

So I'm hanging out in the hallway with the kids. I'm talking to them a little wondering where Mic and Ryan are at. I pull out my camera and start taking pictures of them. They all crowd together and try to get in. I have to back up a bit just to get them all, when more pop up from the front. It was fun and I was taking pictures soso fast. The teacher came out and took a picture of me with my class. I soon saw Mic having the same fun just down the hall. She had a girl on her back and I got a good pic of that.

So I'm backing up further and further to get pictures of everyone. Then they get behind me to try to look at the pics. I put the camera down and scroll through them all. They are all laughing and some are blurred from me moving. Not long after, and kid comes up to me and wants me to sign his construction hat. I take his marker and sign my full name. Soon after, I have a big line in front of me with kids wanted me to sign their hard hats. Unbelievable!!! I look around a bit more and see that Mic and Ryan now are having the same fun. I look a bit more and realize that when I was backing up, I had placed myself in a corner with the door to the girl's restroom. If any of you become celebrities, make sure you get bodyguards and don't get yourself cornered.

I sign my name on about 100 hats maybe. Could be more. It might have been. 20-30 minutes I was signing hats, hard hats, shirts, hands, arms, towels, jocks ... ... nah not jocks. If I would've given the kids more time I still might be there signing stuff. Before the kids went away. Mic and Ryan yelled at me to come on. I told them to leave me behind. I guess they went back into the teachers lounge and the Vice Principle said something like, "Only 2?" Yea I almost didn't make it.

But I was happy to sign autographs for all these little guys. Just thinking about what they will all tell their parents at home kinda makes me tear up a bit. We really made their day a memorable one and I couldn't be happier about it. After lunch we were given a ride home and we looked at my pictures. I think I was the only one with pics. I took 58 of them. 58 Pictures!!! Most of them were just one right after another. What a day though. I will never forget this day. It couldn't have gone any better.

I will have pictures up in the next 2 days. Since I still have yet to post pics from karaoke, I may not get to them in time because I have to pack back up for NE. If I don't get them in I will post them after I get home, but I should have lots of time to do them on Thursday. I leave saturday morning at 3:30am Central Time. Wednesday was pretty fun too. Look tomorrow for that post. Cya!

Monday 5/29 - "Insert your own title here"

Ok ok don't give m any crap about NE losing that baseball game. I don' want to talk about it. Just let's all pray that we get a top 8 seed and hope for the best for them during regionals and super regionals. What a crappy game.

Well not much went on today. I slept in because I stayed up to listen to the game. We hung out till 6 then we got picked up by a friend to go to a 100 yen sushi restaurant. It was another one of those conveyor belt places. I like those.

Tomorrow we are going to an Elementary school. I guess Ryan and I are both doing some activities. We will introduce ourselves and say what we like. Then we will play some games, and eat lunch with the kids. It sounds like it will be very entertaining. Except that we have to wake up early enough to leave by 7:35am. Doh!

Sunday 5/28 - Ahhh, NE Baseball

For those of you wondering. Yes, I am keeping up to date on my Nebraska Baseball games. I was up at 3am to watch the Texas game and it's currently 2:55am here, 5 minutes before the Big XII Championship game against Kansas. I know KU's on a roll, but c'mon, it's Kansas. My score prediction is 9-2 we win. Klausing's my boy. He's going to dominate KU batters.

The whole Sunday was lame. I'm not going to bore you with the nothing that we did today. Instead I will bore you with random things that have happened here.

Well I have only shaved once since I've been here. That was right before the big Canyoning trip. I'm sorry that I did not take any before-and-after pictures. I went 20 days, a PR for me. Man that hair was long. It was nice to get rid of it. I guess I'm already back at 9 days. Geez. It doesn't look long at all now.

Pictures should be up by Sunday Night for you guys to view. I don't think I have much to show. I didn't really take any pics. These will just be the photos from the karaoke night and maybe a couple extras.

I thought about it last night. I think that I will head back to Nagano to pick up a few more Rayden Hats so everyone is happy. So if any of you who are buying them from me I they want to chip in a few bucks you're welcome too. But really, that won't be the only reason we will go back. So friends, brothers, you can all be Rayden next Halloween.

