sayonara Bellingham~!

This is maybe my last post from Bellingham. Thats weird for me, but somehow its cool too. Away I fly to Japan.

The last few days seem to have been really sharp, and clear. Maybe its the almost summer air, or maybe its like a cowboy book I read once. Right before the cowboy died, the bullet had allready cut deep into his skin, the world became really sharp and clear for his senses. For example... yesterday walking down the hill over near 21st street, I look up and I could see (for what felt like the first time) the sharp edge of Mount Baker pushed against a vibrant blue sky. I could almost feel the snow that was etched against the massiveness of it. How was it hiding before? ...Walking home from Fred Mayer's, in the late evening, pushing through fuzzy brown grass that is blowing in the wind, the thunder of cars on the freeway below, hidden by a thick patch of blackberry thorns... running down a hill, late at night, half drunk, my heart pounding, as I run I jump, so it becomes a kinda run-jumping and everynow and then as my feet return to the ground a fart jumps out of me and makes my half drunk mind giggle.... Bellingham, those are all events in the last 3 days... what about the last 1000 days? Memories...

Yesterday me and USK (my AUAP campus buddy) and a few other dudes (Kazu, Aki etc) went down town with AUAP to eat ice cream... we had a little bit of uhmm... magic soda. (mix some Vodka with cheap 69 cent soda and you have my kind of magic~!) So it was funny walking around Bellingham with smiles, you know I still feel young and thats so cool I think. Well, enough about that, I really should just stop talking about that and just say I'M DONE!!! Away I go. Woohoo. I'm really excited I guess. (Look at my emotion icon to the left heh heh) and hey, whatever happens will happen. I hope I get a job, but you never know. And hey, if the airplane exploades in the air or something on my way over, atleast I've had a kinda fun life! ... although that would mean no more new posts from me, so you'd just have to read the old posts in the archives forever, and that would get kinda boring huh? Anyway, I'll miss Bellingham and everything, and everyone, in it. Tears tears, dramatic music jumps up as the credits get ready to roll. Get ready for the sequel, bigger, better and with hotter special effects (and a smaller budget!?!)! Wooo! See you all in Tokyo. SAMPAI JUMPA!

life keeps spinning, round round like a record baby..

ok this post's title is a joke, just had to say that. Phew! But yeah, I don't know what to say. Oh yeah! First, I must agree with Syrinx and say that the Onion (online fake, funny, news) really does read people's minds. And their parody of college radio DJs hits me right in the head, its funny, and yeah reminds me that maybe not that many people will really notice Japan Radio being gone. But I miss doing it, tomorrow is sunday and I have no radio show to go to!!! wahhh!

In other news, I hung out with Priscilla and Polly to say goodbye to them on Thursday and Friday. Thursday night Priscilla asked to do some drinking, so I got some tequira. (a natural model, heres Priscy posing with the bottle of tequira!! heheehee) Priscy had a one shot of tequira (yes, thats right, just one shot! silly me has to tease her about that because I walked miles to get the tequira because she wanted to try some as a byebye thing) and some kahlula but she didn't end up drinking that much. (Me and polly had more~~) oh and, Priscy did try to freeze me to death with the cold Tequira bottle! ..It was really fun though, we also talked to Cory (online and on the phone) a lot which was awesome... we took this group picture late on thursday evening, it looks like they are trying to kill me!! they are cool ..I'm going to miss hanging out with those silly dudes, of course.

Yesterday me and Steve went to that new movie, The Hulk. It was totally Shrek on steroids... but thats ok, cus I liked Shrek. The movie was interesting I thought, and it was edited in a very fresh style. It was a kinda pointless movie, but I didn't mind. It was fun!

Today I just sat around.. hanging out at Nakayama's place eating food and talking. I really should go home (I'm at campus now because I don't have a computer). But I'm lazy, and I'll have to walk!! heh

oh yeah, before I forget... some people have asked "why the title??" so I should mention what I was thinking... well, I'm basically making fun of my self by quoting a song by Simon and Garfunkel that I really like:

I have my books

And my poetry to protect me

I am shielded in my armor

Hiding in my room

Safe within my womb

I touch no-one and no-one touches me



I am a rock

I am an island

And the rock feels no pain

And an island never cries


Why am I making fun of myself? Because I don't feel sad, and this song is really sad but its also really beautiful. Anyway, its complicated, but that was my source of insperation. ... well that, and that I'm going to be living in Japan which is an island so I thought it was funny. heh heh heh. uhm yeah, anyway, ...Don't forget to add your comments to the left! SAMPAI JUMPA~~!

