Christmas in Japan 2008

I've been quite busy with the recent holidays and haven't updated in awhile so I'll start where I last left off:

 On Sunday December 14th, I had Daryle, Brita and Anna over for a movie night/dinner as Brita would be leaving for South Africa the following Friday and not be able to make it to my Christmas party. The night started off a little late as Anna accidentally filled her car up with diesel instead of gas in Moriya. Luckily, Daryle was able to go and help fix the situation and the night was lovely! We had alot of food and even more desserts!

Daryle and I were quite busy during the following week getting everything bought and ready for the big Christmas party on Saturday. Daryle came over on Saturday morning to start the turkey cooking. I spent the day doing preparations for the rest of the menu and making sure my apartment was organized and spotless. The party was a great success and turned out to be a really lovely evening. It was great to be able to spend such a beautiful Christmas dinner party with Daryle, Masato, Liyan, Adam, Cat, Daniel & Anna.

After dinner, drinks and some fun games, all of us (except Anna) headed to Shinjuku 2-Chome to do some more drinking/partying. Kris partied a little too much and had a rough night out in Tokyo. I'm sure it's one he'll never forget (or remember for that matter)! All in all, a really fun and memorable evening!

On Monday December 22nd, I spent the day relaxing in my apartment and doing a bit of shopping. At night, I met with Daryle and my friends Jericho and Jeremy at Kita-Senju. We met up with Liyan and then all left from Kita-Senju to head to Shin-Kiba. Tonight was the Ageha Shangri-La Gay Party..The theme "White Ball"! It was a great evening and we all had a lot of fun, drinks and dancing!

On Christmas Eve day, I met with Daryle early in the morning and drove my car to Tsukuba to pick up Duron. We went to the Ministry of Transportation and Licensing in Tsuchiura and transferred the ownership of my car to Duron. Yes, I have FINALLY sold my car and am getting around Moriya via my new bicycle! I'm happy that it is one less thing to pay for every month! Daryle & I met up with Daniel at night for a Christmas Eve dinner at the yaki-niku & sushi buffet restaurant in Moriya. After dinner, Daryle and I headed to Shibuya to have a drink with his friend Yu and her boyfriend Cody. It was a nice evening! Daryle and I returned to Moriya around 11pm and relaxed a bit before Christmas.

On Christmas morning, Daryle and I opened our gifts to eachother and had a great time! I really love the gifts Daryle bought me! I really do hope that he liked some of the gifts I got him as well.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve day in Japan. I don't really have any big plans for New Year's. I have never been really crazy about it to begin with. I think I will relax at home with a good movie and a nice bottle of wine. I'm loving the relaxed state of mind I've been in during my vacation (December 20-January 4)!

I am looking quite forward to 2009. In May of the upcoming year I will celebrate my 5-year anniversary of living/working in Japan. Quite a milestone if I do say so myself! I have a few New Year's resolutions which include:

1) quitting smoking (it's definitely time!)

2. losing 10kg (22lbs) before returning home to Canada for Christmas in 2009

3. saving enough money every month to have my school debts paid of by January 2010

Well, I have a few more days vacation before I go back to work and I plan to relax and enjoy them! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a smashing New Years! Much love!

1 Month Later

Well, it has been about 1 month since my last update, so here I go:

Well, I have been quite busy with my BlogTV show as ChristmasGuy2008! The room is being very warmly received and the shows keep getting busier and busier. Just last night we were featured on the main BlogTV page for most of the night and had about 60 people in the room. I have received many lovely cards and pictures from people who enjoy my show which is great. I have even had a few of viewers from the room make banners for my page.







This weekend, I will have some friends over to my house for a Christmas movie & dinner which I am looking forward to. On Sunday morning, I will wake up early to meet my family on webcam. My family will be doing their Christmas early at my brother's house as my Mom & Dad will go to the Dominican Republic for Christmas. It will be great to see my family and my new little niece Mya on webcam but I think I'm going to cry. I'm really sad about not being home with my family this Christmas and although I've tried to keep cheery by doing my BlogTV site, it is proving more difficult that I though.

Next week, I will be making Christmas cards with all of my students for the entire week. I do this with my students every year and they always look forward to it. One of my students actually told them it is their favorite part of the year! It feels weird for me at this moment, because usually I am so excited during "Christmas card week" as once it is over I go back to Canada for the holidays..but this year, I'll be staying in Japan and not really excited about the holidays! Oh well, I will be home in Canada for Christmas 2009.

