This week was great: I got hooked up to the internet at home, got my cracker card, opened a bank account, and bought a cell phone. Let me know if you want my phone number or keitai mail address. As for exciting things going on in me life, it's pretty much the same ol' same ol'. I'm excited because I get my first check in about a week and then I'm going to go to Osaka for about 3 days.

I work with a guy who is a little older than me and we go eat lunch together in the cafeteria everyday. He is extremely quiet, he talks in series of squeaks and whispers. Often, he doesn't really talk much. However, there are times when he just says the most crazy things. Yesterday out of no where, he asked me if I liked big tits...Of course I do, who doesn't? And he went on to talk about cleavage and how when you look out the windows at women in the summer, you can see some good cleavage. Thanks. He's also told me where to go for the best "special massages" and how he is going to Nagoya for special massages. My favorite was when he asked me if my door locked. I replied, "of course it locks," and he told me that since there were a lot of people from Southeast Asia I should be really careful and always lock my door. He said that they are from poor countries and would try to steal from me. I really didn't know what to say so I changed the subject. Fact of the matter is that I lock my door every time I leave my room...even if it's to just go to the bathroom.

Oretachi wa ofensive dakara sa!

I finally got internet at my dorm!! But if anything could go wrong it does, the left shift key on my keyboard will no longer work...adjusting to right handed shifting is a pain in the ass. Also, if I miss a capital letter or type a semi-colon instead of a colon; forgive me, chances are I pressed shift but it didn't go down all the way.

Anway, I had the best weekend last week, it was possibly the best two days since I've been here. Another American who works in sales at my company invited me to go to the Tokyo Video Game Show with him and one of his friends. Originally I wasn't planning on doing much and a video game show wasn't what I had in mind for fun either; but, he offered to drive me (makuhari mesa in Chiba)so I thought to myself, "what the hell, I don't know anyone in the area anyway." So I went. Even though I'm not a gamer, the games there were pretty cool. I got to play tennis on the new ps3 and watch some hot model girls play the new Nintendo.

Speaking of hot model girls, they were all over the place decked out in Sega, Capcom, and Xbox clothing; basically it was an Otaku's dream. And did the Otakus come or what. Crowds of men with professional cameras gathered around these beauties snapping their pictures (I could tell that they weren't press because the press had special name tags). Then there were the cosplay people (nerds who dress like maids or their favorite video game/manga/anime character). There were some elaborate costumes and even some cross dressing going on. Pretty sweet stuff.

So the guys I went there with were a little older than me...30 and 31 and I felt a little strange at first, but they turned out to be really cool. One of them and I ended up going out drinking with some of his other friends in Ginza. We ended up skipping out on the all night party and went back to the one guy's place in Saitama where I slept. It was nice meeting people who were nice enough to let me tag along with them. Good people.

Thailand

Two days ago, the general of the Thai military took control of the country through a bloodless coup. Businesses and schools around Bangkok and the military leader shut down international news stations on television. He has promised to return power to the people as soon as possible. Thailand's PM has been out of the country this entire time and will most likely step down. Should he return to Thailand, the military will arrest him under corruption charges. Already four members of his government have been detained and until a new election occurs, all political assemblies have been banned.

I wish I was living in Thailand right now. I look at pictures of people posing with next to tanks in downtown bangkok and I can't help but think how much cooler Thai politics are than American or Japanese politics. It sounds like the PM, Thaksin, had been pretty crooked, Based on what CNN had reported it seems like he was pretty crooked; but, what Asian government isn't corrupt? And the fact that the military intervened with the nation's political process makes it apparent that the country isn't ready to adopt democracy. Furthermore, as the general arranges for more democratic processes he is suspending peoples' fundamental rights until a sound democracy is created. I think it is extremely dissapointing that the country couldn't get rid of its leader through a natural process (which it was about to do in two months with another election).

Changes

Immediately after I made my last post evertying changed. My supervisor gave me a bunch of things to translate which continued over the last few days. The jobs I have been doing lately are important because hardly anybody at the office has a decent command of English and there has been some problems occuring in our American offices. I went from staring into space into telling people to wait before I could help them.

