Me and Mr. Toyoda

And how

Well, we (k & I) have finalized our wedding plans...set the date, picked the church, the whole nine yards. Now I just need to save LOTS of money. Yay.... no more beer for me for a while. 's ok, though. My liver could always do with a little break.
After visiting the travel agency on Sunday, we went out to the in-laws for dinner. Just a normal visit, I thought. However, after a long chat about our future plans, they pulled out a birthday cake! I was completely shocked...it was a wonderful suprise. K's folks are really great, and they really like me...

Outside of that, not a lot to tell here in the LotRS...K's dad said he would give me a car if I get my driver's liscence...normal stuff like that.




I got a bouquet too, but I left that in K's care...anyone who has ever been to any of my apartments can understand why.

Happy birthday to me!

Yesterday was the big 3 - 2. Yay. To celebrate, I went to my friend Kenny`s restaraunt, Mercado, for drinks after work. My friends Leslie and Mayumi and Keith and Yuki and Kaz and dave all came too. And of course, K. It was a very pleasant evening...we had some wine, and a nice bottle of sake that I got from K`s dad a few weeks ago.

I didn`t realize it at first, but the couples were all foreign guys and japanese girls. That seems to be the way it goes here in the LotRS. Lots of foreign guys with Japanese girls, but very very few Japanese guys with foreign girls. Kinda strange, huh. Really though, the foreign men tend to outnumber the foreign women here, and Japanese guys tend not to be interested in foreign girls...too much trouble I guess.

Anyway, I had a nice birthday, and me and K are going to Osaka this weekend to see some of her friends and to relax. Should be fun!

Back on track

Had a Heckuva good weekend here in the LotRS. K has finally shaken off the summer school funk that had been hanging over her like a dark cloud for the last two weeks. Thank GOD! I was starting to genuinely worry about her... but she`s back to the good ol` K I`ma gonna marry.

We had a fine Sunday...starting with the Uniqlo (think `Old Navy`).
I needed to buy some new shorts due to the fact that during the rainy season, some of my clothes never managed to dry completely and picked up a nice case of mildew. Awesome. It was easy to identify on the white t-shirts, but I didn`t notice these shorts until we were in the car on the way to the in-laws for dinner. FUNGUS PANTS! (K`s favorite new vocabulary)
So long story short, I bought new shorts. So what? So this. The size I got was NOT XL. I got me some swanky size L shorts. Down to a 35 inch waist! Made my day right there. When I touched down here in the LotRS, I was a svelte 210 lbs, filling out a 38 waist nicely.

Which brings us to point two. I joined the local gym on monday. K has been a member for years, and has been after me to join for quite a while. My coworker just joined up too, and she seems much happier. They were running a special too, so the entry fee was 10 cents. Went up today for my first session. Felt good. Also stepped on the scale. 89kgs. Not sure what that works out to exactly in pounds, but roughly 185 I think. Haven`t seen numbers approaching those since age 20. Real good.

Point three. Signed up for internet service. I won`t get it for another month, but the big thing is that I did the paperwork. I had been avoiding anything that smacked of longterm commitment for a long time...but recently I`ve been feeling much more settled and focused...and grown-up, I guess. Its about time.

Last word. K and I went to the travel agency on sunday to see about having our wedding in Hawaii. Seems extravagant, until you figure that that would almost split the difference between the US and the LotRS, making the travel burden more equitable. Also, in Japan, weddings tend to explode into expensive gaudy affairs that noone I know would be willing to put up with, K included. Hawaii will keep it simple, thus cheaper. Plus, the honeymoon can start immediately! We are still at the very very beginning of the planning stages though, so don`t go buying your aloha shirts just yet... start saving yer pennies though, cause wherever the wedding goes down, noone stateside is gonna be able to drive there.

Thats all for now team.
Cheers!

Whew...long time no see, eh?

Sorry about that, but things have been a little tough here recently. K finally finished up the (absolutely grueling) summer sessions at her school, and is back to her regular work schedule. I am glad for her, and for me. It was tough for me to see her just shut down after about two weeks...no smiles, no laughs...just work sleep work sleep work sleep...it was like I had lost my girl completely.
She still hasn't snapped out of the funk completely, but she's getting better every day.
She did manage to shake it off for a week when she went to Spain with her parents. By all accounts, they had a wonderful time, and she wants to go back. Buenos Dias!