Time To Catch Up

Well, it has been a full 2 weeks since my last blog update! Ooops! I have some stuff to write now, so here I go:

Last Saturday, I went to Tsuchiura with my friends Daniel, William and Budsarin to the International Festival. Alot of my JET friends were working at a booth there on both Saturday and Sunday so that is part of the reason we decided to go. It was a really great day full with alot of great food and lots to see. We arrived at around 1:00pm and left at 4:30pm. We got quite lost going home so we were all tired by the time we arrived back in Moriya.



This Christmas will be a difficult one for me as I will be seperated from my family because I'm not heading back to Canada for the holidays. So, I decided about a week ago to do a Christmas project that would help me focus on something else and also light my Christmas cheer flame that always burns so bright every year. I started a channel on BlogTv.com..I am ChristmasGuy2008, the pinnacle of Christmas cheer and excitement. I started broadcasting on Monday November 10th and the channel has been very warmly received by many on BlogTv. I am quickly becoming somewhat of an Internet celebrity as my room has been featured on the main page almost daily and my list of friends and subscribers continues to grow rapidly. I believe in something called "The Christmas Change" which is to say that during the holiday season, people change. They laugh more, smile more, are kinder to others and are happier in general. However, many people only seem to go through this change in the short time leading up to Christmas. I decided to start the broadcast in November to prolong the Christmas change experience for people and really get them pumped for this coming Christmas. I have even had some people say that they would like to turn my channel on to watch with their family on Christmas morning. For this reason, and others, I will be doing many different live shows on Christmas Day for the viewers in different time zones. On a happy note, I will now not be alone for Christmas. I will have my BlogTv community with me and my best friend Daryle will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with me! I can't wait to go shopping for him!



November 12, 2008 - Broadcast your self LIVE

On Thursday November 13, Kaz came to Moriya. We went out for dinner and coffee with Brita, Anna and Daryle. It was alot of fun. On Friday, Kaz and I went to Ushiku Daibutsu as he had never been there before. The fall colours on the drive there were beautiful and there were not many people in the park which was really nice. On Friday night, Kaz and I went to Toride to meet up with Daryle and then we headed into Tokyo to go to the gay bars. We all got a little too drunk on the train ride into Tokyo and it turned out to be very bad night for both Kaz and I. We were too drunk and only ended up spending about an hour with Daryle before we were to sick to continue and had to find a hotel to crash at. Sorry Daryle! :(







Today was a great day for me. I received a parcel from my mother. I thought she was sending me a small bubble envelope with a few small things for Christmas but instead she sent a huge box of presents all the way from Canada. It cost her $132 to ship it from Canada. There were presents for me to open today and use from now til Christmas and a whole whack of wrapped gifts to open on Christmas morning. She even sent me a Simpsons advent calendar! I cried alot..I was happy and sad all at once. Well, this has been the events of my life over the past two weeks and I'll try not to be so tardy in updating my blog. Enjoy the mess of pics! :)

Happy Halloween!

Well, Halloween has come and gone for another year so I thought I'd write a bit about it..Here we go!

On Friday morning, I woke up early and headed downstairs to the daycare to decorate the class for the Halloween party I would be having with my students from 6pm-8pm. I taught from 3:00-3:50 and then had an hour break in which I did my make up for my costume. I taught one more class from 5:00-5:50 and then went downstairs for the party. All of the students showed up on time which was great! I asked each student to bring a snack or drink to share at the party and the mount of food/drinks we ended up with was gigantic! All of the kids had a great time at the party with all of the fun games and the costume contest..oh, and the candy of course! After the party, I headed from Moriya to Toride to meet Daryle who was finishing up a private lesson at Starbucks. We headed into Tokyo and made our own mixed drinks on the train ride there. Alot of people on the train gave me glances and surprised faces because of my scary make up..a few people even asked to have their pictures taken with me. Daryle and I arrive in Shinjuku around 11pm and headed for Ni-chome (the gay area). We headed to my favorite bar Advocates which was really busy with people. We had a few drinks there, headed to GB (which was dead!) and then found a great takoyaki place where we stopped for some takoyaki (balls of pastry with octopus inside)..the guy cooking was soo cute and the takoyaki was so good that we promised him we would come back later for me. We headed to Dragon and I met up with my friend Oki. It wasn't long before we saw some people we had befriended at Advocates show up at Dragon. My great friend Myles and his friend Michael also showed up which was awesome. The biggest thing I remember from Dragon was the hotty-mc-naughty bartender with the assless underwear and muscles for days! Oki, Daryle & I headed to our favorite curry restaurant where we always eat when in Shinjuku. It was great, but as always my mind was bigger than my stomach and I couldn't finish. Thanks to Daryle for helping me finish my meal! Daryle and I ran into his friend Tony outside Arty Farty and hung out talking on the side of the road for awhile before catching the trains back home. It was a great Halloween and I'll never forget it!

