Well its almost Chirstmas, and Santa Got a Cold.... So am filling in for him.

Yea.. The title basically sums it up... I play Santa and a Yochen today (Kindergarten) .
It was awesome! I'm Santa!, smiling and giving presents!
It was a awesome job, and for most of the kids, I'm their dream come true....

But then again.... For the Younger Kids...
I'm not Santa. I'm a Gigantic Man Dressed in Red, Screaming "HO HO HO" and Other such scary unknown foreign words.
Yea.. I'm one Gigantic red scary man.
I feel sorry for them.....
I really do. Go get your present from Santa. "Waaaa! Waaaa! Waaa!" Scary! Scary! Scary!

Loving kids from Japan,

-Tom

Wanko Soba!!!

As some of you might know, Morioka has three Famous Noodles.

Ja-Ja men, Rei men, and Wanko Soba.

Well, I've eaten the first two so far... but Wanko Soba, I haven't eaten till today....
One of the main reason I haven't eaten it before, is partly that you have to eat as much as you can, and the noodles aren't that great..
Anyways, Me and my friends at my part-time job downtown, decided to go head to head with Morioka's Best, in a all you can eat "Battle of the fatties".

It was a 3 min per person, 9 min per team style battle. I was able to eat 55-60 bowels in 3 mins and my work buddies did the same, if not more!!
Oh man.... I was soo full after weres...

Anyways It was good times....

oh yea... Our group didn't even get top 3... Those guys can really eat!!!







-Tom

Onsen in Appi

February 23-24, 2007
Yo! , This friday I ended up going to another Onsen! (Japanese Hot Spring). So Awesome! A friend of a friend was able to hook us up with a nice discount at a posh Onsen, about a 45 minute drive from downtown Morioka towards Iwate Mountain.
After getting lost once and weaving though some highway construction, we arrived in time to get settled and have dinner, (Really great food!).
After bathing, we cracked open the beers and started drinking and playing different games of sorts, which didn’t really end till about 4 am. The last remanding few of us, hardcore late-nighters, headed for another bath! Anyways, I really needed to take a leek so I started heading for the can. Upon opening the door, I immediacy stopped.
There was an arm and hand coming out from under one of the stalls. (Not moving).
Not sure what to do, I called back to my friends who were just entering the bath. Rather confused with my language barrier, the two girls didn’t know what I was trying to say. Was I really asking them to going looking into the boys washroom?
Or was trying to say something else.
We all went in the boys washroom and there was a moment of silence… The girls didn’t know what to do, and I still wasn’t sure. First we banged on the door but there was no response. So we tried touching the arm, and started bagging on the door some more. No response.
After trying a few more things, I was able to unlock the door. Lying on the ground, face pressing up against the wall, laid a high school kid.
He was breathing, so we knew he wasn’t dead. But, we had shouted pretty loud and he still hadn’t woken up. We thought it would be best, not to move him by way it looked like he had fallen. I got someone to call the manger. After waiting a few minutes. The very tried unhappy looking manger came down the stairs.
As soon as he saw the kid he looked furious. He bent down and punched kid on the ass, and was shouting something I didn’t understand. The kid started moving and squirming. He was drunk as a skunk. After a bit more shouting, the kid was up on his feet, but still really drunk as the manger walked him to his room. Later, I gave it some thought.
If this were to happen in Canada, what would have happened?
Most likely, a call for an ambulance and a stretcher, wasting a huge amount of money on a kid that most likely drank a few beers too many, or rather two beers looking at his age.
Anyways, after thanking the manger, I was able to have a nice night bath.
-Tom

Oh yeah, Showing some leg. ( I put on some pants after see this picture.) ^__^

I tried to get a picture of inside the onsen, but someone told me I shouldn't.

Yo! Kyo!

Hey! I went back to Tokyo again today and I meet up with some of my friends for shopping and coffee. We walked around Tokyo and a few areas which were fun.

Anyways, during coffee at Star bucks (Yes, Japanese Star Bucks), I ran into a customer of mine at Wal-Mart!~~
I thought running into my customers in Victoria was bad, but running into them in Japan is crazy bad!

Anyways, after coffee I was invited to a get-together for my friend's friend going away party.
One thing lead to the next and we ending going to karaoke, where I learn that karaoke in Tokyo is expensive….
Between the ten of us, we spend about ¥43000 ($430.00 CDN )
*(Note for Mom and Dad – I wasn’t drinking, so my share of the bill was only $20.00 CDN)* - If I didn’t write that, I would get two very angry phone calls. (^__^)

Ok... I found the train..... Which side?... I'm so confused..

Woooo!!! Ducky's!! - Left is Me, Right is my friend Kokyo!

Left - Coffee with friends.... Takehiro is being Camera shy, and Mika is taking the picture..

Anyways, getting back a little late. I slept very well after a long day.

-Tom

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

It's Boxing day in Japan!!

Today I when shopping at a few local stores. I didn't really find anything I liked. Of course I wanted to buy everything, but it's still expensive.

I tried to buy I cell phone today, but after much hassle I found that I was unable to get hold of a cell phone till I receive paperwork from both my school and the Japanese government verifying that I am going to school here.

What a messed up system!! Arg!! Angry!!!

I did however get a phone number. If you want it, just e-mail me and I'll send you my temp number.
Getting a Japanese cell phone has gained some importance since I found that I was being charged $4.00 per minute from Rogers.

Rogers can die in hell... If I'm paying $4.00 per minute it better be the best dam phone call of my life!

Sadly, it wasn't.

-Tom

Narita San - Night

Hey everyone, I've when back to the Temple I was talking about... And My friend was right... It's insane.. the lines were huge!! And the Police weren't directing the people anymore, they were controlling us like cars.

Basically what happened is that all the people are funneled though a large walkway.
Then, the people in the front are stopped by 5 police holding hands.
Then the Police walk forward about 6 meters and stop.
Then this step is repeated for the people behind. Thus creating a cube's or groups of humans.

Then this cube is escorted to the temple.

Heading for the Funnel


In my Cube, waiting for the Cube of humans ahead of us to finish throwing money in the money pot and making their wishes.

*** VIDEO CLICK HERE ***

Narita San - Morning

Hey everyones,

I when to a temple today called Narita-san. It was really cool!!! Monks and Smoke and everything ! I followed along with my friends and put my 10 yen into the coin box, clapped three times. I guess it was for praying to the gods at one time, but I think now it's just done for good luck. I was really busy here! But my friend told me that it's crazy busy on the Thirty First of December. ( New Years). I want to check it out......

I wasn't able to take pictures inside the temple.... It's rude and I've only been the country for less then a week. I don't want problems.