Beard goals

I wrote my last post two months ago. I felt like it was just last week until I realised that it was two months ago. Time flies no matter what you are doing. I scratch my beard trying to think about what is new and I realise that that is is the answer to my question. I have grown a beard. I like having a beard. I actually would like to grow it out a little and then shave it and restore myself back to being not quite so fresh-faced but just with a little bit of a shadow. I don't shave with a razor because I have super sensitive skin. hahaha. I grew a beard when I was working as an IT consultant and one of the project leaders made assumptions about my religion, he was wrong.  I am actually going to grow it out until I reach a goal of mine and then I will shave it off. Or maybe I won't. I may just keep it growing until I reach the next goal and then see from there.  Maybe it will grow on me :| . If my posts are going to be whimsical, then I shouldn't wait for two months for the next one.

Ted is a dick!

So, there are two things that are ruining my life. Ruining is an overstatement and a cop out. The thing that is getting me off track is ME.

The world of social media is one and the other one is sweet things.

Social media is a great tool but I am stuck to it sometimes. I know that I have a problem. I let go, I come back but what I really need to do is strike a nice clean balance. However, like a three-year-old, my balance is way off. I need to think of some rules to ween myself off. Once I have established them I will tell you. There is one I have stuck to, however. It is not to check my phone until after I have left for work and am on the train.  You get a lot accomplished. If I do look at my phone I end up slumped over like some weirdo gazing at things I do not really care about.

What I will do for the above is limit my social media time.

The second one is sweet things. I mean snacks, not girls. Get your mind out of the gutter!

 That is the one that is killing me. It is terrible. It is like a drug. They need to treat people for sugar addiction? Do they? Sometimes, I  walk into a shop to buy something sweet and literally have to talk myself out of it. Yes, moderation is good. I am not moderate. If someone followed me around and calculated how much I spent on snacks last year and told me today. I would probably slap myself and ask all my friends to slap me 3 too. I will also need a strategy. If you have any ideas let me know.

Ted is a dick!
A dick is Ted
A dick Ted
(there you go)

3 + 3

I am writing this post on the eve of my 33rd birthday hence the 3 +3 which is more like a 3 and 3. Too many threes in one sentence, so I started another one. Almost 3 years have passed since I wrote my last post. If I had any regular readers then I am sure they would have long disappeared.

I am free.

I have three jobs I teach English, translate from Japanese to English and teach a dance that I am still learning. I deleted a lol from the end of that sentence as I don't want to use lols in my blog but I have used two lols in this sentence alone, now three.

I live in Kyoto, Japan and have done so for three years with my wife who I married three years ago and we have a three-year-old cat and a son who will be three next year. It is funny how you can make links to something if you try to. For example, I have two brothers, but that means there are three of us.

I have enjoyed this, it feels good. I actually love to write. I hope people still love to read.

slowly but surely

YAYE high fives all around I made it to Kyoto in April this year. It took 6 years since my first job application which I never got, 2 years in Ibaraki-ken the least charming prefecture in the whole of Japan and many many many great nights good experiences made many good friends who were hard to leave. Everytime I tried to say goodbye something would work its way into my eye and make it seem like I was crying (which is ridiculous). I passed my JLPT level 2 and am aiming for level 1. I have started teaching Kizomba here dancing more salsa and bachata which is great. I have danced more in the last 2 months than I did in the entire 2 years I was in Ibaraki.  My new school is great, co worker is great bosses are cool. What else?  Oh I just peered over at our cat "shinobi" I say we as  I am in a we situation. So there is a kitten he is very cute when he wants to be and then a nuisance to my feet at like 5 in the morning.
Slowly but surely things are moving in the right direction.

Ariyo

Wake up!

After all the hesitation, the doubt, the fear. All the times I felt I shouldn't be here. All the times that I should turn back and seek more familiar shores, where my presence would not be the white elephant (or the black bear). I am one step away from my dream. One more step and then I can wake up and no longer have to dream.

