Another weekend full of excitement! - NOW with videos at the bottom!

So for weeks I was planning on going to my student, Shigeo's, band Coffee Time's live show. (who I designed and maintain their website at www.coffeetime.com)

Well the day finally came and they were amazing! I got there a bit late due to stomach problems (Sayaka and I ate like 30 something gyoza in 10 minutes...) and the band before them was on. I got in and was the only foreigner, but when is that ever a shock! I got there, and Coffee Time's drummer recognized me and said "Heeeey Tommy!" which instantly made me official as for having a reason to be there. He went up front to get Shigeo, and he came and we talked and joked around a bit. The singer Chikako, from Coffee Time came to introduce herself in English to me (I haven't met her yet, I only met the previous vocalist. Plus the new bass player and keyboardist came to introduce themselves to me too. Shortly after they were ready to go on!

They warmed up with a cover of a Maroon 5 song, and after that they did 4 original songs. They really are a great band, and it is hard to describe their style. It isn't J-Pop, too hard, it isn't JRock, to electronic... I will have vids up to decribe it a bit better later!

After that, I joined my friends for the farewell party of a local teacher. We hit up Karaoke Kan, the Greek designed karaoke place with an AWESOME night view (well the room we got had the great view!). We did this all while drinking too much and singing horribly to horribly old songs (but like always Ryan and I did Justice's D.A.N.C.E.). Most were going to stay and do karaoke for one more hour, while Ryan, Susannah and I were going to look for the club that would be our after party.

We went to JBs and it was closing at 4 and they were playing, what they call "techno". We tried Daughter, and it was dead, but playing rap (who wants to dance to rap?). SO we decided to take the walk to Magos. We are glad we did! It was Electro/House night and DAMN were the DJs good that night!

I met a DJ who will be having a set on August 27th and he will get me in for free to check him out! I always love clubbing in Japan because people seems to have more fun when foreigners are around. It was so quiet, even thought the music was BANGIN, but when we got there everyone got louder. Some guy eventually came up to me with a bottle of white wine which we drank from, literally in front of the DJ booth!

The other joined us, but I wasn't sure for how long because of the alcohol, but eventually the sun rose, the last song played, and I stumbled to Denny's where everyone was crashed at. I made the decision to go walk to the station so I could catch the first train home at 6:10AM. I caught the train, stumbled to ride my bike home, and got home and took a shower then slept!

I was shocked to wake up and see Sayaka was gone, but forgot that she had work! I woke up at 10 something and got ready to go to Immigration to go get my visa and passport renewed! I left around 10:30, got my passport at 3:30. Yeah, immigration offices... After that I headed home to get the first care package my dad and his wife sent me!

When it came I was sooo happy to see 9 packs of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (MY FAVORITE CANDY IN THE WORLD!!!!), 4 containers of Creole seasonings (Zataran's and Tony Chachers), 2 bottles of Frank's Red Hot sauce (such a good taste, and not too spicy!), some mac and cheese, and liquid popsicles to freeze! I will be happy with these for some time!

My mom should have sent me another package today too, with 3 new suits that I bought, plus some other things I asked for!

Such a good week!

Also, 6 more days until my birthday, and Sayaka and I will go have a day trip to Nagano on Sunday, and after that I will go to one of my friend's going away party. No idea what the plan is, but sounds like a bar night!

Busy busy busy busy busy... You should know me by now right?

Also after this weekend at Club Magos, I was seriously considering thinking of becoming a party promoter, and give some local DJs more recognition. These guys are as good, if not better, then other artists who make a ton of money and travel the world. I think they need someone to get their name out there! Maybe that someone is me...

Pics from the live!

Video from the live will come as soon as I get em uploaded!

I met Nabe Atsu!!!

AKA Watanabe Atsumu!!!

If you live in Japan, you know who he is, or at least know OF him!

Sayaka and I went to the big Eiden event at Nagoya Dome and got to see him and his partner do a 10 minute comedy sketch. Before that I bought 2 hi vision camcorders that were on sale for a GOOD price, and now I am going to sell them! (YAY!)

