i don't know when i wrote this

He sits in his living room with his wife and his cat. They have just finished watching a drama about a zombie apocalypse. Their beautiful son is in the other room sleeping on their futon. He is happy, she is happy. The cat is being a cat. Always in a state of let me sit on your lap and you may stroke me ,but only ten times on the 11th stroke I will bite your hand. Why? Because I am a cat.

He reads his last blog post which was in 2015. He thinks about what has changed since then. A lot has changed. A lot. 

Last train winner

Sometimes on the last train, Japanese people are not afraid to strike up convo. it happened to me twice yesterday. Anyway while I was with my friends. This guy started to exercise his English but we kind of ignored him as he was a lil tipsy and we didn't have time for him.
I felt sorry after dissing his high 5 . SO I asked him a question just to help him out. What follows is detailed below.

Me : How tall are you?

Tall Japanese guy : 187 cm (Yes we do cm here)

Me : Wow, really tall .(taller than me)

Tall Japanese guy : Yeah,how tall are you ?

Me: 183cm

Tall Japanese guy : Oh. I'm TALLER than you. I'm the winner. I'm the winner.

He continues in this mocking tone which irritates me a little.Plus his friends were giggling and he was trying to show me up.

Me: How many centimetres are you ?(Pointing to an area of my anatomy)

Tall Japanese guy: (Looking confused) says nothing

Me: WINNER !!! WINNNER !WINNER.

BOB SAPP,I AM NOT

I'll say Thank God it's Friday not because I hate work because the opposite is true and more because I am tired. I've greeted more people than the pope walked like an hour each day as my commute and climbed that hill that my school is on top off which will get me fit. Plan is to get the quiet cheap drink in with a few friends and just relax.I say the as it is going to be one lol. I'm looking forward to some Umeshu plum wine which I'll eventually learn to make.

Like it's Friday end of the working week and, I had a busy day, there were only 5 school periods in the day and I was  only meant to work 3 but I ended up doing all 5. So extra work but this is more of me putting my hand up saying I'm free let me take part in these lessons.


I think I'll benefit from writing little and often as everyday there is something to say. I wish I could have videoed my introduction lesson because I think its cool. I confronted  the Bob Sapp comparatives I knew I would definitely receive head on by pulling out a Bob Sapp flashcard to introduce the concept of name.. A few kids try call me Bob Sapp but since I brought it up first it is more like a laugh together than at me and they can't take credit aye.

SO I attend a Japanese class once a week on Thursday and it's in a community centre so I showed a few members the basics of Salsa and a bit of Kizomba on the Thursday , I mean being a teacher helps now as showing and demonstrating becomes part of your life which is always fun so I look forward to working on that part of my life (the dancing)here. Also I received a generous amount of rice from one of the teachers who happens to come from an area where rice is in abundance and this came about from me complaining that the price of rice is too damn high. I think i have enough to last me the year and It was necessary as times are hard, month in lieu pa and all that means pay  arrives end of May now considering I moved here end of March and I travelled 6000 miles and rent a modern apartment it is a hard life. Top it off I met somebody else who has invited me to a vibrant international church in the closest big city Mito so everything is falling into place. Earthquake count for me now is 3 now so I'm getting used to it.

PEACE

Day 1 x 2

So, I came to Japan for many reasons but my vehicle here was and is teaching the English and it's something I had thought about since I was 19 when I read the blog Gaijin Smash you can find here http://gaijinchronicles.com/ . I actually just got sidetracked reading it for like half an hour.


Anyway I'm here now and I had my first day at my Junior High School yesterday and my first day at my Elementary School today. I've never taught a real class of school kids, only fake ones with  my peers pretending to be Japanese kids. There is a big difference, sometimes you get that kind of silence that comedians get when their joke doesn't fly or the silence you get when you ask a girl her name and she blanks you ( Neither of these have happened to me by the way).  Doing the same class a few times allowed me to fine tune my class and it went done quite well, it was aimed as an introduction and they got to know my name with thanks to Super Mario as a lot of times I introduce myself as Mario without an M. It helps trust me.

The Elementary school now was like the best fun I've had in a long time, and it helps that I understand a fair bit of Japanese because although I only teach one year in the school, everybody is running up to me and asking questions and they don't even think about talking to me in English, I'll just have a kid asking me if they can jump on my shoulders or, how tall i am?where I am from`? Can I dunk? How strong am I? what's my favourite song? my favourite animal? The only thing everyone can say in English is 'HELLO'

Like I could go into detail but I mean being able to laugh and smile and make people do the same at work is amazing. I mean there are man things I could do better but it is just the start I think I'll learn a little each day and eventually I'll be that guy.

Oh and the teachers act like I'm some wonder child and they love that I brought Earl Grey Tea in a little souvenir box.

