June 2005

Man I almost didn`t`t blog today cause I`m still hungover 11 in the morning here and I got up an hour ago that`s pretty late for me over here. Home no big deal I sleep in all the time there but its a different story here. Anyway I:m sorry if this blog doesn`t`t make much sense cause my mind is only functioning at about 15% right now. Yesterday was crazy. We had Japanese language class. I have retained nothing from that class unfortunately. Oh well, After that we went to the the Asahi brewery for a tour dinner and a bunch of free beer. Yeah for free beer!!! We went to Sam and Daves for partying. It was a wild night and I didn`t get in till like 3 in the morning. Well its time for lunch so I`m cuttin this one short take care.

Deinesaur

Well I got my exercise today! If I don`t end up loosing at least a few pounds on this trip I`m going to be seriously ticked cause we are walking everywhere. Today we finished our class, which was really cool. we ended up making seals of your family names`. Apparently the Chinese, yes Chinese, symbol for Deines translates to mean “conquer” how cool is that. I figured with the way my luck has been on this trip it would be something stupid like he who receives crap or something like that. But we carved these seals out of stone, and will be doing something with them in our caligraphy class. More on that in the future.

After class we headed off to visit the park. It was really beautiful. We stopped by the Japanese Gardens that were there and wow I didn`t know trees could do some of the stuff that these did. They were growing at all sorts of strange angles and stuff, and carp were huge. There were carp in these ponds that had to be like 2.5-3 feet long. After Gardens we started to walk over the islands that were in the middle of the lake that the park surrounded. The whole area was just really quiet and tranquil. There was a Saxophone student practicing in the one area near the U.S. Consolate. He was really good and the music just rang through the whole park. After the walking all over the park we went to Fukuoka Castle`s Ruins Talk about hiking. Most of these castle`s had a stone base that was all around castle. This base was all that was left of the castle so we climbed it and were rewarded with a really cool view of the city and park. So I took more photos. I have filled all 3 of my mem cards already. Its a good thing that I brought my laptop for extra storage. 300 images down prob another 300 to go. After the Ruins we road the subway into Tenjin to do a bit of shopping. That is adventure in itself. Their malls are like our dept stores. There aren`t any walls between the stores but you have to pay in each one. It`s really kind of strange especally went you figure most of this malls are in buildings that are 9-10 floors high plus 2 sub basements.We are going to spend all of tomorrow in Tenjin shopping so we will see how that goes its going to be interesting. GO VISA!! Everyone has agreed that when we get back we are so having a kimono party. I`ve also decided that my apt is getting redecorated when I get back cause I`m hoping to get several cool wall decorations to replace some of my posters. Well hope everyone is doing fine enjoy.

Deinesaur

Well as those of you who actually read my ramblings already know yesterday I was privileged to be able to witness and take part in the Japanese Tea Ceremony. This was great although sitting on top of your legs with your feet straight back for 2 hours hurts like hell. The Ceremony was really pretty and its surprising how much symbolism is involved in it. After the ceremony we got to learn how to make the tea. I ended up drinking like 3 cups of tea, which was really good. After the ceremony and all the blogging from yesterday, I went to see President Farley give a speech on education. It was really good and Japanese students seems to understand what he was saying, but he did a really good job of communicating speak, slowly and precise, with lots a gestures. After that I went through and cataloged my photos so far till the students from Fukuoka who went to visit Washburn showed up. We then had a bit party with them. We had KFC, which tastes the same no matter where you are at, Pizza, which had toppings that I had never seen before, and sushi. Everything tasted great and the beer and other beverages for good as usual. After that we ended up going to a Karaoke bar. This was quite a bit different then in the states because instead of singing to the whole bar, which usually doesn’t want to hear you, each group gets their own booth and 2 mics and you phone in your drinks and they bring them to you. It is a lot more enjoyable. Unfortunately there wasn’t ANY country music in the song book. They didn’t even have Garth Brooks. I figured they would a least him but no, so I decided to go and tear up some Metalica, and Green Day and some Puddle of Mudd. There is just something really relaxing about singing She Fucking Hates Me. All the singing and music however is really making miss playing I`m just glad I brought my laptop which has all of traffas` country music its been helping with the cravings. To make things even better as we were leaving the bar we discovered that the University was paying for everything the time at the bar, drinks the whole thing. When we came back I ended up just sittin around discussing all sorts of things with the Georgia Tech students. I`m definitely going to have to go visit there and stop by the Kappa Sig chapter there.

