a quick hello goodbye

It's a bit late to give everyone a full rundown of the past week, but I wanted to give a quick greeting before heading to Thailand. Jake was here for about 8 days, from March 16-24, and it was amazing. We dined, slept, played, walked, drank, and frolicked in fish guts as much as our ape-like western bodies would let us. I have SO many pictures, but will have to use another time to really get some good ones up here, and then figure out a way to put up a higher volume of pictures for everyone to see. But in case you're DYING to know...

Here's big Jake in a little Japanese chair as a Japanese tram climbs a mountain for us.
Here's the three of us: me and Jake and Amber in the middle.
Here I am finishing Jacob's ritual suicide after he crushed too many of Japan's delicate flowers.
Here's me and Jake as samurai/Obi-won-konobe.
Jake and Amber look silly in this little cafe in Takasaki.
Amber getting sick of getting made fun of for saying words like "uni" and "dunny."
And finally, here's me and Jake really grossed out by a bloody bucket of eels at the fish market in Tsukiji. We have many crazy pictures of this insane fish market.

But it is late at night, and i'm going to THAILAND TOMORROW! Nuts! And I'm meeting my friend from high school Lara just after I arrive! Nuts! What a small world this is sometimes. But I'm enjoying it at the moment. You'll here from me soon.
Mata ne!
Aaron

Surprise!

Everyday is a little further away from Winter and closer to Spring, but I'm afraid to say that it still feels like Winter. Sitting under my kotatsu (heated table) eating my miso, goofing off on the internet, watching a movie, reading, and drawing are all nice enough... but it would be even nicer if I didn't HAVE to stay under my kotatsu in order to be warm in my poorly insulated apartment. I reckon in a few weeks all this will be different. At least I hope so.
So, Aaron has an exciting few weeks ahead of him. First, my man Jacob Kerner is coming to town. This is very good news, as he has been my partner in crime for over four years now. But I haven't seen him in 7 months! But our crime spree will resume in just two days. Fantastic. I have multiple things in mind, including a romp in Tokyo, a hang out in my town, a fire walking festival, an expensive rural hot spring bath, a German cafe reunion, and one last goodbye from Tokyo. I miss him already, and I haven't even seen him yet...
But I have already, announced this, so onto the surprise. 2 days after Jacob leaves Japan, I'm going to Thailand with Amber and my friend Shane. If all goes according to plan, I'll also be meeting my long time friend and international travel buddy, Lara, in Bangkok. And then, like all tourists in Thailand (at least the ones exclusively seeking legal fun, which probably a lower percentage than the Thai government would prefer) we will be heading to some beautiful islands and bum around the beach. We'll only be there a week, but the tickets were a great deal, and the expenses in Thailand are very low (7 days in Thailand may cost close to the amount for one night/2 meals at the ryokan me and Jake are going to). On top of that I have another buddy from college living and working in Bangkok who will hopefully be able to show the right places to go. I'm excited for my first international trip from this Asian home of mine! My first instinct was to go home this break, but that would have required me using all of my vacation days with months and the summer still coming, as well as dishing out mucho mullah for only 2 weeks at home. My plan is rather to save up my time and money for a long rest at home this summer.
I'm afraid I have no exciting pictures to post at the moment, but hopefully I will soon!
And for those who get anxious when hearing about me going places, I will consult a doctor and stock up on many meds before leaving. And we have no super ambitious plans to go hiking in the malarial typhoon jungles in search of the most poisonous invisible spider/snake hybrid in the world, ala Steve Irwin (RIP). This will all be pretty low key I think. I'll save the more exciting and parent-anxiety-inducing trips for later.

The only everyday news I have worth mentioning is that I witnessed my first graduation ceremony (soutsugyou-shiki) in Japan, and watched all 200 of my 3rd year Jr High Students individually walk across stage, bow, get their certificate, bow, and walk off. Followed by about a billion long boring speeches, the ceremony clocked in at a mind-numbing 3 hours.
The exciting part was the "sayonara" parade, when all the teachers and many parents went outside (it was super windy and cold) and waved goodbye and "omedetou!" (congratulations) to the students as they left Minami Junior High School for the last time. I got to feel a little bit like a rock star for a minute, as I was swamped by teenage girls (and sometimes boys) for pictures, handshakes, giggling, awkward english/japanese conversation, and even once or twice, a hug (which induced lots of whispering and looks). Funny, at the camp I worked at for many summers, I had to hug lots of stinky, snotty, smelly, kids-teens when they left, and I never really thought about it. I wouldn't say Americans are even particularly touchy-feely, but compared to the Japanese I suppose we are. It's as if the girls had to summon up all their courage and strength to awkwardly hug me for 2 seconds, before running away giggling. But I didn't see any other hugs, even from parents to their kids. Maybe it's only a Western rite-of-passage to be embarrassingly smooched and hugged as a teenager in front of one's friends. In Japan, I honestly don't see people touching each other much at all... Even though they are really cute.
I forgot my camera that day, which I really regret. But my image will live on with about 90 girls who did capture my picture. Maybe they can look at it a little down the road and decide they'd like a foreigner boyfriend one day, as he would go quite well with their Louis Vuitton bags and french poodles.