Yuka's parents visit (and blog major update!)

This is just a quick blog update to say... Yuka's parents came to visit, and it was so fun~~... they had a food party for Shunsuke, Yuka's american friend Pilar and Shunsuke (and of course me)... it was so fun:

In this group of pictures Yuka is trying to give her friend Umaboshi (or how ever you spell "pickled plum" in Japanese) ... Pillar didn't really like it, but atleast she tried it! Yuka's mom is trying to get a camera ready and Shunsuke is talking to her dad.. her dad was really silly... once he said to me in Japanese (as a joke!) "Who the f*ck are you?" ..it sounds rough, but it was actually funny. He made a lot of jokes, and I'm a silly person so I thought he was kinda funny. (and the food her mom made was really good!) Oh and before we leave this topic, lets watch Yuka try to perform magic:

So what do you think of my new design? Ta-da! Brand new and ready for posting from Japan! ^^;; Although, when I changed the layout I can't figure out how to add the comments box again, so please wait for the comments to come back...~~!! but anyway, thats all I have to say for now. Enjoy...~~ DAAG!

UPDATE: The comments box is working again! But instead of putting a comments box on every entry I decided to just have one box for the whole diary, and when that one gets full I'll empty it and put up another. (the comments box is on your left, near the "archive" link... have fun! Oh yeah, and if you can see MPG movies on your computer, be sure to watch the silly mini movie Nicky took of me jumping off of the file cabinets at my last radio show. Wooo! I'm crazy! >.< haahaha! SAYA LUCU!

Weekend update!

OK, lets start my update with information about my graduation because we think that graduation is an important stage in life. I'm not sure why we think that, but..... Main campus graduation; woke up early, too early. Crawled out of bed and walked to campus. The sun was sharp in my eyes, but the warmth hadn't quite got to earth yet so I was cold in the morning air. It was weird seeing family members "on my turf" (for those of us learning english, that means "in my area" or like a place that felt like it belonged ) ..walking around where I have had classes forever. Nakayama came late and I quickly introduced her to my mum and ran to line up with the other graduates. So those who have graduated before will know how silly it is. You put on a flat square hat and a long black "dress" and your supposed to feel special, I guess. But the funnyest part is that they give you these cards with your name, and your suppose to give them to the speaker and thats how he knows who you are, so he can call your name when your graduating. Factory graduations! wooo! But ok, heres my evil part. I knew that this was the system. So when I was filling out the graduation form they asked on the form "How do you want us to pernounce your name?" and I wrote "Dansen Baka Waters" and ok, if you don't know, BAKA means IDIOT in Japanese... so, I'm sitting down in the gym with the random thousands of other graduates, and I was feeling really kinda strange. Kind of like "What is Education?? What do I have now that I didn't have before?" My mum and Nakayama were waving from the seats and I was just sitting there. Sitting there swimming in time. Anyway, I get up and walk towards the man reading everyones name, a smile jumps through my mind and hangs on the edges of my lips. I hand him my card, he hesitates, and reads loudly "DANSEN BAKA WATERS" and my smile exploades all over my face. I was done, I was graduated, I was on my way. But it was more than that, I controled my reality and made the guy kinda swear in Japanese. Woohoo! Thats something to smile about, huh?

After graduation I took pictures with my awesome family, reletives, and ran away to Fairhaven graduation. I didn't think about it until I was already there, but why didn't I just ask them to go too? Although the second graduation at the Fairhaven department was super long (5 hours or something~!) so maybe it was better they didn't go to that one. That graduation was funner though. Instead of silly strange HarryPotter looking graduation clothes, people were just dressed in real clothes (although a lot more fancy than mine!) and some people were really weird... one guy dressed in a space suit, and stuff. And some teachers sang instead of introductions and everything that made it feel really "Fairhaven-ish" ... I'm going to miss that place, all them crazy people!! ^^;; After graduation I was going to hang out with a lot of the CSA people (who took me and others up to Canada for a goodbye party last Thursday, that was so nice of them! Good times!) and go to Karaoke again, but they left before I got done with the graduation, so I went and hang out with silly Yuka. I tried to show her that crazy FTP stuff, its confusing, but computers are fun! yay!