Well everyone have fun cause I will.

Deinesaur

I won something like $80 last night playing poker on an evening I was expecting to be working. I guess I’ve been on a lucky streak the last few days.

Mason and I played at Bobby T’s on Thursday to a fair crowd. Getting to play with Mason was certainly worth halving the pay. We had a bunch of compliments to the sound. I never believed that drums and an acoustic guitar would work at T’s. Sometimes it’s good to be wrong.

Friday found me westbound for Hays and one of the more interesting Rail shows I’ve had in a while. After resigning to the fact that lack of advertising on my part led to the empty bar to which I started playing, the place lit up. There were several groups of people who came in, not to mention the several girls from different groups trying to get me naked on stage, even though I explained that wanting was often times much more enjoyable than having. I signed more autographs in various places on various things Friday night than I have all year. After hours lasted until like 5:00am. Thanks to Hillary for the floor, Trey for coming out, J-Will for coming back to town for the show, the Rail for booking me through September even with their staff changes, and to Blaine and Mike for giving me such a damn hard time all weekend. Paybacks are hell, gentlemen.

Saturday was the third show in as many days. I’m starting to rescind all those thoughts I had about Trevor being a Nancy when he was complaining to me about blowing out his voice. I got through the show, but I’m glad it was my last one for a while. I actually was really, really happy with the show. It was the first time I played all of my originals. It was the first time I sat down for a solo Buster’s show. I played most of the songs, for lack of a better descriptor, more acoustically than I normally do — slower, with more feeling, taking more liberties with the melodies. The only hard part was being sore and tired from the three hours sleep on the aforementioned floor, and the fact that from 10:00pm to midnight my throat felt like I swallowed a bunch of broken glass. I got through it and was darned happy with the final she-bang before my vacation.

Vacation my ass. I’m sitting here at 8:40am getting ready to go clean out our drills, service both combines and the wheat truck, change the front walker shaft on my combine, convert both machines from milo to wheat, and fix all the problems I will discover when doing all of this. But you know what? I really don’t care. For the first time in over a year, I have a date on Wednesday.

I just realized that part two is going to be showed before part 1 so if you haven’t read part 1 stroll down and read it first, or just use your imagination on what has happen it could make for a better story. Either way is fine with me. The Tea Ceremony was great but you will have to log on tomorrow to hear about it. Back to the story at hand when last left off I had been petting dolphins. We load back up onto the bus and headed off for Hotel we were going to stay at which was about 3 hrs away. The hotel was owned by Fukuoka University, which is pretty cool cause the students just by chance as class camping trip out in the woods that night so a few of our friends happened to be there. We weren’t planning on see them it just kind of happened. Anyway we checked into the hotel and had a great traditional Japanese dinner. The food here is WONDERFUL! I don:t always know what I’m eating but it tastes great. After dinner we changed into our Kymonos and headed to the Hot Springs for a shower and a bath in the natural springs. This was great nothing makes you feel better after spending all day on a cramped little bus then soaking in a nice sulfur hot springs. After a bath. Patrick and I watched the end of the Fukuoka Baseball game and they won 5-2. Japanese baseball seems to be more interesting then American I don’t know if its because I can’t understand the annoucers so I have to pay closer attention or if the pitch isn’t as good but there seems to be a lot more action.

After the game I headed into the lobby and got a beer from the vending machine, (that’s right they have beer vending machines) and sat in the lobby and chatted with the others. After awhile some of the Japanese students came up to the hotel from their camp ground and join the few of us still up for some conversation. They were all quite drunk which made it a very interesting, and challenging conversation. I don’t know if it’s the fact that they have to be so polite and reserve all the time or what, but then Japanese college students decide to have fun and relax and have some drinks they really cut loose. They are so fun and cheerful, and noisy (my kind of crowd) It’s so much fun to watch them even when you don’t know what they are saying. These people know how to have fun. But, I’m starting to ramble off topic, we ended up having a like 1 more beer then calling it quits at midnight.