28

I'm 28 but what does that mean, it means I've been here for a while and I thank God for that. Fullstop aye

Just flicking through my Iphone pictures shows
me how eventful my birthday and start to the golden week weekend was. I am still trying to claw back sleep that I missed out on thanks to the nightlife of Mito, Osaka and Kyoto respectively. My actual birthday was spent with new friends starting of in an Izakaya Japanese style and ending in a bar which I'm sure is a great live music venue. This was via late night karaoke , intoxicated skateboarding tricks by the Tanda and posing for pics with the BMX crew. The night ended with a really tasty burger which left me as quickly as it entered me, some of the guys getting down with the guitars and drums and me starting my journey to Kyoto.Shinkansen baby

The weekend was ridiculously good. Met with my boy  Kwaps who features in this blog from my last time in Japan. I won't go into details now but 4 all nighters in a row fun times.
It is funny though the reaction we get walking around people gawking oh and if the arms are out then it's a wrap lol. Sugoi-Yabai-Kakkoi lol Pictures, pointing, greetings etc.

Saturday morning killed it with some stair training with Kwaps which almost finished me, my legs are still hurting. There is a picturesque stairways leading to a temple/shrine  surrounded by trees in what seems like the middle of nowhere but this was not a serene scenario just the two of us running full pace up steps and descending when tired , which was much earlier for me, and repeating the process. Killer. the ultimate test was having to stand on the shinkansen on the way back and the next day having my elementary school class but that went well as always.

Ended the weekend knowing that I need to get myself a permanent residence Kansai sides man.

Cash down

So after the 3 way money transfer drama of trying to provide myself with enough money to eat, I'm in a good place and am due to hit up my home away from home in Kansai, Kyoto for the tail end of golden week. Bus is fully booked so I have to go by Shinkansen 'poor me'. Literally poor me as it isn't cheap but since I wont have another chance to go till late summer sacrifices have to be made.

Also confirmed it that Hitachi is not the place to do an all nighter, it's not that kind of town don't get me wrong Hitachi has so many bars but unfortunately 95% of these are Snack bars- google it.
Hitachi does have many nice little spots , karaoke places restaurants of a variety , had a nice Italian last night which fits the budget, and cool bars western and Japanese. This however means that if you go out you should make sure you get the last train or you will have a long wait with little or no stimulation. There will be exceptional nights but unless you have your own party going on, you will not find one in Hitachi. MY OPINION. We will be moving the party to Mito and hit up bubble as Mito has a bit more to offer and that may be worth an all nighter.

On another note , I gots me my Sofa bed and a nice low Japanese style table delivered to me yesterday in the early hours of the A.M yesterday which was straight after the all nighter that led me to my earlier drawn conclusion. So as I have furniture I can not just move so I'm grounded in Hitachi for a bit
.
Last thing I need some hair clippers my transformer is not working and the razors are giving the me those ugly uncle bumps at the back of my head and they take like a week to go. Hitachi is so lacking that I haven't found any yet but I'll get some if not now then when I get my self to Kansai.

say this in a japanese accent please

BURAKU----SANDA -- 

Thanks

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.

what I thought about monkeys

I'm going to blame the racist abuse I received from a young age for the ignorance I am about to embrace you with.
I always generally thought that monkeys lived in Africa and that was that, I mean I know I've seen the Jungle book and the King of the swingers is a monkey but I think that being called a black Monkey and being told to go back to the zoo, to climb a tree and the millions of things the NF boys would say made me believe that monkeys were only in Africa. Does that make sense to you, don't care it's my excuse

I know there are places in Japan where monkeys will jump into hot springs with you but I just thought they were imported monkeys ,still to think that monkeys were an inhabitant of Japan didn't really register, until the other day when I was with my friend and they told me that the part of Kyoto they live in sometimes you can see monkeys, like monkey monkeys. I was shocked, i was confused but most of all I was excited. I mean the monkeys were wild and dangerous but I wanted to see Japanese Monkeys. Monkey magic, Monkey power