Today I had the very last Japan Radio show... Its been fun! Nicky (he was my co-host on the radio show years ago when I first started) came in and talked on air with me. It was a memory trip, and it was fun. Nicky took crazy pictures of me, for example, jumping off of the top of the CD storage libary file cabinet. Woohoo! hehe.... I got actually more requests than I expected, but I had given most of my CDs to even because I want him to keep doing my radio show some other time. My time here is done, its now time to do other things. ,,,...,,.. SAMPAI JUMPA!

Mid-week update...

Just wanted to say I'm frickin DONE!! Forever and ever and ever, amen. I've finished writting my huge complicated paper, and I've taken my last final test. Ladies and gentalmen, when Saturday rolls around Dansen will be a graduated man. Woohoo! I cant express my feelings in words!

For those of you who remember, Nicky got married. And yes, I am the world's best reporter, I always get the scoop. Yes, I am the ONLY person (?) to have captured the moment when the brand new couple kissed to seal their deal. Yes thats right, and I made it an animated image file. You can watch it loop, over and over. Its kinda sexy! hahaha. Enjoy it here...

Did any of you guys play that mental game when you were kids.. the game were you would dream about what you would take with you if you were going to be strandad on an island? Sometimes it was "if you could only bring one thing, what would it be?" other times it was kinda evil, and it was a list of people and you could only take one of them with you, all the others would have to die... but the one that I'm thinking about now was when you would just try to think of a list of things you could fit on a rowboat when your sailboat was sinking, just a few things that you would take with you to start a new life on an island...~~~ did anyone guess the connection yet? hehehe.. I'm going to Japan and after 5 years I have a lot of stuff... I mean, I'm not connected to objects, things aren't so important to me. But a lot of the things I have aren't valuable they are just old good books, letters from friends, silly birthday gifts, all sorts of stuff that has memory value. I can't take it all with me to Japan, so what will I bring? Its a hard choice, I'm still not sure. Thats what I'm thinking about right now. ...

As a side note, I've added links to Piyosan and Cory's online diaries. Cory's is so complex, pictures and stuff, its on a Korean server though so it would be helpful if you can read Korean. Piyo's is in Japanese so if you cant read Japanese its kinda useless to go there, although it is a really cute diary (I helped design it a little bit)....~~ Anyway, thats all I have to say for now. PEACE TO THE WORLD! or something like that! ^^; SAMPAI JUMPA!

Quick update:
Weekend was beautifully fun... Only a few weeks until I leave America...!! Gone gone gone! But I have sad news about that...
I cant go to Korea right now!
I told all my Korean friends I would be going to Korea this summer, but I have so many bills at the end of this quarter and I loaned 250 dollers to a friend, and everything, so I think I wont have enough money to go to korea. I'm so sad. I wanted to go so bad... but it looks like maybe its impossible. I'm still deciding, I will buy my ticket tomorrow.. but it looks like I won't be going to Korea right now. Sucks...! Maybe when I get my visa, I can stop by Korea or something!?! ...

oh yeah, so my weekend... it was awesome.. watched "The Color Purple" with Yuka on Friday, that is such a sad movie, I almost cried.. wahh wahh wahh! but anyway, after that Shunske made us dinner and then we all went to play pool... Shunske kicked our ass, he's too good! He's a frickin' PRO! And then we went bowling, and then we went to Downtown Johnny's to play pool again (I always used to think it was an old person bar, but it was hopin'.. fresh live local hiphop~~!) and then on Saturday I went to a Korean language learning party (because that was before I checked how much money I had, and I thought I was going to Korea still) and I learned a lot of words (TWA JUSEYO!) and stuff, was really fun. Took some silly pictures with Sua and I got kinda drunk on Mike's Hard Lemonaid and Beer.. after that I stopped by Yuka's house to say hello and we talked for awhile, actually for a long while! and then I went home and Vicky called me at 9 or 10 in the morning (I was so sleepy!) and I went to what I thought was my last radio show today, but actually I found out NEXT week is my FINAL LAST SHOW! wow!! Just a thought... would Nicky and Nakayama come in and we could pretend like it was the FIRST show! Wouldn't that be funny, act like it was the first show we did like...hmm.. 3 years ago? With Nicky making silly kinky jokes and Nakayama playing flute or something. Hehehehe. The memories! Oh well, on to other things. Working in Japan! Woohoo! OH yeah.. Priscilla also took me out to eat this evening, free food, yay! Was nice of her...she saw this guy in a green stripped shirt and she was going crazy, drooling, hahaha, she wanted some of that~~ Anyway, I should work some more on my paper. Its kinda interesting, the title is: "Comparing Cherokee Nationals and Japanese Americans in Original Language Maintenance Versus Original Language Loss" and so far I've used 9 footnotes, its that complicated. Anyway! Thats the word from Dansen. Oh yeah, changing the design on my blog before I head off to japan.. something to reflect the concept of blogging from japan. any ideas? SAMPAI JUMPA!

