glowingstar71's Xanga

Friday, March 14, 2008

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:44:36 GMT

??!

screw YOU, JETs who are in japan now!

from the associated press:

"The dollar, which on Thursday fell below 100 Japanese yen for the first time since late 1995, again dipped as low as 98.88 yen Friday. It clawed back some ground and traded at 99.21 yen, compared with the 102.04 yen it traded Thursday."

when i started on JET, it was 107 yen to the dollar. the next year it was 114. when i left, it was 121. blah!!! the only thing i feel lucky about is that part one of my pension refund came recently and part two should be here soon.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:11:36 GMT

Seven months later....
thanks everyone who commented on my "pulse"! i haven't been on here in hella days, and yet i can't seem to just quit this blog.

it's been jussssssst about seven months since i moved back here to the san francisco bay area. life has been pretty good! but...there have been some blah things that have happened too.

i'll make a little list of the good and the bad that have happened....now:

the dark side

had the seat stolen off my bike at the bart station
had the front tire stolen off my bike at the same bart station (carrying your bike home reallllllllly sucks! i hope that asshole who took it gets what he/she deserves!)
instead of making more money than before i left for japan, i had to settle for about 20% less
rent for my apartment is a little over double what i was paying before i left for japan
no car

the bright side

got my japanese pension refund back already!!
just got my state tax refund (and did my taxes already)!
i can once again see the golden gate bridge, pacific ocean, alcatraz, and the bay bridge from my office window
credit card debt is about 2/3 gone
my wifey has a job she really likes and is able to contribute to our rent (muah!)
i seem to have unlimited PTO (paid time off) at work and can take pretty much whenever i want off (though i don't abuse it)
everywhere i go, people can understand exactly what i'm saying!
taco trucks!!! with completely awesome tacos!!!!
thick, cheesy pizza!!! with proper pepperoni and everything else!!!! (sadly, no mayo-corn here....)

the brightest side

got a photo i took published on the cover of a magazine in boston!!!!!!

also got two photos in the Gaijin Eye issue of Japanzine again this past January!

because there is a japantown here, i can still get stuff like this at the supermarket:

and on a final happy note, due to positive reception of my photographic style, my nikon has now paid for itself! i now have regular clients who i shoot for on a regular basis. good times!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:16:31 GMT

greetings from california! i had such a fun time this past weekend with my wifey out in san fran. we biked from bart to fisherman's wharf like a couple of tourists, then made our way up columbus to north beach where we stumbled upon a reading of excerpts from jack kerouac's "on the road" (this being the 50th anniversary and all). then we went down to cafe zoetrope and had a cheap pitcher of great wine from francis ford coppola's vineyard. the cool thing was that there's a roped off booth JUST for the coppolas and their guests right there in his cafe. all-in-all it was just a relaxing evening. it felt amazing to be back....

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:36:14 GMT

usa
wow...i can't believe i have been in the u.s. for three and a half weeks! or is it four weeks? time passes strangely sometimes as you transition from one place to another.

i love it here, but i kinda miss japan. most of all, i miss the safety aspect of living in japan. here, i walk with a pen in my hand in the (still pretty unlikely) event i need to stab someone in the eye if they attack me. er, not sure if that would really work, but in my head it's good enough!

and man, i never realized just how large american-sized portions were! i know there's a cliche about that, but for some reason, i guess i never noticed it before. in japan, i was able to eat and get full, but here, it's like...are restaurants trying to make us all hugely obese?! dang...or maybe half of every entree is meant to be taken home? hmmm.... yeah, big america.... big portions, big bellies, and big boobs...everywhere! and what's up with milk costing almost five bucks a gallon? when i left, you could get a two-gallon pack for about four bucks and change.

anyway...small update: i live in san leandro with my wifey, and i'm waiting to hear back from an investment bank. the first one didn't work out. shot a couple of HOT fetish models. went to the power exchange sex club in s.f. with my wifey and some friends and saw nothing appealing there at all. tomorrow i will be taking a drug test for the bank. living the minimalist lifestyle with only a papasan cushion, low table, and two lamps as furniture in our 600 square foot studio. i'm trying to keep it empty so i can use it as a photo studio (bought three strobes and a 10 foot tall background holder so i can shoot even people standing up).

as always...not sure how often i will update this thing...but there ya go.... ;)

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 01:10:09 GMT

this is it!
i will be picked up by the good people of my board of education in about an hour. then...it's about six more hours til flight time. gotta vacuum one more time, and then that's it. kinda anti-climactic, if u ask me. ;)

see you again, japan....

