Life in Japan. Serious Business

4 DAYS! On finals and Aquariums.

2012-07-28T14:15:00.002+09:00

Hey guys, so happy to be back writing again. It has been a busy week with finals! I had 4 of them between Thursday/Friday with the two hardest being (of course) on Friday.

Before I get to the tests though, I want to ensure everyone I have not been idle! My wonderful host family came to visit me on Wednesday and took me out to eat sushi, and then to the famous Umitomago Aquarium. Umitomago is a combination of 2 Japanese words meaning "Sea Egg" which is the theme of the aquarium.

I know many of you are hoping for pictures, and I did take a few with my awful softbank prepaid flip phone, but since my Android Smartphone decided to kill itself I wasn't able to take any quality pictures, and for that, I am eternally sorry! :(

While taking these pictures on my cheap phone I named each sea creature I photographed. Looking back I really should have taken photos of the dolphins because they were awesome.

Sir Albert the First

Maureen, Terror of the Deep

Las Locas, The feared Mercenary Army of the Aquarium

Mufasa of the Ocean

So that pretty much wraps up the trip to the aquarium. It was quite a lot of fun, and for those of you still in Beppu, I highly recommend it.

The best part of my host family coming to visit me was about to occur. So, as we are leaving the aquarium my host sister asks me to direct them via directions, back to my University up in the mountains.

Now....those of you from the States that REALLY know me, know that I am extremely directionally challenged when it comes to navigating in a car. So, add the fact that I had to try and translate my already bad directions in JAPANESE. Yeah, you can begin to see how things might go awry.

And go awry they did, almost immediately upon getting back into the city of Beppu. The easiest and fastest way to get to my University from Beppu is to stick to the main road next to the beach all the way until you get to a major intersection about 10 Km later. Then you take a left and follow that road up the mountain until you're there. Sounds simple enough in English. Well my host mom turned about 8 Km too soon and it got worse from there.

Luckily the son of my older host sister decided to take advantage of google maps. Unfortunately in Japan google doesn't have turn by turn directions, so he had to navigate using the map alone. We ended up driving into a very secluded section of houses with ancient roads and no space to maneuver the minivan we were in. Not to mention one side of the road had about a 50 foot drop down a small cliff. Well we somehow got the minivan out of that neighborhood and onto more navigable streets. We then accidentally took the scenic route up into the mountains.

That means that roads were extremely narrow with many very sharp turns near hundred + foot drops. It was a harrowing experience, but 45 minutes later we finally reached the intersection of the large road that normal people take up the mountain. Everyone (8 people) in the car cheered loudly and we were so excited to have made it out of the mountain labyrinth we had been in!

After saying my goodbyes I headed back to my room to study for my finals.

All in all it was a pretty stressful week, but now that it is over, I am finally done with school for the rest of the summer! All 1 month of it -_-.

Tomorrow I will be attending a summer festival with some friends, so I should have more stories to share. Hope you enjoyed this one. I still plan on posting a few more interviews once the people I have sent the questions too get back to me.

Song of the Day

Dead Phone/Final days approaching

2012-07-23T13:08:00.002+09:00

As my time her comes closer and closer to ending, I am going to try to talk more and more about the different ways that this wonderful country has affected me, influenced me, and inspired me.

I was pretty surprised how popular the last post was about how/why I have lost weight here in Japan. I very pleased by the responses I received, so thank you very much for your feedback.

In other news, my beloved American cell phone is really screwed up. I am going to try a last ditch effort to fix it tonight, but the procedure is experimental and I won't get my own hopes up in the event the phone surgery fails and my baby flat lines. So very sad. In potential loving memory of my android LG Revolution (Which are awful phones never buy one), I have taken a commemorative picture via my Japanese cell phone. You may begin the mourning process now if you wish.

It would break 2 weeks before I return to the U.S...So useless

So now I must decide what new phone I should get if this phone refuses to fix itself. Any ideas? Post a comment below or comment on Facebook.

In other news I have 4 finals this week, which is a pretty small amount compared to most students here.

Also, last night I met up with several of the other Globalinks students to have a farewell dinner. I had an amazing dish of Tempura, rice, and red miso soup. It was all so delicious, but I was unable to take an quality pictures because my PHONE IS BROKEN.

So back to what I started this post with, most of my future posts will be about how Japan has changed me and so on, so keep coming back and look out for those posts. :D

No song of the day. We will now share many moments of silence for my phone.

Interesting food/weight loss phenomenon

2012-07-18T23:26:00.002+09:00

After spending 4 months in Japan (wow 4 months already!) I have noticed some major shifts in my personal lifestyle.

One of the most dramatic shifts in my "lifestyle" since I started living in Japan has most definitely been the change in my dietary habits. Now, to be clear, I don't mean I am now on a diet or anything silly like that; what I mean is my dietary habits, or what kinds of foods I eat on a regular basis, have changed.

Before talking about the types of things I eat now, I will first attempt to paint you a picture of my dietary habits of the last few years in America to give you a "frame of reference" to make comparisons.

Weird pic, but shows that I'm thinner than you probably remember.

The initial problem

Where to begin. Well I can say this, I used to consume up to 7-8 sodas every day on average. That is between 2000-2500 calories each day on sodas ALONE. That, coupled with daily fast food, non existent exercise. It was a mess.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how many calories did I actually consume on a daily basis. and my best guess is around 4500 calories a day, on average. Honestly it was really easy to do that, and I never even realized. I actually remember telling someone that "I'm young, might as well eat whatever I want while I can." Even more sad, that person laughed and agreed with me.

I also remember that about a year and a half ago, on weekends I would often go to Little Cesars with friends, buy two $5 Hot-n-Ready pizzas and some garlic bread sticks for a grand total of about $14 and would then use all of that food as most of my weekend meals.Completely unhealthy.

One other thing I would like to mention is that prior to coming to Japan I really disliked green vegetables, and rarely ate fruit even though I technically like a lot of fruits.

The point of the last few paragraphs is to bring to light that when I came to Japan I had the epitome of bad eating habits. Thankfully, due in part to both the Japanese's love of fresh ingredients, and my well known state of having almost no money, I have been forced to adopt a different style of eating.

The Turning Point

And WOW, I did not anticipate the difference that would make. I am going to be extremely transparent here with this next bit of information. I used to be very private about my weight, mainly because I had secretly gained quite a lot of it between 2009-2011. I think I did a somewhat decent job of covering it up, although maybe it was more along the lines of "no one wanted to tell me in the hopes that I would realize and take action." Either way when I went back to Houston after the Spring 2011 semester I weighed about 200 lbs or 90.718 kgs which was a lifetime high for me. During the 3 months in Houston before I went to Japan I lost 8 lbs due to inevitably eating better at home and weighed a total of 192 lbs or 87.089 kgs.

Surprisingly I maintained this weight throughout the first 2 months in Japan mainly due to eating at the school cafeteria multiple times a day and taking advantage of the many snack products that Japan has to offer. It wasn't until I completely ran out of money (I'm talking 0.00 dollars in the checking account) over quarter break that I started to make a real change.

It turned out this was probably one of the luckiest times for me to run out of money for several reasons. Firstly, several people in the dorms I live in moved out, and instead of taking their cooking tools with them, they gave them to me. In a previous blog post I put up a picture showing those cooking tools, basically a frying pan, a bowl, and a pair of chopsticks. Since then I have acquired a pot to add to my collection. Oh, and don't worry about me running out of money because a friend of mine loaned me about 7 dollars to buy a few groceries. This forced me to get a bit creative and I began by teaching myself how to cook a few different things.

At this same time, before my friend loaned me the money, I used working out to keep myself from focusing on being hungry. It was only for about a day that I didn't have anything to eat so it really wasn't a big deal, but it got me started with using exercise to relieve stress. One other thing, I'm sure many of you reading this are wondering "Hey, why didn't you just ask your parents for help you idiot!?" Ha, well a little tidbit of knowledge about me is that I often like to do things my own way, I always have and probably always will. And believe me, when my parents found out they were pretty upset I hadn't informed them. Anyway, my path towards eating better and exercising more had begun.

Since then I have lost about 10 pounds while eating healthier and exercising more. I still have a long way to go before I get back to what I weighed when I came out of high school, but progress is progress. I am also probably stronger now that I have been in years, so to have lost a net total of 10 pounds while adding weight in muscle is a great sign!

Now, I am not just randomly going about this whole "eating better and exercising" thing. I have actually been doing quite a lot of research on the subject and I have come across a massive wealth of information. I'll eventually talk more about a lot of the information I have come across but I am going to focus on just one of the resources I discovered so this post doesn't turn into a novel.

The Inspiration

I had noticed a very popular ad on YouTube videos talking about "Six Pack Shortcuts". Now normally I wouldn't give this a second glance, but after seeing a LOT of ads for it I decided to check out their YouTube channel. I must say I was impressed.

Basically this program focuses on using the after burn method to destroy calories. What that means is that after a very intense workout, combining both intense cardio and weight training, your body burns a LOT of calories rebuilding itself in the 24-48 hours after your workout. What this system does is it uses that, along with a change in eating habits to get someone in shape.

What I found most interesting was the diet part.

Lower your food portion size to about the size of your first and a half, or 1.5 of your fists in size, and eat 4-5 means a day. What this does is it forces your metabolism to ramp up to compensate for your body constantly having food to digest. Sounds logical doesn't it :P.
Another key component of the diet is that the food you eat be low in calories, low in sugar, and low in fat, so that each meal is only about 400 calories. That way you don't break the 2000 calorie threshold for the day.
It goes into a lot of detail about how to buy the groceries, cook the meals ahead of time and blah blah. If you are truly interested in the details check out the link at the bottom of this post.

