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Posted by February 12, 2012 Blog 14 Comments

The Vino Venitas Blog 4th Edition The 6 months mark

The Vino Venitas Blog 4th Edition The 6 months mark

Ok so I’ve been here for 6 months now, and I’m not saying I’m getting an itch to do something new. But I will say that I feel like I can handle another year here before its time for me to move on. And by moving on I’m talking about Tokyo. That’s the plan for when I’m done here in the country side. Aight so now let’s get down to all the things that I plan on saying.

–          Teaching Times

–          Gym Time

–          Japanese Learning Time

–          PS Vita

–          Song of the Month

So yup these are the chapters I will cover this time around. I mean I don’t know who is reading these things anymore. But I started it so I figured I should finish it, until I leave here. So without any further nagging of this boy behind the keys let’s get down to it.

Teaching Times

Ok so the boy has been a teacher for 6 months now, and to be honest with you all it’s starting to look like a job. You know how a job goes from something exciting to something you have been doing for a long time. It kind of transforms on you, like you aint been paying attention … yeah that’s kind of where I’m at right now. BUT, and this right here is a big but, I still love these kids. And JUST when I thought I was at the point where I could fall in love any more with these kids they surprise me. So you know what they did, you remember me telling you they had my heart right. And as they held my heart in their little hands, they decided to tell me that I was the best teacher.

DUDE my heart just melted in their hands, I figured they couldn’t do any more to it since they already removed it from my chest and held it. BUT damn they made it butter and I swear I could see them put it on toast. They were eating my heart, these sweet little devils. Yeah that comment of theirs REALLY made my day. So the next anecdote I got is a little different but I thought it was funny, so I figured I would share. Ok so I’m in class right, and the other teacher asks me what I did with my weekend. And it just so happens that, THAT particular weekend I went to this international event.

And so I told her and everyone in the class that I went to this event. And then this one girl shot me a REAL dirty look right. And remember THIS girl was either 14 or 15, I don’t know but that’s the age range of these girls. So she is looking at me with this look, and says something to me in Japanese. Now even though I have been here for a second I still don’t understand that much Japanese, so I couldn’t understand. And so I asked the teacher, and she started smiling and translated it for me. The girls asked me this “Did you leave alone?”

I cracked up, that line combined with the look was SO dope, I just couldn’t help myself but laugh. It was cute, cause it actually felt like she was jealous which is just SO damn inappropriate that it’s just funny. Other than that, nothing much to say about my teaching times other than I love these kids, the adults not so much but these kids are awesome.

Gym Time

I actually found me a gym, it’s called Gold’s Gym and people it’s freaking expensive.

It’s also like 16 kilometers away from where I live. If you combine that with the schools being a similar distance you can tell how much money I’m spending on gas. But yeah the gym is unreasonably expensive but I couldn’t find a gym nearby. Which really sucks but hey it is what it is, and I’m working out. I’m on the diet and working out, trying to get fit. I’m actually on this schedule made by Roberto Sporkslede, who is a personal trainer. And so far, people started complimenting me, like hey you lost weight. So thus far its working, it’s hard, boring and a bit exhausting but hey it works.

Japanese learning time

Ok so first and foremost a LOT of people be asking me, when I will come back to Holland. Here is the answer that I give everyone every time. I will come back once I am able to speak Japanese. It’s one of the goals I set out for myself here in Japan, and I don’t like giving up or failing. So until I reach that goal, I’m here. Now here is the kicker, some of you might not agree with this, and some of you might agree, but I’m an idiot. I have been here for 6 months and I can’t even have me a normal conversation yet. And I have been studying my ass off, and I still can’t get it. I don’t have any language skills so this will just take longer than I expected. I’m not really sorry, but hey I apologize. But on the good note, let me educate you on something.

Japanese works with 3 alphabets, Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana is to spell native Japanese words, Katakana is to spell foreign words. Kanji is the most difficult one, because Kanji are symbols/signs to describe words. And there are about 3000 symbols/Kanji out there. And you just have to learn and learn and learn to know which one means what. Now remember the good note I just mentioned, I am as of now able to read and write Hiragana. (I have no idea what it is that I’m reading of course, but hey I can read it.)

I’m ALMOST able to read and write Katakana, but I’m not quite there yet. In another 2 to 3 months I will be able to read and write that sucker too. And then I will start on the Kanjis, which will take me the longest by far. But hey, I can read 1.5 of 3 new alphabets, which is kind of cool, or at least I think so. But my speaking Japanese is REALLY bad, and is FAR from where it should be. So just keep in mind that I can’t leave unless I get that down. Sorry.