Sunday
Got up this morning and at 7a.m. I’ve decided that its a lot easier getting up early then your always in bed by midnight or earlier so maybe there is something to it maybe not who knows. But we had another fabulous traditional Japanese Breakfast which was huge. I didn’t know I could have 3 bowls of soup and still have room for more. After breakfast we said goodbye to everyone and took some photos, and one of the Japanese girls gave President Farley her Fukuoka University hat. Sometimes its good to be the Pres. We then loaded back up onto the bus, and headed to Mt. Aso which is an active volcano. When we arrived at the mouth of the volcano we were there for all of 2 mins and then all the sirens went off, and people started to run. Turns out apparently the volcano had started spewing some rather toxic gas that was fatal if you breathed in to much of it. I think Buddha is still a bit pissed about the photos. So we loaded up onto the bus and went down the Mt to the museum. We went truth it and in the shopping area Jimmy and Pat discovered a lady who was going out Sake samples so they decided to try them all and then bought a few bottles. I decided to tour through the music boxes which were there. I’m not sure what music boxes have to do with volcanoes but there were a lot of them there so I roamed about looking at them. We then caught a movie, that was on 5 screens, that was about the Mt. Aso and the surrounding agricultural area. After the movie everyone gathered for lunch which as great as usual. This one had a bit of a twist however, as usual we didn’t really know what we were eating. We discovered that one of the dishes was raw horse. I figured you would like this Traffas. Another thing to do with horse besides make glue from them. Apparently though the region of Japan that we were in at the time is the only one that eats horse. Apparently its a bit of a cultural thing. I have to say though raw horse is pretty good. Even when you know what its. When lunch was over it was time to hop back onto the bus.

Our road trip found it way to Kumanoto Castle, which is just under 600 yrs old. We unfortunately only had 45 mins there so I had to go through it at break neck speed. I have mastered the art of power walking. The castle was amazing. It’s shear size made you wonder how they pulled it off. Every timber was hand crafted and and fit perfectly into its place. The stones in the walls all fit together with little mortar. There were also several suits of armor that were worn by the past lords of the castle that were beautiful. I took tons of photos for everyone to see and will post them when I get back home.

We loaded back up and continued on our way. Our next stop was to some ancient ruins. The site had been rebuilt to look the way it did back in about 600 BC. I don’t remember the name off hand but I will get it later. Village recreation was very cool the houses had very small doors maybe 4.5 feet tall so going in and out was a pain in the ass. There were also several watchtowers that we were able to go up into and the view from the towers was awesome. I have several photos of this site as well so I will hold off most of the details till they get posted since I can’t give a just description of the area by without the visuals to assist. We left the ruins as they were closing and we headed home. It was nice to finally be off that bus for good. Several of use decided that for dinner we wanted to go to a sushi bar, so Charles talked to one of the guys in the area discovered that there was a good Sushi place in Befu so we hopped the subway and headed on our way. We were able to find the place after stopping at only 2 seven elevens to ask for directions to make sure we were still on the right path. The Sushi was all on these little plate that ran along on a conveyor belt and you took off the ones you wanted. I wasn’t feeling the greatest after the ride so I opted just to have the chicken which was great. Charles, Dr. McCoy and Andy however dove right in having a little bit of everything. It was really a lot of fun. After we all had eaten our fill we headed back to the subway, and home for a nice evening in the dorms.