Anyway, I've used the basic principles of this plan to increase my metabolism, and eat healthier. I mean I will admit that I do not work out anywhere near as much as this program suggests, and I've still shed 10 pounds EASILY in a month. Had I had a workout partner, or a little more time to focus on just this the amount of weight I could have lost would probably be double.

Had I not tried the basic principles of this system, and tried them pretty meekly, and seen the outstanding results, I wouldn't have wasted my time writing all of this out. It's a smart, easy, and effective system to lose weight and get in shape.

WHEW that was a long post! If you're interested in getting this system then click the link. I think it is about $100 for the entire system, and if I had the money I'd definitely buy the entire thing. If you are like me and can't afford it, or are skeptical that it works, feel free to check out their YouTube channel.

Alright I am finally done! I just felt that people might find that entire story interesting, and I hope you did. Please leave comments letting me know what you thought, they only help me improve the things I write about.

Song of the day -

40 thoughts from my head.

2012-07-17T17:37:00.000+09:00

It is exactly 2 weeks until I leave Japan. This fact has forced me to really reflect on my time here in Japan. Below I will basically free write about some of my favorite moments here in Japan. I will include some likes, dislikes, and observations. Lets see what spills out of my head. I'm going to start with random thoughts before I get into experiences.

1. Avatar the Last Airbender is awesome and I wish I had watched it sooner. (Cartoon version)

2. I wish most American women had 1/4th of the class that the women I've met abroad have.

3. Mao Iwasa and Aisha Yuson were the first girl "best friends" I think I've ever had. Not only that, but their personalities are so different that it's pretty wild that I became so close with them in the first place. They're going to be successful in life.

4. People from San Diego are really easy to become friends with. Shout out to Kelvin and Vega.

5. Koreans cook way more than anyone I've ever known.

6. Koreans can successfully replace sleep with cooking.

7. Norwegian girls are the most entertaining drunks I think I've met.

8. Knowing all the words to songs does not make your voice sound any better during Karaoke.

9. Everyone else being intoxicated DOES make your voice sound much better during Karaoke.

10. Americans are indeed the best Beer Pong players in the world.

11. The fact that most Texan families own firearms scares the hell out of foreigners, but they secretly think it is pretty cool.

12. Milk is used as an ingredient in cooking, or used in cereal here in Japan. It is rarely consumed by itself.

13. Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other internet video services need to get their shit together and globalize their product. Idiots.

14. Fruit Granola cereal is akin to crack cocaine and should be avoided at all costs because it is a money drain.

15. There are not enough slices of bread in a Japanese loaf. (Only 5 and they are really thick).

16. Japanese girls are never as innocent as they try to act. Don't be deceived.

17. A great umbrella is a seriously underrated tool.

18. Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber are very popular in Japan because the Japanese youth do not realize that most Americans do not like Lady Gaga or Justin Beiber.

19. An American family owning more than 1 or 2 cars is very strange to most Japanese.

20. It is VERY difficult to get into Japanese Universities, but once you're in, it is pretty easy to graduate. I am of the opinion that the system in America is reversed. It is relatively easy to get into College in America, but it is much harder to graduate in America than it is in Japan.

21. A Japanese word for Awesome is literally "psycho."

22. McDonalds in Japan is of a MUCH higher quality than McDonalds in America.

23. American guys need to learn how to cook. I've never felt so inferior in a kitchen as I have here in Japan.

24. Chicken is more expensive here than fish. Much more expensive.

25. I want to steal the concept of Nomihoudai and take it to America.

26. Most Japanese bathe at night, and not in the morning. They also prefer very hot bathes to showers.

27. People from Botswana seem so happy all the time. I'd like to go to a Botswana cookout or something.

28. I really wish I could have gone to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, etc. to visit.

29. Vending machines on every corner, at every bus stop, and in every building is amazing and I will miss it. My wallet will not miss it, however.

30. If you can speak English natively, feel blessed because you don't realize how extremely ass-backwards it is until you try to explain things to non-native speakers. Pay attention to the things you say the next time you have a full blown conversation. Pay attention to how much of that is slang, or doesn't directly mean what it seems to mean.

31. Japanese people are the nicest, most helpful people I can imagine. I've said this before, and I keep being shown more and more how true it is.

32. Canada is weird.

33. LINE is an amazing app for all platforms. Download this app and add me as a friend.

34. Love hotels are popular in Japan because for many Japanese couples, that is one of the only places to truly find privacy, any kind of privacy.

35. Japanese public transportation is ridiculously convenient.

36. I miss my car.

37. Learn how to BitTorrent, the quality of your life will improve, unless you're an idiot....then it may really reduce the quality of your life if you steal copyrighted material.

38. Please travel outside of your native country. It will improve your life, as well as the lives of others you meet.

39. Japanese National Healthcare Tax is stupid and I still refuse to pay it.

40. Someone figure out how to teleport and teach me, and be quick about it.

Well there is your blog post for the day. Not a very inspired post, but I'm sure there are useful nuggets of information in there somewhere. Hope you enjoyed the read.

Song of the day -

Random day trip to Fukuoka/Space World!

2012-07-16T14:24:00.002+09:00

Yesterday (Sunday) was one of those extremely spontaneous days that turns out to be really awesome.

I woke up yesterday morning at around 10:00am and decided I wanted to have a productive day doing some work on a few side projects I have. I even scheduled everything out so I could get some real work done. Well low and behold at 11:00am right after I finished showering and eating breakfast I get text messaged from both Chison and Asuka telling me to be ready by noon because we were going on an "adventure" today with Vega and Kelvin.

Being the "yes" man that I am I was obviously all for it and and got ready for w/e they decided we were going to do for the day.

At 12:15ish I met Vega downstairs and told him that Kelvin couldn't go because he didn't have any money. Asuka and Chison said that wouldn't be an issue so I called Kelvin 3-4 times trying to get a hold of him so we could all leave. Unfortunately Kelvin did not have his phone on him so his part in this adventure is now over :(. Sad face.

Alright, so we then head out on our adventure and Vega and I are informed that we are going to a theme park in Fukuoka called "Space World." Basically a six flag-esque theme park. What a crazy turn out for a day that was going to be spent working in front of a computer screen! Fukuoka is the largest and most popular city in southern Japan and it is about 2 hours away from my Japanese University. So basically this was a mini road trip!

Now if any of you upstanding American citizens have been reading the wall street journal, you will know that in southern Japan it has been raining pretty much non stop for two weeks now. Sunday however, was the first time sunshine had been seen in weeks so I am very glad we decided to take advantage of it!

Since we were on a 2 hour road trip, we decided to take a stop at a gas station for some refreshments, and Vega found some Fanta flavored gum, and I found a LOT of fried food. Now I will admit, I didn't buy/eat any of the fried food, but I was sorely tempted.


Weird yet delicious.

I wanted all of it :(

Our lovely chaperones for the day.


I think this lady hated me, but Chison and Asuka wouldn't tell me what she was saying. :(

The story with the old lady is pretty simple and in all honesty she probably didn't say anything about me at all. HOWEVER, I did hear her say "America" and then Chison and Asuka started laughing quite a bit, so I immediately assumed that the nice old lady was talking trash. I guess I will never know what really happened in that 7 eleven on that sunny Sunday afternoon....

We were then back in the car heading towards Space World! The rest of the car ride was pretty uneventful. Just a bunch of almost getting lost and almost dying because Asuka is a crazy driver (more on that later).

Fast forward a bit. We had finally arrived! Look how pleased we looked to finally be entering the park!

Vega and I caught Asuka trying to take a candid photo :P

We had officially arrived! The first ride we chose to go on was called "The Titan" and for some reason I decided to take a picture of the rule board and not the actual ride. I have no excuse for this.

Anyway, this ride was actually really fun, and REALLY long. The ride must have lasted more than a minute long. Oh another strange tidbit about Japanese theme parts...there are NOT that many people there on a Sunday afternoon. Nothing compared to an American theme park on any given day. It was strange.

We then ventured over to a famous ride called "The Venus" I took a video of the line and tried to talk to Vega about how quiet and orderly everything seemed, but I was drowned out by the ride operator shouting his nonsense.

Venus was actually a pretty intense ride because it was just constant circles. Also, I kept thinking I was going to hit my head on the support beams. It felt that most of these rides were designed for smaller people :/.

OH, I almost forgot to mention a really funny conversation I had with Vega while we were walking around the park. Keep in mind it was REALLY hot and humid outside yesterday.

Vega: Oh wow that pool water looks amazing
Me (after looking towards the pool): OH God! Why are there so many naked kids!??!
Vega: Oh s**t! I didn't see them.
Me: mmmhmmm. Vega wants to swim with the naked kids....
Vega: (facepalm)

I laughed at him for a good 5 minutes after that. Poor Vega.

Our next ride....was one of those "white water rapid" rides where you are bound to get wet, which made me a very unhappy camper, but being the great guy I am I decided to go with them on the ride.

