WOW!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2007/jan07/CXworlds07/?id=stages
US riders take second in 3 races!!!! and we got spanked in the 4th.
I wonder what the last time I rode my bike was.

Oh well, gotta go keep cleaning up all my junk.

Done.

I had my last day of school today. There was a goodbye party in the last period, which was pretty pathetic. I went 9.5 months with that class and there are 4 people whom I have never talked to face to face. They gave me some cards and stuff, then I went and played with a bunch of kids after school. 10 people are karaoke, then 2 left, then we all left karaoke, one left on the way to the station, went to a game center, played games, took purikura, then 3 left, then 4 of us went bowling, then 1 left, then 3 of us went and ate ramen.
I was sitting on the train reading the cards, and I could hear the kids voices as I read the things that they had written. None of the things ment much to be, as more than half of them were like "thanks for teaching us English". I don't think that they think of me as a friend so much as a teacher.

Shitty.

I go on monday to return my uniform, and in exchange for that I get my diploma and report cards and stuff. I said that I had wanted to buy the uniform, and they said that you can buy it before you leave, but since the uniform is connected to the school, as long as I am in the school

's uniform, the school is responsible for me, and nobody wants to take responsibility for a kid like me.

Peter

Calligraphy.

Just some pictures of my calligraphy that was been put on scrolls.
I think I passed my calligraphy exam with flying colors, which gives me a yon-kyuu in calligraphy. That will help me get in college, but I'm not like all the kids who do things to get into college. I write calligraphy because I love it.

Peter

ps. If you want larger pictures, post which ones you want to see.

Bummer.

Its kinda depressing when you mother is the first (and practically only) person who posts on your blog. Sure my parents want to hear from me and want me to feel good, but I've never thought that a compliment or words of encouragement from parents mean very much.

Looks.

I went to an onsen with my brother and one of our classmates this evening. It was much different than the ones I had been to on vacation, because this one was public, and so there were lots of people. Joy, lots of naked men. It made me wish I had a little less fat and a little muscle. But at least, compared to other people there I am hung like a horse. Needless to say, I got a lot of looks. Probably because I was the only foreigner there.

Speaking of looks, I am gonna get my hair cut soon.

Other things to look at, today was my last calligraphy class at school, which was sad. I have club on friday, where I take the national calligraphy exam! I got a lot of the work I have done over the 9 or so months at the school. I now have 4 pieces which are mounted on the scrolls. I feel really good about it. I will take pictures and post them soon. I bet I could use them to get into art school. If I wanted to go art school. Actually, being a photographer would be pretty neat. Calligraphy is pretty cool too, but I dont know how much I can continue it in the States.
I have a lot of dream jobs. I dont dream to well at night, but I have a lot of dreams.

Stupid dreams. They fuck me up.

Japanese University.

Yesterday was the first day of the really big university entrance exams in Japan. I was talking to my host dad about Japanese daigaku (大学 big and learn, university) and the talk was ridiculous. The way he described it was like 'well, if you can manage to get in, you deserve to graduate. You don't go to university to learn, you go to get the diploma.' I hate all the people in the states who do things just make their college applications look better. But here, you have virtually an entire country who tries to make the applications for after college look good. He was like 'well, of course you have to do some work, but...'. I wanted to ask some questions about it because there are obviously things I don't understand and he didn't do a great job of explaining it, but, I am too stressed out and wound up that I would have ended up yelling at him about the stupidity of that system and then everyone would say that I am completely unable to accept foreign cultures, which I have been told by my exchange program, school people, and host family. The fact that no one understands how much pressure they are putting on me absolutely infuriates me, and causes me to go crazy.

If there was one thing that I could everyone to understand, it would be that its not all my fault. But of course, since it's their country, they automatically think they are right.

I'm so fucked in the head.

Just a little left!

I have 4 and a half days of school left. It is saturday afternoon, which means that I am done with school for this week. Nextweek's monday is a day off (not vacation, the schedule says 'study at home', like I'm gonna do that!) Then my last calligraphy class at school on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday which has the national calligraphy exam in club, and then half day Saturday the 27th, which is my last day at Teikyo. Then I have a couple of days to pack up my shit and ship all the stuff that I don't need home, and then, I am free.
I would have thought that the last week would have been a blast, but, recently I have been feeling really down. Leaving school is going to make me even more lonely, and I just don't have any motivation to do anything. I was planning on travelling around Japan a little afterwords, but its like, wait, why would I do that?
For the last 10 months I have just been getting wound up (screwed) and I am really really really really really really close to cracking.

