Miyakonojo

Woohoo. Able to upload videos and pictures from my phone now. The quality is kinda low, click on the video (not the play button) to be taken to a larger quality video.

Hey,

I just got an iPhone, so I am running a test to see if I able to make a blog post from it with pictures and video.

Edit: ok, looks like I can post fine, just no pictures or videos. I'll have to add those later via my PC.

Ok.. so who really believed me when I said an update every day? Been lazy/tired/busy :)

I went on a trip this golden week (a week in Japan where many holidays come back to back). I ended up going to Mt. Aso, which is an active volcano. There was a hippie festival there that we camped at for 2 nights, and then went into town to do some sight seeing and bathing at some outdoor hot springs. Was pretty fun, but tiring.

Here are some pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianwasik/sets/72157617769339520/

Ok, so you have not seen any pictures for ages right? My bad. I'm going through some photos now. It's going to take a while, cause I have not actually looked at any of my own pictures for the past 6 months.

But I'm now going to try to catch you up all at once. I will be trying to update my blog every day with a new set of pictures. I will post a teaser pic or two on the blog post, with a link to my photo album so you can check out the rest of the photos.

So to start off the party, here is a picture I took today of the main road (notice all the cars and the old lady making a dash to the other side!) from where I work, City Hall, when I am not teaching at school.

Next up, my new(used) Car!! It's a Van! It has a GPS system, which is so awesome. I can now drive out of my city and not have to worry about getting lost trying to find my way back. Seriously, roads here are not laid out in the grid system like back home. It's got a decent stereo system also, the interior is like new, and it can hold 7 people.

To check out the rest of the pics follow this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianwasik/sets/72157617031364679/
Click on a picture, then click on the button above the picture that says "all sizes" to see a larger image.

So about 20 minutes ago, I was sitting in front of my computer when I got to experience something new for the first time since being in Japan.

I suddenly heard my apartment make creaking noises, much like a house settling. I thought "That's odd, since when does my apartment make creaking noises..hold on now... I'm movi..n..g...EARTHQUAKKEEEEEEEEEE"

I'm in a 13 story apartment, with my apartment on the 2nd floor. I'm glad my neighbors didn't come crashing on down.


Also, in other news. I bought a car. Another one anyway, and sold my current car. Got me a 2002 Mazda MPV. Check out this link to see what it looks like: http://stb1.blog64.fc2.com/blog-entry-130.html
It's got a GPS system, decent stereo system. Should be taking a lot of road trips soon. Gonna be fun fun fun.

Sorry for the long period of silence. I got a little homesick/depressed. It was nothing major, I was just missing home a little bit. And the easiest way to deal with that, is to pretend home does not exist. Thus I didn't want to talk to anybody from home, send emails to people back home. Out of sight out of mind.

The reason I became like that is because of the weather. Winter sucks here. Hard. Don't get me wrong, I like winter as long as there is snow. But there is no snow anywhere remotely close to this area. But we are in a valley, and cold winds come down from this one specific mountain. They warned me and I thought they were lying to me, but sure enough it gets freeeeeaking cold but yet no snow. Fast forward a few months, and it still stays really cold. For the past month its been about as cold as Tucson in the coldest part of winter. Spring time my ass. But the cold isn't my biggest downer, its the overcast rainy days. I. Miss. Sunshine. It rains here for 6 days in a row, gets cloudy on the 7th day, and then rains again another 6 days. I didn't even know that was friggin possible.

Next winter, I'm not staying in Japan. I will be coming home and traveling to warm countries.

Good news is that its going to warm up a little bit from here on out. The last few days have been warm and sunny. Im coming out of my stupor. I will try to get my computer fixed so I can start processing photos and upload them. My kinda kicked my computer in the balls a few months ago accidentally, and it does not seem to do a lot of what its supposed to do. Among other things, it doesn't recognize files from my camera. I'm also thinking of getting rid of my camera, and getting a video camera. Maybe videos of Japan will be more interesting than photos. What do ya think?

Currently I am looking for a car. Its a long story so I wont bore you. But even though there is nothing wrong with my current car, its old and thus expensive. Newer cars are cheaper. I'm probably going to spend a decent amount on a stereo and a GPS unit, so I can take some decent road trips.

SAKURA and HANAMI (Cherry trees and flower viewing)
Right now the cherry tree blossoms are coming to an end. They are super pretty, but super short lived. It would have been nice, if perhaps it wasn't cold and rainy the entire time. It would have been awesome if it wasn't for the craptastic weather in Japan. I did manage to go out to a park one afternoon for my lunch break. The one day it was semi-sunny(but not warm). There was a group of old ladies having a picnic, singing old traditional Japanese songs and dancing. It was totally awesome. After I was done eating I went over to say hi, and they quickly made me sit down and kept offering me food. Old ladies in Japan are Awesome. Normal Japanese adults are boooring. In public everybody has to behave, not stick out, not have fun. They always are worried about what other people think about them. Except old ladies. These old birds were the most care free people I had met in a while. For example, typical Japanese adult who greets me for the first time says something like "Its a pleasure to meet you Mr. Brian. I hope we can have favorable relations in the future". Seriously, its always that polite. These ladies said something like this "Sup dawg. Where u come from? America? Damnnnn dats tight". Totally. Awesome. But then I had to go back to work. LAME. But it was cold anyway.

I kept waiting for nice weather to go cherry blossom viewing, but it never came. I did end up going out at night for a BBQ. It was overcast, and rained for a small bit. Everybody was freezing. I a shirt, two sweaters, and my warmest winter jacket on.

So cherry trees really are beautiful, but highly overrated because of the freaking weather.