So if you notice, the guy to the right of me in this picture is not Vega, that is because we had an extra couple accompany us on this ride to fill up the raft thing. Funny thing happened on this ride. For the most part Vega, Chison, Asuka, and I did a great job avoiding water. The poor couple to my right did not fare so well. During our ride we had ONE huge wave crash over our raft, and it just so happened that the raft spun the unsuspecting couple RIGHT into it. I will never forget the terror in that innocent couples eyes as the water came crashing against there faces. I truly do not think they heard me burst out laughing before they reoriented themselves. , but either way, they got owned. I sort of felt bad, but I was also VERY happy it wasn't me. They were amazing sports about it though, so hats off to them, wherever they are.

At this point the park was getting close to closing time (6:00pm) so we decided to take a few quick photos and head out to eat.


If I ever wore a dress and a Garlic shaped hat...this is what I'd look like.

Like I said, we then decided to go get food since all 4 of us had been hungry since noon, but we just hadn't been able to find anywhere we could all agree on. VEGA ONLY WANTED MCDONALDS OMG.

Here is video proof.

Eventually we found this really cool 10 story mall that had a lot of restaurants to choose from. We all finally agreed on a quaint little place called Moby Dick. Moby Dick had some really funny "engrish" on one of the walls of its restaurant detailing how "fresh" their fish is.

I decided to order this interesting looking dish that turned out to be absolutely AMAZING. My stomach still misses its amazingness. Let me paint you a picture with words then I will provide an actual picture. So it starts out with a bunch of fried rice, that fried rice is then covered with scrambled eggs. Then several pieces of pork are put on top of the scrambled eggs. Then to top it all off they put some Japanese curry on top of it. Now Japanese curry reminds me of mild chili and is delicious.

It was SO GOOD. Phew, well after dinner Asuka asked us all kindly if she could go shoe shopping since we were here. Since she had driven so much today at our expense we graciously accepted her request. It didn't stop me from making a small video of her. Oh and funny side note, she didn't even buy anything, but Vega did.

After the shopping we then left the mall and headed back to Beppu. On the way we DID stop by McDonalds to get some ice cream and to get Vega a burger.

We got back to APU at 11:00pm and called it a successful day.

Song of the day:

Interview #5 - Thom the hacker

2012-07-11T02:15:00.003+09:00

New interview today! My good friend Thom Hastings agreed to be interviewed! A little background on Thom from my own experiences. Thom is an extremely talented computer programmer and in my mind deserves the label "hacker" for both the original meaning and the modern meaning. If you don't know the difference you may go search Google now, we can wait for you to educate yourself :).

Allllllll right! Let's get started!

Introduce yourself!

Good day everyone, my name is Thom Hastings, and I try to be an open book.

Where were you born and where did you grow up? What was it like growing up there?

I was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. It was a wonderful place to grow up, lots of good friends, kids in the neighborhood my age, role models, older brother figures, and low crime in the suburbs far away from downtown. I was very fortunate to have a nice childhood.

Are you a full time student or an Exchange student?

I am an exchange student.

Why did you decide to come to APU?

My girlfriend got a job teaching English in Japan, and I didn’t want to let her get away. I was planning only to visit her, but I saw a flyer for a study abroad program in Japan at my school. I did everything to sign up, and now I’m here! Though she’s in a different city, I’ve gotten to spend three full weeks with her so far over my stay here and a weekend trip as well. We have another weekend trip planned, as well as another full week, and I simply must say it’s been worth every instant. But luckily enough, I’d already studied Japanese for six years, and APU has an excellent Information Security Systems Management class at APM that’s perfectly suited for my ideal career path.

What are your plans after this semester ends? Short term, then long term plans.

I will return to St. Louis University in St. Louis where in one year I will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science. I will then be applying to jobs, though these are back-up plans. My primary goal is to attend graduate school at New York University Polytechnic Institute (NYU:Poly) where I will get a Master of Science in Cyber Security. After working for a high-level computer security consulting firm, I hope to eventually start my own small consulting agency.

What is the most valuable thing you have learned while at APU?

The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of a company is responsible for writing, maintaining, and implementing a Security Policy. This is a role I could find myself in in the future.

What is your favorite Japanese word/phrase, and why?

“shikata ga nai”—a Japanese phrase, but also the name of a polymorphic encoding algorithm used to avoid antivirus detection on payloads and shellcode in malicious viruses and exploits.

What is your FAVORITE Japanese food?

Okonomiyaki: Hiroshima-style

How did you meet me?

We met at Fukuoka Airport, at the start of the GlobalLinks program.

What was your first impression?
I was impressed when you said you’d heard of BackTrack Linux.

Describe your favorite experience with me thus far here in Japan.

Sloppy-ass drunk karaoke--and the obvious shoe-in-the-middle-of-the-road-bowing-to-a-car-‘sumimasen’-story.

Am I absolutely awful at Karaoke?
You can scream “NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA” from that Blink 182 song really well after about 9 whiskey and coke’s.

After knowing me for as long as you have, would you ever visit Texas to see what it was like? Why or why not.

Hell yes. Midwestern humor for life!

Want to give attack vector a shoutout?

Yes. <attack vector shoutout>

Final thoughts, comments?

Garrett, you’ve been a great friend to me here in Japan, and I respect you a lot. I wish you all the best in life, and should our paths cross in the business world as well, I look forward to it.

Thanks for the interview Thom! Can't wait to do business together. Attack vector is going to be amazing!

All right, thanks for reading guys. Check back tomorrow for either another interview, or a post about my Japanese girl band dance 0.o

No song of the day today because I don't feel like it! :D

Interviews returning soon!

2012-07-09T19:59:00.002+09:00

Hello everyone! Going to be a short post today since I have had an unruly amount of schoolwork over the past few days.

For example, in my Japanese class alone I had these assignments due today
1) July 4th Speech and Powerpoint presentation
2) Normal homework page
3) I had a chapter quiz today that I needed to study for
4) A speaking Japanese voice acting presentation due today

That as well as the fact that I am supposed to be learning/teaching a Japanese song/dance to the rest of my Japanese class to perform on Wednesday.

Can you imagine ME, teaching others to DANCE...yeah so this single class is consuming a lot of my free time with endless speeches/projects.

Which is why I will be starting interviews again, so that I can provide some entertaining content without having to work too incredibly hard.

Some upcoming intervees!
1) Ame from Botswana
2) Bart from India
3) Beatriz from Mexico

As you can see I am going for a global approach to these interviews to get a wide range of experiences.

Thanks for stopping by again, as always and I'll see you again tomorrow!

Song of the day ( The dance/song my class is performing)

Do Karaoke, but don't hog the mic? Challenge accomplished.

2012-07-08T21:29:00.000+09:00

Good morning/afternoon/evening
.
On Friday my friends and I decided we hadn't been to Karaoke in a while. Well mainly it was Martha deciding this and inviting the rest of us via facebook a week in advance. Now, initially I decided that I couldn't go because I did not have the money for it, but by Friday I needed a good time to forget the stress of the past week so I found a way to make it work. Onwards to Karaoke!

The adventure started before we even got onto the bus. You see, every semester there are different weeks set aside for various nations of the world. So far there has been Chinese week, Vietnamese week, and now Indonesian week. I haven't written any blog posts on these because I have class from 5:55pm-7:30pm every single day :(. Which means I am never available to visit any of the final performances. I digress. The reason I bring this up is that at 10:15pm on Friday night our Karaoke bound group couldn't get on any of the buses because they were full of people leaving Indonesian week!

So, how were we supposed to solve this conundrum? Well someone came up with the bright idea to go to an earlier bus stop to get one. The idea was to get on before the masses coming from Indonesian week could get onto the bus.

With a plan of action in mind we set forth towards our destination. Upon arrival, we discovered our idea was not a unique one...

And so began the strategizing. We decided that since this was the LAST bus, it was technically in our best interest to "bum rush" the bus when it arrived and push and shove until all of us were able to get seats. Unfortunately I did not capture this excitement when it actually happened, but let's just say it was wild. The end result was simply a success. Using our foreignness we were able to effectively force our way onto the bus and acquire seats. Honestly though it was not easy and we probably pushed and shoved less than many of the non foreigners did, they were just smaller than we were :/. Poor guys. I'm sure they were fine.

So now that we were safely on the bus I discovered that several of my old friends were already on!

They provided great conversation which ended up leading to them teaching me one of the most useful words in Japanese!

Yabai! or やばい！

Basically yabai can mean anything from, "danger", to "damn it", to "cool". So in a sense it is similar to the English word f**k in that it is a slang term that can be used in many, many ways.

Finally we arrived at Beppu Tower and made our way to our own personal Karaoke chamber of happiness. By now, basically EVERYONE knows about this blog after having been spammed non stop with it via facebook for the past few weeks, so when I asked to take pictures everybody began making jokes about "updating my blog." Oh how right you guys were! Never the less everyone posed for a nice picture. Vega decided to bring his A game to this particular picture. We're all so surprised he is single!

Then the party started, drinks began to be served, and the sounds of our lovely singing voices could be heard throughout the entire establishment!

A few commemorative photos:

She claimed it was our winning face, and refused to let me take any other type of picture with her.

Our singing put Vega asleep....for 2 hours!

Now, I have video footage of everyone singing, however as hilarious as it would be to post them in all of there musical glory all over the internet, I did make promises to them that I wouldn't.(sigh of relief from all of them). So, I apologize to everyone who was looking forward to a video, but they are my friends and I couldn't do that to them! Even if I really, really...REALLLLLY wanted to.

Annnd song of the day: This one is for Kelvin, Kate, and me.

Taking today off from blogging.

2012-07-07T15:24:00.000+09:00

Hey guys, so today was the first sunny day in a month! So the guys and I went out and threw around a football and shot some hoops with this group of Chinese students. Let me tell you, some of them are really quite good.