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:27:47 GMT

sigh....
not even sure that i want to leave japan now. i feel like maybe there were things i should have done while here. i mean, no regrets or anything...but i wish my last times doing certain things weren't the last last times.... i could go for some really good ramen another 500 times or so....

my wifey is out having a good time in tokyo with one of her friends, and i'm stuck here at home cuz i waited so long to finish cleaning up and packing. not that this weekend wasn't incredibly fun...but i just wish there was some more fun times ahead here. i worked so much (didn't even use all my vacation time), and i had to help out with speech contest twice this week, so i didn't really have many days to just do whatever i wanted, go new places, and things like that.

and crap...wouldn't u know it... they just played "too young" by phoenix on bbc6 (listening over the net). it's the song heard in the apartment scene in "lost in translation." this lyric made me lose it right now..... "Tonight everything is over."

but....

more to come in san francisco. i will probably see some of those of you (who still read my blog ;) out there. see youuuu...and...have a fun! ;)

Monday, July 30, 2007

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:54:19 GMT

whoa....
two posts ago i had 23 days left here. and now, technically, we are leaving japan...tomorrow!
it's sinking in...slowly, but surely. for one thing, my bed is gone and so is my fridge. almost everything has been moved out (except my boxes to mail and my luggage). but, u know....i had a great time here!

i listened to so much music on my ipod on all those two-hour trips to tokyo. i will always be reminded of japan whenever i listen to pj harvey, nine inch nails, supertramp, steely dan, and ken ishii.

oh, and btw...i never saw mt. fuji up close (let alone climbed it), went to tokyo disneyland, visited okinawa or hokkaido, ate whale, or did the whole thailand-cambodia-third-world thing that the kids like. ;) guess i still have time for disneyland and whale, but....eh. next time....

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 04:52:33 GMT

one week
that's all i have left here. a week. then...back to san francisco.
in the meantime...i have things to do, people to see, places to go, and stuff to pack and mail.
but, lemme tell you...the past week has been surreal.

from 100 kids singing and dancing the "tarako" for me while i sat on a chair in the gym at one of my schools...

...to a rope bondage performance i attended and photographed...

...to fiiiiiiiiiinally getting to visit my wifey's house and play with her doggy, it's all been just...unreal!

i'm gonna miss this place.

(note to self...drink more of these before you leave!)

Monday, July 09, 2007

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:02:30 GMT

23 days...
...to go. sigh....i'm gonna miss you, most of all, my perverted tokyo friends....

Decabirth
Uploaded by intrauma

Friday, July 06, 2007

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:57:19 GMT

26
holy shit...26 days to go. just 26 days left in japan, then back to cali. it's starting to hit me just how little time i have left here. in one month from now, i will have been living in california for almost a week! other things that make me realize i'm moving back... i already made a dmv appointment to renew my license (gotta take the written test...bleh), and on a good note, i already have a job offer at an investment bank! alas, it's way down in palo alto, but...there's a good chance i could transfer to a bank in san francisco. but do i reallllly want to work at bank again? no, not really. but i'll do it just until i can make a career out of photography. i shall be amassing equipment with my paychecks as i once again hopefully make a good wage. i already have some people to shoot when i get back, though most will be pro bono for now.

but man...i'm going to be busy til i leave, and not even with work stuff. most of my busyness now is coming from trying to gain more photography experience. actually, i will be interviewing the guy who scored the film i shot stills for on sunday. and hopefully by the end of next week, i will have conducted interviews with the producer, director, and even the seven-year-old star of the movie!

on another note...my wifey and i went to an amazing fetish club last weekend. any guy i know would have killed to have been there! lots of hot japanese girls who were very touchy-feely with most of the guys there (yes, myself included ;). my wifey didn't seem to get jealous, and i didn't really get jealous either about the attention she was getting from a lot of people either. we volunteered to do "dress code check," so we got in for free even though there wasn't much to do, and we only had to be at the door for an hour. "winners" of the night were these two israeli guys who must have made out with most of the girls in the place (er, my wifey excluded ;). it was kinda weird actually... like, they seemed like total pricks, and in one case, one of the guys was all over this one girl. she kept pulling away, and he was all aggressive with her. i thought for sure he was going to get thrown out. the next thing i know, i see her standing over near ths couch with one guy feeling you-know-where while he sat on the couch, and the other guy all licking her neck and giving her a reach-around! totally off the walll....

and by the way...our last "hurrah" in japan will be the "adult treasure expo" on the last weekend we are here (july 27 - 29). info is here.

join us, won't you? ;)

actually...speaking of joining...my wifey and i are planning a going away party for that last weekend in july (most likely july 28th). we're thinking either izakaya or bbq. lemme know if u want to go!