Ryan and I will be attending elementary school with Mic on Tuesday and Junior High on Thursday. Monday we are going to a 100 yen sushi place with a friend. Tuesday we will be play cards (Pitch) with Andy. Maybe Wednesday Ill try to go to Nagano. Thursday Lisa will come over and we will all probably go to Baskin Robbins. Friday we may go back to that karaoke bar and uh ... not sing. And Saturday I will leave in the afternoon. Hmmm. I wonder when I will have time to pack. Ill figure it out. Look for pics.

Saturday 5/27 - Too many Strawberries

To start, I have posted Thursday and Friday ones right before this one. So I highly recommend reading those 2 first. It will make more sense if you go into succession.

Well the plan for this morning was to wake up and leave by 9:45. I woke up at 8 for some reason and couldn't go back to sleep. I just talked into making pancakes, but not for everyone. Actually, Ben and Leah both left at like 6:45. Don't ask me how. I think they had school-related work to do today. The plan today was for the Trio plus Lisa to drive to a strawberry patch and pick lots of them. I'll get into it later.

So at the house. Everyone one by one, took showers and ate something. I'm not sure exactly how much the others had to drink, but I think I had a little too much, not a lot more, just a little too much. Anyways, I did not have a headache or a stomach ache, but I was pretty groggy the whole day.

Here's how the strawberry thing worked out. Each person pays 1000yen ($9). We can go around the whole field, picking and eating strawberries. The only catch was that we could not take any home. So everyone just loaded up there. I stopped at 60. Most people got to 40-70. One other guy hit 121. I'm sure he felt good the rest of the day. There's some neat pictures too.

After minimal ...stomach problems, I took a 4 hour nap. When I woke up, the otehr 2 were watching some movie with Bill Murray. I caught it like halfway through, but it's the one were he thinks the whole movie is like an act or something and he needs to follow along or something to be a good actor. Well bad guys and the cops are involved and he thinks it's all fake. I thought it looked funny and I would've liked to see the whole thing. We watched another movie too. Greed or greedy, I'm not sure. With Michael J. Fox among others. The beginning was pretty funny, but the rest was just lame. I don't recommend watching it, but it wasn't that bad of a flick.

Now here I am, recovered, ashamed, hungry, and alive. Baseball will start for me soon. Tomorrow should be a fun challange. I am to listen to this game till 5:30, then we leave at 7am for a hour-long walk to Mic's church. After that I'll get a good nap in, don't worry. If anyone has questions about the weekend I will be happy to answer them, if I can remember what we did. Ha. No I think I remembered everything.

Friday 5/26 - This Never Happened!!!

Listen guys, the following blog is of stuff that I wouldn't ever do in the US. Sorry to Richelle, Michaela, other friends. You will never see me do this in Lincoln. With that said. Here's what went down.

Originally, the plan was to go to a karaoke bar and drink. Karaoke is a bit different here. Well maybe not, I don't go in the States. Anyway, instead of singing to a large crowd, our group goes into a small room where we drink and sing to ourselves. A little more relaxed and less embarrassing I guess. Sounds fun right?

Ryan and I were very stubborn. We were not going to sing at all. We were gonna sit there, drink, and watch Mic's friends make fools of themselves. So to make this clear, I did not sing. Oh yea, I also I didn't sing the very first song of the whole night. It wasn't Chop Suey! by System of a Down. I didn't join in like every song, singing with Mic and all her friends on top of chairs and tables. I didn't make a fool of myself. Oh and Ryan didn't sing either. We didn't have a complete blast. And afterwards, I didn't say, "We should do this next Friday too!"

Yes, yes I can hear you all laughing. Let's get one thing striaght NE people. This will not happen in the States. This was just a one time (maybe two) deal and I do not do stuff like this.

Don't worry people. Quite a few people have lots of pretty embarrassing pictures from this night. Plenty will probably be posted by all three of us. Let's see. Me, Mic, Ryan, Lisa, Ben, Leah, and hmmm I'm not going to butcher the last girl's name. I won't try to spell it, I apoligize to her. Think of the word "Radius." Now take out the "us" part. That's how you pronounce her name. Hopefully she won't read this because I'm sure she wouldn't like it. But it's a pretty name and she's a nice gal. Fun to hang around with. Everyone is. Maybe it's just because everyone was drinking.