Last night a big group of us went downtown to do some karaoke and hilarity did ensue. I will write a full recap tomorrow and provide a few pictures and perhaps a video once this involved decide whether they want them censored or not.

Alright well that is it for today, it's a short one because I wanted to take a break and enjoy the good weather. Hope everyone is having a great summer back in the States!

Day song of :

Likes, dislikes and observations

2012-07-06T14:48:00.002+09:00

For this post I was originally going to post another interview, but I figured I'd take this time to talk about the many likes, dislikes and observations I've had about Japan since arriving.

I'll break this down into a like section, a dislike section, and then an observation section. I will provide explanations and examples for each.

Lastly, before I start I would just like to say this. If you disagree with anything I say here, that is super awesome for you and I'm sure you have many decent reason why you feel that way. These are my opinions however and therefore I am not looking to offend anyone. Not that anything I'd ever post would be offensive! :P

Dislikes:

1) There are no water fountains anywhere. I have yet to see one and even though I hear that they exist, I am inclined to believe they are an urban myth. Like alligators in the sewers. Pictures or it doesn't exist!

2) $30 dollar "All you can eat" restaurants. Now, I only dislike them because this is a brilliant business idea that I have to be subjected to. Basically you pay 30 dollars for them to bring you a predesignated meal split into several courses where you often are given the ingredients and cook them yourselves. Now, that sounds great because you can literally order as much food as you want for a set amount of time (usually 2 hours). The brilliance of this plan is that for any party to order any absurd amount of food there has to be an absurd amount of people. An absurd amount of people paying 30 dollars EACH regardless of how much they eat. These establishments are making BANK, and I hate them for it. I want da monayy!

3) Japanese authority. All of it, I dislike it all! Japanese authority means that if there is a rule...the idea of anyone breaking it is strange, so when someone DOES break the rule. Big, big, big deal. Also, there is almost no leniency with due dates. For example, here you have a 24 hour time slot to drop classes. This time slot occurs 2 weeks after the 24 hour time slot to add classes. If you do not drop or add classes within those SPECIFIC 24 hours, you are literally shit out of luck. If you forget to drop a class you don't want, there is literally NO one who is willing to help you rectify the situation. Now, I may find this so unpleasant because I grew up in the wonderful country of America where we are taught that if we complain enough, people will fix our problem. Even so, I don't like how strict the rules are here for everything. Like, why can't we have an open flame in a metal grill placed on a massive cement platform located next to a RIVER in the middle of rainy season. There is almost no way normal, inebriated, or otherwise could cause any sort of dangerous fire. I mean the vegetation is so saturated outside that I don't think it is capable of igniting.

4) Being stared at all the time. Now, I know there are some of you out there thinking "whoa, Garrett doesn't want to be the center of attention!?!? No way!" Well surprise surprise, it is true in this case. Before I elaborate I will admit it can be quite nice being one of the few "blue eyed, blonde haired foreigners" at times with obvious perks. What I don't like is when I am outside the international confines of my University, people take note of everything I do. If I walk into the barber shop, everyone stares at me the entire time I am there and listens to everything I say. When I go shopping, the customers behind me pay razor close attention to everything I am buying. One time a security guard "not so subtly" followed me around a mall to make sure I didn't try to steal anything. I mean really! Okay well this one isn't that big of a deal, but it can be quite unnerving always having that feeling that you are being watched, and then when you look around you realize you ARE always being watched.

5) Everything is expensive! Now this is mostly due to the Fukushima disaster wrecking the economy and forcing massive energy saving campaigns across the country. Even so, my bank account cries on a daily basis. I just want him to be happy again :(. Ads are over there :D ---------->

LIKES!

1) Japanese people are the nicest, most helpful people I have ever encountered in my extensive 22 years of life. In the first 10 hours I was in Japan I can't even remember how many times I was assisted by strangers that went out of their way to help.

2) Japanese women. Japanese women all dress REALLY well, ALL the time. I've seen countless Japanese girls sprint in heals and have no problem with it. Not only do they dress exceptionally well, they carry themselves with class, they are 95% of the time in excellent shape! My perception of skinny and being in shaped has definitely changed since coming here. I've lost a bit of weight myself (proud face). I mentioned that they are classy, and I meant it. From what I have observed Japanese women are some of the most adept people on the planet at keeping their personal lives personal. It is a beautiful thing that I wish Americans would adopt.

3) All Japanese food, with the exception of Nato, tastes amazing! Karaage, the Japanese fried chicken is SO GOOD. Probably because it is made with real meat, and has less oil in it. Mmmmm nom nom nom.

4) All Japanese people seem to be very skilled in the kitchen. They all know how to cook, and find it very funny when they first see an American in the kitchen trying to cook because they have the correct assumption that many of us don't know anything about cooking. Since being here my skills in the kitchen have increased exponentially from a .1 out of 10 to about a 6 out of 10 (Proud face).

5) Multiple trashcans for different things. This initially bugged me, however after using the system for 3 months I know that I am going to feel dirty every time I combine coke cans/bottles with regular burnable trash. Japan recycles so much, and they burn the rest.

6) Theft basically doesn't exist. Crime doesn't seem to exist either for that matter. I'm going to talk specifically about theft though. I've accidentally left my stuff places so many times and when I returned they were still right where I left them. I never feel in danger when walking downtown at night, and it's not because I am bigger than 80% of the population. I know that no one is going to mug me. Hell the police don't even carry firearms. The one exception to the theft rule on my university seems to be umbrellas. Apparently it is common place to have your umbrella stolen, which I encountered myself when my first umbrella was stolen. Since then I have acquired 4 of them, just in case. ;)

7) Bars don't close until something absurd like 10am. The nightlife in Japan is a FULL night of life. It is not uncommon to go to a club until 2am, then go to a bar to cool off until 4am, and then go to karaoke until 10am. Which leads me to my next like!

8) KARAOKE! As I'm sure those of you who have read my interviews have noticed, I am somewhat of a microphone hog. Which is weird because in America I would never sing karaoke. That is because American karaoke usually consists of one mic in front of a lot of drunk stranger Americans. In Japan you can get your own room with just your friends for 6 hours and unlimited drinks for $25. If I am in a VIP room with just my group of friends, unlimited drinks, and 4 mics to spare between us, you can be damn sure I'm going to sing all night and get my $25 worth of singing and drinking. Gotta be economical after all!

OBSERVATIONS!

1) Courting between guys and girls is pretty hilarious over here. Since the Japanese are so polite all the time it can be such a slow process for a guy and a girl who like each other to first admit it to one another, and then take the huge leap of actually dating.

2) Texting girls over here is a completely different art form than it is in the states. See, the Japanese are masters of using emoticons with everything. So I was very taken aback when I told a lady friend that I was heading over to her room to hang out with a group of friends and she replies with. "Can't wait ;)" Yeah, I thought it meant that too, so I asked her "Wait, this is a nomikai right? There will be a lot of people there right? And don't you have a boyfriend? I'm so confused." Well this confused HER, because a wink here is NOT what a wink means in the US. A wink here is not flirty at all, nor does it have any hidden meaning. This was a big learning curve for my American friends and I that lead to some pretty interesting cultural explanations.

3) Any American that can speak any Japanese amazes the native speakers. I have been told by quite a few Japanese native speakers that my Japanese is great, even though I KNOW it is not that great at all. At first I thought they were just being polite, but I think they just don't see enough foreigners speaking Japanese that it somewhat amazes them when they finally do.

Well holy hell that was a lot of typing. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I have a test to study for so I can't be bothered to find any specific ones. SORRY!

Thanks for reading, and I will see you back here tomorrow!

Day song thing -

Happy Birthday America!

2012-07-05T13:45:00.002+09:00

Well it is already July 5th in the land of the rising sun, but have no fear America I definitely celebrated your birthday! Well, a lot of Americans and non-Americans did!

This is kind of a funny story since nothing really went as planned.

SO, where shall we begin. Right, we shall begin with the weather of the past month, which has been rainy...nonstop. This past week it has been especially rainy, so much so that 2 landslides occurred on the mountain making the campus inaccessible from downtown. This forced the campus to cancel classes all day Tuesday! (So awesome)

So Wednesday rolls around and a Facebook group pops up looking to throw a big party in celebration of America's independence, so of course I am all for it. This party is scheduled to take place downtown in a vaguely non specified location where food would be cooked en masse, and beer would be distributed, also en masse. Well Vega, Kelvin (I interviewed them both), and I ventured downtown around 5:00pm thinking we knew which bus stop to get off of.

We didn't. We got off the bus about 2 miles too early and ended up just walking the rest of the way. Luckily at this point the rain had cleared and it was a surprisingly nice evening. Here are two pictures I took of the mountains.

So as we continued walking aimlessly down the shoreline hoping against hope we would discover the rendezvous point we decided it would be a pretty good idea to use our cell phones to get in contact with the rest of our group. We then discovered precisely where we were supposed to meet up and, alas, we successfully found our compadres!

There were about 10 of us at this point relaxing on the beach, waiting for even MORE people to meet up with us. Here is a video of us waiting. We were pretty bored at this point, so I tried to spice things up by filming them. The results were....well you decide.

So at this point we were finally contacted by another of our American friends Thom, who I have mentioned before, and he informed of us of another cookout location. So, with great sadness in our hearts, we departed the beach and headed up river with promises of greater spoils!