Turns out there is a little monkey park Arashiyama monkey park in Kyoto so to speak on top of a "mountain" and you can feed them from inside an enclosure costs about 100 yen (one pound ish) for some feed and they ll take the food from out of your hand through a caged fence. I've never fed monkeys before like that ( not to my recollection ) but it was so cool, especially the young ones which still looked cute and not scary, occasionally a monkey would switch on another monkey for some reason but who knows.let the monkeys fight aye ( heard that one before).There was a monkey that would tap the cage to get your attention and then stretch its hands for a nut or an apple or whatever you had. Such a human thing to do. They were fascinating to watch, I want a monkey but just a cute one, like baby size. Can we do this??? make it happen

One scary thing is that , you are told not to look at the monkeys in the eye. I had images in my head of a monkey having an Are you looking at me moment? I did not want to have a hungry monkey on my hands-I did not look any monkeys in the eye. these things no taller than my knee had me looking at the floor like I had been given a dirty African slap.

On leaving the monkeys started going ape (haha) and one jumped out of a tree right next to me. I got a little scared but maintained my composure ,remember everyone thinks I'm cool and I want that to remain that way

TakoYaki Party

Tako = Octopus (yes octopus)
and Yaki = Fried( I think)
Therefore everybody gets dressed up and dances dressed up as fried octopi (ok toe pie) Yeahhhhhh
and there you have it end of blog post with a little MatheMagic.

NOt so simple, Takoyaki is ,.and this is just my knowledge, which has been greatly broadened today, octopus balls ( not testicles
,octopus surrounded by a ball of flour et al. We used ginger and something green and a bit of something that looks like rice crispies and tako yaki sauce amongst other things.

Imagine how good my recipe book would be, yeah get some yellow stuff, milk, red bitsmix it for a bit and then heat it up.
That would be my recipe for victoria sponge.

There is a takoyaki machine which is like a (HOLD ON... i had to take down a mosquito the size of a golf ball that was heading straight for me) anyway its basically a machine which looks like a hot plate crossed with a cupcake tray but for round things. That's as good a description as I can give :D

Anyway had a couple friends and my housemates all cooped up in a thin and narrow kitchen, stuffing our faces in between sessions of octopus ball making. I pretty much sucked at making the balls, but aced the preparation as you can see by the above picture, not sure which one I will use. though so this may not be relevant.

I am full to the brim with octopus and flour and cheese, and had a great time, if i have the space which I do not i will take the tako yaki machine home :)and have a go in London. So that was my evening, it's dark and quite hot- so will go to sleep and hope I don't get bitten by the mosquitoes that are waiting for me.

mata kondo ne

Level 4 Mamachari

So I've been here a month and a bit, time is running out. so i've basically entered my fourth stage in my trip, which is my own room.

1st Francis's for a week +,
2nd Homestay
3rd Francis for a week
4th Own room


It is not huge, I'm using my suitcase as a makeshift desk, I Park my bicycle in my boys house across the street, which i could literally jump.

And I say my bicycle like it is my bicycle but it is not my bicycle it is my boys bicycle, he has at least 2 bicycles. Balling.It's not about Maybachs out here it's about Mamacharis.(google is your friend and note picture) We don't ride mamacharis though we are rolling on Mountain bikes with the kick stand attachment. mamacharis are col though you have the basket for carrying your conbinience store shopping.

Anyway the couple that I live with are young 26 and 28 and are quite friendly, they got excited about my level of japanese and I'm sure they were very happy that I was the BFG and not Big angry Foreigner. I've spent most of the day just chilling used the kitchen to make a west african egg stew with Korean Kimchi in the mix. I didn't do a great job. I know there is something missing but for the life of me I do not know what. Friends finish work soon so will probably treat myself to something nice to eat before having my first nights sleep in this room I think it would be a 6 tatami room. Enough space for pushups so I'm happy.

