Finally, after 30+ years of wanting and waiting, my dad finally has his harley!!! Here is a picture of my Dad taking my Nana for a ride!
I can actually use the phrase: “My dad’s bike” wow, that’s strange to say…
P.S. I thought it was summer there in Michigan, whats up with the coats??
Yesterday morning myself and three other JCMU students got into a taxi, chartered by JCMU to visit one of the Elementary schools in Hikone. We arrived at the school and went straight into the principals office, where we were served hot tea and made veyr comfortable. The principal and the vice principal came in and talked to us both in Japanese and in English, and they told us how happy they were that we came to visit their school. After a little while we headed off towards the 6th grade classroom. The school was huge, I was very surprised, and very modern looking. It had two floors, and each classroom was very very large. They had about 82 6th-greaders, and how the room was set up was like this: There were 3 separate classrooms that all opened up to one very large room, which was the gathering center, or meeting place for all the 6th-graders. Maybe you can see by some of the pictures, but it was very very nice. In the 6th grade classroom we introduced ourselves in English and in Japanese, and then we broke off into grous where we were “suppose” to teach the kids oragami. In my group two of the girls showed me how to do it, while everyone else silently made their own creations. The girls next to me made perfect cranes, they were folded to perfection, and they looked like an actual crane. Mine, on the other hand, looked like a crane after it had been stepped on, broken in half, and put through a garbage disposal. I thought it looked wonderful however, because as it was my first time making a “crane”, to me it was a work of art. I was feeling quite proud of myself until this little girl came up to me to give me what she made. She made a crane about 1/10th of the size of mine, and it was the most perfected oragami animal i have ever seen. She gave it to me for a gift, which then was followed by everyone else in the class giving me what they made. Now when I stand them all up on my desk next to my crane, mine doesn’t look to good, but I love it all the same. I gave my crane to Noel, for he is very very sick with some awful sore-throat-coughing-cold-thingy, and he was unable to visit an elementary school. I didn’t take any pictures yet of the gifts I receieved yesterday, i thought i would make a video later, to show how good some of them are.
After we left the 6th grade class we went to the fourth grade class. As many of you know, the lower you go in grade-wise in an elementary school, the more you are liked, and worshipped for that matter. The fourth graders were great, they were insane though, like bunnies on drugs or something, and they all wanted to be your friend. In their classroom we just played games, but very fun games. We divided into groups as usual and we played a game exactly like our “hot potato” game. The music would start, we would pass the dodgeball around and when the music stopped, the kid holding the dodgeball would have to say something in English, which was usually: “I like sports.” or a sentence equally as simply. They were very good though, for being in fourth grade and learning some English. After the initial game, the classroom went into another “game mode” where everyone broke off into smaller groups and each kid had a different toy to play with. A group of girls taught me how to play cat’s cradle, and other games with a piece of yarn, while other kids practiced juggling (2 balls, not 3), and some jump-roped, it was a very fun time indeed.
Before we left, everyone all of the sudden wanted our autograph, and while the teachers were trying to pry off the kids from us, we were trying to sign as many little notebooks as possible. Finally they got us into the hallway, where we were followed by a heard of 4th graders to the princlipals office to pick up our oragami from the 6th grade class. Then the fourth graders disappeared, we figured they just went back to the classroom, so we said goodbye, put on our shoes, and went out to the cab, where we found our heard of fourth graders waiting for us. We all got into the cab, and waved to the heard as we pulled away from the school. That was probably the closest I will ever come to being a celebrity, and it felt great.
Here are some pictures:
This is the fourth grade class, and they think it’s so cool to make peace signs around here, so you should see a lot of little hands holding up “peace” with two of their little fingers.
This is a picture of some of the girls teaching me some games with yarn, they were some talented 4th graders, let me tell you…
This is a picture of the girls following us in the hallway when we were leaving, I turned around and took their picture, which they of course posed for happily.
This is a picture of the cutest little boys in the world waving goodbye to us as we were inside the cab pulling away.
I hope you enjoyed my visit to an elementary school!!! I sure did!
Hello. It is Thursday night here. This morning I took the hardest test of my entire life. I have absolutely no idea how I did on it, and I am expecting the worst. *Sigh*
Since I spent the first half of this week studying like crazy, I haven’t had time to post anything, as you may have noticed. In this entry I have included a couple of pictures of things that have happened in the past couple of days…
I am also very tempted to include an email that Austin sent me one night, mainly because it is very funny to me. It might not be funny to anyone else, because it has to do with our dog, and if you do not know my dog, or his hedgehog obsession, then you will not understand what makes this one little paragraph so darn funny. Perhaps I will add it to the bottom of this entry, feel free to read it if you want.