Sue Comes to Visit~!

Sue (soo young) from the BIP Korea exchange student thing, I went on, came to visit me and Hye Yeon. And they hung out with me last weekend, so I guess the last personal note about being affraid they hated me wasn't really true? ^^*; But anyway, was good to hang out. We went to IHOP (the pancake resturant... look here for Sue and Hye Yeon walking out of IHOP, and look here for an accident shot when Sue is spinning around because she thought she forgot her camera, and Hye Yeon is blowing her nose! ^^;; ) and after eating good food Hye Yeon got bored (so she's called Bored Girl, right?) and went home and me and Sue went walking for a little bit. It was fun but Sue still hasn't sent me the pictures from then, so I can't include them, huh? Anyway! The week blured past.. papers due and all sorts of stuff. But! What about this weekend update? So yeah.. hmm. Friday I hung out with Yuka and then later Shunske made us dinner! Was so good, noodles and tuna and stuff. Yummy deshita! And on Saturday I was working on that InkSpeak (local art magazine) thing me and my classmates are doing... worked on it most of the day, in the late evening me and Shunske and Yuka went to see "Bruce Almighty" which.. I thought was funny! It was funny but like I've heard others say, it was also a very clear reference to Jim Carries life too.. . made it interesting and really psychological, which seems to be the trend in movie's these days. And on Sunday .. wait, I just woke up! its like a little past 1, and I need to go do more of making that damn magazine!! after that I'll go to one of the last radio shows because the radio station said they will be killing my show. Its so sad, but apparently when one person graduates the new rule is they can't pass on their show. That sucks!! stupid rules.. (hear it now while you can! sundays, 3-5pm, 89.3fm) ... oh yeah, personal note that should be delivered to innermind: Don't write notes on your hand while your sleeping because the pen isn't real, and the note wont be there when you wake up! ...hmmm.. yeah. DAAG!

Graduation Party!

Oh my god! I had so much fun at my graduation party... first I would like to say, so many people said so many nice things, I'd like to thank everyone who expressed such wonderful words...! And so many goodbye hugs, and everything, it was almost surreal. Thanks for the love (hate?) people! ^^ Oh and those of you who couldn't come, its ok, thanks for wanting (?) to be there anyway! But yeah, it was really really cool.

So ... it was Yeun Kyong's birthday (and sorta Shunsuke's birthday) so I wrote their names on a silly cake and I offered it to them, but no one ate it~!?! But I hope they felt appreciated too... Several of my Korean friends came with Yeun and shortly after they came... Usk and some AUAP students came.. and then lots of people came. The Korean people didn't stay too long because they wanted to go to another party for Yeun and the AUAP students saw Nickie (who works at the AUAP office) and claimed that they didn't want her to see them drinking, because they would get in trouble... so some of them left (Korean friends plus AUAP students, about 12 people?) and then I thought.. woah, I should take a panarama shot of the room! So I used Polly's camera and took panarama of the room (that link requires FLASH plug-in, if you don't want to see it in FLASH or if you just want to scroll slowly through a bigger version yourself, with out the help of the computer, click here) I made that long image from about 5 other images, so it dosen't fit all together. My brother also came up to visit me this weekend, and he was at the party but he was outside when I took this picture so he didn't get in it... It was cool seeing him though, and yes Nicky, he asked people for cigeretts. It was Polly's camera, so I guess thats how we thought to do it, but me and the other CSA people at the party decided to take a picture together and look... my hair is jumping off my head on the left! Also, Evan, Melissa and Eina came late but they came with big smiles! Hmm... I think thats all my photos? Once again, thank you to everyone for all the nice gifts and wonderful words... you're all too nice!