Anyways, Sayaka made reservations fora book signing event that he would be doing at Nagoya Station, at Books Sanseido. I didn't think I needed to do it, because I thought we would have been closer to see him at the Eiden event, but I was wrong...So after we ate I asked her to see if she could make reservations for me too. Well who would have guessed it, I got my reservation, 4 hours or so before the event! LUCKY!

So we go to Nagoya station, go get our tickets to buy the book and get in line to meet him. We waited for an hour and a half or so, but when he arrived, everyone got soo excited and started cheering. As they say in Japan, everyone became TENSION UP!!! (this always makes me laugh when I hear this being said...)

Thanks to Sayaka getting us in line early, she was number 8 in line and I was 9! We both went up together and she kinda acted as my translator. She asked him if he was tired, because he LOOKED exhausted (after the Eiden event, now signing 200 people's books and shaking their hands...) and he said he wasn't. He asked me if I understand his act, and I said a little, which made him laugh. He also asked if I spoke Japanese and I said a little again... We both got our books signed and Sayaka looked like she was about to explode, cry, faint, or all of them at the same time! She was tension up for hours to come.

Following this momentous occasion was a 2.5 hour drink fest at the beer garden in the Dai Nagoya Building. I was meeting up again with my trainers and other teachers after they did a day hike at some mountain in Mie. We drank ourselves stupid and ate till we couldn't move, just like you should at a beer garden! After that a few of us went to The Hub to chat and BS around until it became too late.

A super eventful day yesterday, and I was sad to see it go! Now I am stuck in my apartment, with no water, and thinking of how to sell these camcorders!

Wish me luck!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/agent_viagra/sets/72157605640447837/

Bowling party, drinking party, and almost going to Nagoya University's school festival...

So my student who goes to Nagoya University invited me to go to the school's festival. So Sayaka and I got ready early and I picked up a day pass for the subway, and we headed to the station. When we got there, there were signs, and people in megaphones saying the festival had been canceled. A bit of back story is in store...

So Saturday night, after work, we saw that a lot of people got sick from eating some food at a school university. They were sent home, and people were shown crying and what not. Then we found out it was Nagoya University! OK, so get rid of the bad food, and all is well? Nope, the sign said something about not being able to continue with the festival knowing they got people sick, and they remained hospitalized. I do understand that though, but felt bad, because I KNOW my student worked sooo hard preparing for it, only to have the last, most busy day, be canceled! Maybe next year will go better!

So after those events, we thought we would go to Sakae before I had to go to my school's party. We did some walking around and caught a glimpse of a new J Pop artist who was signing her CD at Parco. I took pics even though I shouldn't have!

It eventually became time for Sayaka and I to part ways for the day, so we said bye and she lead me to the station. After a short time, I realized she lead me to the ENTRANCE to the shopping center, while she was walking towards the station... Dizzy dizzy girl! I walked back and she was on her phone calling me, and started laughing and hid her face when she saw me. A funny moment, for sure!

I eventually made it to the meeting place, and everyone was jokingly mad at me for being late. I admit, I was 9 minutes late, but stupid slow walkers in Kamimaezu station were to blame!

We rounded almost everyone up and made our way to the bowling alley.

The first game was my best game in a long time, where I scored 155 points. This put me in the number 3 spot for total points. After the first game we were set into teams for the tournament, and we bowled a difficult 10 frames, only to tie for last place. I ended with a 138 for that game. Pretty consecutive day for me, nothing below 100 this day!

After bowling we headed to Wara Wara, where we all ate, drank, and had a great time!

Our next party? BBQ in August!

On to the PICS!

My last 2 photo days!

Check out my new photo galleries for pics of what I have done recently!

Our anniversary at my student Yoko's strawberry themed party!

Our first Chunichi Dragons game!!

My last 2 photo days!

Check out my new photo galleries for pics of what I have done recently!

Our anniversary at my student Yoko's strawberry themed party!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agent_viagra/sets/72157605419471970/

Our first Chunichi Dragons game!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agent_viagra/sets/72157605437959602/

It has been a while since my last blog post...