The Worst of Time, The Best of Times

Well, it looks as it has been a little over 10 days since my last blog entry so here we go!

Last weekend, I decided to take it easy and relax at my apartment in Moriya as I had spent the following 2 weeks in Shinjuku Ni-chome and was completely partied out! The weekend was great, but come Monday, when I got a payment warning slip from my car insurance company, everything turned for the worse. I started thinking about my financial situation in Japan, and the economy and how I was so stressed about always been poor come the end of the month. On Tuesday, I had Daryle come to my place and explain the warning slip to me and I freaked out about my life/financial situation/etc. Luckily, Daryle (being the awesome friend that he is) helped calm me down. So, I have made the following decision: Starting November 1st, I'm cutting my expenditures to the bare minimums so I can save money and take advantage of the increasing low value of the Canadian dollar (which is a great thing for me as I earn Japanese yen).

I'm going to do this by:

1. Not going out at all (not for coffee, dinner, movies, parties, etc etc etc)

2. Selling my car (which in all honesty, I don't need and costs me a crap load in expenses every month).

3. Doing anything and everything else it will take to save as much yen as I can over the next year.


OK! On to brighter pastures for a moment... On Saturday morning at 11am, I met Anna in Moriya as we had decided to go to Mount Tsukuba for the day. I was really excited as I have lived in Ibaraki Prefecture for 4.5 years now and had yet to visit it. We left Moriya around 11:30am and got just a little bit lost getting there! (I'm being sarcastic!! We were LOST!) We finally made it to the mountain, and had about an hour to look around. It was beautiful and I took alot of pictures. There was even a gaijin (foreigner) girl getting married to a Japanese man at the shrine at the top who had her family from her home country there as well. It was a real surprise to see that. We left at 3:00pm and got so ridiculously lost on the way home as well. It is quite true that maps are not my friend and I'm directionally challenged! We finally arrived back in Moriya around 5:30pm. My friends Jenn & Mike from Canada who've been living in Hitachi-Naka in north Ibaraki were coming for dinner & a visit but were late leaving and arriving in Moriya as well, so even though I got lost and was late getting back, I still beat them. Anna, Mike, Jenn & I went out for dinner at the really nice Italian restaurant in Moriya and had a lovely dinner.

After dinner we grabbed some beers from the grocery store and went back to my apartment. Jenn & I drank 10 beers between the two of us and 2 tumblers of Ume-shu (Japanese plum liqueur). We were drunk and had such a great time talking about everything! Jenn and Mike couldn't stay the night so they left at 1:40am to head back to Hitachi-Naka. I've woken up this morning with quite the hangover but thought I should update this blog, so here it is! Next week will be ALS Halloween Week so I will be doing Halloween themed lessons with my students for the week and I will have the big Halloween party for my students on Friday night from 6:00-8:00 p.m. It should be fun and I'm looking forward to it!

Ready for Winter

Well, since the "hot" season of Japan is finished, the "cold" season is just around the corner. I say this because I really can't believe that Japan has 4 seasons. If it does, spring and fall are just very quick teasers before the respective "hot" and "cold" seasons arrive. I looked at the weather forcast for Moriya and saw that it was going to drop down to 10 or 11 degrees Celsius tomorrow night. This is actually quite cool for Japan as most apartments/houses don't have insolation in the walls.

For the past 3 years that I've lived in Moriya, I have had a "hot blanket" (electric blanket) to put on my bed and sleep on but at the end of last winter it was ripped and ready to retire. So, tonight I went to Edion Denki (electronic store) at LOC City and bought myself a new one. It was a little expensive at 7,480 yen (about $65) but it is well worth the price.