I would also like to thank whoever comes to my website on a daily basis. Because of you, all of you, my website was down the other day due to “Banwidth Limit Reached”. I had no idea what was going on, and Noel simply told me that so many people were going to my site that he needed to give me some more website space (I don’t know how it all works, so do not rely on the accuracy of my descriptions about anything technical…). Either way, I was so very excited to learn that many people visited my site this month. Thank You!
Tomorrow I am taking a taxi with three other people I do not know yet (our groups were chosen for us 
for this assignment), and we are heading out to an elementary school, where we will teach one classroom some common English songs and games and maybe something else. It should be very very fun, I am looking forward to it, and I am bringing my camera, so hopefully I will be allowed to take a picture of the kids, or maybe even a video!! I will keep you posted.
That’s all for tonight, here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment:
This picture is for all the old (and recently new) Pistons fans… The other day Noel and I were in an electronics store when I heard people speaking in English (which is very strange, and does not happen often outside of JCMU), and I had to take a look. What did I see on EVERY TV in the place? A Piston’s game, and not just any game, it was GAME 2 of the finals. Many of you know that I know little about sports, and if not for Austin, I would know nothing about the basketball team from Detroit that is in the finals… However, there in the store, in English on every screen were the words: GAME 2 OF THE FINALS… PISTONS VS LAKERS… so on and so forth. I watched a little of the game, and then left the store, but not before taking a picture, to prove that it was actually being broadcasted here. I did find it a little strange that it was being shown over here when it was shown in the US a WEEK and a HALF ago!!! And of all the games to show, why pick game 2? Did something happen during game 2 that was really great? I would have picked the last game, if I was going to show one in Japan, at least then they will know who won. Or maybe this was only game 2, and they planned on showing all the games or something… Sorry, I got a little out of hand. I am done analyzing the game 2 situation. Just look at the picture:
Some quick facts before I explain the picture:
Fact #1: We all have our own bikes here.
Fact #2: Everyone rides a bike here, or walks to where they need to go, it doesn’t matter how old you are, you can ride your bike to the store.
Fact #3: Every bike comes with a little bell. The bells purpose is to warn people that you are coming, it is not a rude gesture, rather a “I don’t want to run into you with the front tire of my bike” gesture.
Fact #4: For the first 3 weeks we were here, Noel and I used our bells for another purpose. To make music. We chimed our bikes all day and all night long… we made rhythms, we made songs, we composed everywhere we went…
Fact #5: Noel’s bell broke apart last weekend. The top fell off and rolled into the river, never to be seen again. Then another piece of it fell off somewhere between where we live and the town we frequently visit…
Fact #6 Noel has been sad everyday since over the loss of his bell.
So now that you know the facts, you can look at the picture. It is a picture of one of the happiest days of Noel’s week. We stopped by a bike shop, and Noel went inside, pointed to a bell on a bike, and gestured that he needed one. The man in the store not only gave him a bell, but he came out, took the old bell off, replaced it within 2 minutes, and only charged him $4 for a new bell. We now can compose bell songs to and from town once again. (Only this time we will be a little more careful, and be sure not to have any more bell-breaking incidents.)
This last picture is of Noel and I on the biggest, coolest wire-climbing-jungle-gym thing ever. It is at this great park that we go to, and there are actually seats built into the climbing structure, so you can climb up and sit where you please. You can see the seats in the picture, we are standing on one, and they are all black in color. It’s a lot of fun!
For those of you still interested, here is that paragragh from Austin’s email that makes me laugh. Read it if you want to:
Max completely destroyed his hedgehog.õ There was a hole large enough for all of the stuffing to fall out in one big clump and then max would just carry around the skin of the hedgehog.õ It was really sad.õ So yesterday I threw that away and went up to the pet store in flat rock that sells the hedgehogs.õ They didn’t have any hedgehogs, but they did haveõlarge, stuffed ant-eaters that made the same grunting sound as the hedgehogs.õ I bought him that and he seems to like it.õ Of course now I have to teach him the word “aardvark.”õ Before I would say to him, “Max, get your hedgehog,” and then he would run over to his hedgehog and tromp around the room with it.õ But now I have to tell him, “Max get your aardvark.”õ He is still having a little trouble grasping which toy is his “aardvark.”õ I think he’s making good progress though.
I figured it out!!! While Noel has been sleeping I have been figuring out how to place a movie on my website without his help. I am very very proud of myself, and I deserve a pat-on-the-back. 
It was a little exhausting though, trying to figure out what to do next, so you are only getting one movie tonight. It is of Hikone Castle, and I sound out of breathe because, well, I was out of breathe. To get to the castle you have to climb up a lot of steps. The castle is beautiful though.
