another day in harajuku

we found out there was a shrine right behind the harajuku station so we went back.this is a wishing tree. you write a wish and the priests read them aloud during their ceremonies.this is one of the jingu bashi girls. this is her weekend escape costume.takeshita dori at sunset. it`s takeshita not "take a shit"...
and these are some of the kids from my school. they were in a speech contest. 2nd from the right is sayaka. she came in 2nd place.
i`m very homesick right now. don`t really want to talk about it.

going to get a cell phone and the internet at home hopefully this week. within the next month for sure.

gayle`s wedding is in 3 weeks. her mom emailed me and asked me to write something to be read at the reception. it`s making me miss her a lot. we`ve emailed some pretty sappy stuff back and forth. growing up sucks.

maybe having pizza tonight for dinner. there`s a pizza hut just down the street from our apartment. ahhhhhhhh pizza hut.

the definition of massive

so we ventured into tokyo. every train station is like a city in itself. there is no "downtown". city centres are surrounding the train stations. pictures really don`t do this place justice.

my favorite places so far are ikebukero and (sorry jennifer) harajuku. i love harajuku. and it makes me hate gwen stefani even more. they have the best shops and the best prices and i saw more lip rings there yesterday than i have seen the whole time we`ve been in japan.right beside the harajuku station is a square where teenage girls hang out on the weekends all decked out in their gothy best. from what i understand, they are the outcasts and bullied kids at school and so on the weekend, they get together and celebrate their outcastness. no pictures of them, but soon.

it`s been raining so much. typhoon season and whatnot. and the rain doesn`t stop people from doing anything. i`ve seen old ladies in their rainsuits holding umbrellas while they ride their bikes to the store. it`s just what you do.

darren isn`t going to be teaching in tokyo. we figured it out and the commute was just too long (at least an hour and a half on the train and then some time on buses) and they were giving him no support at all with finding the schools and introducing him to staff. he wasn`t feeling comfortable with the whole thing.

met some people... 4 other alt`s in asaka. 2 from the states and 2 from new zealand. also met john from australia. he runs an english school. been here for 7 years. he`s as old as darren. they talked about vision streetwear and the golden days of skateboarding.

well, more pics if it ever stops raining.

sorry etc.

hey all y`all... things have been slightly crazy for the past couple of weeks. i have just finished my first week at school and i think it went very very well. i am very tired of introducing myself though. i printed out a bunch of pictures of my family and of edmonton and stuff and showed them to every class that i had (i have 11 classes). anyways, the funniest thing. i had a picture of daddy that i was showing and i asked the kids to guess who it was. one kid guessed it was steven spielberg. a couple more thought it was santa claus. daddy is famous at gochu jr. high!!

so... no internet at home yet. no pictures really to post yet anyways. i promise that we will work on that. promise promise.

haven`t cried for like a week. good on me!!

bought us some bicycles. mine is orange and d`s is silver. both have very handy baskets on them (no, not handi like handicapped, handy like useful...). i ride to work everyday... business like clothes and everything.

darren is going to be teaching elementary in tokyo starting on the 19th. i think he will be amazing. tired, but amazing.

more maybe next weekend...

love and miss you all!!!!!!

こんにちは日本から

こんにちは, how is everyone? good. we are awesome... but you already knew that. what to tell you... hmmm, well i'm sitting in a hotel in mito right now while chrissy-san is in training. we move to our new place tomorrow in asaka city, which is pretty much in tokyo. mito is kinda boring after 5 days, not much to see but a good place to ease us into life here. this is downtown, it's not much...


...but still it's pretty cool. the language barrier isn't too big a hinderance... we point alot. we are getting some basics down though. i managed to get a cable for our computer yesterday (very proud moment) so for now we have internet. once we get to our apartment, it may be awhile before we post again, but hopefully we'll have more pictures by then. oh... here's the shower...


yeah, you sit and wash, then into the tub you go for a surprisingly cleaner feeling clean. the toilets are across the hall... check out this contraption


the arm has buttons so you can spray your bum, i don't know how i ever lived without it. this is a western style toilet, the japanese style is pretty much a porcelain hole in the ground that you just squat over top of.

what else? well, last night we went out for drinks with other alt's from around japan... good time. we were filled in on what to expect, what to eat, what not to eat, things to do and such.
well it's 5:00PM and chrissy is coming home now so we'll talk to you later.

