<rant>

So, today was going to be a day full of Japanese culture. First, I was going to go to Kaori's grandfather's burial at the temple not far from her house. After that, lunch with her mom and her mom's boyfriend and then to the Pacific Culture Club for a tea ceremony and calligraphy with the exchange students then to an onsen to soak the day away and then to karaoke with Jaid and a bunch of Japanese girls.  A great time planned for the day. I'm writing this log during the time that I should have been at the burial.  Why am I here and not there, you may ask.  Well, let's tell the story about the beginning of today.  We'll jump past the normal logging stuff of "I got up late, ate cheese and onion crackers for breakfast, washed down with green tea after having stress dreams about a swarm of bees chasing me around my family's old house, of which to this day I can't bear to look at for the memories that it contains." and get right on to the meat of the story. A bit of hisory:

Kaori's family is a very strange lot. It's no secret to the poeple that live near this area that Kaori's grandfather, and his ancestors, are stupid rich. This guy just had lots of cash.  The man had almost $100,000 hidden, no kidding, under his mattress. Now, Kaori was adopted by her grandfather, as his daughter, so she could have equal inheritance rights to his estate. As it were, the rest of the family is full on insane, save her mom, who is only mildly goofy sometimes. The oldest Aunt, the paternalistic matriarch of the family, or at least as she believes, was summarily NOT invited to the burial.  She was not told the time nor the place. Kaori's uncle was told but was told NOT to bring his wife, a different woman. He was also instructed to not tell the oldest Aunt. The whole lot of them, except Kaori and Kaori's mom, are completely and totally bend on getting as much money as possible. This is all they care about.  In the year that I've been living in Japan and hanging around Kaori and helping her and her grandfather, on a daily basis, I have NEVER seen these people before, except the uncle, who is pretty much useless.

Anyway, these people showed up anyway.  Apparently the uncle has no spine and told everyone about the event.  When they showed up all the oldest aunt could do was ask who I was and who Kaori's mom's boyfriend was.  One of them even came to the car after Kaori and I left the temple and said "Who's the foreigner?"... right after I said hello to him, in Japanese.  He completely ignored me.  The stupid aunt just said "who's THIS person" I wanted to say "You don't know me because you've haven't been to see your own father in over a year... if you had, you would have met me."

So, now I'm home after Kaori's mom's boyfriend dropped me off... he's going home too. I had to beg Kaori to stay at her own grandfather's burial... she wanted to come home too. So... the greed for money ruins another heartfelt emotional event. I guess it proves a few of my quasi-untested theories:

1: You have to be a little crazy to be rich
2: Your family will definitely be crazy if you're rich
3: The feeling that you've done something good for someone is priceless and knowing that I helped Ojiichan during the time that he needed someone there the most means a lot to me; even if I can't see him off, I know that I have a deeper appreciation for him than the rest of the rude family does.
4: Money may solve some problems, but it creates different ones. Only a fool will believe that they can be happier with more money.
5: Pissing me off with childish antics will only make me want to win whatever game you're trying to play with me. I.e. Don't ignore me and call me gaijin. This is a challenge... and I don't like to lose. If that guy wanted to say something to me then he should wait until I get out of the car and put my nose to his and I ask "What the fuck did you say to me? Oh, did you say 'I'm fucking 30 years-old and I need to use some fucking Oxy to get rid of my fucking pizza face', fucker? cause that's what you need. motherfuckingpieceofshit. I got an idea, why don't you go back and as fuck your mother, oh, you can't, because her asshole is so tight she couldn't even shit fucking water. She must be pissed off because her twat hasn't seen light in probably 40 fucking years. When I run hell, that part of the family will have a special reservation... I think they'll have to perpetually plan for big, special events and then have those events get crashed by neo-nazis, klans-klannigans and Martha-fucking-Stewart, in a apron and nothing else.

</rant>

So, I have a lot of time to prepare for the rest of the day, but the memory will be tainted. Kaori, at least, doesn't have to live with the fact that she didn't attend the ceremony. I wish I could be there, but I encouraged her to the point of almost taking her keys away in order to make her stay.

I guess I just had to vent. Writing the words helps with collecting my thoughts

Classes and life have been keeping me busy.  I have a new private student that I'll start teaching next week.  Since it's private it's all the money right in my pocket, weekly.  That's pretty cool, I just sit there and talk and she pays me.  Sweet.

Other than that. Japanese classes are continuing to kick my ass, but I'm having a great time.  Today, during my essay writing class I got a snack from my professor. X‚̃`ƒ‡ƒR[‚̖؁B Basically mini pocky with big chocolate trees on the end.

I'm watching Matthew's Big Hit TV and being confused by the insanity that is Japanese TV. He's got some cute girl as his guest, so I'll keep watching. Tomorrow I'm going to a local shrine to do the ß•ª‚Ì“ú thing.  I'll be able to throw beans at someone dressed as a demon.  That can't be bad.