I really don't know what I'm doing with my life.

Wait, I've read that before!

I'm sitting in my literature class the other day, and the teacher is explaining a situation. I'm sitting there like, wait, I've heard this before! I raise my hand. "Are you talking about Natsume Soseki's Kokoro?"

Well, he was. So, now, I am reading (parts) of it for my Japanese class, pity I only have a week left of it. It means that the book has been assigned to me by two teachers, in two classes, on two continents. Speaking of 2 schools, 2 continents, I just my be the smartest person on the planet to ever be kicked out/drop out of schools on two continents!

Speaking of fine literature, I just purchased all 6 volumes of Akira.

Peter

Amazing.

We sang this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jbwm27ry05M

A little lying never hurt anybody.

I told my host mom several days ago, that I wasn't going to need dinner on saturday night. I then went on to explain (in very polite speech, the Japanese have several various levels of politeness in grammar, and all of them are a pain in the ass!) that I would be going to hang out with several of the exchange students who came to Japan at the same time as me for one last time, because they are all leaving very soon. I said that we had done it once before back when I was at my first host family, and we had wanted to go to karaoke one last time, but we did all night karaoke, and for that, I needed to be release from my curfew for one night. She said that she believed me, and that it was fine as long as I didn't smoke or drink, which I don't do anyway.
So, on saturday, I came home from school, got in the shower, changed, packed a small bag, and left the house. I then went to meet the other exchange students.

Wait. No, I didn't.

Remember the architecture girl from way back? Met her in a book store on the 23 of November. I finally got to hang out with her again, she wanted my help with some English because she has exams on monday, and she wants to do really well so that she can be an exchange student to her school's partner school, which is in, of all places, Oregon. She didn't know if it was UofO or OSU, but it doesn't really matter.
So, I met her just before 5, and we went to a fuamiresu (family restaurant, a Japanese Denny's, way classier than the American ones) and started to study! She was reading this thing about Ned Kelly, but not from a Japanese textbook, the school actually got those textbooks from Austrailia, so the English is actually real English, and thus rather difficult. Anyway, we got kicked out (a very friendly, "Excuse me, you time is up") of the restaurant because we had been there for 4 hours (2 hour limit during the busy hours). About 8 o'clock (still in the restaurant), I don't remember how we got on the subject, but it had to do with my no curfew. It turned out that, because she lives in a dorm, that she had a curfew! My heart sank. She says "so, what will you do?" Being the quick thinker that I am "oh, yaknow, find a comfortable park or something somewhere and go to sleep" "Why don't you go home" "Well, I told my host family that I was going to Yokohama, so I CAN'T go home" "ok, well, hmm...., ok, I'll hang out with you. I just have to call my dorm and tell them that I am staying at a friends house" "(in my head: fuck yes!)" So, we left the restaurant about 9:30, and were like, hmm, what should we do. We were going to to karaoke, but it is really expensize from like 8 until 12, so we decided to wander/do something for 2 hours, and then get the freetime pack at Karaoke, which is from 12 until 5. We went to game centers, played games, chatted, walked about, ran into some of my friends from school (seniors, and they dont have to go to school, because they have all ready been accepted to college, so they were kicking in back) which is kinda embarrasing because of the way that they kept shouting my name from down the block and the conversation that unsued (senior to architecture girl: he's not your boyfriend, then what are you doing walking around in Ikebukuro with him past 11 at night?! Me: well will ya look the time!), but then we went to Karaoke. Damn, 5 hours of karaoke is really hard on the throat! She was like, "I will sing one song for every 3 that you sing because I have to study" to which I responded "Do you really think that you can study when its this loud" Well, she proved me wrong. But she said she didn't get enough done as she had wanted, but that's ok because we both had a blast. Leave karaoke at 5 in morning, go to breakfast (You something is different about the country you are living when McDonalds is a hot date spot!!) and studyed there too! Finally, a little past 7, we finish all the stuff about Ned Kelly, and leave. Walked her back to her dorm, and invited her on the architecture tour that Norie Fukuda is going to take me on the 1st of February. Since I don't have anything to do in February of March, she invited me to come visit her in Shizuoka, which is where her family lives, when school is on break.
15 hours straight hanging out with someone really makes you feel good. It felt great to be out of the house for a night, and even better to spend it with interesting (cute helps too!) people.
I got home about 9, and woke up around 1.