What we arrived to was NOT a disappointment! We met up with 10 or so other friends, most of which were not American, but were more than happy to join us in our merriment.

Behold my amazing photography skills.

Upon arrival

Too much movement!


WE. DISCOVERED. FIRE.

At this point everyone was in a great mood, assuming that we had found our cookout location.

We were wrong....again.

Right as we got our fire going. Two very non intimidating police officers showed up. These two police officers who were not carrying any weaponry, informed us that we could not cook our food because open flames are strictly forbidden in Beppu city.

So, did we let this news ruin our good time? OF COURSE NOT. We simply relocated to a park close to a friends apartment, who then proceeded to cook a lot of our food for us in his kitchen and ferry it out to us one plate at a time. What a guy!

Unfortunately this was not the end of our troubles. See, about 6-7 members of the full group never made it to the park. Some form of miscommunication led them to believe we were relocating BACK to the beach. So, where should we have gone from here? We SHOULD have told them to come to us because WE were near the apartment cooking our food. But, no, we did not do that. The "groups choice" was to walk a good mile and a half back to the beach to meet up with the 6-7 lost souls.

So we did, but only a few of us made it all the way to the beach. So, again, we were extremely separated! However the group at the beach had found some way to grill up some burgers before we arrived! So I was able to eat two small burgers! They tasted like heaven. Here is a random picture of me with two umbrellas hooked to my belt loops. One umbrella had light reflectors giving the appearance that I am getting attacked by a ghost.

After hanging out at this location for about an hour, it was about time to head to the bus stop to catch the last bus up to campus. Thus ends the story of our wonderfully hectic and unorganized cross city July 4th adventure!

But wait, the story doesn't end there. See my diet the past month has mainly consisted of noodles, eggs, fruits, milk, juice, and bread. Very little red meat since red meat is expensive and I am poor.

So at about 3am...my stomach decides to have a showdown with the red meat. My stomach, my sleep schedule, and my happiness lost this showdown for about 2 hours as I writhed in pain.

MORAL of this story. If you haven't had red meat or unhealthy food for a long period of time, DON'T GORGE YOURSELF ON ALL OF IT IN ONE NIGHT.

:) here is your song of the day, in honor of AMURRICA. It's not what you think, sadly.

HA!

Interview #4 with Kazuma!

2012-07-04T05:09:00.000+09:00

Today's interview is with everyone's favorite modest pretty boy Kazuma Hashimoto!

Let me give everyone in America a little back story on Kazuma. Basically, when the Americans first got here we hadn't met many Japanese students that could completely and effectively communicate in English. Well when my friend Alex Caggiano and I met Kazuma, little did we know how ingrained in our lives he would become. Kazuma basically forced his way into the lives of all the international students at APU and we all LOVE him for it.

Mad respect for this guy and the way he lives life. Enjoy.

What is your Name?
Kazuma Hashimoto

Where were you born and where did you grow up? What was it like growing up there?
I was born in Saitama, Japan. Right after this my family moved to west side of Japan where we lived in various cities such asOsaka, Nara and Kyoto because of my dad’s job. When I turned 3 my family moved back to Saitama.

Are you a full time student or an Exchange student?
I’m a full time student!

Why did you decide to come to APU?

Before I came here I actually graduated from the vocational school for English in Tokyo. As I learned English there, I came to think about how much I wanted to improve my English speak with foreign students. I knew there was a university where it was possible to do this. That was APU. So, as I said above, after I graduated from the vocational school, I came here as a transferred student. That’s why, although this is my first semester in APU, I’m technically a junior classification.

What are your plans after this semester ends? Short term, then long term plans.

For now I’m planning to go to the U.S for sightseeing during summer vacation once the semester ends. That is going to be my maiden voyage abroad! Unfortunately I have never been abroad before in my life, so I’m so excited about going! As far as long term plans, I can’t still see what kind of job I will get in the future but I will work for a company which requires me to use English. One of my plans is to work for a Japanese company in the U.S. Examples of companies I might work for could be a travel agency or maybe an NGO? I don’t know exactly…But I will find it out in APU.

What is the most valuable thing you have learned while in APU regarding American culture?

This question is created for me right? lol.Yeah I have learned lots of things about American culture... I think. One of the things that I think is impressing about Americans is that they are never shy when it comes to talking during discussions in class. It might depend on individuals, but people I met in my classes do not seem shy. They never hesitate to speak their opinions or ask questions even if it’s sometimes interrupting the lecture the prof gives. This has really inspired me. Recently I have gotten a bit better at trying to act like Americans do but it's still quite difficult for me to speak about issues such as international relations in class. Americans always seem to lead discussion as well. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s because of the fluency of English they use. Anyway in Japan, basically teacher gives us a lecture in one way and students don’t participate at all. One of my Japanese friends told me that in his class taught in Japanese, the class is so quiet and no one says any opinions or questions during the class. On the other hand, my American friend told me that it’s normal to participate in class. I can tell that the reason for this difference is based on the difference in education styles between the two countries. The main reason why I decided to study international relations in APU is because I wanted to discuss international issues from international perspectives with many foreign students, therefore there is no point if there is no class discussion. That’s why I took all of my classes in English. At this point, I am still unable to play big roles in discussions like the Americans, but I am getting closer to doing so.So, I must really focus and work towards improving my English skills.

What is your favorite English word/phrase?

I have so many. “YOLO”,“That’s what she said”, “Shot gun” ,“Fubar”, “Mother f**ker” ,”Swag”, “What’s crackalackin?” etc…but if I have to pick only one, I would choose “Zero f**ks given”.

Where did you hear that word/phrase?

I think from you! I like this phrase because I don’t want to hesitate to ever try new things. lol. Why should I have to hesitate to make mistakes? English is not my first language, so I don’t care if I make a mistake. Zero f**ks given.

AMEN! Alright, so back on track. What is your FAVORITE Japanese food?
Karaage especially chicken nanban. I’m happy that I can eat it in cafeteria whenever I want.


The infamous "blue tongue" picture

Me too, Japanese fried chicken is AMAZING. Anyway, how did you meet me?
I still remember clearly. I met you in front of the bars 68 and plan B on the first Friday we were here. Alex, Thom, and I were looking for one more person to take a taxi with us to go back to AP house. That ended up being you. I don’t know how but all of the people I went back with were American. lol. In the taxi I took a photo of all of us. It’s funny that your tongue is blue for some reason.lol

What was your first impression of me?

Your first impression is like “oh this is American”. The next day after we met first, I went to your room to hang out remember? You were reading a novel at that time. To be honest you looked like a good student man.lol

D'awwww thanks! Describe your favorite experience with me thus far here in Japan.

This is when I teach you Japanese and you teach me English while girls are making dinner for us.lol Even though you only have almost a month here, I wanna teach not only good Japanese but also dirty Japanese for you bro and vise versa.

Am I absolutely awful at Karaoke?
Haha I guess you are a good singer. I love you 4 American guys singing Back Street Boys there. That time was my first time to go to Karaoke with Americans. I felt this was how we were supposed to sing Back Street Boys that I sing every time I go to Karaoke. I was so excited to listen to songs sung by Americans. And I look forward to go there with you again.


Such a stud

After knowing me for as long as you have, would you ever visit Texas to see what it was like? Why or why not.

Yeah definitely I will. I wanna see real cowboys. And you know, Texas is the second most extensive of the 50 states following Alaska. So I wanna experience the "huge feel" of Texas. You are one person I wanna keep in touch with forever. When I come to Texas show me how true Texans live. And you have to come visit Tokyo as well! I will show you a lot and of course you can stay at my house! When you come to Tokyo, let me know!

Oh, I definitely will. So, any final thoughts or comments?

Dude, do you know why tomorrow is the important day for America? Yes, 4^th of July is American Independence Day!!! Let’s celebrate it together.

Anyway again, you have only a month in APU, let’s have fun a lot and experience a bunch of things that you can’t get in the states!!!

This was such a great interview in my opinion. Kazuma's English speaking/writing abilities have improved DRAMATICALLY since I first met him in March. Thank you so much for take this time to completely and fully fill this out, I know it wasn't easy to write that much English!

I hope the rest of you enjoyed reading this. This probably about as close as we will get to an interview with a Japanese student that has not ever been out of Japan!

Until tomorrow, thanks for reading.

Song of ze day!

Google Adsense

2012-07-02T13:51:00.003+09:00

Pretty big post today. Which is kind of weird since I am dead tired from working on another HUGE project.

In today's blog I will be discussing these topics:

What Google Adsense is and how I have been using it
How you can utilize Google Adsense on your blog or website
The pros and cons of using the service

Alright, here we go.

Some of you may have noticed that I have put ads on this blog. I have done this as an experiment into how Google adsense works. The first half of this blog will discuss my findings with regards to Google adsense, and the steps you can take to monetize your own blog with adsense. Read below.

What is Google AdSense?
Google AdSense is the extremely popular advertising tool that Google uses to make most of its money.

How do I get Google Adsense?
Basically when you sign up for AdSense you fill out all several forms online, then Google will review your blog or website. After reviewing it (which can take several days) they will send you an email alerting you that your account is now active. Once this happens you can add the Google Adsense Widgets to your blog. With blogger this is especially easy since Google has made all of their products integrate seamlessly.

How does it work?
When a company wants to advertise its website(s) they will often times advertise through Google. Once they sign up with Google to advertise their site, Google will place these ads within all the AdSense widgets on the internet. When a user clicks on this add, Google bills the company a certain amount for the click and then pays the website owner who had the widget on their website a small percentage. Basically, when someone clicks on an ad on my site, I get a small amount of money.

