Friday, March 31, 2006

HEY, YOU ARE DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!

yeah, they seem to do that. I rode to the net cafe today, and didnt get killed! I also saw a japanese guy taller than me. I gotta beat him up!
not much else.
Molly, there is not a verroshop here yet. but i did get some japanese cycling magazines today, and am gonna chill with sho when he next comes to tokyo.

i am pretty swell. japanese chocolate is good.

peter

Japanese TV is hilarious

yeah. I have watched more TV in the past 4 days than I usually watch in like 4 months. Anyway, i suppose it is good for my ears. IT is just plain silly. Their adveritsements are much cooler than ours, I have seen some decent anime (I love Kindaichi) and they play lots of soccer on it. I also saw a program teaching Japanese people english, and then after that was teaching them spanish. Man, learning spanish through japanese is tough.
not much else to say, ive been here for a week.
OH yeah. I went to my school yesterday. It is big. It is about 45 minutes on the train and about 25 minutes walking total. I went with a former exchange student who graduated from there last year. we walked around inside, even though no one was there. I saw the baseball team practice. They are like all japan champions or something like that. their soccer team is also japan champions. damn.

ask questions

Peter

Thursday, March 30, 2006

dear members of iron chef club

see title. you know that fortune teller that is always a judge? she is a big japanese TV personality. first i saw her lose a game of minigolf to some girl. then i saw her save a bunch of small children and some guys who were dressed up like people from the great battle series by crossing her arms and with really cheesy special effects she blew up the bad guys who looked like giant lobsters. her weapon looked like silly string. and speaking of lobster, i havent yet been to tsukiji. however, i stand corrected. i do NOT like all kinds of japanese food. firstly, i dont really like raw egg. also, i dont care much for whole raw squid. also, the japanese or at least my family, really likes mayo. i HATE mayo.
mother: do you like this?
me: yes
mother: do you like mayo?
me: no
mother: ok

GROSS!

mmm, japanese junk food.


peter

japanese

a lot of people are asking me about the language. it doesnt seem to be too much of a problem. i am definately best off of the inbound students, and communication isnt nearly as hard as i thought it would be. i had no problem tellingthe people at the place where they sold bikes what things i needed to get it work and what things wouldnt work and why. i got a cd made with pictures. that wasnt super hard. i mailed it off, that wasnt very hard either. i took the train and back. i found out my american battery charger worked in japan. i can get on the internet. i can order food. i think the only three things left to do are to go to school, get a haircut, and to get a girlfriend.

wheee!

peter

most techonologically advanced country my ass

so, speaking of my ass, it is slightly damp. what do you want to know this? my family doesnt have a dryer. i washed my clothes this morning and then had to hang them up to dry. they werent dry by the time i left the house, so my boxers were wet. any way im a fine. tachiwaka was fun, if i only went there for a short time and the velodrome was closed. i am doing well, my family is nice. it is VERY unique. why? it is a single parent. in japan, that is very rare. they have a boy who is a year younger than me, he is nice too. supposedly, (according to the sheet i got about them) they have a daughter my age but i dont know if she exists. oh well.
today i am going to meet up with a former outbound student who goes to my school and he will show me how to get from my house to my school. psh, like i dont know how to do that, i mean come on, the city only has like 30 million people. oh well, more later.

much love

peter

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

im not drunk, japanese keyboards just suck

nuff said. ok, i only have a sec, because i have to pick up my cds of pictures. i will send them. if you want pictures. i will send them. if you want to see them, ask my parents. i dont know how to them, ask my parents. i dont know how to upload from here. a couple noteworthy things.1) i hit my head 3 times in the first 36 hours. it is only 6 total times now. 2 ) japan is the only country in the world where you can walk into a 7-11 and buy underwear, starbucks from a fridge, comic books, and ipods of the shelf. ipods! i was amazed
gotta go, im going to tachikawa today. i hear there is a velodrome there. hot shit

how an i supposed to sign my emails with a countdown clock now that i have arrived?

peter

Monday, March 27, 2006

I am here.