So, exciting news ne! I'll keep you updated before long, with even more about me and my life. Don't be a stranger and email me anytime. I'll gladly give out my address, and you can give me yours for a postcard or something.
Good night, and good luck

Aaron

Marble Sheep...

...is the name of a Japanese band that described themselves as "so-so underground famous" outside of Japan, though not really known at all within Japan. Me and Amber had a bonding moment with them when the bass player let us stay at her tiny tiny Tokyo apartment on Friday night. Too bad Ken, the lead singer also crashing there, snored really loudly all night.
We met them that night at a small show in Tokyo (Shimakitazawa), where me and Amber made the haul to see Damo Suzuki, former lead singer of Can. Amber, in her mysterious life, met Damo with her music friends from Melbourne and so we used her mysterious connection to get on the guest list. How exciting! I went to a gig in Tokyo on the guest list! haha...

Not a terrific picture, but here's the old man doing his thing. His performances are all improvised, and he seems to make little to no contact with the band he happens to be playing with at the time. A hand shake and "arigatou" is about as close as i saw him get to the people he played with. Despite the lack of connection among the performers, he definitely inserted some energy into the stage. And his nonsense lyrics somehow matched the controlled chaos of the sets. We went to a nearby Chinese restaurant where everyone ate and drank for many hours. Marble Sheep members were among the guests, and were kind enough to shelter us later on.

He was performing again the next night, so we hung around and saw him in Aoyama on Saturday. I maybe liked this second round better, but its tough to say with music like this...
we sat up close and watched the sweat pour off of him. Guess he calls performing "sweat-bathing." Appropriate enough.
Amber is either really happy or just cringing in pain from how loud it was, and how close we were to the speakers. We deafened ourselves up front with some of Damo's other guests, including a belly dancer who currently resides in Brooklyn, her boyfriend with very tight pants, and a dentist. not the usual group of people I hang out with on my saturday nights, and though maybe i don't have a whole lot in common with all of them, i certainly appreciated the change of pace and interesting stories.
This is Damo Suzuki with a weird (/forced) smile, his entirely sweat soaked body hugging me and Amber. You may also notice in this picture that for the first time in maybe a year and half or so I do not have a beard. I shaved this past Friday. Amber seemed to barely recognize me, and I had to pump myself up for Monday at work, when I thought I'd be hearing comments all day. But, to my surprise, people seemed to barely notice. The teachers I've been working with for months didn't say anything until the kids actually pointed it out, and the all of a sudden it struck them that oh yah, i did look really different. The teacher who sits next to me and whom I eat lunch with everyday asked if I got a haircut. I said "no," and she thought for a moment and then insisted that something was different.... right? I thought she was joking, but in retrospect I'm not sure. I really don't get it. I could probably come in with a shaved head, an entirely new outfit, and an extra mysterious 5 inches, and i feel like they would still barely notice anything was different. Only the 14 year old girls really paid any notice... haha

In the mean time, I'm waiting for the glorious arrival of my good good good friend Jacob. Jacob has been my partner in crime and heterosexual life mate for these past four years, and it will be good to share some of Japan with him . I've already got plans that don't fit into either of our budgets. I'll keep you informed about my transportation plans, post red-bicycle theft. :(
With love,
Aaron

RIP

Well, no one actually died. But a piece of my life has been taken from me. That is to say, my little red squeaky rusty bicycle has been stolen. Or at least it is not where I put it last night anymore. Bicycle theft is not uncommon in Japan, but I kept it under the stairwell in my half empty apartment block in a secluded residential area in a tiny town north of a small city. That bike was of absolutely no value, but I was beginning to form an attachment to it nonetheless.
その自転車もう懐かし。。。