Well, goodness gracious, I got it back! Basically, I left the cab and there was no way for me to get it back, but a million to one chance. So, I emailed my keitai so it would make a noise, hoping the taxi driver would hear it, and maybe bring it back to the last place he saw me, which was the 99 shop where he dropped me off. That’s actually not what happened, as I think someone else found it in the rain somewhere and brought it back to the store. so it’s all waterlogged now, and is blinking red, so we’ll see how long it lasts. Anyway, I don’t think I’d ever get it back so soon in any country.

Let’s see what happens. Anyway, at least I got the thing back…

Dang, I just lost the most important little device in my life - my keitai. So if anyone is trying to contact me, please contact me through this address - greasepig at gmail dot com. Man, I was just about to post some pictures of a delicious meal I just had too. Ah well, such is life. Now goes the tribulations of trying to get everyone’s phone number and email address that I lost.

哲也とご飯

Tonight I had dinner with my friend and former student Tetsuya, who recently came back from America, where he studied for about three months. It was a great dinner and we had a good time. I’m still trying to figure out the right way to do Picasa on Linux, which is why the pictures aren’t edited correctly. Anyway, in the old days, I can remember when I wouldn’t be caught dead with a North Carolina shirt, but this time I was really happy to show it off.

Riding the Yamanote line in Tokyo in 4 minutes. Via Pink Tentacle, my new favorite blog.

obon2007tokyo

By the way, I went to Tokyo over Obon, and took a bunch of pictures. Highlights included finding the ramen place these guys talked about, and finding this tiny little jazz bar in Shinjuku that was just the coolest. I’ve really been getting into jazz lately, something I’d never thought would happen.

Finally, I’m connected back to the internet. Took me a month, but now I’ve got a nice fat pipe, so all those of you who I haven’t contacted in awhile will start to hear from me. Here are some random observations:

1. My new apartment is just two blocks from a decent Mexican restaurant. Hell, I didn’t even have that in San Francisco. (Although, I must say that this place doesn’t hold a candle to Taqueria Cancun, which was just 8 blocks from my place in Noe Valley
2. It’s also adjacent to a 99 shop. For those of you not in Japan, it’s basically a convenience store that has _everything_ you need, and most of it is 99 yen ($0.85 at the time of posting). For example, if I leave the apartment in the morning, and I realize I left my umbrella at work, I can get one. For eighty-five cents.
3. My new apartment comes with a 440-station radio that comes out of the wall. I can get everything from 80 stations of J-pop, to Indian and Latin music, to the messages they play telling you not to leave stuff on the escalator
4. For many reasons, life is better than it’s been in years and years. Ever since I can remember.
5. I think this year’s sauna might finally be nearing an end. We’ll see…

Yes, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted, and there are a few reasons for it. I’ve been very busy changing my job and my apartment. I’ve got a new job working as a programmer here in Nagoya. Teaching English was pretty good, and I will really miss all my studentes. But this new job is exactly what I want to be doing. It’s a very small company, but it definitely looks to be on the rise. Since I’ve started, I’ve already been working in Ruby, C, php, and java, and it really feels good to be using that part of my brain again.

I knew I would have to get a new apartment, but I didn’t really anticipate how much of a positive change that would be. My new place is on a completely different level from my old one. Yes, it’s still small (６畳, or about 100 square feet), but my last place was only ４．５畳. My new place has a kitchen with two nice gas burners, and an actual counter to prepare food on. That may not sound like a big deal, but before there was nothing at all, and I basically had to prepare food on my washing machine. Another thing this new place has is a view, something I haven’t had in years and years. It’s nothing special, just a bunch of buildings, but just being able to open my window and look at something is really a wonderful change. (The window in my last place was about 20 feet from someone’s kitchen). I’ll be posting pictures of the place once I get internet hooked up, which will happen in a couple of weeks. Another thing is that this is a really clean place, another thing that I haven’t had in years.

Anyway, I am really happy with all these changes in my life. Things are really looking up these days. I’ll post more later.

Because that’s all I do in Japan, right? Anyway, lately that’s all I’ve been taking pictures of. Just wait, in a couple of weeks I’ll have something interesting to say. In the meantime, please enjoy these pictures of the party we had in honor of Hideki-sensei, who’s leaving Sakae school to start a new program at the head office, and also welcoming Scott-sensei and Miyaka-sensei. The place we had it is called J-cafe, and it was really interesting - very dark with a big runway down the middle, like it would be a place for a fashion show.

And then we went to a nijikai (second party) at Joy Joy Karaoke right next door, which I think I’m liking a little better than Karaokekan. Anyway, one of our students happens to be an actual opera singer, and so obviously her performance blew us all away. It was amazing.

Party at J-cafe

Nijikai

A few people (and robots) have expressed concern about the earthquake that happened this weekend. I’m fine - the earthquake wasn’t anywhere near me, and I didn’t even feel it this time.