Okay here's how the night started. We went to the supermarket to pick up drinks. The plan was for everyone to come here. Everyone would drink here, then we'd walk to the bar. Me, Jack, Coke, Ryan, Sake, Michaela, and Apricot Syrup Drink hung out for awhile before the crazy kids started to arrive. When we got there, we had more drinks, but it was nice to get started at home. We didn't even have to worry about driving.

At the bar, Mic and I started off with Chop Suey! I have trouble remembering many of the songs everyone sang. We were there for three hours. Yea I practically lost my voice there. Our last song didn't help either. We were down to our last song. Five or Six were programmed already, but we could only pick one. I was the one who punched our last song in. I was like, "Let's do Twist and Shout." For the people that know this song (all of you), you know that Lennon's voice is kinda harsh, or raspy in the song. Yeah, that killed my voice. Man, what a good song though. I admit I did have fun. But don't ever count of seeing it when I come back home.

I know I picked to do Jailhouse Rock. We did Twist and Shout. Also Sweet Child o Mine. by Guns N Roses. These were just my favorites. Yea you can imagine with those songs on the list that my voice would be shot. Okay go to Mic's Blog or Ryan's Blog to see more of the songs we sang. I'm not gonna type them all.

We walked home at about 12:30. We all sat around the table and chatted for awhile. Then we all went to bed. About half of us were on the floor, but I don't think it mattered.

I won't link you to Ryan's and Mic's websites because they are probably littered with pictures that I don't want you to see. Actually I should have some up here by Late Saturday afternoon. We'll see.

Thursday 5/25 - Is that goal regualtion size or what? Geez!

Does anyone recognize that quote? Well we watched the movie Happy Gilmore this night. My all-time favorite movie. Some of my favorite quotes are straight from that movie. "Oh what's that, your finger's hurt? Well now your back's gonna hurt, 'cause you just pulled landscaping duty." Ahhh okay I'll stop.

I pretty much had the day alone. Ryan went on a mystic quest to find a big used CD store in Saku-daira. He completed his quest. For details visit Ryan's Blog. However, I made full use of my time alone. I slept. I woke up at 1 and Ryan was back at 2:30. So not much free time, and I'm pretty sure I spent it all by the computer.

Not much else happened today. We went to Santa's and the supermarket. Ahhh what a great movie though.

I am currently typing this at 10:50pm Saturday Night. In about 4 hours, I will listen to NE baseball. The game in central time is at 1pm Saturday afternoon. Yes I will be up. Don't ask how. If anyone would care to keep me company you can get on MSN or AIM messenger. I will be on. Or hey, shoot me an e-mail. During the game, I will also blog on the weekend. Let's just say I did some things this weekend that I will NOT repeat in Lincoln. Not even once.

Wednesday 5/24 - More Hokka Hokka Tei

Yes yes we ate at the infamous Hokka Hokka Tei again. We had the 1050 yen platters again. Very good. We also bought a couple items each at Santa's. Hmm this wont be a good post. If I can think of anything, I will post it. I played card games online.... I slept in till like 1......ummm. I miss everybody...... As I'm posting this, I'm listening to the Nebraska vs. Baylor baseball game. NE is down 2-1 in the 7th I think. What's going on with the team. They lost 8 of their last 11 and now the bats aren't working against Baylor. You guys can e-mail me too at jeffp@bigred.unl.edu . I like hearing how everyone is doing. Well Ill try to have better info tomorrow. Sorry I'm such a boring person. It'll be better tomorrow, I promise.

Mon 5/22 and Tues 5/23 - Recovery Days

Just a note for everyone. If you pay me back, I can pick up all sorts of crazy stuff for you. I can't promise I'll find it, but I will look. The only thing really on the list that I haven't bought yet are 2 Cds. And for the people that wanted Rayden Hats, Due to an increase in demand, I may be unable to provide hats of the Mortal Kombat character to everyone. The only place I found them is very far away and they will be hard to pack in the suitcase. Just a warning.

Well I woke up Monday morning a little sore. My abs hurts a bit from rowing, my arms from climbing and rowing, and my legs hurt from climbing,walking, and all that other insane stuff we did Sunday. For these two days we just relaxed. Here's the things we did for these days.

The 3 of us walked to a park 15 min away and played catch with the football. If Mic didn't bring the football along to Japan, I don't know how Ryan and I would pass some of the time here. After I practically threw my arm out throwin' bombs, we went back home.