Well this concludes the longest blog on this site EVER. I have more to tell but you will just have to wait till for Tues. Installment.. On a side note this blog as all my blogs will be cataloged a day behind. It:s Monday here though the computer lists it as Sunday, but you being the intelligent well informed reader that you are already knew that didn’t:t you. Take care everyone and have fun sleeping since it’s almost midnight back in Kansas. (for those of you keep score at home it’s 1:45 pm here, and I have survived an earthquake and an volcano spitting toxic gas. [Deines 2 Earth 0] ) But I hear there may be a hurricane on the way so we may be seeing round 3 but I’m ready for it. Take care

Deinesaur

I’ve very sorry that haven’t blogged in while we have been roaming the countryside for the last few days and I haven’t had any internet access, so its been kind of rough. I’m no going to attempt the longest blog in this site’s history. It may have to be a 2 part series cause I have to go see the Tea Ceremony in an hour, that right I get to watch the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Anyway lets begin:

Friday
We had 2 classes in the morning which turned basically into on big discussion on the differences between Japanese and American culture. I was pretty interesting and the instructor was really cool. There was also an aftershock from the major earthquake that hit about a month or so ago. It happened about 4 in the morning and I sleep right through it. Check another disaster off my list of things to do. In the afternoon we met of with the English Studies Society (ESS) and chatted with them for about 2 hrs it was really quite fun they had all sorts of questions about the US and we tried our best of answer them. After we finished it was time for major shopping trip #1. We went to this big shopping complex called Daisae (don:t know if I spelled that right) there were all sorts of cool clothes there unfortunately most of them were to small for my fat ass. It’s depressing when the LL (XL) t shirts all fit like muscle shirts or in my case fat shirts but I got a few as gifts for some of my smaller friends. There was one shirt that truly deserves being mentioned though, it was a Baby Burger shirt (thats right BABY BURGER) It had this little baby in a hamburger bun and lettuce and pickles and ketchup and the baby was saying help me and this demonic looking 10 yr old was about to eat him, below read something to the effect of, Baby burgers the best source of getting your daily protein, calcium other nutricional needs since (and then some date) We all laugh our ass’s off at this shirt I almost bought one but I couldn’t find one that would fit :`(
That evening we went with several of our new Japanese friends to Tenjin for a night on the town and what an interesting night it was. For some reason we ended up in the Red light district of Tenjin, not really sure why, but we saw the 4-20 store (yes I have a photo) and after wondering for about an hour we found a place that had a half price drink special going on if ya had a coupon and somehow we had a coupon. It was quite a night cause we had all of about 2.5 hrs before the last train left at midnight so we started shotgunning mix drinks (we don:t know what they are but they were good) and after about a half dozen or so Daniel, one my of new friends for Georgia Tech who can really put them down, decided to order a glass of Sakai. It was really interesting the way they served it but thats for another time. Anyway he shotgunned the Sakai so then I ordered one as well and just drank it normally cause damn that stuff is strong, good but strong. We continued having a merry time and then everyone made it home safely.

Saturday
Got up at 7 in the morning so I could catch the bus at 8. I didn’t have a hang over yeah for me. We started our trip around Japan with President Farley (president of Washburn for those of you who don’t know) We had a lot of stuff packed into the day so I will do my best of hit everything.

Monkeys and fish
We went to this Monkey preserve/shrine for the monkey god. It was really kick ass I figured it would be a bunch of monkeys in cages, hell no the little guys were just running about loose! They would just let you walk up to them but we didn’t touch them cause apparently they like to bit and hump so we refrained from physical contact. There had to have been about 150-200 monkeys around just doing whatever it is that monkeys do. Some were cleaning each other, some were sleeping, and other were playing. What was really cool though was when the guy working there let out this call and all of the sudden all the monkeys started screaming and then ran from everywhere to gather near him. Apparently it was feeding time. It was like hurding monkeys! After about 10 more minutes of monkey business we all headed to Aquarium to play with the fish.

The Aquarium was quite interesting there were several species of fish that were native to the area and all were quite beautiful. the most fun though was the shows they brought out the seals to perform for and audience and they were so funny. They would wave to crowd, clap, catch rings and do sit-ups with the trainers it was cute. One of the funniest things thought was the seal racing they would line them up and race them. It was so funny watching the flop as fast as they could to get the fish at the other end. After the seal show we went to visit the penguins. They were so cute. I felt sorry for one of them. He kept swimming straight at the glass in the tank trying to get out and walk around with us. Unfortunately he wasn’t making any headway one breaking the inch thick Plexiglas. I decided to visit the petting area and ended with getting to pet the dolphins. Well time head to go to the tea ceremony so pt 2 will have be later.

