U2 said it once in a song.

Its  a beautiful day.

 Red leaves can be spotted within the tall dark pines these days. I can see the mountains from my desk and the sky above them looks like a terraced double double double stuff Oreo cookie–without the cookie–just a lot of white, puffy stuff. See i try to get artistic and beautiful in my despcriptions but i always end up saying something weird. Which I am ok with.

I should be outside. Instead, I am going to do some more work, and go right to play some Futsol tonight.

Let’s see if the knee holds up. Twisted it wrong on saturday.

Or maybe the bugs sucked all of the cartiledge out……

Klingon Era

The cold has come and basically erradicate mostiquitos around Koriyama. Thank goodness. I hate those bastards. (which made me think, do mosquitos reproduce asexually? but then i thought again, if something reproduces asexually, are the ‘offspring’ considered bastards as well? And then I thought that the band ‘offspring’ was actually quite entertaining in those puberty years. Now you see how my mind works. That all took about 2 seconds to contemplate.) 

 ANYWAY.

So the weather warmed up a little bit here in Koriyama after about 2 days of straight rain.

 What does that mean?

Standing water. Warm Temperatures.

Mosquitos.

 I hate those things.

So 2 nights ago I woke up at one in the morning and reached up to scratch my head. I felt a large bump.

Apparently one of those mosquitos or some other insect of death decided it wanted to suck my brain out through my forehead and got half of it out before giving up. So i looked like a freakin Klingon. I found it so humorous that I took a picture. You can tell that I was clearly entertained.

Basically my holloween costume came a day too late as we had our holloween party at the church on saturday.

I came home after church on Sunday and went on a killing spree with my vacum and a fierce slap of the hand.

Cat

So another random thought.  My neighbor has a cat. The first time I talked to him he said that his cat was the nice one, but told me not to touch the yellow one, which is a stray because it is carrying some sort of disease with it. (i haven’t even begun to wonder why no one in the company housing who has noticed this stray cat hasn’t taken it to our lab to get a shot or something to fix it…maybe some cat food….we have it all)

ANYWAY, so the whole time i see this yellow looking siamese cat on our porch, and it keeps meowing at me and begging for food. I just kinda brush it away with my foot and i have actually had to kick it out of my doorway a few times so it wont go in. I don’t abuse the cat, but i don’t really let it get away with what it wants either. And really, it doesn’t look that sick to me.

So the occasional ‘kicking of the cat’ goes on for a month or so until i see my neighbor. Holding the cat. The cat that he said was sick. I asked him ‘I thought you shouldn’t touch that cat cause it is sick?’

He told me that he was talking about the other cat.

Oh. The other cat.

I found the other cat the next day. It is also yellow. It is a fierce little bugger. But i think that he has seen enough of me messing with the other cat that he doesn’t want to come near me. He was eating a frog the other day when i came home. I figure he is doing alright.

Sorry neighbor cat.

10 weeks and counting.

I have days here that i never want to end. Let the fun and the experience just keep going on and on and on. I love learning more about the language, more about the culture, and better yet more about myself and my strengths and weaknesses.

 But then I have those days that I really want to end. I get tired of the language, the culture, the lack of a car, and living alone. Sometimes it just feels like I have been here forever and am not accomplishing much.

But overall, I love it here. I work with a lot of great people here at ZENOAQ, and I think that they will all be friends for life.

 However i get bored at work sometimes. Like right now. I offered to them that I could go pull weeds out in the gardens or something but they all laughed it off…….Since i am not “a realy employee” and just a temporary intern, I can’t know all the “secrets” that there are to the company which apparently prevents me from doing a lot. 

So here I am. Writing another report. Just like I am back in school again!

Just some random thoughts.

and a few random pictures of me hangin in Tokyo–which is an awesome story invoving a mission reunion, a nap in an internet cafe (again), and hanging out at the most INCREDIBLE spa i have ever been to (only the 2nd one i have been to).

I call this masterpiece Cameron

Nagoya Mission under President Whitesides who was my mission president for maybe 30 minutes. It was ok though, he and his wife remembered me and my MTC doryou CLARK–whose name was used as a swear word for some Australians–really dont mind if you dont understand any of this……..

