In Japanese Ippon means "Marc needs to practice more"

Ok, so the trip to kumamoto was fun. We got to sightsee the entire first day(saturday) and got a really great dinner and breakfast for only $10. We went to the castle, which you can see below. We even got to climb up, which required the use of really dangerous and steep staircases. I'm pretty sure there is no Japanese word for HUGE LIABILITY* Anyway, It good as castles went and the view at the top was good.

*Totally not true about Japanese

This is the damn hell bitchin ass castle. Very big and very fortified as Japanese castles go. It was never succesfully seiged, but it was destroyed by fire. Nothing can stop fire.... especially wooden castles.

One of 3 original suits of armour worn by the lords of the castle
This is the castle and its walls, which are special, since they are curved and apparently that makes them better as walls go (^3^)The whole gang..... well, we were the only ones who wanted to go see the castle. Everyone else apparently had "cooler" things to do.

A big shopping arcade I found after we took the wrong trolley and decided to walk home.

This is a totally rigged picture. I was slowly lowering him to the ground for the shot. I am also doing this move completely wrong (^0^)/
Masahiro is good, and this was a good match but these guys were SO STRONG!!
Kojima is holding his own against a guy way bigger and experienced than he is. They grappled forever.Lots of 2nd and 3rd degree blackbelts. Luckily my clearly white belt showed them they could go easy on me.

Check out my photo link if you want to see all the photos from the weekend!!

Kumamoto

I'm about to leave for Kumamoto. I am going with the judo club to a tournament. I have a sore neck, and I didn't get any sleep last night, so I have very high hopes that I am going to return in much greater pain and much grumpier. Calen and I went to a movie last night, here called Tomorrow World, in Canada called Children of Men. Its the one where the human race can no longer breed, starring Clive Owen. It was funny, because we forgot to check what the name of the movie was called in Japanese, so we got to the theatre and had to search for a movie poster to figure out the name. We went to the really late viewing at 12:15 am since we were both really bored and wanted to do something on a Friday night. Our original intent was to see another movie, but this one was playing at Hawkstown, so it won out. PLUS, it only cost us 1000 en to see it, since it was late and we are students, or maybe just because it was late. Anyway, I have to go pack a lunch. PEACE

YEAH. That does look like the best goddamn stupid awsome concert anyone has ever seen. And yes, I did have the time of my life. There were two encores even. After they finished their main set, The lead singer threw a pick into the crowd, but it dissapeared and I didn't see anyone pick it up. Then after the first encore, they threw another one. I am pretty sure that that one dissapeared too. Any way, me and two other japanese guys we met crawled around on our hands and knees for about 10 minutes in vain, without finding anything. Then, after the show, we are searching again, and I find it 30 feet from the stage!!!!!!!!! HOLY CRAP.


Anyway, the great thing was, it was a really empty house. We had ticket numbers 153 and apparently there were only like 150 ish tickets, because the place was not packed. It was in Fukuoka Beat Station, which is directly under a train bridge and I mean directly( We think it use d to be the old station). It also had a capacity of 347 and it was no where near that packed. Anyway. I got yelled at in Japanese by the lead singer which was awsome and I also got a pick and a t-shirt. I'll take a picture of the tshirt lates yo.



I am not in the process of chilling the shit out. So look at my pictures and marvel at the fact that I went to an awsome concert :)

Band stuff

THIS IS MY BAND, I HOPE YOU LIKE IT

I was really worried about being the worst member that didn't seem to be a problem. We had trouble finding a lead singer, and I wish to god I had gotten an english speaker from I-house, but I got lazy and we got Hiroki. He is a really good singer in Japanese, but He couldn't quite get the english singing right. Anyway, I am planning to start something with Calen who plays the guitar, and If we do aything else, we'll make sure to record it for your viewing pleasure.

Since the festival was this last weekend, I had 4 days to "relax". Of those 4 days, I actually only got 3 since preparing for the stupid show got in the way. It was still nice, aside from all the fucking rain we got. The festival was ok, but my expectations were WAY higher than the reality, and I was dissapointed. I actually went to Kyushu Universities festival yesterday as well, and It was way better. They had more booths set up, way better bands, and tons of beer. Because we are a Christian University, we weren't allowed to drink, which didn't stop hundreds of students from the school from getting wasted at bars and stumbling around the city after the festival was over. Really lame, since everyone was drunk anyway.