Since then, Sayaka and I celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!!
We didn't want to do anything too flashy and big, so we spent the day together going to my student's house, where she had a strawberry themed party! Her garden has a lot of strawberries so she let the kids from her art class come, if they drew her a picture with a strawberry in it. All of the kids were so cute and happy to be there. She prepared many types of snacks with strawberries in them too! Strawberry ice cream, fruit cup, soda, and other food too. After we stayed there and took several pictures, we headed to Kanayama to find something to eat. We ended up going to a buffet for 2 hours and enjoyed some great food that they had there! A nice relaxing anniversary date with Sayaka, we were both happy!

I also started a new hobby, which is DJing house music with my friend Ryan, who teaches in Kasugai, near me. He is also from the same city I lived in before I came to Nagoya, and has gone with me to many concerts, and we both have a love for music. Last weekend he had a small get together and we djed and drank and socialized, so I guess you can say it was our first DJ event. We want to practice more and see where it could take us...

Today or tomorrow I will be buying my ticket to Summer Sonic 2008! I went in 2006, skipped 2007, and now I am ready to go again! My first Summer Sonic I saw Daft Punk live for the first time. Daft Punk being the biggest house music act coming from France! This year will be my first time seeing Justice live, who is the NEXT biggest house music act coming from France! I will also be able to see Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Crystal Castles, and many other bands I can't wait to see! Ryan should be going with me and maybe a few other teachers in the area, so it should be a fun day of music!

OH! And Sayaka and I went to our first Chunichi Dragons game last weekend! It was a COMPLETELY different feeling than an American baseball game! Each batter has their own chant and cheer, people go crazy without alcohol, and the visiting team has their own section, going crazy and doing the same things! it is definitely more festive than the American version, and the biggest difference I noticed was that the field was shorter than the American sized baseball field. I felt like it wouldn't be TOO hard to hit a homerun!

Also I haven't made any music since my laptop died, and just yesterday, at work, I started working on the drums for my first new track in a while. I can't wait to put together another track, since I have been discovering a LOT of GOOD house/electro/french in the last month or so. I have TONS of inspiration now!

Now to the pics!

Big News (for me) I am moving! Next year to...

Tokyo!

I asked my trainer if I could transfer after I finish my 3rd year, and he said it would be no problem! He even asked why I didn't ask before my first year ended, but I just recently found out it was possible.

So next July, I will be moving to Tokyo!

The reason I want to be there is the find a foreign (or Japanese) company to be their graphic designer, web designer, or anything not teaching English!

Nagoya is a little sleepy when it comes to foreign friendly careers, so I want to make the move!

A year and a month or so away from the big T!

Slowly getting my laptop to life...

So I can NOT recover the data on my old hard drive. So I lost a lot of pictures, my Outlook data files (which means I lost ALL of my clients, all of my schedules, birthdays, etc.) and who knows what else I had on there that I just wasn't keeping track of (stuff on desktop, important financial info and such).

I am slowly trying to get this back to a state where I can make music, receive and send email outside of a web browser. and go back to making websites...

Slowly but surely.

This officially marks the second time in my life that my hard drive died while I was really enjoying making music. This time though, I had it all backed up!

So FUCK you fate!

Sorry, I am so pissed when I think about everything I lost...

Major major set back!

So shortly after I wrote the blog from today, my laptop bit the dust. Well at last the hard drive did....

Yeah I can go buy a new hard drive and be up and running, but, yeah, Ilost all of my programs, settings, a lot of picture I haven't uploadedyt (and even getting ones I have uploaded back on my hard drive is a pain, sine I have to download them one by one...)
Luckily, I just backed up my music and music files to my external hard drive, but I did lose 20 gigs of free sounds for my music software... Thoe took FOREVER to download and I never got a chance to back them up!

For reference, I am using an Acer Ferrarri 4000. NEVER buy one or ANY other Acer product after reading this! This is just the latest problem I have had since buying it just over 2 years ago.

This is why I am saving up for a Mac Book Pro!

Oh yeah, I am able to use my Playstation 3 to check e-mail and write posts still, but that is about it, as the browser is very limited.

Golden Week, a success?

I would say so.

My first days were filled with laziness, carbs, and calories! Got to disk 4 of Lost Odyssey and just completing a lot of side junk now for fun.