This is my friend Angela who I went with to Tokyo.  She is striking a familiar Japanese pose that the ancient people have come to know as “PEACE” or in Japanese “ピース”。The origins of the pose are still undated, but it has instilled a twitching habit within most Japanese to flash the sign whenever a camera is raised……

Angela and I have become each others sanity the last month or so since she moved to Koriyama. It is nice to have someone around who understands what I go through as well. She speaks Japanese better than most foreigners I know, and she has a deadly glare. The ward we go to thinks that we should get married, and even though i was keen on the idea, she said she won’t marry me since i posted pictures of a mushroom penis and videos of naked men dancing in a wrestling ring. Oh well, her loss. In reality, we both have different priorities going on in our lives and so the chances of us dating are pretty slim, but overall, we are having a pretty good time hanging with each other.

Dare I say that I am trunky? Sure I am. I kinda want to get on with life and see some people back home. I am studying for the GMAT in an effort to take it in Tokyo in a month from now.  Wanting to get into grad school next year. There are just  a few things that i want more than anything that are nowhere but in the US……

like Nutter Butter cookies.

 Oh well. SOU NA NO KANKEI NAI!!!

Sou na no kankei nai!

I really shouldn’t be posting this video on here especially after the last picture I put up….but ya.

There is this guy here in Japan called Yoshio Kojima. He unfortunately is the most hillarious thing I have ever seen on television.  He does this little song and dance about different situations he gets himself into on like game shows and reality shows and always ends with the chorus of  “It doesn’t really matter” which in Japanese is “そうなの関係ない！”。

I guess the funny part about all of it is that he is just a freakin goofball. …….oh ya and he does it all in a speedo.

this is a video of him crashing into a pro wrestling match during the smack talk session. The wrestler says Yoshio’s famed line of そうなの関係ない  as if it were scripted and then of course Yoshio’s theme song comes on and Yoshio comes out. He dances around, the wrestler tells him he shouldn’t be dancing around in this “sacred ring” and instead of apologizing like he pretends to, Yoshio just starts dancing again getting a beat down.

Then the wrestler joins in and the dance and sing together and bla bla bla the ratingd for the tv show go up just because of this guy and his speedo.

It is a couple minutes long, and even though you may not understand it, it is pretty freakin funny.

Oh ya, and I am not gay.

No title yet but lets start with this pic.

Go ahead, tell me what you think it is. Remember that I do work for an animal pharmaceutical company.

my spelling and grammar sucketh

Just for all of you critics out there. I dont really re-read this thing. I type and then publish. Spell check? negative. Grammar check? Is there such a thing?

just try to understand what i wanted to spell….thats all.

tyank yof for youe underdtbibg.

cameron

Koriyama,Tokyo, Osaka, Okayama, Tokyo, Koriyama

WHAT A WEEKEND!!!!! (this is long but somewhat entertaining)

That may have been the most exciting weekend I have ever had since I came here. Here is how it all rolled out…..

Friday after work ( i have been watching 24 reruns a lot online and for some reason as I am starting to explain this i hear this beep beep beep beep for the seconds that go by–as if there is a timer)

I went home, started to get packed to get out of Koriyama knowing that i needed to be in Osaka the next morning by 930  (If you are unfamiliar with Japans geography, lets just say that it takes a bullet train ride that goes about 250 miles/hour about 4.5 hours to get there).  I decided I would take the last Shink (short for Shinkansen which is Japanese for Bullet train..i guess) out of Koriyama to Tokyo and find a place to stay that night.  Beings that I had 3 hours before that Shink left, i opted for a quick nap….that ended up not being quick at all.

