Merry Christmas!

To all of my friends, acquaintances and family. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, are eating a bucket of KFC, spending it with someone special.. or not. Wherever you may be, I wish you an amazing merry Christmas and a happy new year.

But... but...There is someone special I would like to wish a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to. I hope you know who you are by the looks of this drawing I scribbled up.




I wish you all the best and I hope you are doing well. Please have an amazing year as I continually wish for your happiness.

~Mike

ps. I really hope you like my drawing :)

Oita 2 part B.. n Fukuoka

Didn't take nearly as much video and picture as I thought in my second trip to Oita. I just threw together what I had on my camera for this one.

Oita 2!

Just about most of the things I captured on camera, mushed together with Final Cut.. and bam!

Scam # 2

Some people think they know a good cornbread when they see one.



This isn't even cornbread!! Throwing grains of corn into a normal piece of white bread does not constitute cornbread! But apparently in Japan it does.

Scam of the Day

I once had a friend look at me in great disappointment after having purchased a bottle of water. She said "paying for water is stupid." And she was right. Since then, i've always felt guilty of buying something that should be free to everyone. So if I was going to spend money on a drink, it had to be something like a soda at the very least.

A year or two later, as if I didn't already feel like paying for water was big scam, I found one even bigger. Rescue Water!! (@_@)

Its basically the same thing as water from your faucet or a bottle. But it now comes in an attractive orange can that costs twice as much!

I was hoping they would put ions or minerals in it. But nope, its just water.. in a can for 158円. Almost $2.

Music Rant

The more I get talked into going to karaoke, the more I get to hear American songs that Japanese and other foreigners want to sing. The more I hear American songs, the more I get to see the actual lyrics on the screen. The more I see the lyrics on the screen, the more I get a sense of what kind of culture my country is exporting.

I think about the lyrics, pause.. then wonder what the hell? Some of todays popular music has the most vulgar or by far the dumbest lyrics I have ever heard. What kills me is not only are people listening to this shit, other people are making bank off of it! I really do think our parents and grandparents lived in an age when music was still decent. It was maybe more simple, but it wasn't garbage. Will America ever go back to having good music? Or will it be like a musical version of Idiocracy where the dumb out-breed the smart?

Fukuoka thus far...

福岡のアップデート！




今まで日本の二回目アドベンチャはめっちゃ楽しい。少し貧乏だから中古自転車をかって探検するためにそれをどこでも乗っている。自分自身で時間をよく過ごす機会がありますから愛宕浜の辺りを良く探検しています。

とても便利だ。

このビーチを見つけた！　僕のホストファミリの所から多分十五分だ。ここから、ウインドサーフィンと船をよくみえる。色んな島もみえて景色がとてもきれい。

この景色はももちビーチからみえる。そのビルは僕の住んでいる所だよ。ホストファミリはリッチやな〜！


福岡タワーを見つけた！

タワーの後ろもきれいな砂浜があるんだ。下の写真は僕の新しいデスクトップバックグラウンドだ。

この教会を初めて見た時すごくうれしかったけど．．やっぱり偽物の教会だ。あいにく、キリスト教は日本で珍しい。この建物や実はウエディングの結婚式の場所だ。T＿T　こんなにきれいなビルがチュリストのアトラクションになってしまった。


自転車を良く使って、海の近く住んでいるからさびがよく受けている！
ホームセンターからスプレイを買って自転車をペイントすることにしました。



スプレイをしながら、むしから刺されてしまった。T＿T　むしがにがて！




福岡で自分自身時間を過ごす機会があっても、友だちとよく遊んでいる。日本にいるのは２週間過ぎないんだけどいい友だちをもうみつけた。普通天神であそぶからよくうんどうしている、自転車で。

みなみ！

チュリスト風。


プリクラを取る機会もよくある。
日本が好理由は多くあるけど一つのは花火だ！一年中買う事出来る。



チーズフォンでゥ。



侍！


あのう．．．ブラックミュジック？

Hiroshima Beer Co. Week 1

A very unfortuate problem happened to my computer, so there will not be many pictures or frequent posts for a little while. Thank God there is an apple store in Fukuoka though.

Now about my internship..

Im not quite sure how to say it, but I think in the last few days ive been realizing and starting to ask myself "What did i get myself into?" I've really enjoyed my time here so far and its like being an exchange student again except this time is different. Working at Hiroshima-san is such a different environment from a class room. Very quickly, I learned that this internship is no joke. Somehow I knew it but it never really hit me that doing an internship or any type of work in Japan would be nothing but pure immersion.

