It is done

Closure. Finished. Bye :)

The last time

The last day at work was a little sadder than I had imagined. My last lesson was a voice lesson in which some students brought some strange food that I HAD to eat.
Some of the food was surprisingly good, for example, bear meat (from Yamanashi prefecture apparently). Karasumi is dried fish eggs, tasted like really strong cheese! Definitely hard to eat! Umeboshi, sour plum but in the real raw form, this had to be the worst thing I tasted that night. The Chinese ones I'm used to are much better, but this was just...horrible! Hahaha, so positive-sounding I know. Another terrible thing I tried was mozuku, some kind of seaweed jelly soup in a small cup. Between the mozuku and umeboshi, the umeboshi took the crown as the worst thing though, was just too painful to eat. I also ate something called ??giremochi. I can't remember the first part of the word. Tasted great though :)

But I was so happy to finish, hard to believe in a way. Was great to see so many students turn up for my last voice, I was really happy to see everyone. Tomorrow night is my farewell dinner with the teachers and staff. After that, all the celebrations are over and its time to get down to finishing final packing, souvenirs, cancelling internet, cancelling the phone...and getting my monEY!

I'll see you all very very soon :) (:

Bryan

Niseko...

Back from Niseko, and constant aching limbs!

Snowboarding for five days straight was unexpectedly difficult! I'm not as young as I used to be, it seems... And I remember being much more at ease when snowboarding in Utah. I don't know whether its the rental equipment or just my lack of snowboarding over the past 4 years, but I just couldn't get into that comfortable zone where I didn't think I'd crash and wipe out completely! Not to mention, it could probably hurt a bit. There wasn't too much snow cover. The second day I was there it snowed a whole deal, so visibility wasn't great, but I didn't have to worry about jarring my ass. The third day was a beautiful sunny day, but as a result, stuff started to get icy, however the runs were much more predictable, a little easier to ride. But! I had a blast! No doubt, it was better than any snow I've experienced in Australia/Melbourne. Some of the views from the lifts were incredible.

So I'm still on one week's holiday before one more week of work. Its just all shopping for souvenirs and getting all my affairs in order. I can't really believe I've lived one whole year in Japan...seems a bit surreal that it's all coming to an end. GOnna miss a lot of things, a lot of people here.

If ANYONE wants something specific from here, please let me know and I'll try my best to get it...

See you all soon, this blog is ending soon too :)

Ne-Yo

Ne-Yo

I'm an ojisan, apparently :)

So by now everyone knows that Em and my bro are happy and proud parents!! CONGRATS U GUYS! And the deepest thanks to our God who holds us all in the palm of his hand. Though it was a long ordeal, nothing bad happened and that's reason enough to give all thanks to Him. I'm so happy for you two, and me too!! Now, where did I put those baby clothes I bought....?

Anyway, so much stuff has happened recently, and I've got to put quite a few photos up here! So last Friday Simon had his farewell party, and left about 4 days ago. Was sad to see him go, he's always been the absolutely crazy one to make life interesting here. But I sooo wish I was back home too....!! Here are some of the photos...I missed out on the karaoke; I just had no voice to contribute! Otherwise for sure... but it looked pretty fun!








AND!!!! I went to see an up and up R&B singer live!!!! The man himself, Ne-Yo!! Was pretty awesome, played out at a club in Yokohama Bay area, but I've got a ring in my ears. If you have a look at where I took the photos, you can see I was standing in front of the speakers, three MASSIVE ones! And I hate to say it, but he is a really good-looking dude, got a real cheeky smile, the ladies'd all fall... Love his songs, and we got to listen to his new single that's coming out for his album in April, sounded hot. Was a great night, real party atmosphere, and was soo crowded I ended up having a girl grinding her ... right up in front of me, hahahaha ;) Anyway good night, if a little short; concert only went for about 1hour. I managed to take some photos with my phone, but they're not that good...I'll get some later from a friend. Anyway, there's nothing fake about him, he's an awesome singer and great performer!