Deinesaur

My first time in Manhattan in long time went very well. Aaron and I played last night at Bobby T’s and had a damn fine time. When we showed up there were lots of folks having dinner and the such, many of them actually stayed around for show, which was nice. Once again, I played some songs that I didn’t know what-so-ever, I also played some tunes very poorly that I did know. Anyway, I really hope that we can go back and perhaps even take Chris with us next time. The drive from Lawrence to Manhattan didn’t seem so bad because I took I-70. Know what makes for a long drive? A few beers and highway 24 in the middle of the damn night, I was exhausted. The blogs going to be short today, I am at work, humorless, and ready to go home. But the show went very well.
Thanks to Bobby T’s for having us out, I had a blast.

MP

Well we work up yesterday and it was raining. Not hard but it was still raining and quite humid. It quite after a few hours however, which is good since we had our tour of Fukuoka that afternoon. It was a really fun time. First we went to the history museum which was a blast. When we got there I took a few photos of the outside of the building because it had a really cool design to it. We were one of 2 groups touring the museum at that time. The other was a bunch of 9-10 yr old kids from Nagasaki. They were hilarious. Charles, who is always ready to make new friends walked up to about 3 of them in the museum and asked them their names, they spoke really good English for that age, and they told him and he introduced himself then offered them a snickers bar. They just became overjoyed at this. After that we would be walking around the museum and packs of 3-4 of the children would walk up to us and just bow to us and then really politely ask for our autographs. One asked me and then the next thing I knew I had about 10 of the little guys all around me with pen and paper out. I guess this is what it feels like to be a rockstar. The little girls would just kind of stand in the back, to shy to approach us while the little boys were all fighting to see who could get or autographs first it was really funny. Later we started asking for their autographs and getting them together for pictures with us. It was funny, since we would no more then get a group together to take a photo and then several more would run up wanting to be in the picture too so we would have to take another photo and the same thing would happen. It was a great experience hopefully these kids will think of us when they think of Americans and keep a positive image of us as they grow up.

After the museum we went to Fukuoka Tower which is the tallest tower in the city and we went to the top. The view was amazing I got several photos of the city scape and over the ocean at the nearby islands. It was really pretty and as we left we found a McDonald’s so we had to go see what it was like. They don’t have chicken nugget there instead they have fish nuggets. They also don’t have double cheeseburgers on the dollar menu instead they have single cheeseburgers on the 110 jen menu which is the equivalent of the dollar but ya loose a burger, oh well.

After the tower we went to a Buddhist Temple. This was AWESOME!! Unfortunately we only got a half hr there so I had to go through it very fast. The temple grounds were cool there were monuents and tomb stones all around and the inside the temple was several beautiful golden treasures. In a different area of the temple as a giant 200ft tall Buddha statue I took several photos of it and its surrounding artifacts before I was told that I wasn’t to be photographing him. So now I’m pretty sure I’m going to hell but everyone else wants the photos. Underneath the Buddha was a little tunnel that you went through that had different graphic images of hell. As you walked through the images then you went into a pitch black room, where if you found the golden ring it was like a go straight to heaven pass. I didn’t find the ring probably since I photographed Buddha.

We left the temple and with my fate sealed we headed to one of Shinto Shrines. This was probably my favorite of all the places we visited. We saw several priestesses in traditional garb who were taking care of the temple. I went to all the different places for prayer and prayed a few times ( I probably needed it by this point) I took several photos of the area. There was even a giant goldfish pond that had some huge goldfish in it. I unfortunately ran out of space on my mem card and I forgot to bring my other ones so I will have to settle for just about 110 photos of the day. :_(

After it was all done we went to this giant dvd/cd/game/book/manga store. It was like a Japanese Hastings only bigger. The Japanese have such cooler ps2 games here if it wasn’t for the coding problems I would be bringing so many ps2 games and anime films back with me. Oh well I guess I will just have to hope they will come to the U.S. We then went to dinner at the Joyful dinner. This is the Japanese equivalent of Denny’s. The food is a bit better though. I accidentally left my Kappa Sigma hat there and I’m hoping it will still be there if I stop back today, if not then I guess some lucky Japanese person got a really cool hat.