I got packed, had 30 minutes before the train left and took off on my bike towards the station with a big bag on my back and a gigantic present for my friend strapped onto the rear cargo thingy dingy…. You may remember that everywhere i need to go is about 30 minutes away from my apartment and so that was my predicament. I raced to the station and begged went to park my bike in the bike parking lot where you pay 50 yen a day to leave your bike there. It was 10:05 PM and the old guy that wsa manning the place said, “Nope cant come in here, we close at 10″ I looked at him like he was insane and told him that my train leaves in 5 minutes. He desperately tried to tell me in English that i had to go to another parking lot. I reiterated in the best old man fukushima-ben language that i could muster out that my train leaves in 5 minutes and even if he charges me double, i need to leave my bike here. Then all of a sudden, he was the nicest guy. He said just pay afterward and get to your train. Wow. Gotta remember that Fukushima-ben a little more often….

So i get on the train just in time, and they say over the speakers that we are going to be delayed for a while for some random testing on the train. We waited for about 30 minutes and then they tried to take off. We went about 200 yards and stopped. They came onto the speaker again and said “We cannot drive this train. It is broken. we are going to take you back to the station” And they put us on another train–so we left Koriyama about an hour later than planned–Which is UNREALISTIC in Japan. That rarely happens. The train system here is the most incredible travel system in the world and for them to be even 5 minutes late is crazy. When we finally arrived at Tokyo station at about 2 in the morning, they gave all of us a refund of the fare that we paid. Sweet.

Tokyo Station. This is where the “fun” begins.  I hang out in there for a while and find a locker to put my crap in so i dont have to lug it everywhere. I set out on a search for something to eat, and somewhere to sleep.  I must have been the last person to leave the station because every single hotel that i checked with was booked–except for the one that cost $600 a night.  Even the capsule hotels were full. Couldn’t believe it! Now another thing you have to remember is that Tokyo isn’t the wholesome place during the night, as it is during the day–especially around the stations. At night the freaky people come out and prey on the carnal instincts of drunks, sex addicts, and gamblers.

HOLY CRAP.

On every corner there was an Asian lady asking me if I wanted a massage–firts in crappy Japanese because i am sure that most of them are from China or Thailand or the Phillipines (which is another sad story in and of itself), then in really crappy English. The best part about it in Japanese is that they call their contacts ‘Oniisan’. Which literally means older brother.  I have noticed from watching TV here, that when a couple is in love, the girl calls the boy she loves Oniisan.  “I love you so much older brother!” Weird. Probably something else i dont ounderstand.  Anyway, there were so many of them and they were everywhere!!! I have always been told to watch out for these massage girls, and even when one of them grabbed on to my arm and was like “Older brother, how about a massage, it feels so good!” I was like “NO WAY I DONT NEED YOUR DIRTY HANDS ON ME!!!”

So I am in there getting my massage and afterwards I went back……….. ok that was a joke. No special massaji for me that night、or any night for that matter.

I actually found an internet cafe where you pay $10 to use the internet and read all the manga (japanese comics) you want. Though the seller for me was the reclining chairs they had. I paid the fee, sent some emails, and settled down for a 2 hour nap.

Beep Beep Beep Beep 05:00:02

I go to the TOkyo station, and buy a ticket for Osaka. I get on the 6 am train and before I fall asleep i talk to the nice man next to me and his slightly chubby probably 6 year old kid next to him. The kid was excited to talk to a foreigner and though looking at him reminded me of myself when I was 6 years old, I realized that it wasnt necessarily his fault that he was a chunky little bugger. His dad kept telling him to finish his breakfast which consisted of chocolate candy shaped like mushrooms and the most sugary drink that I have ever tasted in Japan called Calpus which when you say it sounds like cow piss….I laughed with the little guy and then when he started eating his “breakfast” and couldnt talk I fell right to sleep and slept the whole way to Osaka.

Got to Shin-Osaka, rode the local line to Osaka and waited there for Lance Shakespear (sirluvsalot.wordpress.com) who is loving in Shiga-ken doing the same kind of internship as I am–though different company and different responsibilities. I doubt they even let him get near their mail.

beep beep beep beep 10:01:34

We went to this big ole freakin building that gives you a good view of Osaka. Before we went to the top we checked out this exhibit called Jintai or the human body. It is basically a copy cat version of the Body World Exhibit that is going around the world. It was super interesting and I am really glad that I got to see it since the only chance i had o see Body World was in Denver, almost 2 years ago, and the power went out so we couldn’t go in. I must be honest that my stomach did get a little queezy and though I was hungry before I went in, the thought of eating anything with red meat as we were leaving made me want to hurl! I would reccomend it to anyone though. Very cool. 

