recently ive been...

hello from tsushima again. here is another one of my updates on what ive been doing... this week has been pretty fun. no school... just farewell parties.. and i went to fukuoka to see my mother and her two friends visiting from califonia.

i'll just talk about things as you see them.

the PTA for one of my schools had a "farewell" party for the pta members who are leaving, and for the teachers who got transfered... we went to the first place.. got sloshed, then we all caught the rented bus back to the principals house.. this is round two at the principals house.

local food showed up.. the fish on the left is fresh saba (mackrel)... most mackrel that you might find in a sushi place is heavily salted because bacteria live in saba.. but if you eat it super fresh, it's not bad for you. (or something like that) this is fresh.. probably the first time ive ever eaten it fresh before.. and on the right, is namako (sea cuecumber).. yeah.. its the exact same shit that you might see me pick up and pretend pretend its my penis or just throw it at you.. yes you.
this came in live.. i saw the guy cut it down the stomach (wherever that is) pull out the the guts, and cut it... i was staring with my mouth open.. and the guy handed me a fat chunk.. i was like "holy fuck".. but i ate it.. and to my suprise, it was good.. give it a go sometime.

along with local fish and sea cuecumber, they brought seaweed and turban shells (sazae)... very fresh.. literally JUST picked from the ocean.. amazing stuff. this was made into a miso soup.

the two guys on the left are moving.. well they moved already. and the guy on the right is the vice principal (kyotousensei)

i was at a bar and saw sakamoto ryoma beer.. ryoma is popular now because there is a show about him (he's a historical figure in japan.. do the research yourself).. this bottle had been sitting there for a while.. and they no longer make ryoma beer... so i thought this was cool.

i think in my last post i mentioned that japanese LOVE their goodbyes... i took a ferry to fukuoka last saturday morning.. and to my suprise.. a few of my teachers were on the same ferry as me... and a million students and teachers were there to say "farewell" for the LAST LAST LAST time.. i dont know if i can count how many times each teacher says their offical last goodbye.
anyway.. the above picture is of streamers that everyone puts on the ferry, and each person holds the end of a streamer.. it makes goodbyes really dramatic... and for pretty pictures.

by chance, one of the guys i do karate with is moving to fukuoka too... and he left on the same ferry too... but karate guys aren't so dramatic and fruity with their goodbyes, so a few fellows showed up to give mr shohei a goodbye hand wave... they waited till the boat was gone to disburse.

looks cool right?. a lot of my students are down there holding the other ends of the streamers.

"goodbye"

we started moving...

i think this WOULD have been my favorite if the stupid rail wasnt in the way.

this is fukuoka... its the one place in japan that looks ghetto.

i saw this. dont know if you like bearbrik or however you spell it john, but this is a picture i took for you.

i got really fucking drunk with my old boss from california.. he's from japan (obviously).. but he was my boss at one of the restaurants i worked at in OC... taka got drunk quick.

also tagged this french guy along with me. we stayed in the same hostel. this guy was cool.

taka's friend showed up. she was cool. we stayed out till 6am. FUCK

my mother woke me up at 9am with a phone call... the upper bunk gave me a good view of the ceiling... the cealing was half happy, and half soso... i was feeling soso...

the french guy (alex) still wasnt feeling very wonderful yet.

an hour after the wakeup call, i met up with my mother and her two friends sarah and jackie

i found this soda that made me want to shit myself laughing... slightly suggestive picture if you ask me...

fuck you UN-taxi

my island is beautiful

i walk on logs.. actually i went for a hike today... didnt know where the trail went.. turns out it went NOWHERE... so i walked down to the stream and just followed that... down to nothing.

i tried to get artsy

scenery

trees that dont know which way to grow

moss.. i like the colors

i cant tell if i like this sideways

or regular

i found a shrine to some kamisama... very unusual to see this shape... ive never seen anything quite like this before

went to kamizaka park.. not far from my house.... just up a mountain.. this is training grounds for the russo-japanese war.

tree vag

they sell this in little "quarter machines" (gachagacha machines)... it says "unkosan" or "mr poop". hahaha.. hilarious.. little keychains of poop.. and each poop has a different texture.. and yeah, there is corn poop. there's hard poop.. fucking ridiculous.