I also went out for dinner tonight with Daryle at Dohton Bori (an okonomiyaki restaurant) in Moriya. It was really great to have dinner with Daryle and enjoy his company. Daryle is a great friend of mine and I feel truly lucky to have him in my life! Love ya Pumpkin! :)

Spontaneous Saturday & Liyan's Birthday

Well, it was definately a fun weekend! Yesterday morning, I taught my private student and then relaxed in my apartment for most of the day. Daryle mentioned that he was going to head into Moriya to study Japanese at Starbucks in the evening so I asked if he wanted to meet for coffee. Daryle and I met, had some sushi and then some coffee. After talking about Daryle being single, an idea popped into my head and came out of my mouth.

"Let's go to Shinjuku Ni-chome" (Tokyo's gay area) right NOW!"

Daryle and I both hummed and hawed a bit about it, and then finally decided to be completely spontaneous and do it! We went back to my apartment, quickly changed clothes, organized our booze for the night (what we would take) and headed out. We got a tad tipsy on the train and we're overly friendly and said HELLO to almost everyone we saw! We met our friend Kouji who had decided to join us for drinks for the night. It was a really great night, and we met some great people but I guess spontaneity doesn't come without consequences. As Daryle & I were entering Dragon after our delicious curry dinner, I trip and fell on the way in. I caught my toe on the wooded deck at the entrance and ripped my toe apart something fierece. It was so painful and gushing blood. Luckily, the booze that followed help me forget about the pain for a bit.

Daryle and I took one of the first trains back to Moriya and we arrived home around 7:30am. I took a shower, cleaned up my toe with disinfectant and then went to sleep. I woke up around 2:30pm and just relaxed in my apartment for the rest of the day. At 6:30pm, I picked up Brita and we headed to Daryle's apartment in Ryugasaki for Liyan's suprise 24th birthday dinner. We had so much great food including the chanko nabe that Daryle made. It was a fun and spontaneous weekend, but I'm quite exausted and still in a bit of pain from my toe.

Hope this upcoming work week is a good one! Lucky JETs who don't have to work tomorrow: ENJOY YOUR DAY OFF!

All Plans Change

Well, it's 12:09 am on Saturday October 12, 2008. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. It really is true that every year of your life seems to pass by quicker and quicker. I called my brother Jeff this morning and found out that he and his fiancee Valerie had decided not to come to Japan to spend Christmas with me. I understand this because of the way the economy is now and to be perfectly honest I'm a bit relieved. Although it would have been great to have them in Japan for the holidays it would have cost me alot of money to take them around and such. So I will be staying in Japan for the holidays and currently considering visiting either Nagano, Niigata or Fukushima. I want to visit somewhere with snow and cold weather!

I checked the GoLloyds website this morning and was surprised to see that almost all currencies have dropped except for the yen which hasn't been too negatively affected by the upcoming recession and bad economic times for the world. The Canadian dollar was only worth 87yen which is the lowest it has been since before I came to Japan. This is actually great news for me as it will be easier for me to pay off my debt to my parents as my Japanese yen is worth more. So, I've decided to change my life plan to saving every yenny I can. I'm planning on selling my car over the next few months and trying to get a lot of money saved up. My tentative goal is to return to Canada permanently by December 2010. Although I will always love Japan, and am sure that I will miss it terribly, I feel like it is a chapter of my life that needs to end so that another one can begin.

I don't really have any big plans for this weekend. I'm just going to teach my private student at 11am in the morning then clean my apartment and relax for the day. On Sunday evening, I will go to Ryugasaki to my friend Daryle's apartment for a surprise birthday party for my friend Liyan. It should be a fun evening! Well, I'm getting a little bit tired so it's time for me to stop writing!

Bunny's Japan Trip Continued

On Saturday morning, we woke up early and headed into Tokyo for a full day of sightseeing. We started off in Asakusa and visited the Sensoji Temple and Nakamise-dori shopping avenue. Bunny bought some gifts for friends and colleages back in Hong Kong and I spent about 5000yen on postcards for my internet postcard swapping group (Postcrossing www.postcrossing.com).

