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I just bought a Recording MD Walkman MZ-R900 MDLP.  I'm so stoked!  I got a great deal on it too.  Normally they are 40000 yen, it was on sale for 30000 yen, but a friend had two of them so he sold me his for 20000 yen.  What a deal.  It is the coolest little gadget that I have had the pleasure of owning.  They are so small and play just like a CD player.  I can hook up a microphone to it and record my music from the guitar.  Or I could hook it up to an amplifier at the recording studio.  Which is pretty cool.  But the best thing is that it doesn't skip.   It has a LP (Long Play) system so I can record 320 minutes on one 80 minute MD.   It also has an Optical output so you can record from digital to digital.  Normally you can only record from digital to analog to digital.  It has a rechargeable battery system that lasts for 14 hours.  It's going to be great to record all my gigs on this little tool of joy.  I'm also looking forward to listening to it in the gym.

I have been working a lot lately.  I have also been playing music trying to learn how to play punk.  Easy chords but the carpel tunnel syndrome rhythm is a killer.  It has grown on me though.  I actually like playing it.  It is a Japanese Punk style that isn't as heavy as North American Punk.  It's kind of like grunge.  I am practicing.  The musicians are all top notch players so I really need to get on the practicing deal.  

We are having a costume party here next week.  It will be the first party that Mr. Yakamoto and I have held.  We  Have made a list of requirements for the party.  A costume, haiku, snacks, lively personality.  Yes, It's a lot to ask but we thought that if we had a party we better do it right.  And that means requirements.  I will have photo's next week of the party so stayed tuned.  

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Playing soccer is becoming a weekend ritual for me these days.  It's a great way to get into shape and make friends here in Kumamoto.  I have gotten to know a Peruvian man called Danny, He is originally from Lima.  After the game I went round his house and he showed me all his travel photographs of Peru.  Cosco, the ancient city in the mountains, was constructed about 1000AD.  This metropolis in the Hills was a strong hold for the Inca's wealth and was inhabited mainly of women and soldiers.  Apparently this city was the center for all the Inca gold.  The next travel pictures he showed me were of the NAZCA lines.  These lines, drawings, can only be seen from the air.  This is when you can make out the drawings.  They drawing consist of a  humming bird, monkey and an alien, just to mention a few.  No one knows who made them or why.  Archeologists think that they were constructed between 300BC - 500AD.  

We have found a blue lagoon here in the depths of Kumamoto.  Well, it's kind of green and stagnant and many would call it a quarry with water in it but that's besides the point. It's an oasis it tell you.  You have seen The Beach; well this is a Kumamoto version it.  You can just hang out and lay low beside the lagoon (quarry) and let your imagination run wild.  Sucking back coconut juice out of beer cans and swimming in the parasite infested waters it's sure to make you smile.  No sharks here but you do have to watch out for a large angry Bass that roams the waters.  

The temperature is beginning to heat up.  I have noticed that with the increased heat people here start to act a bit funny. Their patients are put to the test and everyone just wants to rest and sleep.  It also makes people act a bit crazy too.  Normaly the people are quite sedated but as I have been finding out this was because of the cold.  They were in a state of hibernation.  Know they are letting loose.  Getting crazy and having fun.  It 's time to party before the rainy season and then the summer.  Apparently It's so hot you don't go outside during the end of July and the month of August unless you have to.  I will be in Canada though, thank god, can't stand that kind of intense heat.  

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On the way to our private Japanese lesson we saw a real police chase involving two motor scooters with 2 boys on each scooter ,not wearing helmets, and one motorcycle cop riding a Yamaha VFR 750 chasing them.  The funny thing about it is that we, Mr. Yakamoto and I, were heading down a one way street the wrong way.  Yes, isn't that just hilarious?  