Tomorrow I think i will be out all day polishing up the linguistics

Okay I need to buy something to make this room smell less , i want it to smell sweet and stuff but I don't want air freshener. HMmmmm what to buy??

I Run Kamogawa

If you know me a little, you may know that I like water, I mean I'm not a great swimmer but I like being by lakes, the sea, rivers ponds, even a bucket of water will keep a smile on my face.
In London i live like 2 stones throw from the river Thames, like literally you throw a stone walk up to where it lands,pick it up, throw it again it should land in the waters deep.

I usually cross tower bridge and London bridge and then return to my dwelling place very sweaty faced and exhausted but with a sense of accomplishment and that sort of thing. Now being 5895.882 miles away from my post code( and yes I just spent 10 minutes on http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm working it out) I am fortunate enough to be very close to a smaller but more scenic river the Kamogawa river in Kyoto. Pretty pretty and I ran along it yesterday and the day before and I will again today maybe.

First day I ran though it was so hot like 28degrees and blazing sun , I nearly keeled over due to the heat but it was such a good run. And I saw some serious wildlife , Huge fish in the river. I am going to stick my neck out and say they are koi but they may not be. The other day me and the Mrs walked by a otter type thing called a Kawauso and there are always Cranes and a huge bird called the Tonbi -Japanese black kite which isn't actually black but hey.They are spectacular to watch and they will swoop down and steal your food. I ran past a snake in the grass, it was pretty long as well. I wanted to take a picture but it was too fast and i was too scared. I saw another snake swimming but this is when I was studying later on when the killer sun had taken some time off behind the buildings.

the sun seriously tried to scorch my hairless head so i need to take a cap next sunny day, lately its been cloudy but still hot in the high 20's enough to really make you feel exhausted. Okay it's nearly 10 I need to run now or I will just make myself a sandwich and be done with any chance of exercise.

AINT NO PARTY LIKE A...

So yesterday was eventful.

Jazz festival with not much jazz and not much festival.

best part was having a conversations one with a 10 yr old boy who told me he dreamed of being a shinkansen driver, pretty cool aye.
Went to a house party of a Professor, Dj Photographer and just enjoyed that vibe, bar one terrible thing happening to me which i will not share.

House was live, kinda setup i would love.

Saw a couple of examples of how not to handle your drink and the fact that you can take a dude out of Kingston but not kingston out of the dude, some any racist guy against your own brothers. Just dumb.

MC D's breakfast yes please Captain.

loner boy and the bellydancers

The title sounds like the name of a band , but this was no band my friend this was the title of my yesterday evening.

I wonder how I came across yesterday smartly dressed black man posted against the wall BIIRU in hand, uttering a word to no1. Did my shyness come across or did i look stuck up like so many of my peers told me I came across in the first year of UNI.
I'm bloody shy sometimes, among my friends and with their backing i can be loud and boisterous but ge me on my own and I will shrink like your bank account balance would if you gave your details in reply to Baba Tunde's sob story of an email.

Last night I went solo to a japanese language exchange event www.midievents.com, ended up being a really cool night though japanese belly dancers and all.

speaking to a stranger is daunting enough for me, I mean i can ask for the time or directions BUT to strike up a convo for no reason (ahhh Kowai desuyo) Scary, for real. Multiply that feeling by the fact that you speak completely different languages and then time this by the power of shy and then you get me standing against the wall with a BIRRU.

Nice guy called danny had no problem initiating convo but as more me, the wall was my friend. With Dannys help I got talking to some guys and the conversation started to flow. Increased my japanese network by 3 which was cool, spoke a lot of nihongo as well. Bare in mind I've been doing this for a few months i have to pat myself on the back just a little.

Anyway MATA