I didn't take any pictures, and I apologize, but I was really busy with the band preparations. I hope you like the video, and if you have any questions for my, don't hesitate to ask.

marc

I went to the 100 yen store the other day with Miyako and we bought a lot of christmas. Basically we turned my room into a cheap christmas whore, but I dont really mind, since it looks so damn festive :)
I bought lights for cheap and got a ton of garland and even a little tree.





Ok, I didn't even realize I hadn't done this, but here are some photos from the concert I went to in October. They are really fuzzy since it was dark and my hands are always shaking now, but some of the pictures came out ok. I also took a video of an entire song the Pillows performed before they confiscated my camera V(^@^ )
Basically, the opening band was some local, non-famous group which had a few fans in the crowd and knew how to rock. The second band was a lot more famous... The Back Horn? I have never seen or heard of them. Anyway. They were way too loud, but good and I was really deaf by the time the Pillows came on. IT was everything I dreamed of and more. Anyway, I will post the hell out of the video when I make it 7mb smaller.







Thats about it. I have been practicing a lot, since I have to perform with a band in the school festival on Saturday. I am really nervous, but in the end, I will be happy even if I screw up.

Aww MA!

I think my mom commented on my blog but I'm not sure, since the name is anonymous. It does seem like the kind of message she would leave though. Anyway, in response I would just like to point out that even if someone saw me using the handgun(which couldn't happen since I only use it indoors, the chance of them thinking its real is slim to none. No one in Japan owns real guns, except the police.... well, the police and the mafia. Plus, I can count at lest 3 separate incidents where a group of teenagers ran by me ON THE STREET carrying air gun pistols and machine guns, heading to the beach to shoot at each other.

Anyway, the real purpose of this post was to talk about my busy busy weekend. Basically, the end of this last week and weekend were really relaxing and great. To start it off, on Thursday I went drinking with Professor Olson and his other Japanese class at a Jamaican bar in town. The owner is a really nice guy who can cook really great Jamaican food. His cooking actually made me homesick, since the spices reminded me of my moms cooking a lot.

That was a really great night of just relaxing and drinking. I basically drank a bunch of shitty cocktails, until I found Kahlua and milk. Its the girliest one there, but it goes down so easily and I can't even taste alcohol.

Now you may think, 'Hey marc, you were drinking on a school night?' And to that I would reply. "Hells no, I'm in Japan, where every other weekend is a long weekend for some silly inane reason!" I don't know why all countries don't apply the 2 long weekends a month rule. It's nice. I really relaxed the hell out of Friday in case you were wondering. Then Friday night rolled around and Calen, James and I went to Tenjin, met with Lee and John and went to Mcdonalds for dinner. I know I'm in Japan and shouldn't go, but shut the hell up. It's cheap and I'm poor. I ended up making a cheeseburger sandwich, and for those in the audience with sick and twisted minds like mine, you can already picture this monstrosity in your minds without my explaination. Basically you have to order 3 of the 100 yen cheeseburgers, then place one of said burgers between two others. It's also nice.
Round 1 was amazing. We left Lee and John, since John was sick and didn't want to pull an all nighter. We did the usual awsomeness, arcade, sports, guns, billiards and then Miyako met us there. We did karaoke with her and then spent a lot of time trying to find available massage chairs. At around 6am, Calen and James left leaving me to wait with Miyako until she could return home under the cover of sunlight. We ended up getting a private room with a couch and promply fell asleep until around 10am. Then it was up to me to make my way home alone.

Saturday is a blur. I basically spent it sleeping the hell in and hanging out with people in Ihouse. and today is Sunday. I went shopping with Miyako for groceries, and we watched a movie, and after she went to work, I sat around/made several trips to Hardoff for music equipment. I ended up picking up a pedal for my $10 drum machine I recently bought, so now I can actually drum without having to hit the bass kick with one of my sticks. It's a little touchy, but Im going to jury rig something outa it. Today was also the first active practice of I-house Counterstrike. Basically, we used the first two floors as our battle ground and made teams. Terrorists had to try to shoot Airforce One(played by Hansen wearing a winter coat) and counter-terrorists had to shoot them before Hansen got shot. It was a lot of fun, and I ended up getting shot in the legs a bit. Later, I was ambused in my room and had to defend myself against 3 fully automatic airguns.

Yeah, that is my weekend, and I KNOW you are jealous. Now all I need to do is get some study habits and study for the japanese midterm coming up..... :(