The only problem (well, not really a problem) is that this is my first time ever experiencing a professional environment. Basically taking a one-two punch, not only is it my first time trying to function in this kind of place, Its all in Japanese!!! OMG! is one of many expressions I have exploding throughout my brain on a daily basis. Ive got so much vocabulary Im learning for formal and business settings too. The cool part though is the products I get to catalog.

In a sense I think ive done a little bit of the same thing working for my dad. Documenting reciepts, products and all that. But on a much larger scale and instead of tire repair supplies its imported beer! I think its a miracle that i've basically been hooked up with this internship. My main challenges that I attempt to overcome are my recognition skills for kanji of names and places. Knowing them and or bein able to copy them is essential, or I would spend all day doing one piece of paperwork. The second challenge are those damn katakana words. Instead of really looking up all these Belgian, German, French... etc beers by their original name, I have to know the katakana versions. Ahh.. if katakana english wasn't already annoying enough.. But its all good, I like the products, im learning knew words in relation to brewing, beer, and business so its got my interest on lock for now.


Some of the assignments ive been given include making documents for orders, calculating shipment costs, and arranging cases and assortments for the beer at the warehouse. One thing that got me a bit nervouse though was sending emails to breweries. They already had me placing orders to companies in England for thousands of dollars worth of this stuff. The work so far is good though, the staff is nice and Ive got lots to learn. :)

Typhoon Season

I don't have pictures at the moment because the camera's battery is still charging. But its damn crazy here. After getting completely soaked the other day, I decided to wear swim trunks, a jersey and some flip flops to ride my bike (I finally bought a used one) from my host family all the way to the school. It takes almost an hour so it seams. After riding in the rain, without an umbrella it was like taking a shower while going to work.

Today was the day of my interview too. Luckily, thanks to my weather proof chrome bag, I was able to keep my office clothes dry for the trip. Ive been pretty tired these days, waking up early, then sleeping before midnight. Rather than stretching my brain and studying Japanese like I should be doing, I find myself eavesdropping on German conversations and every now and again making an interjection with the skills I learned from my one semester at SDSU. I find myself using English less and less too, with the exception of course when lending my ear to the Danish guy who finally has someone to rant to about the Germans.

Life is pretty busy already and about to get busier. It looks like ill be working on this blog on the weekends as I spend most of my time biking across this city while most people would just take the bus, train, or subway. However, Im on a fairly tight budget.. so bicycling it is!

Peace!

Round 2 begins..

After 29 hours of flight time and stop overs I finally made it to Japan, alive and well. Taking off from SFO at 1.40 am and flying through the darkness for 13 hours, the plane made its stop in Taipei just in time to watch the sunrise. Ive never been to Taipei before so I tried my best to look for the famous Taipei 101 building that was apparently the tallest building in the world at one point in time. After a few hours, the connecting flight took off for Fukuoka.

Luckily I got a glimpse of Taipei 101 from the plane.. and it doesn't look like much but yes, its that tall.

Before landing in Fukuoka, the pilot decided to make a couple of loops for some reason. After being on such a long trip my mind was starting to freak out.

After leaving SF on Thursday I finally made it to Fukuoka the next day at 12noon. I remember telling myself that I would come back within a year or two, and I did it!. Naturally, I would have met my host family and crashed on the floor to sleep the moment I could get myself in the door. However, the days adventures decided to keep me awake as my host family was apparently MIA. I met a lot of students at the asahi nihongo school were the majority of my new acquaintances were the Germans. Thats right, I said it.. The Germans. I proceeded to make my way to the first convenience store in search for banana milk which unfortunately is out of season. Over the next few hours I made my way around the immediate surrounding area of the school and found myself a few interesting sights and a ramen shop.

Later around 7, considering that my host family was still MIA, the school hooked me up with a hotel for the night. In fear of messing up my sleep schedule, despite no sleep for almost 48 hours, I made my way to the "international bar" with my new german speaking friends. However, after a combination of being fully away the day before my flight and no sleep whatsoever the entire trip, I began to feel like a walking zombie. I didn't need alcohol to feel the way I was starting to.. So I made my way back to the hotel where I tried to listen to songs for the next time I ever karaoke. Finding that I couldn't even pay attention to entertaining myself.. I passed out. Now. moving forward, this the start to the next chapter in this life?

There was a mini fridge about the size of a shoe box in the room. Cute!

FRANKENSTEIN!!!

In preparation and celebration of going to the land of Crazy Vending Machines, Maid Cafes, and Kick-Ass コンビニ(by the grace of God)、I have decided its time to resurrect my J-Blog. Only this time, a slight up-grade to the phenomenon known as V-LOGS!!! I hope you all enjoy, because I know I will.

This video is also a tribute to all of the people who gave me such a great experience in San Diego. You made my undergrad more enjoyable than I would have ever imagined, specially in this last semester. Stay Classy folks.