After Asakusa, we headed to Ginza to check out the high-end stores in the fashion capital of Japan. It was easy for us to get there as we had purchased Tokyo Metro (subway) day passes in the morning. We walked around Ginza for awhile and then headed to Shinjuku. Once in Shinjuku, we eventually made our way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings where we took elevators 45 floors up to the North and South observatories. We were able to see stunning views of all of Tokyo and took a lot of pictures.

We met Daryle around 5:00pm and went for dinner at our favorite Indian curry restaurant in Shinjuku. After dinner we quickly headed to Shibuya to see the famous Hachiko dog statue and also see the reknowned Shibuya crossing which has the greatest people traffice in the entire world. We headed back to Shinjuku and began our drinking stint at Advocates. From 6pm-9pm, Advocates does a beer blast (all you can drink) for 1000yen. We met some really nice people outside and met up with 2 of Daryle's ex-boyfriends (Mitsuru & Dondon). Next, we went to Dragon for a cocktail blast! Same thing as above but only cocktails. Bunny and I took the 11:30pm train back home and got to Moriya around 12:30am.

On Sunday, Bunny and I decided not to go to the Ushiku Daibutsu as it would eat up alot of our day so we went shopping instead at LalaPort at Kashiwa-no-ha Campus TX Station and Nagareyama O-taka-no-mori Shopping Centre at Nagareyama O-taka-no-mori TX Station. We met with Daryle for dinner at Kappa Zushi in Moriya.

Bunny, left this afternoon to catch his bus to the airport and is currently sitting on the airplane in the air as I am typing this. He is on his way back to Hong Kong. I really enjoyed having him stay with me in Japan and hope he enjoyed his vacation and had a lot of fun. I do hope that I can visit HongKong some day soon as it would be great to visit there and see Bunny again!

The Arrival of Bunny & Highlights

It has been a few days since my last blog entry..so it's time to catch up! Bunny arrived on Tuesday at Narita Airport around 3:00pm. He was able to pick-up the rental mobile phone I had arranged for him and make it successfully to Moriya without getting lost! I picked him up at Moriya station after finishing work and then we met Daryle for a dinner at Dotonbori (a okonomiyaki restaurant).

On Wednesday, I had to go to the annual ALS Seminar in Yotsukaido, Chiba Prefecture. It was an early start to the day for me as I had to catch a train at 7:30am to make it to the Yotsukaido Cultural Seminar in time. I wasn't really keen on going to the seminar as I had Bunny visiting but it actually turned out to be a good day. The end-of-the-day big event or group activity was great. Each group had to give a teaching demonstration. My group was given a whole bunch of stuffed animals and told to demonstrate a class for ALK (American Little Kids) students. My team elected me as the leader (teacher) and they would be my students. They said the wanted me to do this as I won the activity for my group last year. Well...I DID IT AGAIN! WOOHOO! Each of my team members and I received from Corona as a prize and I got a lot of praise and high-fives from alot of other teachers at the seminar! Once I arrived back in Moriya, I had a quick shower and then it was off to dinner. Wednesday was Bunny's birthday (HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY BUNNY!) so Daryle, Liyan, Kris, Cat, Adam, Ai-Sensei, Brita, Anna, Budsarin, Bunny & I went to the Yakiniku-Sushi Viking Restaurant in Moriya. It was great food and we ate alot of it! After dinner, all of us (except Ai, Budsarin & Anna) went to Breakers (the pool/billiard hall in Moriya) to play some pool & electronic darts! It was a really fun night!

On Thursday, Bunny & I went to Disney Sea. We arrived around 12:30pm and stayed until about 6:00pm. We had a really great day and were able to go on alot of different rides because the park wasn't so crowded. We arrived back in Moriya at 7:00pm and met Daryle for dinner at Bikuri-Donki (hamburg-steak restaruant) at 7:30pm. Then it was back to my house for watching a movie and relaxing.

Today, I taught in the daycare from 11:00am-11:50am and then took Bunny shopping in Moriya. We started off at the Daiso 100yen shop followed by Avail, Shimamura, Seria 100yen shop and 1000yen shop at Across Mall. Bunny bought so much candy and other gifts for his friends, family and colleages in Hong Kong. He also bought a lot of nice clothes! We bought some stuff at Kasumi grocery store for dinner and watched Cloverfield at my apartment. Tomorrow morning we will head to Tokyo for a full day of sightseeing and go for some drinks in Shinjuku Ni-chome (gay area) tomorrow night! It should be fun! :) There we go, all up-to-date now!