Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My New Year's Resolution Is...


I wished him good luck.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Ballin' Out...Of...Control

So, the boys are always asking me what the games are like up here. After I told them some of my stat lines from the games I had played, (of which I won't go into too much detail), they were desperate to see what the comp was like. I play for two different teams up here, so this video is from the younger, better team (with which I DID NOT put up those stats I had spoken of earlier). I finally got around to bringing a good camera to practice. I usually don't stand out too much with these guys, there are a bunch of dudes that need their touches, so I usually just run the break, play D, board, and shoot when a good shot comes around. And, to be honest, they can ball. I'll let the video speak for itself. (Videos are kinda long, but I only did that cuz the boys wouldn't like to watch just 25 seconds of it).

Here's me, first game of the night. I do have to preface this by saying I had just made and ate some excellent meat sauce pasta and garlic bread, ask Lena, it was excellent. When I got to practice though, I felt heavy and every shot felt off. I'll stop crying and just let the video go.



Pull the okie doke steal! Me and 山口 run a pick and roll that ends with me missing a point blank layup. I then terribly airball a wide open J. As I shot it, I said, "Eww".



Missed layup eventually turns into a サベ J. He's the master of pumpfakes. Luckily, we had たかや on our team, the dude who hits the three at the end, cuz me and 山口 were off as hell.



Here's a video of the dude with the mean J, 新野さん. That's his favorite shot, the walkrightuponyouandpop J. The next guy, けんや, the guy who hits the three at the end, is real fast and strong, and he can shoot from outside.
He's a tough cover.

So, yeah, this is what the games are like up here. A lot of running, and a lot of quick shots. Defense is pretty intense. Probably like the same level as the UH Gym 2 good court, but without the size.

Alright, I'm ready. Bring the 'you suck' comments on.

The Only Way To Turn 25

This weekend was pretty awesome. Here's how it broke down.

Friday Night - Stayed in, but also built my surf rack for my bike. Was so excited when I had finished it that I jumped outside in my pajamas and rode around. I'll get pics up of that later.

Saturday Morning (Birthday) - Surf Karatsu with 山口, 徳永, and 渡辺. It was really good, head high and slow to break with not a lot of people out, and it didn't seem cold at all. The worst part of snow surf though, is changing out of the wetsuit into the cold. You've got about 5 minutes of unbearable cold to deal with. I lost all feeling in my hand for a good 10 minutes it seemed like. Here's some pics and videos.

Dying from the cold.

It was my birthday, so they took me to the famous "からつバーが” (Karatsu Burger). It was aite, a little too expensive. Kinda like a bigger White Castle burger.



Here's us right after we got into the car and turned on the heater (translated):
Ah, that was fun! (It's cold.) I didn't think we would have as good as conditions as we did. ~ Oh yups, look, my eyes are all swollen again! (Why is that?) Why is that huh? ~ (Ahhh, it's cold.)



Here's us, outside of a Seven Eleven after we bought some hot drinks.
(Translated): Me: What's this? (gesturing to snow)
山口: What's this? (makin' me look dumb)...
Me: OK, final word.

山口: Final word? You the best!
渡辺: That was fun!

Saturday Night - Was out in the city running errands, went to my favorite bar to hang out, Bingo Love. Had dinner and couple drinks there, met a couple of cool people, then called Lena up to jam. (Stealin' pics from Facebook for this). Had a great time. Here's some pics.

Wasn't sticking, but it was nice.

Cute little girl that made a snowman.

Made sure to have a couple of these. (Shout out to Drew and Derek on this).

With the ladies at Morris Pub.

Me explaining how good I am at Foosball.

And not backing it up. (I did beat this guy though).

Jammin' with Lauren, who may or not have wanted to jam.

Sunday Morning/Afternoon/Night - Ordered pizza. Ate pizza. Slept.

Excellent.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

How Lucky Am I?


So, tomorrow is my birthday. I've told a couple of people, but not a lot of people know. One of the few people I did tell, was my co-worker 中田先生, (of donut fame). She, in turn, told the students. When I got into class today, here's what was written on the board...(tearing up).

Other than that, nothing much going on. On a mission to save some money, so tonight, a Friday night mind you, I'm gonna build my bike surf rack that I've been putting off. Finally got some time to do it, so I'll take some pics and maybe some videos. I also have videos of me playing ball from the other night, but it takes 7 hours to load the videos, so I'll get that up sometime in the next month or so. Tomorrow, nothing big planned, gonna go surf in the morning. Wind is pretty crazy, so that may not happen.

On another note, my boy Keiichi, (of Miyazaki fame), after suffering a pretty serious injury is getting ready to fight on January 29th, after a long rehabilitation, (even though they spelt his name wrong...):


(courtesy of Stephen Loh)

I am comfortable in my assertion that he will do well in his fight.

