Snacks

I went back home to Florida in late April. I brought some Japanese snacks for my family to try out. It was some dried fish and other seafood "jerky." So I made a video about it. And I also tried some crazy alcoholic drink.

Hanami

Some friends and I went to Tsurumai Park last weekend for Hanami (picnicking under Cherry Blossoms). There were a lot of people scattered everywhere. The day was sunny and a bit warm. I decided to download Hipstamatic for my iPhone. It's a cool app Marlow had told me about months before. I fiddled around with it and took a few photos. I should have taken pics of the food too, because it was magically delicious.

Castle Crashers

I'm finally getting around to editing some video from December when Rachel came. It was castle week for us. Rachel and I went to Inuyama, Hikone, and Nagoya Castle. Marlow and Antonette had already been to those before (maybe not Hikone). It was windy at Inuyama as you will see. I didn't take much video, which sucks. But at least I'm getting around to posting it!

Natto

Back in December, Rachel came to visit Antonette and Marlow. I'm really late with this video among others. So we went to Oasis 21 to have sushi at the rotary sushi bar (don't know the name). Like any other foreigner visiting Japan, she had to try natto.

Hounen Matsuri (豊年祭り）

I went to the Penis Festival aka Hounen Matsuri (豊年祭り）this year.

From Wikipedia:

Hōnen Matsuri (豊年祭?) (Japanese for "Harvest Festival") is a fertility festival celebrated every year on March 15 in Japan. Hōnen means rich harvest in Japanese, while a matsuri is a festival. The Hōnen festival and ceremony celebrate the blessings of a bountiful harvest and all manner of prosperity and fertility.

It's held every year on March 15, regardless of the day of the week. This year it happened to be on a Monday. And it being held on a Monday meant that everyone had to work. So, I went by myself. Anyways, I took a few pics.

Year One

No it's not about Batman. It's about my first year in Japan. It's been a year since I've been in Japan. It's been an amazing year. I've been to a lot of cool places and met interesting people. I have my own place too. I've learned how to read Hiragana and Katakana (although I really can't write them correctly). I'm currently studying words, grammar and Kanji. There's a lot more but it'd take me forever to type. Here's to another year:




-- Post From My iPhone

Okazaki visit

I went to Okazaki this past weekend which is about 30 mins south of Nagoya by train. We had some tasty udon for lunch at this popular place I forget the name of. We stopped by Okazaki Castle to add another castle visited to my list. They had some katana blades; some whole, some with only the blade remaining. They looked really gorgeous. Unfortunately they didn't allow photography inside but I did manage to snap some outside. They also had a Hiroshige woodblock print too. Pretty amazing day.







-- Post From My iPhone

Castle Week

The past week, I visited three castles along with some friends. It was my first time going to any kind of castle. My favorite was Inuyama Castle which we went to first, followed by Nagoya Castle and Hikone Castle. The weather was crappy when we went to Hikone Jo and I didn't take pictures heh. Rachel from Florida came to visit Marlow and Antonette. So, here are some pictures!

Back in October...

KEChalloween09
Originally uploaded by juanlduarte

It was Halloween. So we had a Halloween Day at work and here is a pic of the kiddos:


And here is a short clip:

Nagoya Festival 09

I'm over a month late posting this video. It's a tad bit long coming in at 10 minutes. But yeah, it was pretty cool. I have pictures to post also, but I haven't even begun to edit them. Not only that, but I also have video and pictures from the Osu Kannon parade/festival that was a week later after the Nagoya Festival.

Chunichi Dragons vs Hanshin Tigers

I went to my first professional sporting event ever. And of all places, in Japan! My friend Jonathan had an extra ticket and invited me. So without thinking twice, I took him up on his offer. I learned some cool things about Japanese baseball: each team has a band that plays while they are at bat. Aaaaand, each player has their own special song the band plays. Another thing is, unlike American baseball, if a ball flys out to the crowd, a staff member comes and gets the ball back. I don't know why. My camera wasn't fully charged so I was only able to get a few seconds of footage.

Osaka Mexican Festival

I went to Osaka to their annual Mexican Festival on Sept 6th. I've been lazy about uploading video and pics but I got one done! We arrived there around 2pm and started to sample the food and beer (mostly beer). I had Texas BBQ, a tamale and some tacos. The food was alright. I was expecting the food to kick my ass in the spicy department but it was tame. At any rate, here is the video.

24 Hour Television

I don't have a TV, but I kinda wish I did. There is some festival thing going on today in Sakae, but it started on Friday. It's some TV station here in Nagoya and they are broadcasting from the TV tower area. They have music talents performing and other booths are set up around the area.










--Post From My iPhone

Photos from the river in Gifu

I finally imported and enhanced the photos I took during our trip from Nagoya, Aichi to the river in Gifu. Rudy and Takako from Desperados make a cameo. Unfortunately, I don't remember the river's or town's name. I didn't take many pics from different spots because I didn't want my camera to fall into the water. That would blow. Here are the pics. Enjoy.

It's been a month since I posted.

I haven't been doing a whole lot. I do have stuff that I photographed/recorded from June to August. I've been slacking in posting videos or pictures. But I am drinking my coffee as I type.

I went to a river about 1.5 hrs away from the city with 2 new friends. A couple weeks ago, I went to a Tex-Mex bar in Nagoya called Desperados. I stepped in and was greeted by Rudy, the owner. Sitting at the bar were 2 other guys, Antonio and Saul. All of them were born in Mexico. We started to talk and after a few beers, we all took some shots of Tequila as Mariachi music played in the background. I've been back a handful of times. Last week, Rudy and his wife Takako invited me to the river. So we went yesterday. The river is between some mountains I don't know the name of. Heck, I don't know the name of the river either. But the water was freakin freezing and I couldn't swim against the current. It was a quite spot, although one family was there. However it wasn't crowded like other areas of the river were. We were there for a couple hours just enjoying it and chatting.

Since meeting new friends, I've been invited to Saul's daughter's bday (which is my younger brother's too), which falls the same day as Mexico's independence day; going to a Mexican Festival in Osaka the first week of September and going to some Lowrider show in October. I've met some other cool dudes at the bar as well which are people that have been here for more than 10 years. I'll post some pics/video soon.

Oh look

Now you can kind of locate me. Marlow let me know about this nifty app. I still need to work out the kinks on displaying it properly.


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Behemoth

I'm sitting across one of the tallest Japanese girls I've ever met, and frankly I'm quite turned on by it. jk

I'm afraid to snap a picture.




-- Post From My iPhone

Some Sundays are lazier than others

Last Sunday, I spent some time in Osu Kannon. They have this arcade shopping area. And it's not like videogame arcades, but just a bunch of shops and restaurants. You could probably spend the whole day. We saw some ice carving and Fatblueman perform at Shooter's.

Long overdue

On June 14th, we (Yukiko, Jenn, Marcel and Nancy...Marlow too) had a surprise birthday party for Antonette (even though her bday was June 13th). Marlow took her out on a day long...date, while I worked my magic getting things set up. Yukiko gave me a hand by buying these slick paper balloons and candles which you'll see in the video. It was amazing. We had chocolate cake and Cold Stone ice cream. Here's the video:

Art in Nishiharu

I teach at a community center at least once a week. They have an art show done by student artists. An artist named Hayato had a whole wall to himself. This is my favorite.




-- Post From My iPhone