Wow, you must be making a lot of money!
Wrong. While Google AdSense does make a lot of blogs/websites a lot of money, the website needs a very large amount of traffic that goes through that website for AdSense to yield any decent amount of money.

But wait, why don't you just go click on your ads a bunch of times!
Now WHY didn't I think of that! Oh wait, I did, and so did everyone else, including Google. Basically if you click on your own ads, Google will simply not charge the owner of the ad, thus earning you $0.00 of the commission. This also applies when Google feels that ANY click is suspected of not being authentic. That rules out auto click software and Botnets automated traffic from other computer. The only way google will allow any money to be earned is if their "Ad Specialists" feel that a click was done authentically with genuine interest in said Ad.

Yeah, total pain in the ass when your site only gets 120-200 hits a day like this blog does.

So if it is so useless then why even do it?
Well even with all of the difficulties surrounding Google Adsense I have still made about $17 dollars since I got Ads put on this blog.

Sad face :(

Wow, that is awesome, have you received the money yet?
Sigh, no I haven't. Why you ask? Well Google has set monetary thresholds. You can't even pick a payment option or enter Tax information until you've reached a $10 earned threshold. To get PAID, you have to reach a $100 money threshold! Yeah, pretty unfortunate I know.

So, now what?
Well, now that all of you are properly informed on the quick ins and outs of Google Adsense you can decided for yourself whether or not you want to create a blog and use it.

HOWEVER...if you do ever come accross an advertisement on this site that looks even MILDLY worth clicking on, please don't hesitate to do so. I have personally clicked on every unique add I have seen on this blog several times to "ensure the links are safe to click on."

Whew I think that is enough blogging for one afternoon. I will write about Japanese culture tomorrow. I f you have ANY questions for me about Google AdSense, post a comment below and I will answer it as quickly as possible

If you're interested in learning more about Google AdSense click the link below.

Interview # 3 with a rapper - Alex Vega!

2012-07-01T14:06:00.003+09:00

Interview number 3! I couldn't interview Kelvin without an interview with our boy Vega! Now I must warn you, there is some language in this one, because I dare not censor anything! It's actually not that bad though..in fact you're probably dying to read on to see what he says.

Well ask and ye shall receive. Enjoi! <- I know that is spelled wrong.

Introduce yourself.

Alex Gilfillian Vega. Watagwan (what's goin on, in Jamaican)?

Where were you born and where did you grow up?What was it like growing up there?

A talented handler of balls.

I was born and raised in San Diego, California. The greatest place on earth by the way! I spent half my time in a predominately white neighborhood, and the other half in a predominately black one. And with a Jamaican immigrant for a parent, I struggled with my identity for a bit. Not saying my life was rough or nothing like that ha. I was privileged, no doubt. I used to skateboard. I was a beast at futbol (soccer). But now I just rap.

Are you a full time student or an Exchange student?

Kokan Ryuugakusei desu (Exchange student)! Only one month left, and I’m outroz.

Why did you decide to come to APU?

It was the only school in Japan that was available haha. Nah, but for real, I love APU. I wanted to experience Japanese Culture first hand. Not that I don’t mind Japanese Women, Anime, or stuff like that. Cause I love those things. Japanese women are fine as hell. It’s just not the main reason I came here, and I’m not a creeper. Aaaanyway, I’m gonna miss everyone I’ve met here once I leave. Fuck being homesick. I’m more so sad over the former.

What are your plans after leaving APU to go back to America? Short term, then long term plans.

Once I leave here, I’m going to start making serious moves. I only have one more year left of college, and I want to leave an impact on my community somehow. I’m trying to organize and do something positive. Other than that, I want to put this music career thing in full swing. It’s time to start making websites, shooting music videos, performing at more live shows, building more connections, and all that good stuff. I have a few songs written that I need to record once I get back.

The man and his entourage.

What is the most valuable thing you have learned while in Japan?

I hope I don’t piss anyone off with this hahaha but the most significant observation I made was how the Japanese, and really foreigners in general, have no firsthand experience or knowledge of Black America. People say ignorant shit all the time lmao. I don’t blame them, really. I probably do the same to other cultures and don’t notice it. I just find it interesting how the image of ‘blackness’ has been so distorted. They always say Americans are stupid for not knowing who Tony Blair is, or whatever. But what about black history? No one is ever taught about that. White America is still the standard. No, I’m not being racist. I love white people mmkay.

How did you get involved in making music/rapping?

I grew up with it maaan. I associate myself with Hip Hop as a culture more so than American culture, straight up and down. It’s just something I do.

Okonomiyaki! Amazing.

What is your FAVORITE Japanese food?

Mmmmmm, probably that Ramen we had up in Fukuoka. Okonomiyaki is damn good too.

How did you meet me?

We met my very first day in Japan! At that introductory dinner or whatever the hell that was haha. I said I was from San Diego and you introduced me to Kelvin, as well as the global links crew. Then we went downtown and experienced nomihodai for the first time. Good night, most definitely.

What was your first impression?

The confident, slightly egotistical Garret didn’t really hit me just yet lololol. I guess you seemed a little nerdy, like you played a lot of WoW and read fantasy novels, which actually turned out to be true lmao. But I still consider myself to be the nerdiest for sure.

Describe your favorite experience with me thus far here in Japan.

Like Kelvin said in his interview. All those serious talks we have about whatever the fuck haa. Me, you, Chison, and Asuka had a lot of good times as well. Especially when you said, “It’s because we’re white” at Jolly Pasta lmaooo. That memory sticks out especially.

********** I explain the above story after the interview************

Am I absolutely awful at Karaoke?


Show off...

Kind of greedy with the mic there, but yes ha. You participate and don’t care about embarrassing yourself. That’s what Karaoke is all about ne!

After knowing me for as long as you have, would you ever visit Texas to see what it was like? Why or why not.

Hell yeah, I’ll visit Texas! I need to compare the Mexican food with San Diego’s. Some good Southern Style BBQ would be at the top of the ‘to do’ list too. You’re definitely someone I want to keep in contact with after all of this. Holler at us in San Diego as well

Do you mind if I link your youtube channel and use one of your songs as a ‘song of the day’?

Why, I couldn’t be happier.

http://www.reverbnation.com/gvega

Final thoughts, comments?

Oh yeah, fuck Will Smith. And fuck Bagger Vance. I look nothing like that negroe.

I disagree :)

Great interview. Thanks Vega! Tomorrow I will deviate away from interviews to talk about some Japanese/American cultural differences and how they have affected my stay here in Japan.

***Update! - Quick story about me calling us white guys. So we were at a restaurant called Jolly Pasta. Vega inquires as to the reason why we are never carded ANYWHERE in Japan. The drinking age is 20, but no one EVER checks. At this time I was in between bites of my pizza and without thinking I say, "It's because were white." Now what I was TRYING to say was that we weren't ever carded because we were foreigners, however I did not articulate it that well. After the Freudian slip, I looked up at him and we both busted out laughing for about 5 minutes, completely confusing the two Japanese girls we were eating with. ****

If you want a song of the day you better check out Vega's site! The link is >> HERE

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Interview #2 - Kelvin Arca!

2012-06-30T16:06:00.000+09:00

We have a new interview up folks! This is a good one for sure. Today we have my good buddy Kelvin talking about his time in Japan, and we have some great pictures, and a HILARIOUS video for your viewing pleasure ;)

Introduce yourself why don't ya?

Kelvin Arca. Nice to meet me.

Where were you born and where did you grow up?

Philippines and I moved in the US at the age of 9.

What was it like growing up there? So I was able to enjoy my childhood prime in the Philippines. It was good! Kids are more fun in the Philippines ;) When I moved in the US, I lived in a beautiful suburban neighborhood in Missouri. I don’t know how my family ended up there, but man, I was probably the only non-white growing up over there. It was a bit brutal since English was not my first language; I got eaten alive because of my accent…But look at me now. Haha. But no, Missouri is awesome but then I moved to California for my adolescent years. California Girls are undeniable ;) It is true though…

Are you a full time student or an Exchange student?

I am a full time EXCHANGE Student.

Why did you decide to come to APU?

It is cheaper than Sophia University. HAHA. But really though, I am an International Relations major and I figured this school was perfect for me to branch out and meet people all over the world. You know, to “relate” things “internationally”.

What are your plans after leaving APU to go back to America?

Short term, then long term plans. Leaving this Fantasy Land is going to be difficult. I will be going back to the “real world” and start looking for a career. I graduate as soon as I finish my semester in APU…The only thing I need to fulfill my grad requirement is my “Study Abroad” which is obviously, taking a semester here in Nippon.

What is the most valuable thing you have learned while in Japan?

Well, I’ve heard rumors of how beautiful and nice Nihonjins are….. and it is true. I love the people of Japan. They are very helpful, nice, sweet, and accommodating even if you suck at Japanese.

What is your FAVORITE Japanese food?

REAL TALK: APU’s Chicken NANBAN is where it’s at. Now if that doesn’t pass as a Japanese food, then I would probably say tonkotsu ramen from Fukuoka. It is true what they say about the ramen in Fukuoka as being number 1.

How did you meet me?

Fukuoka Airport. We are in the same study abroad program so we got stuck together for the first week here in Japan…Probably got the closest with in the group (besides Miri) because we are too awesome.

What was your first impression?