I have been reading a lot of books lately.  I finished World Religions, Our Quest For Meaning.  A great book that goes into the history of all the major religions and who created them, or dictated what god told them, what ever turns your crank.  It's an overview of the religion and how they became.  It starts off with the ancient religions of the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians to: Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. A must read.  I was totally amazed by it.  Considering that religions have formed our governments and our way of thinking over the past 6000 years I really recommend reading this book.  The other book that I just finished reading is No Boundary, Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth by Ken Wilber.  This book is about unity conscientiousness.  Not as informative as World Religions, but interesting all the same.  Unity conscientiousness is basically a state of nirvana.  It goes into detail about how to reach it.  I found that he went in circles a lot with his explanations but it's a good concept.  The Pontiff is in!

Now that Mr. Yakamoto and I know how the other entrepreneurs made their mark in the religious business sector we are going to start are own form of religion.  First we are going to have a RFTA, (Religious Free Trade Agreement), of course we will need to rent a small island in the Persian Gulf to hold our orgies parties and of course our SOTR, (Summit of the Religions) -subject to change to RSTP, (Religious Summit Tea Party).  All the major religions and leading cooperation representatives will be there.  Please bring your own barricades and tear-gas if you plan to protest.  I would like to tell you more but our 900 page religious document that is going to improve your life but it is currently unavailable to you, the proletariat.  You will, however, will be paying for everything.  Remember that all protesters are smelly law-breaking hippies that are a burden to your society.  Keep your donations to our religions flowing, remember, you will go to heaven faster if you send cash then if you use a credit card.  

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The weather was absolutely beautiful the last couple of days.  Hot and sunny but not humid.  I played soccer on Saturday and scored a goal.  I'm getting a bit better now that I know where to run.  Before I was flailing around the pitch running at everyone not really knowing how to recover the ball.  When they told me to come to the games they said that we don't take it seriously and that It's just a laugh,  I arrive in my Vans shoes and my track suit bottoms to find that everyone has jerseys, numbered shorts and soccer cleats.  Not much happens in Kumamoto so they really look forward to their Saturday soccer.  There is an array of people from other countries, Peru, America, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, and Australia.  

There is a guy called Bo-Bo here from Israel.  He was a tank commander for a couple of years in the Israeli army and then became a  an airport police officer.  He now sells jewelry on street corners and makes a  lot of money selling Korean knock-offs of Rolex watches and necklaces.  He takes his Saturday soccer very seriously, so seriously that he has become renown for shouting his head off and jumping up and down when other player don't play right or make mistakes.  Guess who has been getting the blunt of his positive aggression the past couple of matches, yes, me.  I just sit there and smile at him well he tells me to "use my head".  Yes, he is a bit of a pain in the ass, but I think when he was fighting in Palestine it screwed him up.  He has told stories about going in to Palestine and "killing terrorists".  No one doubts for a minute that he's lying.  All in all he means well and is trying to understand life but he is a real character here in Kumamoto and everyone knows him by name.

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The last couple of days has been hot and humid.  It reminds me of when I first arrived here last October.  Kaishin Koko, my high school, doesn't have any air conditioning.  All the teachers and students sweat all day.  It's crazy.  Now that It is really hot again everyone has their windows open and that means noise pollution, TV's going all the time, people laughing and talking.  We can even here when our neighbours go to the bathroom.  It is a really tight area.  Every open space is occupied.  

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It is currently raining here in Kumamoto.  The weather has been threatening all day to rain and in the past couple of hours it started.  You almost welcome the rain here as it dampens out the noise of the street and your neighbours. The houses don't have much insulation, if any, thus you can hear every little noise in the complex.  If the wind is in the right direction you can hear the downtown Kumamoto traffic. With the rain brings calm and tranquility, reflection in a city that is always booming with constant action that is all Japanese and hard to understand at the best of times.  As I have found out, learning Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to learn.  Not only do you have the grammar that is backward compared to English, but you have the culture barrier that is really difficult to get into, lot's of challenges here in Japan.  

