Golden Turds and Funky Costumes!

Yeah it's been a little while... sorry! Im not nearly as bad as Sam and Aaron, though. But hey, they're getting ready to leave the country -- packing up your whole life from the past 2 years and saying goodbye to everyone doesnt leave much time left for updating blogs I guess! Oh well!

So, this last weekend we went to Tokyo to hang out before we had to go to meetings on Monday and Tuesday for our duties as TOAs (Tokyo Orientation Assistants). The weather was crap the whole time, but that didnt keep us from having a fabulous time! The first day we go there, we were pretty tired from the 3-4 hour bullet train (shinkansen) ride, but we wanted to have an interesting night, so we headed an hour and a half south past Yokohama to Yokosuka where there's a huge Navy Base. Why in the world did we want to go to a military base??? Well, for one, it was a guaranteed interesting time. Number two.... well Angie was craving some non-Japanese eye candy and a little touch of home (however twisted that sounds!). Sure enough, there was PLENTY of yummy eye-candy... I just wasnt gonna touch any of it... them being sailors and all, you never know where theyve been! We ended up talking to a couple guys who then agreed to show us around and show us a good time. We would have had to catch an early train (10:45pm) back to Tokyo but since the guy offered his living room to us we said, what the hell! So yeah, we stayed all night! We had some interesting conversations and experiences to say the least and ended up catching the 1st train back to Tokyo in the morning at 5am.

We were planning on sleeping a bit since we hadnt gotten any, but since we'd booked a super cheap hostel where the rooms were separated by cubicle walls and you could hear the person at the other end of the building breathing, no sleep was possible! So we got up and decided to spend the day sightseeing! First thing I did was call home and congratulate my little brother on graduating!!! Yaayy Kirk! We took some pics of the building with the so called "Golden Flame" on top... more commonly called the "unnko biru" which means "shit building" for obvious reasons... Although Im not sure if its biru for building or biiru for beer. Either one would make sense and would be funny since the building is owned by the Asahi beer company (I think...!).



Here are a couple other pics... the rain really wasn't bothering me that day!





After that, we decided to visit the Sensoji Temple which is supposed to be really cool. However, the main gate which is the main attraction was completely covered in a white tarp and under renovation... darn!



But there were other cool things to see. This lantern was incredibly huge!



Here's a pagoda in the temple area. Too bad Adam's face is so dark. Although, it does give him a goofy yet mysterious look....

As we were walking away, we heard screaming and shouting coming from a tent near the temple so we decided to check it out. We were surprised and delighted to find out that it was a kids sumo tournament!! It was fun to watch even though some of the kids were really scrawny!


This was one guy who wasn't quite sumo sized but had a little meat on him...



Unfortunately, this was his opponent... there's no weight categories I guess. Tough luck for him!



The lil' guy tried his best but was no match for the sheer "whale-ness" of his opponent....

We also wanted to check out the Harajuku Bridge where young (japanese) people dress up in all sorts of strange costumes and just chill all day. There weren't very many there that day, though, since it was raining. But here are a couple (very tame) examples.




Hopefully, when we go back to Tokyo we'll be able to get away for a little while and see some other, more wild, costumes!

Later on, we met up with our friends Kotaro, Yuji and Quinn. Kotaro was a good friend from college and Yuji was also there (although I was in Germany that year). Quinn is a good friend from back home. He grew up on Vashon too.


This is Kotaro and his friend Ivonne. She wasnt there that night... this is an older pic. I didnt get a pic of any of us that night... oops!

Here are some pics of Shibuya in Tokyo.... lots of people and sensory overload in every sense of the word!!






And here's a Kebab vendor... I like the red cowboy hat. Gives him a distinct "only in Japan" look!


Latest news: I've decided to switch phone companies and, therefore, my phone as well. Ill be getting an ECO phone which is NOT made out of plastic in the conventional sense (ie out of oil) but instead plastic rendered from plant fiber -- more specifically, corn! Pretty cool, huh? AND 1% of my bills will be donated I guess to certain conservation activities! Im pretty excited about it! The only unfortunate thing is that it comes in only one color and design: pink with silver leaves... I think its very cute but Adam thinks it might send people the wrong message or just plainly insult his manhood if he got one... Even though he'd like to get a phone made out of corn too, he does have his limits. In this case, I dont blame him!

Here's the link. Check it out!

http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/product/foma/701i/n701ieco/index.html

Family Issues...