In other news, more personal and useless for everyone else... For some reason Bored Girl (also known as Hye Yeon, one of the two students [Yeun was the other one] who went to the school with me in Korea) and our mutual friend Sue have basically started ignoring me. I'm guessing Bored Girl hates me, and good for her, I actually feel like its balanced when people hate you... but it is frustrating because I don't know why she is hating me. Hmmm. Oh well, its life... theres not always answers.

And in other other news... I'm going to my radio show now!! and I'm bringing some new music, and its gunna be an awesome show!! wooo!! (sundays, 3-5pm, 89.3fm!!) anyway, ya'll take care, peace! TEMAN SAYA, SAMPAI JUMPA!!!

hello world
I've recently realized that I'm really doing it. I'm really graduating. Wow. So here are my plans so far... After I graduate, maybe a week or two after.. about July 8th or so, I'll take an airplane to Korea...~~!

In Korea I'll meet some of the awesome people I met when I was at SWU's BIP exchange student thing. I will also try to meet my cool friend Uni. Also, I will try to hang out with Vicky and her friend (who is coming to Korea to visit her friend Yoonhi) and anyone else! I'll try to do that in about a week. Phew! Will I have enough time? So after that, roughly around July 15th, I will go to Japan. In Japan I will try to get a job as an English teacher. I will go to Japan on a tourist visa, and I will try to find a school who will sponsor me (let me get a working visa). One of my friends in Japan (was one of my illegal students about 3 years ago) told me about a job in Kanagawa.

That map should help those who don't know locate it on the map. (Although is it kinda wrong? I think maybe? but basically its right...) If I don't get that job (working at a preschool in Kanagawa) I'll have about 3 months more time, on my tourist visa, to find another job. I'll be going over with almost no money, so I think I'll be eating Onigiri (100YEN, about $1) very often.

If for some reason you don't know, Onigiri is a common convience store food in Japan (kinda like hotdogs or whatever at 7/11s here)... and I really like it! Why do I like it? Its cheap, comes in a million flavors, and it tastes good! Its basically seaweed (nori) wrapped around a triangle of rice with a surprize (if you cant read kanji~!) inside! Flavors include tuna (my favfav!), umaboshi (thats pickled plum), fish egg, meat, etc etc. Anyway, I love onigiri, and I'll be ok even if it will be such a simple meal. So onigiri and orange juice at 7/11 (yes its in Japan, its a Japanese company!) will cost me about 220YEN (US$2) so even though I must warn you to be careful trying to survive on such a small amount of food, it will be ok! I'll survive! yay! happy happy happy! wooo! uhmmm..

in other news, my weekend was awesome too. Friday hung out with priscy and polly and watched the orginal matrix (it was priscy's idea~~!) and slept on the floor over there.. Later I felt bad though, because I forgot about that I was suppose to hang out with Saks that day (he didn't get mad though, he's a nice guy!) and then on saturday I went out to lunch with Even and his friend Aaron (note to self: not the pirate guy and not the radio guy, someone else). Then I went to KappaKarnival and made some people at the CSA bubble tea booth make me a very unique flavor. I ordered Strawberry Mocha (it wasnt one of their flavors). It was really good! After that me and priscy & polly went to the Hawai'i Lu'a cultural festival thing. It was so awesome! They had real hula dancing, and this slap dance thing where these angry topless men slapped their nipples. (Nicky would have liked that one, and he shouldn't get mad that I said that! yah! slap dancing is fun! yay! hehehe)... it was all really cool though, and the food was amazingly good! After that I hung out with Yuka and talked about the mind. She's smart! And on sunday I was shocked to meet one of the people from the korean exchange student program, they were visiting bellingham. Her name is Sue, and Bored Girl had brought her over to see my messy room I guess. Oh and went to see Matrix 2with diego and trenchy and brendon etc.. ... , oh oh oh, and my radio show was so fun!! tons of new music, and we pretended robots were stalking us. Wow. Reading my entry, I now say I'm offically on crack. Thank you very much. You've now finished reading my pointless, weird, diary entry. Wooo. DAAG!

