Just the neighborhood porn video store 

The ultimate porn store motto

"You only live once, so let's have a wonderful time"

This is one of the many random signs that I have seen here. This is the slogan for a chain of porn stores here- one of which is located in the same building, just below my classroom.

CK

COCKROACH KARMA

So, over the weekend I killed 2 cockroaches, which is approximately 2 more than I have ever killed in my life-and I might add- 2 more than I had ever wanted to kill in my life. I had never seen a cockroach before, let alone kill one, until I came to Japan. And now, I have seen with my own eyes- 7. All at different times mind you, but still no less frightening. 4 of them I have seen in my classroom, but 3 at home.

IN MY HOME IN MY HOME IN MY HOME IN MY HOME

Yes, that's right- in my home. This recent home sighting occurred during a pee. There I was, minding my own business, and out crawled a cockroach from under my sink. This was not a pleasant experience, nor a convenient time for this little guy to come out for a visit, and we'll just leave it at that.

I had never wanted to deal with this shit before and these little black bastards with their long feelers are taking away from my Japan experience. I should write the prime minister here or something, and let him know about this issue. Maybe I'm lucky that I'm from Oregon, and that their not really too common there- but it's not cool sharing my home with these little dudes. I'm just not used to them. Just the idea of one of these guys having free reign to roam around my house at night (and maybe crawl over me when I'm sleeping) is not cool.

I always feel bad about killing them, like maybe I will get karma or something(Maybe I should ask my Grandma about this??) And afterwards I always picture the dying cockroach sending out a signal to all his little buddies who live in my walls or behind my cupboards, to storm the house. Then I picture hundreds of cockroaches crawling across the floor, to takeover, and get revenge for their little buddy that I just killed. These are not healthy thoughts, I know, but I can't help it. In reality, I probably only have a few cockroaches that live in my walls. I am not really scared of snakes or spiders, but cockroaches freak me out. And I am sure that I'm getting some bad CK for killing them. I still think about that big spider in the bushes that I spray painted white, when I was like 10.

Oh, and just a little sidenote for ya- some of the bigger cockroaches here have wings. Meaning that they can fly. FLYING COCKROACHES! Maybe I led a sheltered life back in Oregon, but I never knew that there were cockroaches that could fly. Has anyone ever heard of this? Or is this only in Japan? Maybe this is a side effect of eating too much rice or something.

Beer garden 

Beer Garden

This Saturday was a huge night of fireworks in Ube, at the port. Japanese people celebrate by wearing a Yukatta(it's like a summer kimono) to go watch the fireworks or anywhere else around town. It's reallly the only time they wear it- so they like to dress up for fun.

We started the night off at a beer garden on the roof of a big hotel in downtown Ube and it was all you can eat and all you can drink for 4,000Yen- about $40. A little expensive but the food was good and they had beer, wine, or mixed drinks. It was a lot of fun and everyone at the beer garden was plastered! Japanese people take 'all you can drink' seriously.

At the Bar

After the beer garden we walked to Hakala Dori, to meet up with some other friends. Hakala Dori is a cool bar- you take off your shoes when you walk in, and everyone sits at long tables on the floor and drinks. They don't normally do shots here, but I got them all to take a Tequila shot with me, but I had to show them how to do it right- with salt and a lime.

At the bar 

Internet is my friend

So haven't been doin much at home lately, besides talking to myself. I read a lot of books and rented a lot of movies. I don't have cable and 2 months without internet was pretty damn boring. But, finally I have it back! Woohoo! I feel like a crab that has just crawled out of its shell :)

So, finally I can post pictures too! These are some pics from a BBQ I went to like a month ago. We planted rice by hand (for fun, nowadays they have machines that do it and the rows of rice are much straighter) and then BBQ'd and played mud volleyball. It was so much fun and we got a souvenir bottle of sake ot take home with us! The rice paddy had about a foot of mud and water- so it was weird to stand in it- but it was a cool experience.

Rainy season has just ended here- so now it is very hot and humid! It's not sunny all the time though, like summers at home- it's overcast a lot and you rarely see clear blue sky. I will post more pictures tomorrow- I have one more class today and then I'm going to a beer garden to watch the fireworks here in Ube!

Mud Volleyball 

Rice Planting Pics