I tried to ease her load as much as I could during the summer sessions...fixing food for her and putting her to bed...after a while it really started to get to me...I was just tired...
But I think I'm snapping out of my August funk as well, and just in time for my birthday! Yay!
No plans for the day yet, but K and I are headed to Osaka next weekend, so a nice little getaway is all lined up.
Other than that, no realy news here...August kinda sucked, but we all got through it ok...the heat has broken here...beautiful days ahead...yay.

Chinese Thoughts

I recently discovered the website for the Official organ of the Chinese Communist party, The People`s Daily. Quite a fascinating read. Check out the forums too! Lots of interesting thoughts on the chaos in the middle east, among other things.

Happy Healthy

This weekend was very nice. K's friends came up from Osaka and we took them down to the Ise Shrine for another installment of lumber pulling. This time, teams of around 300 people hauled wood up the Isuzu River to the Inner Shrine (Naiku). I didn't get to play this time, but it was a lot of fun to watch. Hot though. Very hot.
After a day of stomping around in the blazing sun, K& I were understandably exhausted...nothing exciting except an early bedtime...around 9:30, actually.


K is in week two of the exciting 14 hr day 6 day a week purgatory that is summer vacation at a cram school. She is up at 6:30, out by 7:25, home around 11, and asleep by 12. Last week was miserable, but only 5 days...they gave her a (incredibly rare) 2 day weekend. This week will be a rocking 82 hours! Any wonder I want to take her away from all that? I do what I can to ease her burden, but in reality it is not much more than symbolic...washing her dishes, taking in her laundry, cooking up some food that she can freeze and eat on over the course of the week...making sure she goes to bed by 12...


Taking care of my own stuff too...I finally finished my paperwork and am officially enrolled in the Japanese National Health system. Feels good to be a pinko. It costs me roughly $250 per month, but is comprehensive medical and dental, hospitalization, rides in the ambulance, the works. It also covers a trip to the eye doctor, but not the actual glasses, should you need them. I consider it a bargain...beats the heck out of the half-assed HMO system that seems to be prevailing in the Land of the Idiot Son.

Thats all the news for now...next dentist appointment is friday! Yay!

treasure hunt

Internet style.... I found some nifty little e-nuggets you folks might be interested in.


I found a site devoted entirely to the mandolin and a few interesting ukelele sites as well. I bought a ukelele for $15 over the weekend...because I simply don't own enough stringed instruments yet. I can't really play anything on the ukelele yet, but I did get it tuned, which makes a world of difference.

And webcomics galore. Try this one or, if you prefer a little foul language and violence with your humor, this one might amuse you.

Got my filling in yesterday, too. Didn't hurt so much. Kinda funny really, after avoiding the dentist for 10 years, I'm actually enjoying going in and getting all fixed up like. Yee haw.

The Dentist...

Well, just finished up at the dentist, and its the strangest thing. I DIDN`T get the root canal I was fully expecting, and frankly, hoping for. I recited all my symptoms as best I could, agreed to a root canal last week, got myself all worked up...but all I`m gonna get is a bigass filling.
Mystified by this turn of events, I checked WebMD.com for my particular set of dental symptoms...and according to the internet and my own intuition, the root canal was the correct course of action. I am not a dentist, but I am also no fool. If I needed a root canal on this tooth 10 years ago, surely I still need one...

I think I need to have a chat with the dentist and someone with near fluent english to properly express my concerns. I really want this damn thing fixed and fixed properly as soon as possible, with as few visits to the dentist as possible....

Strange, isn`t it? A person with a slight dental phobia arguing for a more drastic treatment that the doctor wants to give? hmmmmm...

Cupped out...

What in the HELL got ahold of Zinedine Zidane? That headbutt had to be about the craziest thing I have seen in quite a while. He was looking really intense throughout the game...I guess he just snapped...

Did the traditional petitioning of the family for K`s hand in marriage...that all went pretty smoothly ... we had a fine lunch after that, then we all took a family outing to the furniture store. For two hours. Two hours watching her parents shop for a sideboard... whew. Followed by a fun dinner with the folks and their friends...got to drink IW Harper Presidents reserve bourbon, which was very fine.

Next day, I went to the dentist for the first time in about 10 years. Yay. I get a root canal next tuesday. Double yay. The only consolation is that the nerve in that tooth died back in college, so it shouldn`t really hurt too awfully much... I hope...