Oh by the way... I'm graduating!





Yay! Everyone is welcome, please come, atleast stop by.
More details about the party as they come to me. Woo. DAAG!

And now, ladies and gentelmen... the update!

Biggest on my list of personal news tidbits is... I got a hair cut saturday! (Look above for clever before/after self taken pictures) .. Thanks goes to Yuka, who did a really good job.. although she thinks she should have cut more, and so maybe I didn't cut enough for getting a job in Japan, so maybe I'll be getting even more cut off in the future?? It was fun hanging out with Yuka, we went to Sehome hill, ate some mexican food, and watched Catch Me if You Can...was all fun, yuka is funny!~~~~

oh! on Friday when Yuka was hanging out with me she drew this awesome Anpan-man (a bread superhero from japan, he's the one on the right kicking bad guy ass!).. isn't it cool? hehehe ... She also drew a bunny and a a picture of me?? and I helped her drawa freaky guy (she drew the cute cat herself) heres a close up if you just cant get enough. OK! I know I know, too many little drawing doodles...~~!!! Anyway, thats all I feel like posting now. I have to go to my radio show... if your with in hearing distance, turn on your damn radio, today (sunday) from 3pm to 5pm, 89.3FM.. yah! PS: I know I update this blog slowly, but atleast I dont forget about it... like some people!! ... ^^; SAMPAI JUMPA!

Its past midnight.... I just got back from hangout with polly and uploading my pictures from my digicam. Its still working, yay! Earlyer, I was at Trenchcoat and Syrinx's bbq house-warming party. (I still don't know if they want me to use their internet names or real names in entries?) Anyway, it was really fun. (I always use that adjective: fun, fun, fun~!!) I rode the number 7 bus to their new house.. their new house is really nice. Its so fancy that in comparison it makes my small appartment look like a neglected ghetto box, and their location look like a beverally hills mansion. really. Anyway, I got off the bus and the air was soft. It had just started raining. The rain had pressed hard against the loose blossoms and brushed them down onto the gutter. I could reach down and scoop the light pink petals into my hands. For some reason it felt kinda surreal to me, almost like organic confetti after the earth had showcased it's spring parade. ... I took a picture of Trenchcoat infront of his BBQ machine, but I accidently cut off his head because I took the picture quickly... so, I have 100% allowed him to stay an unknown person! He'll be truly anonymous~~! The food was so good!! Trenchy cooked garden burgers, handburgers, and sausages,... well I guess you can see that in the picture. ^^; But anyway, it was so good.. .my mouth is watering now, thinking about it. About 14 of his (Trenchcoat) and her (Syrinx) friends came... mostly all Americans, and 2 Japanese who had been in America for a long time. There was a lot of silly conversations. Then Trenchy and Ted gave me a ride home. (He asked me, so I wrote Ted's full name, Theadore in Japanese... don't know how to write it in English or Japanese maybe!!?!) After I was dropped off at home, I was walking to polly's house to upload my pictures. The sun was fading from the sky, and the last stretches of light was brushing the leaves above me. It also felt beautiful to me. Today was a vivid day I guess...~

This morning, the phone rang when I was still sleeping... I answered it and I was so shocked!

Mio was calling me from Japan! I hadn't talked to her in.... almost a year?? I was so shocked! It was such a random phone call, it was fun talking to her... even if at first I was just laying there half asleep with my brain dead! Later I was getting ready for the BBQ and I also talked to cool Da Yeon from Wilson.. well, she graduated and now she's staying with her Uncle in Chicago. Also, yesteray I talked to my American friend Diana who might go work in Japan soon. It was good talking to all these people I hadn't seen in a long time... even if it makes my damn diary VERY boring (Who really cares about a bunch of random names they don't know? but damn it! its my diary!! yiii~! haha) Tomorrow (sunday, 3 to 5pm, 89.3fm!) is my radio show. I'm excited. I'm hoping to have a lot of fun, even though I don't have a bunch of new music this week. anyway! blah, blah, blah!! SAYA DARI BUMI~!! DAAG~!