see you soon

leaving on wednesday. on to a new life. a crazy life where darren is a celebrity (or at least prince charming). a life where we eat rice and vegetables and i try not to throw up while having lunch with my students. a frustrating life where no one understands a word i say.

i am so excited.

our party was one of the toughest things i think i have ever gone through. i love everyone so much. and that's why it's hard. i'm not sad to be leaving but i will miss everyone more than i think they all know.

next post... the journey to tokyo!!!!

huntsville, the t-dot, and various places around nova scotia

sorry. well, not really. been gone for 2 weeks. the east coast says "hey".

that's me on the beachside combing the sand, metal meter in my hand, sporting a pocket full of change...

thursday, friday, saturday

us at sam roberts on thursday night...
sam roberts at sam roberts on thursday night...
chrissy hearts jenny...
look. the people infront of us peed.
flowers from my last day...and today i have new hair!!!

yup, more fat talk

only 3 days left at work. had what you might call a meltdown on monday night. hey chrissy, you have security, respect, support, advancement opportunities... why don't you throw all of that away and go somewhere where no one will understand a word of what you say?!?!?!

we looked at pictures from last summer in nova scotia. so much fun!! i'm feeling really very awful about the weight i've gained since then. i feel like i look way older too. i hate that. what happened to chrissy? well, i guess age finally caught up with her. gonna get my hair cut before we go back. that always helps with the "i am gross" feeling. maybe red hair... but probably not.

i need to see clerksII. yes, need.

always grow

things i have learned in the past week:

being the common couple amongst an additional couple of couples is somewhat awkward and stressful.

if you like a boy, bake him a pie. no, two pies. oh, and don't look directly at him. i heard that he could read your mind and figure out that you like him and if you look at him when he's not looking at you then he won't know but other people will know.

i cannot juggle nor do magic tricks. i definitely can't swallow fire and sword swallowers are unnatural and repulse me.

i have a best friend.

i am a girl

wow. talk about pms. not the psycho i think i need to kill everything bitch for no reason pms but the i am going to cry at the drop of a hat and there doesn't even need to be a hat anywhere around and i will cry cry cry pms.
you are welcome. and also sorry darren.

moment of the day

setting: jennifer's car, approx. 4:30pm, driving along 114st. where all of the new lrt construction is.

scene: the strokes new album is playing on the stereo. jennifer is singing along, operatically to the rock 'n roll. both of our windows are rolled down all the way. we pull up to a red light. to the left of us is a construction site, complete with construction workers. one of them is leaning on a shovel and appears to be looking in our direction. as we come to a stop, jennifer continues her operatic rendition and soon all 5 construction workers are looking at us. i laugh very loudly and jennifer points at them with a "what's up?" nod as we drive away.

yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

c: wanna watch buffy tonight?
d: yeah, after family guy though. i can stay up all night. it's my first name.

what?

dead man's chest is very very good. i didn't realize how much i liked it until awhile after we saw it.

i am so good at golf (well, more accurately, i am so good at driving ranging).

we booked our flight to japan. it's going to be close to get everything done on time. but i'm not thinking about it...

matt good is right... k-i-c-k-a-s-s is the way you spell success.

alone on a saturday night

remember when i used to type about things in detail instead of little point form tidbits? ah, those were some good times, huh? these days i'm really only typing out of some sort of obligation that i feel to this blog. i don't really have much to say. really the only things on my mind are the craziness of what we are planning to do and the crapload of work that i have to do until said craziness. oh!! this is on my mind... DEAL WITH IT!! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD THIS IS FOR US TO DO?!?! IGNORING US IS NOT GOING TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOU ONCE WE ARE GONE. INSTEAD WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS PUSHING US AWAY AND PISSING ME OFF. SO GROW THE FUCK UP.

right now in my brain

what is up nelly furtado? you used to want to just fly away and now you are all skanky and singing about promiscuity? nice.

how's it going mother nature? damn, you are hot!!

yesterday jennifer and i drove around shooting water guns out the windows. sorry dude on the bike... you looked like you could use a nice cool down.

hey kids that i talked to today behind the building while you smoked pot and looked extremely uncomfortable holding your pipe. it's ok. i know you do it. does it freak you out more when i don't say anything about it?

dearest jennifer. that's all... you are very dear. don't confuse it with deer though. that is something totally different. you are so not deer.

and what did you do on sunday?

dear daddy,
now i understand.