Michaela made tendori chicken with rice. I don't know what tendori is, but the chicken was a little spicy, but very good tasting. Tues night we went to this restaurant by Santa's Pawn Shop. It's a 100yen sushi place. Small plates with many different foods come around on a conveyor belt. The belt goes right past all of the booths in the restaurant. If you want something, like shrimp and rice, or egg and rice, just take the plate off and eat it. After we are done, we push a button and a waitress comes and counts our plates, writes it down and gives us the ticket. We present that to thr front and pay 100 yen for each plate she counted up. Cool huh. There are exceptions though. My strawberry mousse was 150 yen. But it's nice and cheap ... if you want to be. We will go there again before we leave.

We stopped at Santa's Tues night too. I picked up two Sake sets, a cheap video game, and one other cool thing. It's a puzzle put together and then framed. It's a Donkey Kong Country puzzle, showing all of the Kongs from the first video game. Here, it's called Super Donkey Kong. There's not much Japanese on it, but it is very cool....well I think it is anyway. I know most of you know the Donkey Kong Series. Just amazing super nintendo games.

We went to Saku Daira for the 3rd time. They have 2 100 yen shops, the mall, the arcade. I was able to spend more time with my Time Crisis 3 today finally, and we bought some cheap little items, souvenirs, and candy. Good fun.

We also called up Andy to play pitch. For those who don't know, pitch is a fun card game with 4 players, 2 vs. 2. I hear it's simialar to Spades, Euchre, and Pinochle, but I wouldn't know because I've never played them. Andy also brought us a very rare present: bottles of Mountain Dew. Now I don't drink much pop, but it's pretty much all Colas here. I have never found Mountain Dew here at all. Andy picked it up at a convenience store it Iwamurada, which is like a 3 min 140yen train ride away. We could probably even walk it someday. They are green glass bottles. And Mic doesn't know how to throw those away. For anyone who isn't familiar, there are many different types of trash that you must presort yourself in order to get your trash accepted. It hasn't happened this month, but Mic said that she will come home and there will be a couple of trash bags sitting by the front door.

Well I think that's it for today. It's Wed afternoon as I'm typing this and I don't think were doing anything cool today. I'll still try and post a Wed. though. Cya.

Sunday 5/21 - The Big Adventure

Ok here’s my big post. Just so you guys know, it may be a good idea to check Michaela’s and Ryan’s blogs. Lots of stuff went down and I’ll probably leave some of it out on accident. So to get the full story, read all 3 of ours. Links to those were posted earlier.

So I woke up at 6am or so. Everyone starts waking up and getting out of bed at about 7:45. A couple of the guys grilled some breakfast, but most of us just had easy stuff like granola bars. We leave our campsite and arrive at Canyons at 9am. Okay there were 14 of us, representing 6 countries I believe. I’ll try to name them all. Li-Hsin, Jeff, Ryan, Michaela, Leah, Marta Lisa, Manu, Gerald, Matt, Ben, Tim, Jenny, Andy. Ha got them all. I think I spelled them all correctly too.

Canyons is run by a bunch of crazy people. Lots of New Zealanders, a few Japanese, and my favorite guy was Australian. They do many different types of activities. You can see it all on http://www.canyons.jp/ . There’s a tab you can hit to switch the language to English somewhere on the site. It’s really neat. First, we changed into nice, snug wetsuits, got into our protective gear, then it was onto canyoning.


We arrive to a river where we climb in and listen to Bryan, our lead guide, give us a speech on what we’re doing. I didn’t know what canyoning was, but during the month some people were talking about it. We hang out with Lisa a lot and I remember her saying something like, “I guess were going to be jumping off of waterfalls or something.” Well, we did. But that’s not what happened first. I will try to be super descriptive.

The water current was smooth and a bit fast. First, in a big line, we floated down the canyon until we got to a small drop-off. This was a “slider.” You sit at the top, lay on your back and just slide off it into a small pool of water. We floated a little further until we reached the biggest waterfall that we were going to do today. There’s nothing like doing the biggest thing first huh. On the site, it says that this waterfall was 20m tall. I think Bryan said 18 though, but that’s still like 60ft. We slid down it while being connected to a cord held by Bryan. He’d slide us down halfway then let go. We fell into a big pool of water and let the current take us to a shallow area. Once everyone was finished, our guide told us that we could do an optional stunt. We could climb up a wall, get on a bridge, sit on a swing, be strung out into the middle of the pool, then drop. I think all of the guys did it. I had a little trouble climbing the wall. We were hooked to a rope and had another one to climb with. There were small nooks to put your feet on too. I had never climbed any wall before, but I was happy to try something else new. I made it up really without much trouble.