Bought some Bape stuff.

Made some songs for some videos.

My plans didn't really come about until Friday night, when Sayaka and I went to Outback for dinner. Saturday we slept in a bit to catch the night bus that night with her mom to Tokyo to go to Disneyland. Before the bus,w e ate dinner though, and we all agreed, the food at that place wasn't so great!

The bus ride there wasn't too bad, I got off at one rest area to buy some candy, as I just had the taste of grape chu-hi on my tongue and it wasn't pleasant! Next time I awoke, we were within Tokyo's boundaries, but not quite to the Disney resort. I stayed awake for the rest of the trip, enjoying the view of my favorite city in Japan!

We did our breakfast buffet which was pretty good. The food, salad, fruit, yogurt, everything was sooo good!

Now the day before, was SOOO hot in Nagoya, that I bought 3 pairs of shorts, and wore one of them for the trip. This day, in Tokyo, was COLD and windy!

Throughout the day at Disneyland, it would start sprinkling quite often, then downright rain a few times during the day. I was definitely not dressed for it!

The day was fun, but definitely, the most crowded I have seen ANY Disney park, save California's on New Year's Eve! We waited 3 hours and 40 minutes, for Winnie the Pooh's Honey Hunt, which was better than waiting an hour and 50 minutes JUST to get a "fast" pass, which wanted us to return at 8PM, and it was 9AM... After the Pooh ride (which underwhelmed Sayaka and here mom because of the length of the wait, to length of the ride ratio was ridiculous) we went on Big Thunder Mountain. The wait here was about 2 hours and 45 minutes. This ride always satisfies me, so the wait was worth it! After this we ate, then went on Splash Mountain which was another 2 hour + wait! Our picture for Splash Mountain was soo funny, because Sayaka looked like she was going to die, her mom was smiling so big, and I looked super relaxed!


After Splash, we watched the Electrical Parade, which I really think Daft Punk was inspired by for their last tour... After the parade we did omiyage shopping and headed to the bus to go home. It was a looong ride home, because the little girl next to us decided to start crying for a good part of the trip, and I think she kept everyone up.

Check all Disneyland pics HERE!

We arrived back in Nagoya Monday morning, which was around 17 hours before I would go see Gildas and Masaya at club Magos in Shin Sakae Machi.

We slept a bit and recovered, and the time to go meet my friend Ryan came and went.

We met at Hub which is a popular foreigner bar in Sakae, to go drink a bit. It is much cheaper to drink at a bar, than it is to drink at the club, so we always do this before a show! We met a guy named Mike that was half black and Japanese, lived in Hawaii for 10 years, so had a thick Hawaiian accent, but looked Mexican! I was shocked to find out his nationality, and that he was born in Nagoya! His English and Japanese were flawless. So jealous...

Anyways, we met with 2 more friends and headed to Magos. When we got there, the DJs that were on in the main room, weren't bad, if you don't consider the type of house that Gildas and Masaya play. Their style was a bit too slow for our liking. We moved to the next, smaller room, and got much better music! It was a shame these guys were not in the main room though! While partying in the small room, Ryan came and got me, and told me that Gildas and Masaya had just started, so we worked our way to the middle right side and partied there for like an hour or so! As usual we made friends/fans because us foreigners usually do a lot more than the 2-step at a house music show, so the Japanese party goers were amazed. At some point I realized "Hey, I want to be in the front by the DJ booth, so I gracefully made my way up there, bringing Ryan and our friends with me. We stayed there rocking out till Gildas and Masaya ended their set, and passed the turntables over to 2 Japanese DJs that were pretty much the same style as the star DJs. They even played a few of the same songs!

Overall, this show was one of the best house shows I have ever seen, and a lot more energetic than some of the bigger shoes. Maybe because of how small Magos was!

And that was that. The next day, Sayaka and I rode our bikes to 31 Flavors to get ice cream on the last day of their sale, then we went to get yakiniku and seriously ate so much we both wanted to throw up. Great huh?

And here I am, hours before my second day of work after vacation. Yesterday wasn't as bad as I thought. This is seriously the first and only job I have had, that I don't dread after a long vacation. That is a gooood thing!