With summer around the corner the air has become musky and the air is damp with humidity.  Soon everything will heat up here.  The rainy season is next month.  Apparently you walk around in a short sleeve shirt and shorts sweating all day as the rain pours constantly for a month.  I'm looking forward to that.  My commute by scooter is about 25 minutes, doing this in the pouring rain will be great.  I have some rain gear that I brought from home so I should be able to last out the month of wet gray plus, my scooter converts from a  commuter demon into the water ski jet that it really is, unleash the power and feel the waves beneath your wheels.  Ya baby!!!

Mr. Yakamoto gets back from his North American travels tomorrow.  His mobile petting zoo has gone well in America, they only kicked him out after being there for a couple of weeks. He tried to smuggle a grizzly bear out of BC but had to give him back to the authorities at the airport, that Mr. Yakamoto, he'll try anything to make a buck!  He did, however, manage to smuggle out a BC seal and a couple of porpoises parts, apparently you can grind the BC seal pen&s into a fine powder and sell it by the gram in most decent shops, it makes for a great aphrodisiac and It's also great on toast!  Slam in the seal pen&s is the saying here!  I have missed Mr. Yakamoto around the house, yes plucking his back hair out of the mattress can be a bit tiresome but it's all worth it just to see his lovely smile.  It's a regular beauty and the beast story I tell you.  

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What a beautiful day here in Kumamoto!  This week is called 'Golden Week.'  This is a full week off national holiday to celebrate mid spring and an important festival.    May 5th is kodomo no hi.  This is a festival to celebrate the birth of boys.  The coy fish represent boys and it is common to have giant coy kites that symbolize the strength of boys.  That is why they have so many coy fish in the lakes and streams here.  They are considered almost a holy creature.  I will be partaking in the festivities on May 5th so I will be able to write a better journal regarding this holiday.

The high school job is going well.  I have been having a lot of fun with role playing certain scenes to help clarify the English that we are trying to teach.  I have been teaching them Airport Arrival.  I play an Immigrations Officer and a Customs Officer.  I ask them how long they are going to stay and what are they going to do, then I ask them if they have any guns, bombs or drugs, this is not on the hand out.  They first look puzzled and then they laugh because someone else in the class understands and tell them.  All in all It's a great experience teaching.  It is a lot of responsibility though.  I am a role model so I have to watch what I say and make sure that I am clear in my English.  Grammar, intonation and consistency are a must at all times and, as you can tell by my entries, these are not my strong points.   But all in all it is a good laugh.  The time flies by and before I know it I have taught six classes and I'm ready to go home and rest.  

Since I have worked at the high school I have experienced another side to the Japanese culture.  I'll explain:
My first day at the high school we had a ceremony that involved the whole school to participate, I think I wrote about it.  Mr. Mizetani, the principal at the high school, comes into the ceremony hall and Mr. Marimatsuo, the head of the English department and my boss, tells me to say sorry to Mr. Mizantani for the loss of his mother who died in the night.  I was a bit shocked and felt a bit awkward but I went up to him and said sorry for the loss of his mother.  He looked as though nothing had happened and was totally nonchalant about the whole thing.  I was amazed by his cool composure.  This was my first insight into the degree of controlled emotions in Japan.

I later had a family matter back home that I had to deal with over here.  This was very challenging for me and character building.  I had no one to talk about it.  Over here showing emotion is a sign of weakness and is looked down upon.  It is considered bad taste to burden your friends and family about emotional matters.  They should be dealt with internally according to Japanese culture.  I can relate to it now but at the time it was a crash course into the Japanese mindset regarding emotions and how to deal with them in a Japanese environment.  Very interesting, and I have to say that I really like the way Japanese deal with their emotions.  They don't want to burden anyone with there problems, quite the opposite to the western way of thinking.  They just want to have a light time and enjoy the moment, the short moments when they are not working.  I also had another Japanese cultural experience last week in class.