We made our way to the top of the building. That day was perfect as it was all clear and you could see from the mountains on one side to the bay on the other. It was really quite a sight to behold up there. Had it been dark and Lance were not so much of a dude, I would have taken advantage of the moment. 

Sign at the top of the escalator –great translation

This guy is somewhat famous for his stupid stunts on TV. He and his publicist figured we wanted a picture with him when we pointed at him and laughed.

Fountain at the bottom of the building

 

We went to the bottom of the building where some genius had built like an old looking town set up down there full of restaurants and shops. We grubbed on some shabu-shabu which is normally delicious, but i didnt have much to say for that place. I left hungry.

beep beep beep beep 14:00:01

We headed over to what is known as the oldest Budhist Temple in Japan. I really should have you link over to Lances page to see the pics and what not that he should post soon (sirluvsalot.wordpress.com). This one was pretty interesting in that it was all built way back in the day, and there were turtles for crying out loud. Freakin turtles. I really enjoyed the view and had a good time hanging there. More details will come as i upload my pics.

 

 In between the Turtle pools

There were about 3 times as many turtles in the water as there were out of it. Pretty cool to see that many.

 

The people at the temple asked me to paint myself in black and show off my muscles for a while….

Beep— 17:30:00

We met up with Shota Watanabe and his wife Yuka. Brother Watanabe is a man that I met in Komatsu when I was living there as a missionary. I met him once, twice, 3 times and even a fourth before he finally made an appointment with us to talk about the good stuff that we had to talk about–end even then we didn’t talk. Again, not to get preachy or anything, but watching this guy change his life through the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ absolutely changed my life as well. He was one of those that understood the meaning of testing God to see if you will gain any blessings.  He taught me a lot—-4 years ago.

And he and his wife both taught me again this weekend.

I know that he just started a new job in Osaka, and ususally when that is the case money has to be pretty tight. He and his wife Yuka insisted on taking me and Lance out for dinner that night where we grubed on some okonomiyaki that is cooked right there in front of us. It was so good! We talked about how Shota and I met, and a little about how he and Yuka met and basically caught up.

We ditched Lance at the Nanba station and went to there home in Yao city which is part of Osaka.  We sat up and talked for a while about Komatsu, and the wonderful people there. There were so many miracles there that I really could not even begin to explain here……I was just taken back by how these two were interacting with each other. Most Japanese couples show very little affection towards each other in public, yet these two were all over it! They looked like they fell in love yesterday–and they did. And they will tomorrow and the day after. They serve each other, they speak politely, they throw out the I love you phrase to each other like 6 times a day and it is just unreal (for Japan anyway)!

They have both had incredible trials in their lives, and have both overcome them through faith and service to their fellow man and to God.  We went to church together on Sunday and I enjoyed every moment of it.  Everyone was so polite and it was a very good meeting –all 3 hours.  Brother Irie, who sings all the Janice Kapp Perry and Kenneth Cope songs in Japanese is the 2nd counselor in the LDS bishopric  there. Speaking of, they stopped calling the Bishop the kantoku, which is also the same word used for coach. They now use the word Bishopu. INteresting…..

Went home, grubbed with the missionaries (i dont know how i did it as a missionary but these guys were good) and then talked all night again. All the while they put on this display of admiration for each other that was not sickening at all.

Dare I say it was precious?

day 3 08:00:00 MOnday

TO be continued. It gets kinda fun.

So here is the continuation.

For those of you that know me a little more well than others, you know that I am somewhat of a fan of  Drum and Bugle Corps.  “What is this  drum and bugle corps thing?” you may ask, but if you have not seen it live, it is really hard to explain. I have tried to tell people that it is like seeing a marching band on 4 different types of cocaine and steroids all together to make an amazing catastrophe of music, marching, and dancing that is not only entertaining to watch from the 86th row of the Rose bowl, but it is somewhat inspiring to see how hard these kids work. Some of my best friends are people that I marched with in Drum Corps (and be sure to recognize that it is NOT marching band. Marching Band is for fat kids with pimples…..and even though I am one of those….I …..I have no argument right now).