Then, that night my internet kit arrived! But just as I expected, I wasn't able to connect to the internet. I have someone coming to my dorm room to find the problem. I already know what the problem is though, but the dorm manager doesn't believe me. The phone line that runs into my room is fucked up. That's the only explanation I have. I tried every possible way of fixing th problem myself and each time the same thing happens: the computer is unable to verify my IP address while the computer says that the modem is fine. Some professional is going to look at my computer, my phone line and come to the same conclusion and as me. I just hope that I can get that phone line fixed soon!

Oh yeah, the top three reasons to marry a foreign man according to television program:
3. Half-kids are cuter than full Japanese.
2. They do chores like cleaning and helping with the kids.
1. They aren't afraid to say, "I love you," to their wives.

Lets get CRUNKY

For the last few weeks I have been given tasks. The importance of them remains questionable; however, it was work nontheless. For example, I was given lenghty documents to translate, and I scoured the network prices for products. However, this week I have been given hardly anything. Yesterday I did about 30 minutes worth of work and today I have browsed the internet for about two and a half hours.

***

There is a woman in the general affairs dept. whose job is to look after my general affairs. She helped me move into my room and told me she would take care of my internet application. We met last week and I filled in the sections of the application regarding the model and O/S of my computer (she circled the portions of the application that I was supposed to fill out). I could have easily filled out the application myself, but didn't say anything because I wanted to view her actions as a favor rather than her not expecting me to comprehend the written Japanese on the application. So last Tuesday I was happy to have completed my internet application and was looking forward to a high speed connection at home. However, The application was sent to my department because this woman forgot that I had to sign the contract. I was pissed, the application was sent out a week later than I thought it was and that means I will have to wait another week until I can get online. I just want to know, in the year 2006 with the proliferation of high speed connections all over the world, why it takes three weeks to process my application? Furthermore, how can they get away with charging me $50 a month? I thought this was supposed to be one of the most technologically advanced country in the world.

Anyway, because I don't have internet at home, I pass the time by drinking beer, cooking, and watching television. I watch the news, the variety shows, and the occasional nightly drama. I watched part of a dramatized rendition of current prime minister (soon to retire though) Junichiro Koizumi. I watched it but it was hard to understand all the political lingo that was being thrown around. Speaking of politics, I randomly saw Taro Aso giving a speech in Tokyo last weekend. He is one of three people who are in the running to replace Koizumi.

On Saturday night, I watched the season finale of "My Boss, My Hero" which was about a 27 year old yakuza boss (Maki), who was tired of being called stupid, try to go back to high school (kind of like Billy Maddison). It brought back great memories of my experience in high school because the man was a lot like me: An outsider who immediately became a quazi-celebrity. While the kids didn't know the truth behind Maki until the end of the season, his abnormalalities and antics: impoliteness, and take no prisoners attitude was enough for his classmates and teachers to cling to. Even after they found out he was in the mob they forgave him of his sins and took him back into their circle. Pretty touching.

During a commercial break I saw an advertisement for a chocolate bar. What brand of chocolate you may be thinking, well the name of the candy is: CRUNKY. I nearly pissed my pants after hearing the name. I'm surprised Lil John hasn't found this awesome snack. So excited about this candy, I immediately put on my shoes and biked to the nearest conbini (convinience store) and bought one. The taste was marginal, but that was besides the point: I was getting crunky. Once I get a camera I'm going to take a picture of the box and post it.

Last night on television they had the most stupid moments on video (all of which came from overseas) and one of the stars made an apperance in their studio. Who was this great performer, and what made her so weird? Well her name was Busty Heart and had the biggest tits I have ever seen...pumpkin size. She made herself famous in Philidelphia by crushing cans with her enormous breasts. By crush, I mean she flattened the cans, a task I can only do when I stomp on them. She didn't crush just one, she crushed 10 tall boy cans in less than a minute. I think I'm in love.

Finally I saw a show where Bobby Oregon, a Nigerian celebrity who speaks Japanese, went to Thailand with a little boy and tried to milk wild animals. They tried tigers but that proved too difficult. However, they ended up getting the milk from and an elephant. With that milk they made soft serve ice cream. Both Bobby and the little boy claimed it tasted better than normal "soft-cream".