“Who the effe is this guy. He wasn’t in the Facebook Globallinks group!...Seems normal enough to talk to” To be honest, seeing the globallinks group for the first time in the airport, I just assumed that all you guys were into animes and junk. Sorry man. haha

Describe your favorite experience with me thus far here in Japan.

Dude, we have a lot of good times. Probably anytime you, Vega, and I have our talks. We have the best conversations. Oh, and your random statements….PRICELESS.

Am I absolutely awful at Karaoke?

You are the Kobe Bryant of Karaoke…. PASS THE MIC BRO! haha! But it is always a good time for a karaoke….and it was an honor being a Backstreet Boy with you.

After knowing me for as long as you have, would you ever visit Texas to see what it was like? Why or why not.

Nope, you are visiting CALIFORNIA. West Coast; Best Coast. Hahah Nah, dude. You are one of the guys that I want to keep in touch with; no homo. And one day, when you become rich, you are going to fly me to Texas and have the best barbeques!

What inspired you to make the dance video shown below?

I thought it was a somewhat creative way of showing Tokyo. At first, I was hesitant and shy about it…but Japanese in Tokyo DGAF about what you do. They keep to themselves so I just went all out. But it was an awesome experience I wish I would have done something like that when I went to Osaka, Fukuoka, etc. …Wish you were there, duuuuuude.

I think that video constitutes as an appropriate "song of the day"!

Thank you for reading! Tomorrow I will be posting an interview from another close friend Alex Vega. So check for that!

Follow me on twitter for updates. @Gpetticrew

Caligraphy and more!

2012-06-29T14:36:00.005+09:00

Konnichiwa (こんにちわ）

Today was special day for Japanese class because today we took a Calligraphy class. Now for those of you who do not know what calligraphy is, basically it is traditional Japanese way of writing that many find quite beautiful.

Now, when calligraphy is written by someone who knows what they are doing, I'm sure it WOULD be quite beautiful. Unfortunately for all of you, my calligraphy is not very attractive looking. BUT, lucky for me, most of you won't be able to tell the difference since you have no frame of reference to compare my work to! Hooray for me.

Below is a short clip of me practicing how to do the strokes properly.

Notice the pristine stroke order and flawless technique!

The result of this practice was this....I won't claim to be proud of it...

I put Picasso to shame.

My next attempt would be more successful. I decided to do the Kanji for dragon, because lets face it...who doesn't secretly want a pet dragon. GAME OF THRONES anyone!? Yeah, check it out.

Yes, this one obviously looks like garbage, but IT'S OKAY because right after I decided to implement some combo kanji action. Thus the result.

Oh yeah! Guess what it says!?

Dragon. Creation. Sword.

So, I made a new phrase. The dragon creation sword phrase!

Next we were assigned to write kanji on a traditional fold out fan. I decided to have some fun with the wordplay and thus wrote this...

This my friends is now the FAN of all fans because on it I have written the ultimate phrase.

Eternal. Treasure. Creation. Force. Dream.

Amazing right!? This fan is now called the Eternal Treasure Creation Force Dream fan. I feel it will bring me luck and somehow influence my entrepreneurial spirit into making lots of money one day!

If you want to try your hand out calligraphy, check out this link --> An Introduction to Japanese Kanji Calligraphy >

Alright, alright so that is all for today's blog post. Hope you enjoyed it!
Tomorrows installment will either be an interview with my great friend Kelvin, OR a story about how Japan has reawakened my ambition, creativity, and ultimate desire to be super successful..which believe it or not may be an interesting read.

I also plan to do a small book review of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. This book was one of several that I have read recently that has really inspired me. I HIGHLY suggest reading it.

And now for the song of the day, for the full song watch the Youtube video, if you like it then click --> Buy Here :D

Progress

2012-06-28T07:29:00.002+09:00

Alright update time.

What have I been doing lately? I have been doing boatloads of research on a variety of topics such as:

Starting a company
How to properly manage finances throughout different stages of life
Where I will be living next semester
Building better websites
How to passively make money using the interwebz!

Hope you enjoyed the foreshadowing. Oh, do you know the keyboard command that is the opposite of Tab? It is not backspace. It is Shift+tab. Good command to know.
A fun thing happened to me on twitter earlier this month. My favorite author Brent Weeks tweeted to me on twitter. I took a screen shot to prove it happened :D.

So there you go; the sequel to my favorite book "The Black Prism" is being released in September! Now I have the authors assurance that it will be awesome. THIS is why twitter is so useful to business, authors, celebrities, etc. It allows them to directly connect with customers/fans on a very personal level. Good stuff.

<--- Click there to view more

I promised a video and I will provide one. Last weekend I went to Oita city to see The Amazing Spiderman in theaters, and I must say it was OUTSTANDING. Before the movie my friends and I decided to eat at a sushi restaurant. This is the short video I took to commemorate the experience.

That video also gives a small view into how the Japanese run a restaurant. Lots of shouting pleasantries and things of the like.

Oh and I do NOT recommend the nato sushi. It gave my mouth nightmares.

I've also mentioned the term "Nomikai" several times in this blog. Like I have said before a nomikai is basically a house/dorm party. I took a short video of one I went to recently.

Alright I think that about sums up the last few weeks.

And now for the song of the day.

Quick update

2012-06-26T15:24:00.000+09:00

Hey everyone. I'll be getting back into the swing of things by updating this frequently again. I've been busy lately with school work, among other things.

I'm starting to get into the habit of bringing my droid smartphone with me wherever I go so I can take quick videos of some of the things that I do so I can have some video content to show everyone.

Stay tuned.

I'll put up a song of the day with the next post coming later today.

Interview 2 is being delayed for a bit!

2012-06-08T03:19:00.001+09:00

So instead of posting interview #2 today I decided to wait until tomorrow and make a video interview of sorts introducing both Mao and Aisha. I figured that a few answered questions doesn't really capture who they are like some real video footage does.

Aisha on the left and Mao on the right

Therefore I have decided that with each consecutive interview there will be a video to accompany it! Hopefully this idea yields some entertaining results.

Not much else to say about today other than I started the second quarter of the semester. I have two new classes I am taking, one of which is International Management which is one of the main things I came to Japan to learn about. The professor shows promise of being a genuinely talented educator. I have high hopes for this class as a result.

Alright that is all I have for now. Here is the song of the day.

Interview #1 - Aisha!

2012-06-07T03:48:00.002+09:00

Hello hello everyone! I have the first interview to share with you all today. As promised my friend Aisha agreed to answer a few questions I threw together. Please enjoy!

So, what is your Name?

Aisha Kanaya Yuson

Where are you from?

I was born and raised in Tokyo, but my mom is Chinese American so I can speak both English and Japanese. I can’t speak Chinese though L.

Are you a full time student or an Exchange student?

Full time student!!

Why did you decide to come to APU?

I came to APU for two reasons. First , my friend told me that he was going to come to APU, so I checked ed it out. When I got here I noticed a LOT of foreigners so I figured APU would be a great place to improve my English!

How did you meet me?

I met you at a nomikai! You saved me from the creepy guy.

What was your first impression?

My first impression of you was that you were really nice, since you kept that creepy guy from continuing to bother me!

Describe your favorite experience with me thus far here in Japan.

I just really like hanging out with you and Mao. You guys make me happy and I just really really love being around both of you!

After knowing me for as long as you have, would you ever visit Texas to see what it was like? Why or why not.

It is going to be really sad when you leave here to go back to Texas, so I would definitely come to Texas to visit you!!!!!!!!!

It will indeed be quite sad when I return home to Texas. I also hope that you DO come visit. I can prove that even though many people there own guns, it is quite safe!

Well there you have it guys, the very first short interview! I hope you enjoyed it. Aisha is definitely one of the nicest people I have met since being here.

Tomorrow I hope to provide an interview from the APU legend Mao Iwasa, who was mentioned in the interview. If I were to describe Mao in 3 words it would be these : Outside the box. She has one of the most refreshing sense of humors I have ever encountered, and I hope she agrees to be interviewed since I am sure it will be quite interesting. As long as she takes it seriously ;).

Check back in tomorrow for hopefully another interview. Let me know what you thought about this one!

And your song of the day.

Changes to the blog!

2012-06-05T22:28:00.000+09:00

Hey everyone. I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about how I want this blog to progress from this day forward. Obviously I will continue to update all of you on the goings on of my time in Japan, but I want this blog to continue after I leave Japan.

The next few blog posts will most likely be interviews with my friends here in Japan like I had previously discussed doing. How many of them I do will be determined by how many of my friends here are interested in answering the questions, as well as how many of the readers are actually interested in reading them. That is why I would really like feedback on the questions I ask as well as what other questions you would like to see asked.

The first interview will be posted tomorrow and you will all get to meet/learn about my friend Aisha. Her picture is below. Aisha has basically become like a little sister to me and is a really funny person.

So you can all look forward to reading all about her tomorrow.

In the mean time I will try to briefly discuss my plans for this blog's future. Hopefully you have noticed that just above this post a pair of tags have been added, one saying 'home' and one saying 'favorites'. I'll give you a second to scroll up and look at them now if you haven't already.

Clicking home will do nothing but refresh the page, but clicking the favorites tab will take you to my own little Amazon store where I have listed some of my favorite books by category. I plan on expanding this store quite a bit more over the next few weeks to include my preferences in all sorts of items such as Technology hardware and software, technology accessories, as well as many other books I have read in the past and loved. The reason I am doing this is because a lot of people ask for suggestions regarding things I have some level of knowledge about, which is mainly technology, business, and books. I've thought about recommending music, but no one buys music anymore, and if you do you probably use iTunes like a tool (no offense ;P). <--- Seriously.