No, no, no... I wont bore you all with issues with my personal family back home. No worries guys.

The "family" issue is that Adam and I have been accepted to be Tokyo Orientation Assistants (I think I mentioned this before???) in July for the newbies coming in. For this we have to give conferences on a certain topic that we choose, supposedly. Well, apparently our choices mean jack since neither one of us got any of the conferences we'd asked for (and you get to pick 3). Instead, we must have been the ONLY couple that applied so they stuck us with giving a conference on Family JETs... uh excuse me, whaaat??? Yeah.... needless to say we were a little less than enthusiastic to hear this. At first I didnt really comprehend this since I read the email after just waking up from a long night of karaoke and singing Madonna and ABBA to death... (no shitty comments from the peanut gallery on this please... we were getting really into it!)

Anyway, we both had the same reaction: "Shit... how the hell are we, of all people, supposed to advise people on what to do with their kids??? We must be the least informed and worst people to ask about this subject. We're not even really engaged!!!!"

However, after our freak-out moment had passed, we figured that since we're stuck with it anyway, we might as well learn as much as we can and give a kick-ass conference despite our personal situation. Soooooo... instead of reading at work I've been researching! I joined the yahoo groups FamilyJETs and posted a message asking for help and advice from anyone who actually has a family. One lady emailed me back saying that she was doing the same conference but for the second group of newbies coming in, so we will meet her in person! YAAAAY! She's already brainstormed an outline and thought of some great ideas. Ive also read previous posts on the site and well, Ive learned wayyyyyyy more than I ever thought I would about babies, baby food, and foreign kids in a japanese school. So, I figure this is a very good educational experience for me even though I dont think I'll ever have kids here... She also mentioned that since we're in the interesting position between singlehood and parenthood and since NOT ALL of the people at our conference will have kids, that we bring a good situation to the table. We can also connect to some of the younger couples without kids a lot better. So, I guess Im feeling a lot more confident about it now than I was initially, which is good. Im just dreading the Q&A session afterwards...

This weekend we're heading to Tokyo for the Planning Meeting for this whole thing. It doesnt actually start til Monday but we figured we'd sightsee and hang out with friends this weekend as well... why not? The government is paying for our transportation, so we might as well come earlier! We're taking the bullet train, oh baby, oh baby!

In other news, Adam and I have been brainstorming (yeah, lots of brain work going on for a change, haha!) about our future and career options etc. We DONT want to be executives or work behind a desk like we do here -- at least not permanently. We'd like to study more practical things like horticulture (both of us), carpentry (him), medicinal herbs and energy work (me). Sooooo, we've been trying to find different community colleges around the Seattle-ish areas that offer these courses. Actually, and I never thought I would say this, we're thinking about moving to Sequim or Port Angeles (where most of my extended family has migrated to)! The reason is because first of all, its cheaper than Seattle, my family is there so I'd get to see them more often, its beautiful, and well.... its not Vashon -- but close enough so Id get to see my parents more often too. It's also close to Canada -- I think there's a ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, right?? We are also tossing around ideas for jobs and such but havent really landed on any firm decisions yet, dont think we could.

Eventually, though, we'd like to live in an intentional community, a self-sustained community where everyone works for the good of the whole and its completely eco-friendly. There are loads of them popping up all over the place. Originally I was thinking somewhere in British Columbia and although thats not totally out of the question yet, Costa Rica has been calling our attention more and more. We've found a few places there that are forming and needed new members. To do this, though, we need more practical skills to bring with us other than just having travelled a lot and speaking multiple languages.... doesnt get you very far when trying to build a community. Sooo, thats why we'd like to get into carpentry, horticulture, medicinal herbology, energy work etc. We'd like to have something practical to bring to the table. Also, Costa Rica is one of the most progressive countries in central and south america. It has the highest percetage of expats, and well, we think it'd just be really cool. Adam's been there before and is all for it.

I was thinking about wanting to work for a Salem Children's Village somewhere in the world (http://saleminternational.org), but we'll see about that. Its still a good possibility... Id still need some more practical skills first, though. I guess I just want to do something that makes a difference -- that makes the world just a little bit better.