Never be late in the land of the rising sun

So in Japan you can't be late, being late  is a big problem. Common practise is to arrive earlier than expected, ten minutes early is on time 20 minutes early is early and if you really want to impress just be there from birth, just be there. Ask your Mum to give birth to you there

So my first appointment was at 5:19, I know very exact but these were the instructions. I'm not talking PM either this is AM.  To be first in line is a big deal and I didn't want to wait till midday because everybody would want a piece of the action and I think getting some one on one time is important. Anyway I couldn't sleep properly I had 3 dreams about being late and even woke up before my 4:30 alarm.

So I wake up but because my appointment is within walking distance I  faff about and end up leaving minutes late, throwing a sandwich in my mouth knowing that I have to move down the road in some semi-run looking marathon walk type movement down the quiet streets at dawn. Feeling like a fool.So meeting place is the beach I think it's the best place for a first meeting and I get there early - Brilliant.

I wait around for a minute and then I see what I've been waiting for the rising sun.
I've seen the sun rising before but I have never gone to see the sunrise it was something else. I could see the inspiration for the flag and for the name of my city and the alias for the country. My eyes were a better lens than the one mounted to my camera and the image in my mind is more vivid than any of the pictures I took.

Worth the wake up and worth the dash but I'm not doing it tomorrow.

Intruder

He picked the wrong house I just wasn't in the mood it was late I had just come home from my friends house literally around the corner, what are the odds aye??
Basically I have no idea how he got in because the door was locked , there is a garage linked to my house so maybe he worked in his way through some trap door,but either way I don't care. In Japan crime rate is pretty low and people don't usually break into peoples houses, another tick on the Pros list. I'm going to assume that he was intoxicated or on something because he actually thought I didn't notice him and to be honest I didn't at first but the idiot tried to hide like he was a fly or something. The space under the stairs is pretty big I mean i can fit but I would stick out. He wasn't as big as me but (no homo) the idiot looked like he could lift his body weight several times over, i could see ridiculous strength, i think pound for pound he could take me but I was a lot larger and I wasn't in the mood for a long drawn out fight.

i pretended I didn't see him and he bought it (intoxication maybe) I went upstairs to wear I keep my weaponry.
I carefully walked down the stairs like i was going to toilet and just as i got to the bottom of the stairs. I went for him couldn't even walk straight he tried to go for me but i sidestepped and he stumbled then the bloody Cockroach went under the fridge but I'm sure he's dead that spray is effective.I went in with that spray but kept a distance in case he made a last ditch attempt at my life

Yeah cockroach!! I've seen like 2 this week but I hate them. i wish I was raised in Nigeria for a few years so they wouldn't bother me s much but boy I can't live with them. It ain't my fault either this house is old and dark and stuff so don't think I'm a mess because I don't have no cockroaches at home. it's an old wooden house summer thing i guess.

OTOKO NO KO-Mr Black

I'll upload a picture when I get it , yeah I had to take a picture with this dude.
He started speaking to my boy Francis and I thought it was a Nigerian brother just because he had a head shape similar to some of my uncles. But when this dude turned round he was full scale Japanese boy with super tanned skin, like the same colour all over but this colour was brown, like black man brown. Japanese people are not known for the darkness of their skin granted it is summer and people can get dark but this was extreme. I wonder what his parents thought, I wonder what his friends think what girls think and most of all I wonder what he was thinking. Did he wake up one morning and think MTV has made me believe that the next step on my cool list is to become black or at least look it so off to the tanning salon I go.

Did this work? was he now cool? did people cross the street when they saw him? I'll never know unless I see him tonight

I'm sure he must go to the salon like some people go to the gym. In a weird way it was a little bit flattering but i mean like 3% and the the other 97% was weird and hilarious.

This dude gave all the high 5's and man hugs and bought us both drinks , which I must say is very unblack, black people don't buy each other drinks ( is that self hate).Don't get angry it's true I've met people and they've bought me a drink before even knowing my name this has happened on many occasions but none of these occasions has it been a black guy. The only black guys who buy me drinks are my friends, friends that know they'll see me again and I will be buying them a drink later. Fair enough I mean I'm not buying you a drink unless I know you, I don't have that disposable income and you know I'll be giving you that eye contact a hour later like remember that drink i bought you an hour yeah- payback time son. Thirsty throat. I'll probably do that cup to mouth action and hope he doesn't think I'm doing something else

But back to the point , some guys love the dark skin so much that they super tan, Yes I know some people just want to tan as they think tanned skin looks healthier and not because they want to be black, but this is an example of I wanna be like you oooh oooh

I will never mean to generalise a people many people can have different reasons for doing the same thing
so this is Mr Black coolest kid in the block until we came to town.