A month from today I will be on a plane to Canada! It's only a 12 day trip, but it will be nice to go back to a "normal" country for a few days. Life here is just bizarre... most of the time in a good way, but still it will be nice to go back to what I know. Speaking of what I know, tonight me and some friends are going to Denny's for some good old American dinning. I once went out of curiosity just to check out the menu, and it seemed like your neighbourhood Denny's with a side dish of sushi rolls. We are going tonight to celerbrate my friend Jason's 3rd month in Japan, the longest he has ever been out of his country of the United States. So what better way to underline this event but by going to this all-American establishment. Anyway, Ill see if I will remember to take a picture of my meal tonight and I will post it.

Of all my friends here I am the one that has been here for the shortest time and because of that I think it is strange that I seem to be the one that seem to lead and organize most of our outings and get-togethers. At home, for the longest time I seemed to follow what my friends were doing. Sure I always had some kind of input in what we would do, but it was rare when I was the one completly in charge. I am the youngest of all my friends here and I seem to be the one that takes care of all the party planning. I guess it feels good to be the one in control and to have people think highly of my ideas. So last week-end it was my friend Leslee's b-day and I thought of having a little party for her at the last minute since no one had thought of it. My friend Donna and I spent the whole day planning the little shindig and we had a lot more people coming then we thought. I never had so many people in my apartment before! It was a success! Here are a few pictures:

Here is Leslee opening up some of her gifts surrounded by two of my closest friends in Japan: Donna and Diane. I hang out with these two so much that I always get their names mixed up. I guess its because their names are almost the same, or maybe its because I am just a horrible person for not getting their names right.








Here is Taishin, Kume and myself. You are maybe wondering what we were watching on television. My television and DVD player are also known as my CD player. I think I was trying to introduce my friends to the musical greatness of The Dears that night. Kume, the one in the middle, is a very interesting character. We all love him because he is "Kume." You know these people that everyone likes because "he is just the way he is?" Well he's that kind of guy. He is just this crazy Japanese guy that does really crazy unexplainable things. Well last Tuesday night, Donna, Jason, Kume, Rio and I went Karaeoke singing until 3am because the next day was another Japanese national holyday. Anyway on our way back home, Kume thought it would be funny if he would do some wild tricks on his bike. Unfortunately for him these little stunts would lead him to a really bad biking accident. The bike skidded and Kume took a really bad hit to his head as his bike fell over him. Donna, Jason and I just froze in disbelief! We couldnt believe how badly he fell off his bike. We parked our bikes in the middle of the street and ran to get him out of the way of the cars. He lost consciousness for a few seconds, shattered his glasses and had blood all over his face. After gtting him up he started mumbling something about going to the "bomb" because he exploded... We are still wondering what the hell he was talking about. We were nevertheless suprised to how well he was speaking english after getting such a big hit to the head! We called our friend Rio for some help and as we were talking to him to get us a taxi to the hospital, Kume just got back on his bike and took off! It was the strangest thing... I guess he was going to that imaginary Bomb place that he was talking about. The problem is that he felt really ashamed and he didnt want us to help him! I guess that is something else about japanese culture that I dont quite understand. They think that these kind of accidents are their fault and they dont deserve any help for their mistakes. No one could ever understand the impact of this fall unless they were there with us that night! It was very scary and we all panicked a little bit more then we would have usually because of the language barrier. We couldnt call a taxi and if someone stopped to help us we wouldnt know how to explain what happened. Speaking of which, no one who drove by that night stopped to see if we needed any help. I guess that maybe because it was the middle of the night they thought we were a bunch of holligans playing some kind of prank, but no one even slowed down to check out why we were flarring our arms standing beside our bikes! This whole incident ended with Rio picking up Kume to go to the hospital. Luckily for him, he was not severely hurt and everything was fine. But that was my tuesday night... I guess this made the evening a little bit more interesting. It sure gives Kume a good story to tell! I still wonder what that bomb place was all about...

Ok back to Leslee's b-day party!

Here you have Jason, myself, Matt, Kume, Dean, Rio and leslee at the bottom. My friend Matt sitting behind me is another Canadian living and teaching here in Fukushima. He studied film at Carleton and lived in Lanark in first year: "its a small world after all!" Crazy!

On a total different topic, I always thought to myself before leaving for japan that maybe living there could give me an idea for some kind cinematic project: a documentary, perhaps. This might never happen, but I was thinking of doing some kind of documentary on the Japanese education system. I would have to be perfect in Japanese and learn everything about the subject, and that could maybe be a little too much work with my busy work schedule, but there is nothing bad with throwing a few ideas around. I just never thought that I would be interested in making a film before. I always thought I belonged behind the scenes, but I just keep on getting all these creative ideas for shots and a script, and I really think it could be a really interesting project if I ever find the guts, time and energy.

Before I end this entry, a few week-ends ago my friend Diane and I went to this art exposition of the works of Seiji Fujishiro, a Japanese artist. Here are a few pictures I took before I was asked to put my camera away. You be the judge of what you see. I liked some of it, but I find it a little infantile to my taste. I like the cats and all, I think its cute, but its not something I would put up in my dinning room.

OK, one last thing before I go. It is almost impossible to know about new bands or new songs in Japan unless you are really into J-pop, which I still have a hard time taking seriously. But here are a few tracks that I found on my quest to finding some new tunes and artists:

Spoon - I Turn my Camera On

Sufjan Stevens - Chicago

John Vanderslice - Exodus Damage

The Fiery Furnaces - Evergreen

Architecture in Helsinki - It'5

Aquaduct - Hardcore Days and Softcore Nights

Death Cab for Cutie - Soul Meets Body

If you guys think im missing out on anything good and new back home, please let me know.

well better get all dolled up for my evening out at Denny's! I wonder of they have gritz...

e.