It was the first class of the day.  Five minutes into the class a secretary from the school office comes up and tells my tag-team co-teacher that he has an urgent telephone call.  I take over the class and when he returns he tells me that his mother died this morning and he had just received the news.  I told him that I was sorry to hear about the loss of his mother and that he should go sit down with a cup of coffee in the teachers lounge to collect his thoughts.  He said no and carried on with the class as if nothing had happened.  I asked him twice but he said he was fine and he looked it.  I was blown away.  

Manuel, I finished Shogun last week, what a beast.  It took  me 3 months to read 600 pages, then I put it down for about 3 months and I picked up it up last week and devoured the last 600 pages in a week.  What a great book.  Thanks again for buying it for me Manjin san.  

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*Note*
I was experimenting with a new style of writing, and a new drug called buck-u-up, just kidding.  Do not take this entry seriously, I didn't when I created it.  I just wrote it for shock value and to see if it would increase my hits in a short time space, which it did.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it.  ;) P.

Editorial: Pontificating 
The crazy life that we live in has finally devoured my drained mind and has decided to spit me out into the encountering life of what is, as we know it, earth.  Yes, it has happened, it took 3500 years to throw a shoe into the dyke.  Rusting on the bottom of a pile of roasting salamanders.  Yes, it is shockingly true, but we are just mere pedals of the autumn past ready to become dirt.  

This pile of dirt has come to be a part of our integral being.  We wait for the next helping like a child on the breast of humanity.  The bosom is beginning to dry up and what has become is a empty pit in the bottom of the plane.   The magician has waved his wand and has left nothing but a desolate memory that has been engrained into our thoughts.  

Snow covered mountains that are in the dry field of pain and sorrow.  The beginning of the end.  The start of the finish.  The crazy part about the whole thing is that it just happens overnight.  Not knowing what can be is what it's all about.  Starting the day in a blur and ending it in denial.  This is your life, you tell your self.  Making sense of it all, why....... How........   Yes, it's what we all think but dare not say it to anyone for fear of being thought of as weak and pathetic.  Putrid beings on a round planet orbiting the toilet we call space.  

Just when you thought you had it all under control, the ship was heading out to sea with a full load of luscious cargo just ready to be unloaded and you'll make a killing in soiled profits.  But just as you enter your first port the rules have changed, the thrust of life seeps out of you like puss coming out of a malignant wound.  Your left with your hands around your crotch, scratching away the lice that has infested your heritage, your right, and your destiny.  You have to rethink it all, you have to make a buck out of this life somehow, to pay the bill, feed the kid and pay the Man.  

He's your friend if you have something to offer, but if not your in the sh't.  Your hoopped without a hoop.  Your a burden on society eating away life and supporting Wall-Mart because you have too, we all have to support the American dream with Bonds to keep the American economy afloat, to keep the fat American buying all you can eat so people in third worlds can starve.  The pig of the world has to have it's trough.  

We all want that trough, we all dream of eating like the pigs of the world.  We want that gas guzzling car with all the safety features, we want that self cleaning house that sucks the electrical mainframe dry.    We want it all!  But we are all hypocrites aren't we?  Yes, supporting charities that help keep the children alive so they can make our Nike shoes, our Reebok shirts and our little brick-a-brack that we have around the house; a buck or two?  

Well I'm finished my rant.  I've vented it all out.  I feel much better.  I'm ready to consume the living again.  Suck the third world countries dry and help support the Bomb. 

My. Yakamoto and I feel very strongly about this, but you can help, yes that's right!  For just fifteen easy installments of just $799.99 plus tax you can help save the planet! You would think it would cost a lot more to save the planet, maybe 1 billion, or even 2 billion, but no!  Just $799.99 Is that too much to ask?  Hell no!  And we don't want to go to hell now do we?  Just send the money to the about Pontiff page.  It's that simple.  Yes, remember to love your neighbour and send me cash!