That's about all, HongKong in a few weeks... wheee!

Whoa! Extra Entry! extra entry - extra entry - extra entry - extra entry - extra entry - extra entry - extra entry - extra entry - extra entry - extra entry

Anyway, I've been bequethed@(Spelling...)@A japanese kanji name... only my first name, for now.@And no, it's not the lame@\–²@either. We're talkin' full on kanji action. Ready???@I didn't think so.  Maybe later. 

I went to akihabara today and had conveyor sushi with some of the new students.  It was pretty cool but the osushiyasan were chotto sukebe and were kitting on the girls a little in Japanese.  Of course, they thought we were tourists until I pulled some keigo on them. Oh wait, maybe they DO SPEAK JAPANESE, boneheads. Luckily (?) I got to hear their English, yeah, it was, berrry goodo.

That's all for now. Oh, I made the Dean's list again, I can't remember if I posted that.  3 semesters in a row can't be wrong.  And if it's wrong, by god, I don't want to be right.

ƒ[ƒŒƒ“ƒX“o^’@iƒg[ƒ}ƒXj

The FDA has not approved tom's.life.co.jp as a life saving device~ although we recommend you use it as such.

Well, here's another update.  This one is dedicated to those people who don't necessarily leave messages, but they are lurking around the dark corners of my life and, in their own voyeuristic ways, enjoying themselves vicariously through my well scripted prose.  For them, here's a poem:

Welcome,  net traveller. I beg, don't delay
To hasten yourself to the things I will say
That life is so wonderous yet slightly askew
And things that were taught that you thought that you knew
Were only the surface, the beginning of things
And then when you realize that dreams can have wings
You pick up your wonders your goals and your drive
And finally realize your life is alive.

Eh, it sucks.  But, it's from the heart... kinda like a fibrulation, but not exactly. 

Japanese classes are currently kicking my ass, I had to go to Kyle's office to drop a class and all he could do was tell me how I was making a mistake and that the only reason that he allowed me to take 5 Japanese classes was because he knows what kind of student I am.  It sounds a little BSy to me, but I guess I'll just smile and take it for now.

In relationship news the girl I've been chasing after recently seems to be responding a little bit, now I have to get over the part of her having a boyfriend.  It's nothing that I haven't done before, but I don't know if I have the time to pull something like this off.  Is school becoming my life???? I'm afraid to answer that question.  I would like to watch TV sometime too, is that too much to ask? 

And in closing, there's a stupid girl in one of my Japanese classes that used ‚¨‘O today during class to a classmate in front of the teacher, during an exercise.  Of course, she really doesn't know what it means and the rest of her Japanese is ƒ`ƒ‡ƒE‚³‚¢‚ ‚­ so I'm just trying to ignore her.  She also uses this really fake, kinda fat-sounding accent when she speaks.  I think a good slap would do her right.

Anyway- I gots to go to bed. ‚¨‚â‚·‚Ý‚È‚³‚¢I

¡A“ú–{Œê‚Å‚¾‚¯‚¾‚¯‚ǁBBB@‚±‚ê‚̓gƒ€ƒX“_ƒŠ[ƒt“_ƒVƒI“_ƒWƒƒ[‚Ò‚¾I@ŽÀ‚Í“ú–{Œê‚¾‚¯‚¶‚á‚È‚¢B@ƒf[ƒrƒ“‚Ì‚½‚ß‚É‘åä•v‚¾‚ˁB@‚Æ‚É‚©‚­BBB

So, The first week and a half of classes are over.  So far, so good.  I discovered today that the Dean of TUJ, the head of the Japanese department and the head of the Foreign Students department had a meeting about me this week to discuss my "unbalanced academic diet"  Which means Kyle didn't like that I was taking only Japanese classes this semester.  I don't know why that concerns him so much.  I mean, it doens't concern them that much when they accept my tuition check, does it?  Anyway, Yamaguchi sensei stuck up for me and added, to me alone, …‚Ì’†‚ɁA‰Î‚Ì’†‚ɁBBBmeaning something like, I'll go into water or fire for you.  I guess she likes me, eh?

Other than that, I'm still feeling the uncool vibe surrounding me, athough I had a good outing today with a few people.  I think I just need to hang with these people more and get to know them a little better.  I wish I was better at remembering names of people.  honestly, I really suck at that.

I have a lot, lot, looooooooooooot of homework to do and I have another vocab test tomorrow that I'm avoiding studying for, but I'm getting on it.  I'm also in the process of selling my history notes from last smemester... nobody seems to be biting at the chance to get them, but I think they'll change their tune around mid-terms or so...  I gave one of my close Japanese friends a copy of the notes for free... I'm sure he really appeciated it. 

Oh, in other cool news, I'm going to HongKong in about one month.  For only about $300 including airfare, hotel and pickup service at the airport... China, here I come, biotch.  I can't speak cantonese... hopefully English and Japanese can get me by.

dat be crunk fasho.