As the title sugests, we had a real typhoon today. It was crazy. Some schools were canceled due to it as well. Our Sensee (Professor) informed us that while in the United States we call our Hurricanes names such as “Hurricane Bob” and so forth, they just number the typhoons here. Today we saw the winds and rains of Typhoon 6!!! During class the wind was howling (and I mean ACTUALLY howling, it was weezing out there!) so loud that at times we could not hear each other talk. Yet, as always, class went on.
It is now 6:41pm and the Typhoon has almost all but stopped. After class today Jeff came and got Noel and I and took us out to lunch and to a couple of book stores. He also took us to the BIGGEST HARLEY STORE in Japan!!! (Which was big for Japan, but the one in Taylor is a little bit bigger.) It was fun though, the people were very nice in the store. It’s too bad that I didn’t find anything to buy for my dad though… All they had there was “Harley” stuff, and I know he would rather have a nice clear umbrella as opposed to something from the largest Harley store in Japan 
I realized today that I often talk about Jeff. He and Asusa have been more than generous showing Noel and I the hot spots of Japan. Well Jeff has a great website with always awesome pictures on it, and I have never linked to it before. (I hope he doesn’t mind) Go check it out, see his photos and read his stuff, it’s all very fun and interesting!!!
Click here to visit Jeff’s Website!!!
Now I will begin with the photos. Some of them are a week or two old, but I haven’t posted them yet, so if you see something that reminds you a previous post, it was probably taking place during the same day. I hope you like them!
This is a picture of a group of windsailers that go out on the lake almost every day. I think they are so funny to watch. Yes, I said funny. Because everytime I see all of them out there on the lake the fast paced melody from The Wizard Of Oz comes into my head, the scene where the witch is chasing them on her bike… Don’t ask me why, perhaps it has something to do with them all swaying one way or the other, trying not to fall over… or something. Anways, I always laugh.
This is the BEST food you will EVER EAT!!!! It is called Salad Pizza, and it is heavenly. First you begin with the crust. It is just a common pizza crust, no added junk. Then you top with white cheese, whatever kind they use is superb… After the cheese is cooked to warm gooey-ness, you add the salad, the dressing, and then the onions and tomatoes and what have you… It is divine. Divine, the perfect word for this yummy work of art. I admit, when the idea of having a salad on a pizza was brought up, I was skeptical, but take it from me, there is no need to worry about the taste. You have my word.
This is just a picture of the train tracks while we were waiting for our train to arrive. I think it’s a pretty cool picture though, The tracks curve and all… I like it.
You are looking at a building. You are also looking at the sky being reflected off of the building. It was the nicest day out ever!!! So pretty. I actually had to ask Jeff if the clouds were actually real and not painted on… hehehe.
This is just a picture of people in the subway with us. I don’t get to be on the subway much, so I figured I would remember it in a picture.
This is a picture of a small portion of Osaka City. The city itself is HUGE!
This is just a random picture of a lot of people in an indoor/outdoor shopping center in Osaka…
This is a picture of Noel and his roommate Yoshi when Yoshi took us out to the Sushi bar. Yoshi is one of the coolest guys we could have ever met!
This is my attempt to photograph the Sushi bar. If you look in the picture you can see the sushi that was going by at the moment. If you can’t see it, I appologize, there is nothing I can do.
This picture is for Jeff. I took it the night we went to see the fireflies. This picture was taken late at night, even though it looks a little like daytime. I don’t know how exactly this picture happened, except to say that it was a longer exposure and Jeff was playing with the light from a flashlight. That’s all I know about photography at the moment.
This is a picture of something common that Japanese people like to eat over here. It is called a “hamburg” or something like that, my spelling might be off. It is basically a hamburger cooked really good without the bun. Some places we eat it at have a good sauce to go with it. They are really good!!! My mom makes something like it even, she calls them “hambuger patties” though, but it’s all the same thing.
My last picture for the night is a picture of a sign that was put up outside of the “Circle K” (a common convience store). Noel and I can’t quite understand what it means. If anyone knows, could they let me know… We have even asked people who live here and they don’t quite have an answer anyway. I just can’t figure out how littering and “fleeing the scene of a crime” have anything in common. Give me your thoughts!!!
width="640" height="480" border="0" />
That is all the pictures for now, I know it was a lot. I am sorry if the page took forever to load, hopefully you found it worth your time. My next entry will include lots of movies, so look forward to that. I would put some on here now, but i don’t remember how to do it, and Noel is taking a nap. Sorry!!!
Bye for now! And leave me a comment if you come to the site! I just want to make sure that I am not posting things for nobody!!! PLEASEEE!!!!