weekend

just got home and made some of my spaghetti - added some tofu this time. The last two days have been pretty fun.

last night, after going to machida, I went to a party at shinjuku school that I was late for. There was plenty of beer left, but there were also kids there - everyone felt kind of weird drinking around kids. Two people from shibuya school(where I also teach) tomo and tae invited vicente and I (and two of tomo's friends) to an izakaya to eat and drink. The bar had all of these little enclosures composed of fake grass and fake snow. It made for nice atmosphere, though. Tae and tomo went home, and vicente and I went to a 200 yen beer bar and then I missed my train(again) and crashed in meguro. I woke up this morning and decided to get some xmas shopping done. I went to "kiddy land" and took care of most of my cute japanese toy shopping.
I'm going to go for another round of shopping tomorrow before my business class or on friday.

After kiddy land, I went to the museum of contemporary art's free reading room and read an entire book about francis bacon(20th century painter Francis bacon). I like his work. Without going too far into detail and sounding like a moron, I think he does a good job of conveying the "unthought" or unconscious through his pictures. Cool. I think I'm going to try and make it to that museum at least twice a month. My artistic vocabulary is extremely limited and I'd like to change that. I'm starting with artists that have interested me in the past and going from there. If you have any recommendations, please post them in comments....


I left about 3 or 4 hours later and now I'm home. I bought a big bowl b/c the ones the real estate agency gave us are shitty.

a photo(albeit tiny) of the school where I teach in machida is posted here.

http://www.ecc.jp/school/kanto_area/machida/machida.php

food

So I've been doing a lot of research on japanese cooking, including asking my students for recommendations, but I've hit a wall - I can't figure out how to tell what half of the bottles of sauce etc. in the grocery store are. I've managed to figure out dashi and soy sauce, but am lost when it comes to rice vinegar. Ah well. I've currently been cooking a really crappy version of spaghetti.

the recipe:
spaghetti
tomato sauce
two poached eggs
frozen peas and carrots and corn
steamed broccoli
a teaspoon of olive oil

I've been eating that and a lot of granola.
gross

last night

Went to a yokohama party for ECC. My social life and working life have become one, but it was pretty fun. More bingo - I won a music box. I have no idea what the song it plays is.
The party cost 1500 yen, but the beer and food were free, so it was actually pretty cheap considering beer prices here.
After the bingo game. the staff turned down the lights and did some coreographed(spelling?) dance routine for a long time. then the party was over. Vicente and I went to shibuya with another dude I work with occasionally(paul) and paul bailed when we got there. We met adam(yet another person I work with) and his friend at an izakaya and ate and drank a little more. When going to the bathroom I nudged a booth that had already been knocked over by someone else earlier that evening and it started to topple. I fortunately caught it, and was embarrassed when the table next to me started clapping. I went to the bathroom and came out - more clapping. I crashed in meguro at vicente's pad and now I'm home - time to go grocery shopping.


been listening to new pornographers "electric version" lately. I think that band never should have had dan bahar(or however you spell it) writing songs. i dig the ac newman tracks though.

chuorinkan

I wandered around my town tonight with my roommate in search of a bar open past midinght and came upon a bar with an american flag in the window, but assumed in innocuous due to the arbitrary use of all siginifiers in Japan. We went in and it was like a log cabin on the inside. Pretty funny.
This old dude named takachanman(I think - the spelling is probabliy way off) kept inviting me to sing. He then confided in me about his daughters("zach, they are too young to be in love) and made me sing "jumpin jack flash" and "born to be wild" on the house karaoke machine. I drank some beer, ate some onigiri(rice balls wrapped in seaweed with some sort of meat on the inside - in this case, salmon and spicy pepper) and came home. It was pretty fun. It's good to know there's a place in this town that is worth visiting. My roommate sang "auld langs ayne"(spelled wrong I'm sure: and takachanman was like "see you next year - why else would you sing this!" I don't think he really cared though. Said he comes in about 3 times a week. I hope to see him again.


I've been listening to powerage lately - next to the moon kicks it.


word

herro

More of the same today. Class in Shibuya - ridiculously packed train home. many of my students told me the train(denentoshi line) is the most crowded train in tokyo. I certainly hope so. I put on some blonde redhead and tried to sleep.

Went to shibuya after business class last night to meet my friend Carrie and her roommate Bonnie. Bonnie was turning 26 and said she was having a "mid-20s crisis". It seems like a lot of the teachers who have been here for a few years are freaking out about what they are going to do next. Made me feel like doing some gre prep. Eh.
We went and had a drink at a bar that was called the "Basics of Airplane Cafe" and was apparently "airline" themed, although the only thing that reminded me of airplanes were the lcd monitors every five feet that kept scrolling the text "basics of airline cafe". beer was small and 600 yen.

In the textbooks at shibuya school, the staff took it upon themselves to advise us against writing in the books, as they are shared by all teachers. However, the front of the book just says "please do not write this book!". heh.

currently listening to steve malkmus' latest - "kindling for the master"makes me laugh out loud each time i hear it - i also i don't understand how "baby c'mon" isn't a hit.

yoyoyoyoyo

yoyoyoyoyoyoy

a bit inebriated. tonight I went to a school party and found myself (involuntarily) announcing the numbers for a bingo game. "hot 55" etc....
I drank alot of beer and a student(kenny - his "american" name) invited me to see his jazz concert next weekend. He then invite3d me to karaoke, which I accepted. I sang "don't stop believing" and "let's dance" to backdrops which included DC and Rome and not much else. It was funny. I missed the last train home so I got a cab. 25 bucks - not funny. There were a bunch of white folk in the 7-11 as I got out of the cab and they acted like they were embarrassed I was there(as most white folk do here - " ack don't recognize me, I blended in until you saw me..." ) bullshitto -

many students offered good food recommendations. tomorrow I will eat and play some guitar.


shitsure shimasu.