Take care everybody, I'll see u soon! And Nathaniel, see u soon too!

Karaoke is underrated...

I wish I had pictures of tonight. I really do...but its my fault I don't carry my camera around with me wherever I go. Tonight, went out with Simmo and David, and another person (unnamed). Simmo's 3rd last day working at Tsunashima, he's carting off on Tuesday.

We went to the cheap yakiniku place again (that place is awesome, Korean BBQ: Japanese style, is just a slice of heaven) and I ate until it was silly... so much bbqed meat, I might die young. The unnamed person paid for our meal! Domo arigatou gozaimasu! We then moved across the street to karaoke...a crazy night. Gees, sung so much stuff this time I can't remember. One More Time - Daft Punk is a must wherever we go, U2 - With or Without U is usually sung, Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge is ALWAYS sung...but then we moved to more ballad stuff...hahaha, Billy Joel - New York State of Mind, The Stranger..."A Song For You" by I dunno who, "Mr Wendal" by I can't remember who... back to U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Boyz 2 Men!!!!!! - On Bended Knee, hahaha...did some Backstreet throwback - As Long As You Love Me, All I Have to Give, Canned Heat - Jamiroquai? maybe not the original artist but the one I know...Bryan Adams (destroyed me) - Everything I Do, I Do It For You...and for the finale, Roddie, Bryan and Sting - All For Love. My voice is wrecked, I already had a sore throat b4 we went to karaoke, there's no way I'll be able to teach proper lessons tomorrow, but it WAS ALL WORTH IT! Went for curry afterwards...and I'm still a lil bit on a high from all the singing!

Anyway, the real reason why I posted this is 1. coz I haven't posted anything in a long time, and 2. I wanna show some sumo pictures. I went to go see the sumo tournament last week, and took a couple of measly photos. Of course, none of them are great, the really good ones are with my friend who had a 1000x zoom or something on his camera, so he could zoom right up to the ring and take videos, just as if we were watching on TV! But the sumo tournament was an experience, not one I'd do again (coz its the same quick 10sec matches, and about 30-40 of them), BUT it did get much more exciting towards the end of the day, leading up to the Yokozuna (top ranking sumo, not his name) match, which was last. Asasyoru is the name of the current Yokozuna, actually he's not Japanese, he's a Mongol...and he's won the last 20 tournaments, he's that good! On the day I saw him, he almost lost...but came back strong. After watching 30 of these fights in a row, its much easier to see its not just about bulk and size, the little guys often come out on top. But being there is SOO much better than watching it on TV, the atmosphere from the crowd really gets u.






So the past few weeks have been a blast, Simon's leaving soon (I probably mentioned that already) and we're getting a new roommate from Canada. I'll probably give him all my furniture, save all the trouble of having to sell it to someone else...and I have just discovered that I have about 4 more weeks of work left!!!!!!! 2 weeks of holiday, still to be planned, but that's the exciting part. All my travelling experiences in Japan are gonna be in the last month of my stay here. So enjoy the photos, there will be more. Thanks for reading this ridiculously unnecessarily long post! Jane.

The road home

I feel as if I'm on the home stretch, hahaha. Don't get me wrong, I've had a great time but I've mostly been looking forward to coming home. Hope everyone's had a great holiday, it's all starting to wind back into the year of 2007. Nothing much happened for me during the holidays, but I have some holiday leave stashed away for later, maybe late Feb (anyone coming to Japan??? Last chance!) Last year has passed quite far, I've been in Japan for almost 10 months!

Anyway, I'm gonna be an uncle soon, can't wait! Will be praying for you Em!
This is a short one, thanks for everyone who throws me a message from time to time.

Blessings,
Bryan

Happy New Year!!

Happy new year everyone! Hope you all had a blast wherever you were! I went and had dinner with some friends, then some karaoke, crazy fun! Now recovering from the New Year's night. Make sure you make at least one new year's resolution!
Here are some photos from Kyoto that I couldn't show you before: