Work and hiding in a rock?

Had work like usual. After work I headed home and cleaned my room and then headed out to Roppongi to meet up with Steve and some friends. We hung out around Midtown for a bit and then I took the last train home.

School and a new toothbrush

School like usual. My team finished our case, handed it in, and watched another team present today. The paper was actually more involved than the presentation surprisingly. In the evening I was supposed to meet up with a friend they were sick so instead I went to the store and got a new toothbrush since mine had mysteriously stopped working after I returned to Japan. Per my Brother's recommendation I got the Oral-B. I love having the best possible personal hygiene products available so although I thought nothing could top the Soniccare, I found that I had things wrong. Dead wrong. The Oral-B is the truth. I could not believe what a difference I saw after just two brushings. The built in timer makes sure that you spend 1 minute on the top set of teeth and 1 on the bottom. It sounds dumb, but it actually makes brushing a lot of fun.

School and work

Not much happened today except school and work.

School

If you guessed male for the gender of the person I mentioned in yesterday posting, you are correct. I know I've mentioned it before, but some of the guys here in Japan wear the most feminine combinations of colors possible. I guess somehow it's ok to wear a purple jacket and carry a pink bag as a guy without people mistaking your sexual orientation in Japan.
Anyhow, just a regular day at school today.

School and work

School like usual and work like usual. The weather today was pretty nice and I almost didn't need a coat. When I was walking to lunch today I saw a Prius in the street which had some decals on it and a different set of rims on it. I thought it was pretty funny since the purpose of that car is to achieve high fuel economy and the owner seemed to have different plans for it. Also today I saw a person on the train who was wearing a purple coat, had a pink bag, and a green cell phone. I'll reveal the gender of the person tomorrow.

School

School today like usual. I think my group for the Business capstone was a lot more relaxed cause we just have to do a paper and no presentation. It was a little sunny today but still kinda cold.

Work

Slept in to make up for the sleep that was lost last night and woke up feeling surprisingly awake for the next 8 hours of work in Shinagawa.

Work and party

Worked during the day like usual. When I got home I took a shower and went to bed. I set my alarm to take up so I could get ready and head out to catch the last train. Met up with some friends at a club and partied till morning.

School and Presentation

Today was Friday which meant that I had school all day. Big Fun. After Stat and Law was the Business strategies class. It was we were finally able to present what we had worked on all week and I think it went pretty well. In the evening I just headed home and took it easy.

School and work

School like usual and then work. Kinda cold today.

School and more school

Today was school like usual but a lot of time we spent working on the presentation for Friday and I got home later than usual.

School Presentation Fun

Tokyo is a awesome city and there are constant reminders of how much money is here just walking down the street. Today I saw 2 Ferrari F430’s, a F360, a Lamborgini Gallardo, and of course a Rolls Royce. I think the car I’ll get with be the F430, I’m just not sure about what color to get. Maybe I’ll go with the gun metal grey, the red is too flashy for me.
School, like usual but my homework got erased from the school computer so I spent my first class working on that. Until accounting started and after it finished I was working on my group presentation which will be on Friday. We’re doing a case study on Airbus and it’s ok. One of my friends had a work thing on Monday night and spent all day sleeping and feeling bad because of all the alcohol he drank so when he finally got to school around 6:30 we got food and took him to the hospital. After that I headed back home and started working on the presentation for HR again.

School and work

Back into the school routine so just had school like usual except this semester I’m spending all my time between classes studying. In the evening I had work and then went home.

Study and group project

No school or work today, so I slept in for a while and got up and read through the case on Airbus for the HR class. I headed to Andrew’s house around 4 and our group discussed the case.

Work and work

Got up early this morning and headed to Takehito’s for his lesson. He had a lot to tell me about his New Years and the new deal his company is working on. After that I went to work like usual and finished around 8 and went home.

Long day at school and a school party

Friday is the longest day of the week cause it starts with Stat 2 which, thanks to the teacher, is a lot of fun. After Stat I read some stuff for HR and grabbed lunch from the combini. I had International Law followed shortly after by the capstone HR class. I think everyone was happy to hear that the class is about 40 minutes shorter than originally planned so it’s not 4 hours long like originally planned. The class is pretty intense but it’s only once a week and it’s pretty interactive with a lot of group work, so I think it should be interesting. When HR finished, Ryu, Andrew, and I all went to get dinner at a Japanese style pasta place where you eat Spaghetti with chop sticks, which to me seemed kind of funny. I stopped home, changed, and then Ryu and I headed out to Muse for the school party. Like almost all the school parties, it was kinda weak and there weren’t a lot of people there, but I left at 11, which is still a little early.

School and work

Finance 2 and Accounting 2. Two awesome classes in one day! Love it! After class I hung out at school and worked on the Finance homework for next week and then headed to work for the first time in 2009. Nothing had really changed, but it was good to be back.

School, Day 2 and getting some stuff

This morning I got to the usual station about an hour before class started so I went one station further and renewed my train pass for the semester. From there I headed to school for Stat 2. We have a new teacher and he is the first Japanese teacher that I’ve had at Temple for a non-Japanese class. He seems like a nice guy. After Stat I had some time before my next class so some friends and I went to Sukiya for Taco Rice and then back to school till it was time for International Law. The teacher for International Law is the same teacher that I had last semester for entrepreneurial law, so I think it will be a good class for sure. When law finished, I hung out in the computer lab and did my finance homework. Around 6 Steve and I headed to Shibuya to go to Donkiote so I could get a new bag for work, since my old one fell apart and a book bag ruins the whole look of a suit. He picked up some new speakers for his PC and then we went to Yoshinoya for dinner. When I got home, I listened to some music and that was the day.

First day of school and the new V Spec

Woke up at 5am cause of the time change and lay in bed till my alarm went off. Got up and got ready for the day and then headed to school for Finance 2. After finance I have a few hours free so some friends and I got Ramen from Ramen Jiro. When we finished eating, Mason and I got one of the few lockers left and then went to Azabu campus to get the semester sticker so that I can get the student discount on my train pass. I met up with my friend Ryu who had been in the US at the main campus last semester and he gave me his old book from finance which is great. From there I headed back to Mita campus, threw my stuff in the locker and headed to work so I could submit my schedule for next month and my invoice for the lessons I taught last month. Then I headed back to school for accounting 2 which is big fun.
When class finished, Mason and I headed to Ginza to check out the GT-R V-Spec. It has a lot of carbon fiber to make it lighter, is the first production car with ceramic brakes, no back seat, and a turbo button for added boost in the mid-range. It’s pretty awesome. I left Ginza and went back to school to get my books and stuff and worked on the finance homework till 9 and then headed home.

Arriving in Japan

When I got to Tokyo it was already dark. I went through customs pretty quickly since I had a re-entry permit and got my bags. After getting some cash from the ATM I got my train ticket back to Tokyo. When you spend over 14 hours on a plane eating only airplane food, you start to smell like the food, it’s bad. Although I just got to the airport and went home, the differences were immediately apparent when I got back to Tokyo. When we were in Cleveland Steve mentioned the escalators in the Cleveland airport. This kept the idea in my head, and something that I was very used to after living in Japan became almost new and amazing to me again. The escalators were all very clean, ran smoothly and quietly and the airport itself also seemed much cleaner. Another thing that hit me as soon as I got back to Japan was the fact that men here are ok with wearing purple, pink, or even having and using a purple and pink suitcase. While this is something that men in the U.S. could be ridiculed or beat up for, it’s just everyday life in Tokyo. Last but not least, was of course the ladies. All the women I saw were dressed like women, with no ugly grey sweat pants or sloppy looking pajamas in sight. Although some women in the US may be offended by this, they are usually the women who don't really care about what they look like when they go out or put any effort into looking good.

Back to the Future!

Got up, packed my carry-on bag and headed to Steve’s to pick up Steve and then to the Cleveland airport. I said goodbye to my family and got on the plane at the scheduled boarding time. There were some issues and we sat that for an hour before taking off. They had to spray the plane down with de-icer and whatever else, but somehow we still arrived at Chicago on time.
I guess a 14 hour flight wasn’t long enough for some people so we sat around in the plane for an extra hour to extend the total time on board to 15 hours. I’m glad I was able to get my money’s worth. I had an aisle seat with an open seat next to me which was nice. The guy in the row in front of me took some sleeping medication and then decided to wash it down with the bottle of duty-free whisky that he bought. After drinking almost the entire bottle he stood up noticeably drunk and got into an argument with the flight attendant at which point he kind of hit/smacked that attendant who forced the man back into his seat and called for help. A cop and a couple Army guys came up and helped hold him down while they decided what to do with him. He was mumbling jibberish and speaking with slurred speech. They wound up hand cuffing the guy but he was still a little crazy so they wound up duck taping him to the seat so he couldn’t move. It was pretty crazy, entertaining, and embarrassing all at once. On the plus side, this made the flight the most exciting I’ve been on and helped to pass the time. The airline took my name and address so I hope they send me some kind of upgrade ticket or something.

Last full day in the America

Today I pretty much just spent the entire day going through my stuff and packing. It snowed a lot and the birds hung out on my shoulder. In the evening Steve and Yu-Chih came over and we all had dinner and played cards. We watched Wall-E which Steve loved, but I thought was just ok. I have a ton of crap that I burnt onto CD's so I went through about 100+ CD's and took the important Music or files and threw them out. I found some good music in the process so it was all worth it.

Burgers and Movies, American Style!

Today, we met up with Steve and Yu-Chih We went to Lowe's and got some picture hangers and then went to Burger Nutz for dinner. It's a awesome cheap and good burger place that opened up recently. When we got back to Steve's we hung the painting that they got for Christmas and then headed back out to see a movie. The movie we saw was "the Curious Case of Benjamin Button" which was, ok but if you've seen Forest Gump then you've seen Button.

Movies at home, snow, and hanging out with Brian and friends

Spent the morning watching movies. I watched "We own the Night" and "Stranger than Fiction". In the afternoon I worked on an article for work. After dinner I played Halo 3 with Dad and went to bed.

Meeting up with friends

Today I did some shopping with Mom and got some more stuff to take back with me to Japan. In the afternoon I met up with my friend Amanda and we headed downtown since I haven't been anywhere in Clevleand in a while. We headed to Coventry where we hit up, Big Fun a crazy toy/other junk store and I got a sweet shirt. After that we went to the Mongolian BBQ and had some food. I love that place cause you just make whatever you want and it's all you can eat so it's a pretty good deal and is fun. In the evening we hung out at her house for a bit and played Wii and Xbox360. I got home around 10 and played Metroid till 12 or so and went to bed.

Out with friends, and Movies/Halo 3 with Dad

Not too much happened today. I met up with a friend from High School and we headed downtown to get some bubble tea at the Koko bakery. The owner was glad to see me agian and asked me all about my plans and my time in Japan. When I got back home, I had dinner and then Dad and I watched "August Rush" and played Halo 3. After Dad went to bed I watched "Lions for Lambs" which was good, but I think it ended too quickly.

Chillin'

Today I just kinda hung out at home, went over some of the video from the show, played video games, and stayed inside where it is warm.

Green Screen Reunion Show

Today we had church in the morning like usual and then back home. In the afternoon I spent my time getting ready for the show and making sure I was ready. We got to the venue around 4:30 or so and started setting up. My camera didn’t like regular DVD-R’s so I had to go back to the store and get some Sony ones. Kinda weird. Sony, such scammers. Anyhow people started arriving around 6 and we started playing at 7. We played two sets and I think we finished around 9:30. There was a lot of food and we had a ton of fun. After the show, I helped take everything back to the house and then messed around on Facebook and MySpace, updating the pages and going over the video that was taken.

Hanging out and the final practice

In the evening I met up with my old friend Brian in Cleveland. He has a new house now, and it's really cool. He showed me the area and we went to a cool bar/restaurant for dinner and checked out a couple other places in the area. I headed home around 7 and had the last band practice before the show. I think it went well and after, Steve, Chris, and I played Mario Strikers for a bit and after they left I did some more preparation for the show tomorrow.

Doing Stuff

Going places, seeing people, eating food, playing games, and watching movies.

New Years Day

Just kinda hung out at home, watched movies and played video games. Good times.