Now some of you may be wondering; why would I ever go look at your store, when I can just go to Amazon.com directly, Well, often times if you know EXACTLY what you want, you will just go directly to a site, but say you just finished reading an amazing book series like Game of Thrones, and you want to check out a Fantasy book that is similar to Game of Thrones to satisfy your medieval hunger until the next book comes out? Well, since I have been reading books pretty much non stop my entire life, the chances are I know a really good book or book series that you would really enjoy, So, instead of having to ask me directly you can instead go to this blog, check out my store and browse my personal suggestions. From there you can make your purchase through amazon and be on your way to enjoying some truly quality reading. This is just one example that can hopefully be duplicated across all the types of products I am going to be recommending. So keep checking the store for updates and additions as I more thoroughly populate it.

So, that store explanation gives a brief bit of foreshadowing to what I want this blog to eventually turn in to. I will still talk about the goings on in my life, since I have recently greatly broadened the geographic locations of my friends. But I also want this blog to be something more beneficial to people than just my daily life.

I have a lot of other ideas about expanding the content of what I put on here, and as always I would appreciate some feedback, so please leave comments below. <---- I actually WANT you to do this.

And a throwback song of the day.

Quarter Break! Guess what I'm doing...

2012-06-02T23:50:00.001+09:00

Well it is quarter break here at my temporary university. Here the semesters are split into two quarters, and in between those two quarters there is a 6 day break! Pretty exciting stuff I know.

I had originally planned on going to Tokyo during this break, but unfortunately my constant begging for donations has proved fruitless and thus I am still too broke to afford a trip to one of the most amazing cities in the world. Sad face.

But do not fret dear reader for I am making great use of my free time. Here is a list of things I have accomplished in the past day.

1) Completed my course registration for my final semester at Texas Tech (Yeahhhhh boiiiiii)
2) Finished 'How I Met Your Mother' on Netflix
3) Am 18 Episodes into the show 'Supernatural' on Netflix
4) Completed my Fafsa thing that I have to do every year for financial aid.
5) Applied for like 6 random scholarships I found on the internet. (They were legit I checked, but thanks for your concern I know the internet can be scary :P )
6) Sent my wonderful sister Rachel a link to a website where she can apply for a pretty funny scholarship herself.
7) Played about 10 minutes of Diablo 3, then decided to revert back to being productive.
8) Read some REALLY interesting articles ( I will link them below)
9) Convinced a nice person that instead of throwing away some of their cooking items, that they should instead give them to me for free. Observe below.

So now I can eat cereal and cook for myself instead of eating at the Cafeteria all the time! Yep, I'm awesome.
10) Now this one is pretty interesting. I decided to set up Google adsense on this blog so that I can maybe make a little bit of money off of it since you're all a bunch of stingy bastards :). I will post a blog entirely dedicated to explaining Google adsense, how it works, why I chose to use it, and how you can use it too if any of you loyal readers decide you want to make your own blog about whatever tickles your fancy.

Okay so here are the links to some pretty useful/cool websites
1) How to feel satisfied with every day. - This is a Lifehacker article showing a pretty cool slide show on how to optimize your day in a way that makes you feel the most productive.
2) Khan Academy - Bookmark this page after you go to it because chances are you will probably want to use it in the future. Khan Academy is a website where you can learn basically anything for free. I expect this site will be quite useful for those of us still in college that have a teacher we can't understand.
3) Code Academy - This website is similar to Khan Academy except that it is specifically tailored towards teaching people how to code. So if you were ever interested in learning how to program. Check out the site, it is geared towards people who know absolutely nothing!

Well that is about all I have to say regarding my exploits the last few days. I think this is probably going to be what my blogs are going to look like from now on.

OH I FORGOT. I had an idea that I've been working out in my head that I wanted to ask all of you about. I've been thinking about interviewing some of my closer friends here in Japan so that everyone in America can find out who I am hanging out with, and what they think about me.

So I am going to ask that you guys post a comment with suggestions on what I should ask these friends of mine. If you don't feel like commenting you can always message me on Facebook, or email my Japanese cellphone at gpetticrew@softbank.ne.jp

Finally, the song of the day!

2012-05-30T20:58:00.000+09:00

Well well well, hellooooo again everyone! It has definitely been quite some time since I have updated this, and I truly do apologize. There are quite a few things to talk about regarding the last 2 months.

*** Sneak Peak!!! This blog will cover my Birthday, the arrival of my other laptop (the reason I can write this) as well as everything else I have been doing since I last wrote here!***

I will start off with my Birthday. Well that particular day was one every APU student will remember, because that was the day that everyone registered for classes. Now those of you fellow college students from the states can understand the panic and rush of class registration. In America the registration usually starts at 12:00am on the day of the registration and EVERYONE is trying to register at the same time and often times the servers become clogged and the entire process is extremely slow and miserable.

Well at this particular school in Japan things are in some ways quite similar and in other ways quite different. The first main difference is that registration opened at 10:00am, and all Freshman, Exchange students, and transfers were all eligible to register at the SAME time. As everyone reading this SHOULD know...my laptop was not working, so I decided to head to the computer lab early and register from there. Unfortunately when I got to the computer lab every single space was filled. So I figured "Oh well, I'll just check the other computer lab..". That computer lab was also full. Sigh. What an exciting way to start my birthday. I decided to go ask my neighbor if I could use his laptop when he was finished registering. My neighbor is an American from Florida named Nick and in the wonderful hospitality of America, he let me use his laptop after he used it. He also gave me pointers on getting through the system more quickly. SO, thanks to him, I was able to get every class I needed for my schedule! Props to him, here is a photo cred.


Nice looking guy eh?

Alright so from here I finished my registration like I said which was outstanding, well then I decided to take a short nap before I went out to eat with friends.

After that wonderful nap I met up with several friends and we went downtown to experience some Japanese conveyer belt Sushi!!

This picture only shows a few of the people that partook in the feasting, so thank you to everyone that came :). We then had the wonderful idea to take a Purikura picture together. Now, before I came to Japan I had no idea what this type of picture was. Well, this type of picture is basically a glamor shot from a photo booth that makes you look like a 12 year old. It makes Japanese look cute and magnificent, but it just made me look like I was in the 6th grade. Observe..

If you can't see it that well don't worry, there will be more pictures of me later on that will do a better job of demonstrating the childlike changes it makes in my face.

Anyway, at this point I had had about enough of downtown so I headed back up to campus to visit some other friends. These particular friends decided to make me a cake as well as a photo collage of our awesomeness! Observe!!

Thank you so much to Misung, Asami, Mai, Chisa, Eri, and Caggiano. Probably one of the cooler presents I've ever received.

Well after eating the cake I proceeded to attend a Nomikai (drinking party) where alcohol was consumed and good times were shared. Another picture ...

Alright that pretty much concluded my 22nd Birthday and I must admit it was quite a good one.

Now since then I have been going to classes every week, and having fun every weekend. A few more photos for your viewing pleasure documenting a few events.

Well I hope that gives you a pretty decent view of the overall theme of my time here so far!

Now that I have a working computer I intend to make more regular updates documenting my shenanigans.

One kind of sad little anecdote though. I'm sort of running low on funds at the moment, so the fun times might have to slow down a bit while I consolidate resources and budget what I have left. There is hope however! Remember there is a donate option to the right towards the top of the page! If you want continuous, regular updates please consider a donation :D. Anything helps!

Annnd here is the song of the day, enjoy.

Videos!??!

2012-04-07T03:26:00.001+09:00

Well I video taped my computer failing. This will probably be one of the last posts I mention it since it is probably becoming quite annoying to hear about.

However, before I share my computer failure video I will share a video I took a few weeks ago of some modern age samurai playing with swords. The swords are REALLY sharp. What they are cutting are really tough straw like material with a bamboo core that is soaked in water to make it as close to cutting through a human body as possible! Intense stuff.

Now on to my computer fail video. Now keep in mind that when I recorded this I was EXTREMELY tired, and completely sober. I actually love Apple as a company I am just extremely frustrated with their inability to adequately fix my computer issue after having taken my machine into their store in Houston a good 5-6 times. Anyway, enjoy my very first Youtube video everrrr.

That is all I really have to report right now other than this hilarious picture I took of my friend from Uzbekistan drinking too much at a Nomihodai :P

Yes observant viewer, he is INDEED passed out UNDER a table.

Too many good times in Japan! And now your song of the day ;P. I don't think I've thrown any dubstep your way thus far, so enjoy something that doesn't have any Skrillex in it.

Life in Japan. Serious Business

More posts coming in the future.

4 DAYS! On finals and Aquariums.

Dead Phone/Final days approaching

Interesting food/weight loss phenomenon

40 thoughts from my head.

Random day trip to Fukuoka/Space World!

Interview #5 - Thom the hacker

Interviews returning soon!

Do Karaoke, but don't hog the mic? Challenge accomplished.

Taking today off from blogging.

Likes, dislikes and observations

Happy Birthday America!

Interview #4 with Kazuma!

Google Adsense

Interview # 3 with a rapper - Alex Vega!

Interview #2 - Kelvin Arca!

Caligraphy and more!

Progress

Quick update

Interview 2 is being delayed for a bit!

Interview #1 - Aisha!

Changes to the blog!

Quarter Break! Guess what I'm doing...

Videos!??!