children's castle fun time GET!

today i played with little kids from morning 'til evening... i played dodgeball, volleyball, basketball, countless games of rock-paper-scissors, arm wrestled, thumb restled, and was defeated at most of the above activities. and the best part? i got payed for it! YES!

the kids here are amazing! today was the second time to visit a place called "children's castle" or "こどもの城" as they say in the nihongos. check out this website!

http://www.city.isahaya.nagasaki.jp/of/02_kikaku/01_kikaku/kodomo/top.htm

it's a public facility up in the hills that anyone can go to free of charge, and it is AMAZING! if you watch the opening slideshow for a minute, you'll get an idea of just how awesome this place is. look for the kids crawling in the big plastic wheel contraption! it was my favorite, and the kids loved pushing me around in it! i stumbled around in dizziness after a few tumbles back and forth... but no worries! as soon as i was able, i told the kids to get into the wheel, and my revenge was SWIFT AND NAUSEA INDUCING! :D never has a kid been pushed so fast in a large, inflatable, plastic wheel.

the guy who runs the place goes by the name of "coach," pronounced by all the kids as "koh-chi". he's a great guy! coach has been teaching us games to play with kids, and today we had a short lesson on child psychology and parent-child relationships in japan. he travels around a lot and does workshops with parents and gives speeches. he's quite a learned fellow! after summer vacation is over, i may only be able to visit children's castle on weekends, but i'm sure it'll be worth it! a music professor from nagasaki university comes down on sundays - he might let me play the djembe with him! :D

well, time to clean the apartment and then do some more longboard exploring! hooray!

isahaya! hello!

i'm finally here in isahaya! the last few weeks have been quite the blur. rushing to houston, flying to tokyo, having non-stop speeches and workshops to attend from 9am to dusk for two days, and then opening a bank account, getting a cell phone, applying for a foreigner registration card, filling out forms, forms, forms, forms! (collapses)

however, the last couple of days i have finally had a chance to relax. last night was a electronic/house dance party, and the night before the employees of the board of education (boe) threw me and ben (the other new isahaya guy) a welcome party (called enkai). not bad! however, even the new guys had to pitch in to cover the cost of festivities - to the sound of 60 bucks! wow! however, it was good times! i was required to sing a song at karaoke (all in japanese) that i had never heard before simply because they found one titled "louisiana." :D

i'm taking my board around tonight. this place is perfect for longboarding.

i have found myself in a beautiful place. when i have a chance, i'll upload pictures. i live in a decently-sized little apartment right next to the train station and a river. there are hills and mountains all about! well, time to write some emails and crack into my men's fashion magazine. hurray summer edition "men's egg"!

well, i'm back from china. i was barely able to sleep at all after i returned except for a few one or two hour naps... until last night! i scored a record 12 hour slumber! it was an achievement that had to be written about.
china was definitely an adventure, and one that i will never forget. don and i took a road trip by buick, various buses, and two trains. we went to yang zhou, nanking, su zhou, chingtao, yan cheng, yixing, beijing, and hangzhou. i'm probably missing a couple, but those were the big ones!
the food was an adventure all in itself. the chinese do not waste ANYTHING. if they cook a duck, the entire duck is eaten. of course the feathers aren't stewed, but expect to have the intestines, the tongue, the neck, and all other parts and pieces spun around to you on a little communal plate. i ate more than i thought possible on any given day with don's family. "chinese food" restaurants in america should be ashamed.
i saw the western lake, the slender river, the su zhou gardens, the great wall, and a movable, bouncing dance stage in a popular yan cheng bar - an awkward and distressing few moments in my far eastern adventure.
the rest of the story will probably stay in my journal for now. it's a hot day, and my body's asking for another nap.

placed!

i have received the location of my new home in japan! :D

looks like i'll be living in a city called isahaya (諫早市) in nagasaki (長崎県) prefecture. i'm not sure of the school yet, but it's only 2.5 hours away from fukuoka city by public transit! i am most excited.

some info i found about isahaya:

141,215 population

.....

that's it! there's pretty much no information on this place in english that's not over ten years old. however! there is a lot of information in japanese, so once i have a chance to sort through it all, i'll try to add some more info. it looks like my discoveries will have to be mostly hands on. but that is ok with me!

i couldn't have asked for a better location. <3