To top off the evening I decided to have a shower and then sit in the Japanese Bath over at the international house. This thing is great everyone one should go to a Bath at least once. It’s better then a hot tub. All the sweat and stress and aches from the day just melt away laying it the bath and then your ready for a nice sleep. Which is what I did. Well that’s all for now hope everyone is doing ok back home.

Deinesaur

I love me some Mexican beer. But why does it have to be so expensive? Imports, I got it. Anyway, I have some recomendations on some really excellent beer. the first is a beer called “Sol” (sun in spanish)…………I did pass my spanish class with an “A” this semester……..and that’s what I learned “Sol” means “sun”, and it is a fabulous beer to drink. The beer gets even better when you stick a damn lime in it……it’s like taking a drink of the sun…..yet…..less hot……………………………………………………………………………………I really have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. However, an update from my last blog. I am slowly figuring out this Red Dirt Country thing. It’s not country…….but it is…….but it’s not….I don’t wear boots and that’s okay……………I’m really bad at playing just a simple country beat…………but that’s okay sometimes too! Slowly but surely I’ll figure this damn genre out, I swear. Back to beer, mmmm, Tecate……..I know everyone and their dog knows about Tecate, but! what not everyone know is how you need to get each beer. Here’s a list:

1.) Tecate - cans, preferably in a six pack - note: you can buy alot of six packs to make the night long.
2.) Corona - always bottles (But we all know Corona is like the Budweiser of Mexico)
3.)Sol - Always buy in 32 oz. bottle[s], pour in a cup and serve with lime, it’ll rock your socks off!
4.) Dos Equis (That’s “XX” for you who are not trained in the arts of Spanish, as I am.) Just drink it out of the bottle. Also try amber.

……………..More to come………..I swear……….This is just a taste…………………………………………………..

I am on this endeavor to find many mexican beers because Mexico holds the best Brewmasters in el Mundo, That’s “the world”. I’ve rambled enough…

LAST NIGHT ROCKED!!! So we got this campus tour from several of the students here and they spoke very good English even if they won’t admit it, and they showed us around campus and showed us how the subway and bus system worked. They were all really cool. That evening for dinner we had a formal welcome reception and several of our group got to meet the families they were going to be homestaying with (mine wasn’t there oh well ) also most of the students that gave us tours were there as well so we chatted with them for awhile and we all decided to go into the downtown area for some fun and partying.

After going back to the dorm to change out of the slacks and tie, and into the something a bit more casual we all head for the subway to head into the business district. Let me tell you AMERICANS WE NEED TO FOLLOW THE JAPANESE ON SUBWAYS!!! These things were very clean I think we could have almost eaten off the floors, and it was a hell of a lot better then having to drive. I swear America needs to work on it mass public transit. But anyway, that’s a subject for another time.

We Arrived in downtown Fukuoka and WOW what a sight skyscrapers everywhere and the streets were packed with people, there were outdoor restaurants on the sidewalk for you to just walk up to and eat right there. There was all sorts of cool advertising and we even found an Eddie Bauer that’s right Japanese can get that same great rugged outdoor look as we can. This place is just cool. Anyway we end up at this little bar on the third floor of this building which was called Sam and Dave’s (the bar not the building) and they were playing some R&B and there were kick ass lights everywhere. but we sat down and then chuck ordered a round of shots for everyone and the night progressed. Japanese people rule they just cut loose and have all sorts of fun its great and boy do they love a good saki bomb. Prices were pretty good there cause it was 500 jen for all cocktails and mixed drinks roughly 4.50 US but they were huge drinks and they made them out of all the high end booze it was all absolut, and bacardi and sky and the others there wasn’t a bottle of cheap stuff in the place. It was one hell of a night and we have made some really cool friends over here, they are already plannin our next outing, I fear it may involve drunken kariyoke but oh well it will be fun. We are getting a guided tour through the city today so that should be quite a bit of fun. Well take care everyone and remember while your sleepin I’ll be havin fun. (got to love that 14hr time change)

Deinesaur