PS Vita

Ok so I went out and bought me the PS Vita, for the noobs among you that is the new PSP. And for the extreme weirdoes among you, PSP is the PlayStation Portable. So yeah I bought it here in Japan, and I also bought the Tenchu like game called Shinobido 2. So as any true gamer would, I was playing with it all weekend, and you have no idea how much this hurts me to say this but I’m not impressed. I actually spent like 2 hours in the mall, wandering and thinking.

Because I wanted the PlayStation phone (Sony Ericson Xperia Play), and I wanted the PS Vita. So I didn’t know which one I wanted to pick, so I was thinking and thinking, and eventually I bought the PS Vita. The reason for that was because I like my old PSP. Second if I would get the phone, I would also have to get a contract with it, which means monthly payments. Third, the Xperia play is LIKE a PSP, so I figured why not just get the PSP. Made sense at the moment, but to be honest I don’t really care for the PS Vita so far. I will give you a better and full review in like a month’s time, when I had some real quality time with my new girl.

 Song of the month

Ok I feel like I should share the song I like that month the most. And this month the song that really makes me smile is this one right here:

Sam Cooke – Another Saturday Night

It just makes sense to me in this period in my life. And oh yeah on the music note, my girls at my school gave me a list of Japanese artists to download and so I did. I burned their CD and put it into my car, and yes I’m bumping some J-Pop in my whip. Makes me smile every time I start that car. You people should download some as well, that stuff is just funny to listen too.

The boy group (yes boy group) I’m currently bumping in the whip is Arashi. I would suggest you Google them or YouTube them, cause these dude are somewhat famous over here.

The end of this one

Now as you might have noticed the poem of the month and story of the month aren’t included. I decided to keep them out of the blog. I want to give them their own little page, this was some advice given to me by a big headed friend of mine, so I listened. I’m still in Japan, and I’m still having a ball, and I’m still teaching. Once again, I have no idea who reads all this stuff, cause no one wants to leave me a message, so this is just me writing something to look/read back on later when I’m old and grey. Oh yeah, don’t forget to buy the book, support the boy.

Vino

Posted by January 3, 2012 Blog 4 Comments

The Vino Venitas 3rd Blog the Kyoto Edition

The Vino Venitas 3rd Blog the Kyoto Edition

So the boy went to Kyoto, to see the sights and see what all the hype is about. Now for those who don’t know Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan. So its full of historical building and temples and things like that. Now here is the thing though, for the people that know me they know that Im not really all that interested in that kind of stuff. But I went there with a open mind and wanted to act like a real tourist for once in my life. And so I did, here are the adventures of a big black guy in Kyoto.

Ok so I visited all the temples I could within 3 days, cause that was all the time I had. I gave it my best shot to see as much as I could. And here is the result. Now there are a LOT of temples in Kyoto so I wasn’t able to see them all, but I got to a bunch of places. Problem is though due to the fact that I was there at the end of the year, a lot of stuff was closed. But it was still good, here are my pictures of the places that I was able to see.

Kinkakuji Temple

Now for all those ballers out there, who buy fancy cars and big mansions and a few platinum chains. Here is the next step to show your stuff, I mean who would come up with this if not the Japanese. I actually saw a temple covered in gold. Yes I said GOLD, and not no gold paint, no no the real thing people wear as jewelry. Check it out for yourself.

 

You know I took a bunch of pictures of this temple, but I will only show you a few here. Check out this close up shot of the temple.

 

Yeah it looks good doesn’t it, but all of these temples are surrounded by some real good looking scenery. So I walked around to see the rest of this gold covered temples area and here are the pictures. I must say that it really had some nice nature surrounding it, but you will see that all these temples have the same area.

 

Here is another shot of the area.

Here is the last shot of the nature area of this temple, I don’t want to overload you with the same area. Plus we have a LOT more to go.

Ok so the next temple I visited was this one, I forgot the name of the place but if you really want it, let me know and Ill find it. But yeah here you go this nice looking temple.

Yeah so in this temple, I saw these dogs or dog like statues that were just BEGGING for a picture. So I had to oblige them and do as they asked. You don’t want to upset these types of animals you know.

Now for the rest of the temple I have to say I liked it. I gave it my best amateur photographers hand to shoot some nice pictures hope you like it.