First, sorry for the bad grammar/spelling, japanese keyboards are a pain.
now. so, yeah, im here, the flight was miserable. i im here, the flight was miserable. i sat on an here, the flight was miserable. i sat on an exit row, so my legs were fine, but i had a headache for my legs were fine, but i had a headache for most of the flight. then, at the airport after getting my bags, i met Issei. Issei is 18, and studyed abroad in washington through WYS last year. he is a cool kid. we went to the national olympic memorial youth center after taking the 2 hour bus from narita. there i met the other inbound students, and later, all the outbound students. i dont know how to upload pictures from an internet cafe, as my host family doesn:t have a computer. i dont really know what else to say. I would like all of you to ask me some questions, so that I can answer them for you.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

On the metaphorical runway

13 hours 10 minutes till take off. I am feeling every single emotion I have ever felt at the exact time. I called this girl you I have liked for 5 years and told her that I really liked her. I can't say the word 'love' it just didn't come out of my mouth. I just got really really close to crying. It will be amazing. My packing is about 99.99999% done, all I need to do is a once over. I will post in Japan as soon as I can, I don't know when that is, but I hope not too long. Pictures when I can, but still no family. Wheee! I am feeling really sad because I will miss so much about Portland.
13 hours to go.

Peter

Monday, March 20, 2006

Checklist

72 hours and 45 minutes left. I went for a good bye team bike ride yesterday, that was great. I had a good bye shindig last night, that was fun, saw some friends, had some friends take me out to dinner the night before, that was great, seeing some more friends today. Got my visa, which is valid for 5 years, that is pretty cool, not sure if I'm gonna ever come back, but they might make me. That would suck. Started packing, I'm trying to decide which clothes and books not to take, which is hard, because I have a lot of books. I'm gonna box up my bike Monday night, which will be weird because Tuesday will be the first day I haven't ridden to school since I broke my arm back in October. I got a digital camera yesterday too. 7.2 megapixels, 3x zoom, camera case, and a gig of memory for pictures for under 400 bucks. Those things are getting really cheap. Good thing too, I haven't replaced my denshi jishou (electronic dictionary) yet. Ouch

72 hours and 38 minutes left

Peter

Monday, March 13, 2006

Visa

I got my Certificate of Eligibilty the other day. That is the paperwork that I need in order to get my visa. I'm gonna go to the consulate this week. That place is sweet. I went to the predeparture orientation on friday. That was really weird. The program leader gave me a packet of stuff to know. Most of them are rules: no drugs, no sex, no getting married, no adopting children, no changing religion, the usual stuff.

Me: One question
Her: Yes
Me: There is the really cool thing in Japan called keirin, so basically, can I gamble?
Her: Uh.

Yes I can! Sorry, there goes all hope of any of my friends getting souveniers. Unless my cyclist wins.

9 days, 21 hours and 10 minutes till my plan takes off, but who's counting?

Peter

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Japan


So, I am going to Japan. Pretty simple. I will be going to a Japanese high school, and living in a Japanese family, just like a normal Japanese teenager. Except that I'm not Japanese.
Here is a link to my school:
http://www.teikyo.ed.jp/
Click around even if you can't read Japanese, you are bound to find something fun. Such as this:
http://www.teikyo.ed.jp/new%20topics/photo_from_the_sky.htm
Yeah, that is my school. Yup, it has 5 floors. Pretty neat.
Those are the school uniforms over on the right. The left one is the summer uniform, the right one is for the winter. Good looking sweater vests, huh.

Peter

Testing

Testing. Also known as I am getting testy trying to get this to work. 14 days and some change. Speaking of change, by electronic dictionary broke in a bike crash last week. Donations will be gladly accepted. They are only about 40,000 yen. But that comes out to be over 300 bucks. Sweet.

Peter