Call me artsy. Call me whatever. Either way, Drum corps deserves its own blog somewhere else. So if you dont want to read about my drum corps experience on this blog, dont read anything in Blue or you can just go take a look at this website (http://www.dci.org/index.cfm).

SO on monday of this awesome weekend, i decided to take a detour to Okayama to see the “Marching in Okayam” festival which had some of the best drum coprs from Japan and the 2007 World Champion Blue Devils from Concord, CA. Sure Okayama was a $50 train ride out of the way, sure it took a $25 taxi ride to get to the GYMNASIUM where it was held, sure the ticket and program were $30 and sure it took another $25 taxi ride to get back to the station to catch the shink back to Tokyo. May have been a little more than budgeted, but it was drum corps. And it was Japan. Two of my favorite things.

Overall I enjoyed the show. Nothing to go crazy about except for the Yokohama Scouts. They put on quite the show. Difference between this place and the states is that drum corps is done in a gymnasium, and not a stadium. So you can see that there were people sitting on the sides and what not.

Aimachi winterguard–another awesome event similar to drum corps:

Some other corps:

The Jokers. I met a fella named Eddie who is playing with this group. Pretty cool bunch: 

Some of the members of the Blue Devils came out into the crowd, and since I was white and had  Blue Knights shirt on, they seemed to be able to feel ok about talking to me.

And wouldn’t you know it, these Blue Devils were the most popular thing there this day! There were lines and lines of fans around all of the BD members asking for autographs. It was insane! The guy I was talking to kept signing and signing. Some asked him to sign their shirt, their bag, their program, and sometimes their cat. I was even asked to sign a few programs and even though I told them I wasnt in the program, they said that If I marched in an American Drum Corps, they wanted a signature.

So there are a lot of programs out there that have the name Cameron Payne written over the image of a very hot dancer in a white costume from the BD show last year.

One girl came up to me and asked if I was in the Blue Knights. I told her that I was and she mentioned how much she really loved the corps and wanted to join them this year if not next. I gave her some web info to contact the folks in Denver and she seemed excited, though not excited enough for me to sign her program!

As for the BD performance, It really wasn’t as cool as I hoped it would be. They played some tunes and tried to get the crowd into it, but since they brought 35 performers or so total, i was left kinda limp.  They started with a solo snare player, marched in at a company front that transformed into an arc. Then they moved the arc to the different sides of the arena to give everyone a chance to hear what they had.

Again, it makes you grateful that you heard them with a full corps.I did thank them for winning this last year in Pasadena (even though I still think that the Cadets had a better corps)

If you read any of the blue stuff and you are not a drum corps fan, you are a champion. 

I got back to the train station and finished off the goodies that Yuka had bought for me earlier that morning. They were delicious.

I went to purchase my ticket to Koriyama and the man at the desk said that it was absolutely impossble for me to all the way to Koriyama that night. It was already 6 pm and so i got on the soonest train i could.

It was a shink again, but since it was unreserved seating where i bought my ticket, i had to stand in the aisle for the first hour until people were dropped off in Osaka. It was pretty funny standing there with all sorts of folks looking at me. Big dumb Gaijin with a blue shirt with polka dots on it ( http://www.bknights.org/gfx/catalog/DotShirt_lg.jpg   some people said i looked kawaii–cute)

 I really didnt want to spend another miserable night in Tokyo like I had previously on friday so in all honesty, I said a prayer that there would be a way for me to get out of Tokyo and be home to Koriyama that night.  When we arrived in Tokyo at about 9:30 (in Jack Bauer time it is beep beep beep beep 21:30:01), i got off the train, ran to the ticker machines and the woman at the gate could tell i had a sense of urgency. She said in English “Where is your final destination” and i yelled “Koriyama” and she didnt even make me buy a new ticket and said “20 ban sen hayaku ikinasai!” or ” Hurry and get to line #20!”