Other than all that, Ive just finished "The Prophet's Way" by Thom Hartmann and even though it mentions God all the time, I really enjoyed reading it and becoming more spiritual myself. I guess I just have a hang-up on the word "God". It just conjures up pictures of an old white guy sitting in the clouds and/or reminds me of all the oraganized religions and how corrupt they've become which just saddens me. Soooo, every time I saw the word "God" I just replaced it in my head with "holy spirit", "great spirit", "the great consciousness" or something like that which convey my feelings a lot better. After that, Ive been reading "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore which is also VERY good, but I learned most of it all in "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" by Thom Hartmann (which my mom enthusiastically recommended to me, by the way :) happy now mommy-dear?? haha!). This book has loads of pictures and graphs, though, which are always nice. Im a very visual learner so it all sticks in my head more this way!

Ok well Ive babbled on enough for now, so I will write again when we get back from Tokyo -- hopefully with some interesting news and pictures! Love to all!

Inspiration?? Hello? Are you out there???

OK fine..... according to the comment Aaron just posted about my last blog, I need to stop posting pictures of an extremely gorgeous baby that no one but my family knows. Fine. I get it. Ive just been extremely uninspired lately, as we all have apparently and so I figured posting those pics was better than nothing.

Whatever. Nothing much interesting has happened since we came back from Kobe, which turned out to not be very interesting in itself. However, last night I went to Karuna's house (indian lady i visit every Weds and Thurs) and we had a very interesting discussion about homosexuality. Since shes from a village in southern India, there are a surprising number of things she just hasnt been exposed to but is very curious about. Luckily, she feels comfortable enough around me to be able to ask questions about certain potentially touchy subjects. Weve talked about religion, divorce (couple times), marriage, homosexuality and dating to name a few. Its really interesting to see how she views these subjects and how interested she is in knowing my opinion. Anyway, as one could imagine, she grew up in a pretty conservative society where dating was forbidden and arranged marriage the norm. She had an arranged marriage like everyone else she knew but she wishes things could have been different. She sees many marriages that would benefit from a divorce, but in that society a divorce is rather taboo and only for special cases. In India you can only get divorced for a certain 12 reasons if I remember correctly, not just because you dont love each other anymore. You dont love each other to begin with so this concept is completely foreign. Also, when a couple gets divorced the man is required by law to continue supporting the ex-wife for the rest of either of their lives! Pretty harsh. Its probably because a divorced woman in India is usually severely looked down upon and might not be able to remarry.

Anyway, her views about homosexuality were pretty much well.... non-existant. She had never met anyone who was gay and had never really had any contact with the society. Its also most likely a taboo subject in India so she probably hasnt heard much of anything positive about it. So I gave her my opinions and told her I had many friends who were etc. She seemed very surprised that I had so many gay friends and that I knew so much about the subject.... Anyway, I did my best to show her that being gay is really no different except that you happen to like the same sex and that politically in the states they still dont have as many rights etc. Of course she asked me all the questions one would expect (I guess...) like "why cant they just change or try to be straight?", "do they really like having sex with the same gender?", "why would they chose something like that?", "What? Theres a gay district in Osaka???" etc. And of course, I told her that it wasnt a choice. I said that to them, being with the opposite sex would be as uncomfortable and strange in some cases as straight people being with the same sex. Its not in our genetic make up and therefore doesnt feel... right I guess. I did my best to ease her discomfort about it all and hopefully with another few discussions (there are always a few) she'll relax about it.

I guess the only other thing new thats happened is that on Tuesday I came home all excited to try out the new pilates style aerobic dvd Id ordered off amazon. So as I was doing this routine which is based on squatting a LOT, I realized that despite my excellent toilet-squatting technique that Ive gotten down to an art, that my thighs are WAAAAAAAY out of shape!! Result = Ive been barely able to walk any faster than a hobble in the past 2 days cuz every, I mean EVERY muscle in my upper legs and butt scream at me every time I move a milimeter! Needless to say the longer Im idle, the more it hurts when I decide to move again. Ive never felt so old in my entire life! Not only to I look 90 years old as I hobble down the hallway to my classes but I have to hold the railing as I descend or my legs just might buckle underneath me! But I have to say the absolute torture is having to squat over the squatter toilets here. And if you know me and my miniscule bladder, you know I must endure this torture every hour almost.... if not more often! I guess the only good thing about all this is that, well, I actually did something that should turn out to be productive, AND since the video is so damn hard, I actually have something to work towards!

AH!! I also have now moved on to the intermediate pilates AND Karuna now wants to begin pilates as well!! woohoo! OK iijo desu!

OK Sam... Ive done my part! Now its your turn!