Alright, more later.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Monday, January 19, 2009

Really?

I was talking to my friend the other night over dinner, and she was like, "You look like someone...who am I thinking of?" She then said ジョンレンオ (sounded like John Lennon). It took me a while to figure out what she meant. Finally, I had time to look it up. This is who she meant...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000606/

I'm not sad, but then again, I'm not happy either.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Why Didn't My Dad Do This?

Browsing Letsrun.com like I do every day, (it's a habit from college), you don't really see things that make you laugh out loud. This actually did.


Monday, January 12, 2009

Snow Surf


This weekend was pretty crazy. You can't see it from this picture, but it was craaaazy cold on Saturday, and it was snowing. Me and my friend, 中村先生 hit up Karatsu, about an hour's drive away, and this sick little spot for a couple of hours. It was my first 'for real' cold water surf, cuz the other ones had been a little unseasonably warm. There was nothing like that going on this time. We checked out a couple of spots (video below is of アトマ, which is short for 'automatic' cuz it's a machine break), before finally stopping here, 北浜 (Kitahama, North Beach).



It was crazy cold, and to be honest, the first ten minutes or so were pretty intense. The first duck dive, it literally hurt your skin to go into the water. Eventually though, adrenaline took over, and after watching 中村先生 get long ride after long ride, it wasn't about being cold anymore; it was about catching some of these waves. For maybe an hour and half, we had clean chest to head high lefts and rights all to ourselves. Probably an hour in, I noticed the snow. I can't even describe what that was like...it didn't seem cold, but there was snow everywhere. Every time I looked at 中村先生, his mouth was open, trying to catch snow. Something you can't really forget. Here's the video of us, after.



Wednesday, January 7, 2009

I Got It

You know when there's a fast break, and the big guy on your team ends up with the ball and starts running it, you're like, come on dude, you're just gonna mess it up. Pau Gasol says get off my n---s.


How It Is That We Do

Funny conversation with my brother's girlfriend on skype...

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Christmas (kinda) in Germany: Family, Bratwursts, and Bad Jokes

Arrival

Germany. I had always wanted to come back, to see what it was like as an adult. I had lived there twice before, when my parents were stationed there, when I was 2 and 10. I remembered the people being super nice, the landscape really beautiful, and the food insanely delicious. All three things were confirmed on this trip.

After all the crazy travel nonsense, I finally got settled in. My mom had really made an effort to mix in with the German community since being there, despite the language difference. Because the majority of Americans tend to stay to themselves and are generally indifferent to the population, and also because she's incredibly outgoing, the Germans fell in love with my mom and the family. So, when I finally got to my mom's house, there was a whole party there waiting for me.



Christmas Day was awesome, giving all my presents. Here's my stepdad, Josh, with his Japanese shoes I got him. The family across the way had just gotten Rock Band 2. We were addicted to it. Some pics.




Snowboarding and Cruising

From there, we headed down to Garmisch, a ridiculously beautiful town, for snowboarding and just cruising. Here is where Isabella really got into a groove. She's an only child, so sometimes she just says stuff, without really having a meaning to it. She is also only 5 years old, but she was crackin' me up. Here's one of the exchanges we had at our table in the hotel restaurant:

(Talking about Japanese and English words, what means what)
Isabella: You wanna know what pig is in English?
Me: What?
Isabella: Pig. (3 seconds pass) That's a joke.
(I laugh, she keeps it up, same joke, over and over again. 3 minutes later.)
Isabella: So, what is pig in English?
Me: Overkill.
Isabella: Mom, what's overkill?

Garmisch was a beautiful place though. We hooked up with another family that my parents knew, and walked around the city, checkin' a bunch of stuff out. Here's us walking around and doing stuff. (Isabella needed to be carried everywhere. Note my distaste in the last pic.)





And here's us tearing it up on the mountain. (And me thugging)



Stuttgart

My mom had some errands to run back at home after snowboarding, so she let the rest of us check out downtown Stuttgart, and we got some drinks afterward.


New Year's Eve

Once again, my mom had a billion people over for New Year's Eve. (I feel bad too, cuz they're are only a couple of pictures of her on here...She was taking all the pictures.) Here's some of the craziness that went down.

For some reason, there was a zip line outside of my parent's house. Every time they get drunk and ambitious, they run out and jump on it. We got drunk and ambitious. (From left: Mom, German friend Marian, German friend's daughter Melissa, Me before, and Me, after)




Here's some pics of us after taking schnapps shots. Isabella didn't take one, trust me. (Isabella, funny dude - forgot his name, Stephanie, 俺)






Food/Beer

What better way to end this. Brats,



Even after all the travel nonsense, things still turned out awesome.