Her crazy studying ability made me really jealous, so I am going to go finish translating my history packet.

Peter

This post is for Nan!

This is a picture from one of the plays I was in at Nikko Edomura. I played the rich man, and all I did was sit there and say a couple lines, which a guy sitting (not seen in the picture) just on my left.

Because it was all part of the play, they made me drink real sake on stage! It wasn't bad, but I don't like drinking very much.

Peter

Pictures.

This is good.

Nikko.

I am back from my 2 day trip to Nikko, which was fun. I took for pictures than I know what to do with, and will send off some CDs later today. The first day was all the really really amazing temples and such in the area, and the fact that we got some really exciting snow made it even more amazing. The second day was kinda lousy, we went to this theme park which is a large reenactmentesque thing of Edo Japan. I dont really like things like that, but I found a couple fun things to do. I helped act in some of the plays that were going on. It was pretty neat.

School started today, had the short opening ceremony, and that was it.

Peter

That was embarrassing.

There is a sale at this book store by my house, so I figured, before I leave, whenever I leave, I'd like to buy some books. I have plenty of literature, so I decided to buy some manga. Has anyone here ever walked into a book store, picked up a basket, and purchased all 25 volumes in a series before? I thought not! It was hella funny looking at the other reader's faces. The people at the register were fine with it, but I was a little nervous.
I now own all of GTO in Japanese.
I still want the series before GTO, were he is a high schooler, and Akira.
But those will come later.

I leave for Nikko tomorrow morning nice and early, so my next post probably won't be for about 48 hours when I get back.

Peter

An Important Decision:

Purchase warmer, more water proof clothes to ride in, or don't go riding when its stupid fucking cold and winding.

Now that is a tough one. I rode 66 kilos in the pouring, blowing rain, and the weather is less than 10 degrees celcius. I came home, and it took more than 5 minutes in a 43 degree celcius shower for me to be able to feel my feet.　　Not my toes, my feet.

Do you know how long it took me type this stupid post?!

I am really this dumb?

Lots of people tell me I am/taking this way to serious.
Everyone tells me to relax, kick it back, be more fun.
I thought what I was doing wasn't serious, I thought I was relaxing, I thought I was fun.
I was wrong.
I am really going to be so pathetic as to ask how to relax and be fun?
?
?
?
Yes. How do I relax and be a fun person?
I won't be deported which means that I essential am here until the 22 of March.

What am I doing wrong? Am I doing something wrong?


What am I doing?

And the answer is...

Yup, the post two down with the something on the black and gold plate is indeed fugu!

Congrats to Dash and Nan!

I will post more of my adventures when I get to a place where I can upload more pictures.

Peter

Fuck, 2007 sucks already.

This is a picture of breakfast. That was pretty tasty, but the rest of the day was really shitty, and I don't really want to talk about.

Stupid fucking 2007.

Back post 2: This post is for Austin Shiner.

Can anybody guess what I have eaten that Austin Shiner hasen't?

We had this for dinner on New Year's Eve.

Please post a comment with your guess.

Back post 1: Tea and flowers.

A couple of days ago, my host mom took me to a friend of her's temple(!!). The friend's family owns 2 temples! I then got a demonstation (incredibly properly) or what we like to call in English 'Tea Ceremony'. It was pretty bitching.
Then we did Ikebana, which is usually translated as 'flower arranging', but it much cooler than it sounds. The above picture is of the flower arrangement I made.

I hope to use what I learned about tea and flowers to use in architecture and civil planning. Yeah, it works really well!!

Peter

First post of 2007.

New Years Greetings from Tokyo, where the local time is...next year!

As we say in Japanese (or, translated from Japanese), Congratulations on opening it!

Waiting in line at the local shrine, I played rock paper scissors with one my 10 year old friends. I lost 3 straight times. What a stupid year this is already!

2007, lets hope it doesn't suck as much as 2006!