For the swing, we were hooked up to a rope, which was hooked onto the top. Once we were out in the middle, the cameraman gave us the thumbs-up saying that the video was ready. I would give Bryan the same, and once he gave it back, I would get to work. I first unhook my rope, which was the only thing that would save me. Oh by the way, this was a 15m drop (48-50ft I think) freefall. Think of a pull-up now. I would do a pull-up on this bar that comes down to about my chest. Once I can get my butt off the seat, Bryan pulls his cord, removing the swing. So I’m just hanging there, arms outstretched now. I spin around to say hey to the ladies and the few guys that went before me. Then I drop. As instructed, I kept my elbows in and my fists at my face. I was told I went down perfectly, of course ha-ha. When I was up on that swing though, I was nervous as hell. I was just like okay, slowly unhook yourself. Make sure you do everything right. I wasn’t a pansy, but I’ve never done anything like this before, except for maybe the Ripcord at Worlds of Fun, but that didn’t compare to this. After I let go, I fell a ways, and then you think, “Man, when am I going to hit the water?” Yes, I had that much time to think that. Everyone does it and everyone is glad they did it. As you may have guessed by this long paragraph, this was easily my favorite event of the day.

We then go down a couple more sliders and a couple more slider waterfalls. One of the ‘falls we had the option of climbing back up and jumping off a ledge. It was a good ways up, but nothing real dangerous. Still it was fun. Towards the end the guide would let us do flips off another high ledge. Some did flips but I didn’t. I don’t think I’ve ever done a flip before. We had a small water fight then it was back to the shop. This whole adventure took about 3 hours. Well, well worth it.

We get back and the crew has a huge lunch prepared for us. Pasta, curry and rice, ribs, cake, potatoes, carrots, cheesy carrots, ….ummm I think that’s it. I ate a ton. It might have been the best meal I’ve had here all month, and I’ve had some great meals here. After we ate, we changed some of our gear and left for the largest river in Japan to go rafting.

From what I understand the river was a grade 3 for white-water rafting. Which is moderate, but good for beginners, I guess. There was tons of rain from yesterday, and combined with the melted mountain water there were plenty of major rapids. Rapids of grades 2-4 were on our trip. And our leader said that a couple of these may have been grade 5. But what do I know? This is my first time rafting. The water was much deeper than usual, because of the rain. It was like 5.2m deep instead of like 3.5m. The currents were also much faster so we were all instructed carefully on what to do if someone falls out and yada yada yada. No one did. We rafted for 18km and then went back to the shop, where we bought shirts, had beer or coffee or tea, and chatted with all the guides until 6-7pm. Then we all left for home in our caravan, but that wasn’t the end of our day.

So I thought we would be home by 8:30-9:30 right? Wrong. I’ll explain a bit. 5 of us were in Lisa’s little car, Me, Ryan, Mic, Lisa, and Leah. We had 4 cars. One of them went a different way than the rest. One of the other drivers pulled to the side because he thought his car was overheating due to the small size of the car and the big slopes we were driving up. It was at this time that the 5 of us hear a boiling sound coming from under our hood. Not good news. If we wouldn’t have stopped, Lisa’s car would have overheated and the car would’ve been in trouble. So we park the car in a parking lot to sit for the night. One of our cars leaves so one of the guys can catch a train. So now were down to one car with way to many people for spots. We call up the driver that went astray and waited awhile for him to get to where we were. After that, we headed back to Saku and to go to sleep. We got back at 11pm, very tired.

Even with the car trouble. This has been a great, great day. Maybe the best day ever. Even with the car thing, there were a bunch of us standing around and we talked forever. That was really neat. It was fun having conversations with these very interesting people.

If I left anything out, it will be on Mic’s or Ryan’s blogs. Or I might post it later. Well this was one long post, but not too bad. I’ll get caught back up soon. Monday and Tuesday were just relaxing days. Nothing real big happened, but I’ll still post about them so stay tuned. Also, I wasn’t able to get any pictures in during this weekend, but I know Ryan did. So later I may post some pictures from him and from http://www.canyons.jp/ . Until next time.