That was like the inside of the temple, and it just struck me as a really beautiful picture. Here is another one of this temple.

Ok so near this temple I saw another temple. They were really close to each other and so I just HAD to walk over to the other one. And it was a pretty cool temple place, didn’t have any statues or such but it was still ok.

This temple was like a big maze of big buildings that for some reason I couldn’t get into. But I could still take pictures of it, so here they are.

I also saw this really cool Buddha that just looked at me and told me to take a picture. Yeah the guy with the hand spoke to me, it freaked me out but hey I listened.

I also saw this really sexy looking building that just required a pic, so I did it.

Ok after that, I decided to continue on my temple hunt. And as far as temple hunters go, I was kind of slow because I like to take my time and walk. But yeah I found another good temple, and just like with the rest I took some pictures for you.

I liked the sunshine in this one, so I kept it. But to continue on this here temple was kind of cool, because this scenery was really wonderful. Like this picture below, I have no idea what its for, or why they did it. But hey I just liked it.

Then I continued on my walk and saw some more sexy looking temples.

The next picture will be the last one of this temple area, but it was a good looking place.

Ok the following three pictures will be of places I want to go, but wasn’t able to. Due to the fact that they were closed since it was close to becoming the new year. I was really sad, because getting there was a REAL pain in the neck most of the time. And then arriving there just to find a closed gate is really ugly.

Yeah that was the International Manga museum, and you KNOW I wanted to see that one. I love me some manga, but alas the place was closed, so I just took a picture of their gate. The next one was in the park around the old Japanese Imperial Palace. Because the imperial palace itself was closed I had to walk around it and see what else I could shoot a picture of.

The next picture is of a really big castle that was said to be something I had to see. So as I always do, I listened and went to the spot, only to find it closed off. I was pissed but hey it is what it is.

Ok now here is the next temple, it was smack dab in the middle of downtown Kyoto and it looked good, well as far as old temples can look good.

This temple drew a lot of people, and I get why I mean it was in the middle of the city so yeah.

So ok, right next to this temple there was this HUGE humongous temple that was just scary big. But I took a picture of it, and just like with the other spots I wasn’t able to get in. But hey with a temple this big I didn’t need to go in, I could just stand outside and snap me some shots.

So after that long distance shot I wanted to try to get up close and personal to take a better shot. But dude it was too big but hey I still tried it.

So I feel like I have said enough and you get the gist of whats what in Kyoto. And so I will wrap this place up with a few more shots of a few places I saw during my trip, without the annoying commentary of a dude who just wants to blog.

Good news right.

Ok so this is the end of the blog, I gave it my best shot to make this boring trip into a interesting picture thing. Hope it worked, and if not hey at least you saw some pictures of Japan right. And to finish this whole thing off, I want to give my anime fans a real nice picture.

Now if you want to see all the pictures of my trip, then you can download them here:

Download the pictures here

Ok thanks for checking in on the blog, make sure to leave a comment to let me know what you think. And to let me know that you like this kind of stuff. Yeah this was the picture edition, so Ill keep the rest of the usual dribble I would give you to a minimum. You can thank me here.

 

 

Posted by September 11, 2011 Blog 20 Comments

The Vino Venitas Blog 1st Edition Japan Edition

The Vino Venitas Blog 1st Edition Japan Edition

Ok so due to some irregularities I did not have access to internet so I was unable to post my blog. And this was reflected in my mail box, and all the questions that came with it. So here is it the Vino Venitas Blog of my time in Japan. Now there are more than a few things I’m trying to accomplish while I’m here, so I’m going to break it down into chapters. Now I know that the sound of chapters just makes it seem really long and honestly I’m going to try to be as specific as possible so that you won’t have any questions afterwards with regards to what I’m doing or how it is and such. For this blog the chapters will be:

–          Ashikaga (the place I’m staying at)

–          Teaching Times

–          Spoken Notes

–          Poem of the month

–          Story of the month

–          New Anime/Manga’s to watch

–          Gym Developments

–          Project Updates

Those will be the chapters for this month’s blog. I will try to do a monthly blog so that you can see what I have been up to and how I’m doing and such. But before we get into all that stuff I first want to say thanks for coming here and being interested in my stuff, I don’t get it but I like it. And make sure to drop a comment or 2, so I know you read it. Because if no one reads it what’s the use of making it. So make sure to drop a comment. Now let’s get started.

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