 I tore up those steps like I was a mess of INdian Curry screaming out of a ……ah never mind. But I barely made the VERY LAST TRAIN that goes to Koriyama that night.

Prayer answered or lucky coinsidence? I would say yes to both. Either way I am glad it worked out for me.

I welcomed the cold air that Koriyama had waiting for me as i got off the train. It was now about 11 PM. My bike was locked up and there were no old guys in sight to get it out. I took the 11:15 train (beep beep beep beep 23:15:01) train to asakanagamori station that is closer to my house, and after walking half way decided to take an idle cab home–another $6 or so.

I was home at about 00:30:01

When i told people about riding the train from Okayam to Koriyama in 5 hours they were all really impressed. Apparently only stupid people take the train to those distances. Most people should fly i guess. I am more impressed at the network of travel in this country. It is incredible. I doubt there will ever be a bullet train in the US. Not enough need for it yet.

Either way, I was home. And it felt good. Seeing friends and seeing drum corps is great, but sleeping in my own bed is even better.

Stay tuned for next weeks adventure to Tokyo.

Random Pictures–with an update of soap on a mirror

So in celebration of payday yesterday, i figured I would write a blog again.

 I got my first whif of a Kerosine heater 2 nights ago and it brought back all sorts of memories of knocking doors all night into the fall and the winter 2 years in a row. Though I do cherish the memories, I am really glad that I can get inside a lot sooner than 930 at night! (speaking of, there were some really good comments about the missionary theme i had a few posts back–check it out).

I am looking into going to Osaka this weekend to visit one of my good friends Shota Watanabe and his wife Yuka. I have their wedding present in my suitcase. My sister in law Joey sewed their names and a heart and a date of their wedding on a really nice blanket—-3 years ago. And here I am. Delivering it in person.  Good for me.  I am awesome.

The ever wise Ando san told me today that he thinks my beard is fine, and that it distinguishes me from others. Take that self proclaiming retarded man at church!! Though, if you look at the picture below, you can see that I cant seem to shave my beard very well without a mirror…..you see, there is hot water in the kitchen and in the shower. The shower is clearly the best place to shave since there is a mirror in there. However, if you can put  2 and 2 together (where did that phrase come from?), you know that hot water inside the shower steams up a mirror. So it is a constant battle every time i shave. I get about a 3 second window every time I spray the mirror, or wipe the mirror clean to shave.  So lets give you all a mental image here. The mirror starts 4 inches from the floor of the shower, and is about 12 inches high. I can see my knee caps in it when i stand up. The idea is that you are supposed to sit on these buckets designed specifically for showers and shave and clean yourself and what not (then proceed to get into the big tub which i have yet to use because I am too big for the big tub). I have yet to buy one of those buckets. So I am in the shower, but naked kneeling down holding the shower head in one hand, and my razor in the other. I wipe the mirror, shave for 3 seconds, wipe, shave, wipe shave….. I am talking about the mirror and my face here by the way. Long story short, I have yet to shave a good looking beard.

Maybe Mr Self Proclaimed Retard man is right and I should just shave it all off………

 Boy that took a lot of time to explain.

The Ever wise Ando san also told me that I should get married next year, and have a kid every two years for the next 18 years. The verb he used for “having kids” in Japanese was “Make babies every two years for…..二年間ごとに赤ちゃんを作ってください”. Not a bad idea i guess. It just sounded kind of funny to me that he is saying “Make babies” to me.

****and as an update, I would like to thank Shaun Devore for coming up with the most logical solution for the foggy mirror as suggested in the comments section–the soap really worked. Though buying a mirror and shaving in the kitchen seems like a good idea to certain people with the name of  ”Ryan” , he is also suspected to be a pothead, terrorist, or even worse: a dumb a$$ and therefore can not be trusted. I will buy Shaun a package of Hai-chu and present his reward in full upon my return to the US.

 And now–some pictures. ME Yasuta, Hashimoto, Chee, Maki, Amamiya, Me, Matsuda Our friends that we had over for dinner. Entrance to the company