Kyle's World

The Owakare Jiai

2006-08-02T17:04:00.000+09:00

Today I played in my own wakare jiai today. A wakare jiai is like a sending off, final game. Since I'm leaving in a few weeks, this applies to me. I had been helping Mr Tokuzumi with our school's baseball practices and games since April; I even made it up to the title of coach. It was really fun, like hitting infield grounders and attending the games on weekends and cheering my head off in English when no one knew what I was saying. Very good memories these four months, my first four month stint as a baseball skipper and four months that I won't soon forget.

As for the game itself, it was the grade 9's and I against the grade 7 and 8's. Before the game, I outfitted my team with team Canada caps, so we had the international angle down. If we had fielded a lineup with everyone playing their own positions, we would have pasted the other team, but we were just having fun so we had the real first baseman pitching, the right fielder playing catcher, the catcher playing left field and so on. I grabbed first base, my position of choice as an 18 year old ball player. It was mighty hot in the blazing sun (think 35 degrees C) and when the other team exploded for 7 runs in the third inning, I was out there on the field with sweat pouring off my head for a mighty long time.

At the dish in the 4-spot, I had a pretty non-descript game. 0/1 with 2 walks, a fielder's choice, a strikeout, 2 stolen bases and 2 runs scored. We were down 10-2 at one point, but then we exploded for 8 runs in the bottom of the fourth. The kids didn't want to have the game end in a tie, so we went to extra innings. I thought we were in trouble in the top of the 7th, but with the grade 7 and 8 team threatening with a man on second, a couple grade 9's hooked up on the ol' hidden ball trick to nail the guy. The hidden ball trip works every time. I was laughing so hard in centre field after witnessing that. They ended up scoring that inning anyway, to take an 11-10 lead. Mr Tokuzumi said that if we didn't score in our half of the inning, that the game would end in a tie. So batter 3, Shogo, grounded out. 1 away. I walk to the dish, stare down the grade 7 pitcher, and dig in for my at-bat. The count goes to 3-0, so I start thinking walk. The fourth pitch comes in...it's at my shoe laces. I hear Mr Tokuzumi call strike behind me. I look at him with a smile and he says "you don't want to walk right?". After hacking at the next pitch, I draw the walk. Tying run on first, winning run at the plate. I steal second base, then watch as the next pitch to the fifth batter Kengo sails over the right field fence for a game-winning, sayonara two-run home run. It was Kengo's second 2-run jack of the game. Of course, the entire team mobbed him at home plate as the crowd went wild. What an owakare jiai!!

Out of Hibernation

2006-07-24T15:28:00.000+09:00

The peanut gallery is calling for more updates. Thank you to my 3 loyal readers. I have listened to your requests, and have decided to oblige you with more posts (disclaimer: no one knows how long this new found desire to post will last...enjoy it while you can).

Mind-blowing Japanese invention

2005-11-06T23:07:00.000+09:00

Yet another mind-blowing Japanese invention. This time, it's Genghis Khan flavoured caramels. What is Genghis Khan you ask? The picture on the box says it all. Yes, yakiniku flavoured. If you were ever dying to try salty meat tasting caramel, well now here's your chance. Honestly though, how did this ever make it to shelves? Don't they test the product with an audience before green lighting its production? Mine was so bad I spat it out the window of my speeding car. Who comes up with this stuff? Chalk another one up for, "only in Japan".

English Recitation Contest Part I

2005-10-29T22:14:00.000+09:00

Every year, in October, all junior high schools in the former Shimomashiki Gun, hold their English Recitation Contest. For me, it's a huge event, perhaps the biggest in the school calendar. It's bigger than the Sports and Cultural festivals even. I think this is because I have more responsibility than anywhere else since I'm the coach. I get to pick the students, and the programs of the text that they will recite. And mostly, I would practice with them, mornings, lunchtimes, after school.

There are 12 junior high schools in my Gun, all competing for 6 prizes: 3 bronze prizes, 2 silvers and a gold. If you get the gold prize, you get to compete in the Kumamoto English recitation contest against the other winning schools.

The contest this year was held on Friday. Since this was to be my third and last English Recitation contest, I felt that all students, especially the grade 2's (grade 8 back home), were really giving their all for a shot at the Kumamoto competition. This year we started practicing like 3 months ago, about the start of the summer vacation. I love having support from the other English teachers, Mr Izuno or Mr Sudo, but they were often too busy to attend the practices, so I was often left alone to coach the students and help them improve before the contest. Try doing that when the kids go off and play, don't really listen to you, and when your words of advice just aren't enough when spoken in Japanese.

Still we chugged along. There were certainly rough stretches, like morning practices from 7:30AM and so on. Gradually the students improved. Call it "blinded by the pride of your school" if you want, but I really felt we were great this year. We were certainly in a good position to improve upon last year's showing when the grade 1's and 2's won a bronze prize. 2 girls on the grade 2 team were members of the grade 1 team last year.

As far as predictions and/or expectations go, I thought the grade 1's might grab a bronze, but I wasn't sure since it's always so wide open with the grade 1's. There's not much to distinguish them from the other competitors. I thought the grade 2's would grab the silver if not the gold. They were so sure of themselves, so full of confidence that I went with it. Also the grade 2 ace-in-the-hole spoke a very long, important part of the text last. As for the grade 3's, I unfortunately didn't think they would get anything. I kept thinking their pronounciation was off in places during practice. Also the girl I chose has a soft voice, I wasn't sure it would reach the judging table.

The grade 1's got a raw deal as far as their order of presentation was concerned- they got the lead off slot. Since the order is grade 1's, 2's then 3's, my grade 1's presented right after the opening ceremony. Not that they weren't already nervous enough. Their presentation was flawless, as far as it going the way we'd been practicing. After looking at the other 11 schools, I thought we were definitely in the top 6 so that meant a getting a prize.

The grade 2's had a bad placement too, being the last grade 2 team to present. Going last is good in the sense that you can see how good the other teams have presented (although I guess that's bad too since you might start to think too much), but it's bad in the sense that, at least as far as I'm concerned, the judges have basically already finalized the best 6 teams by the time they get to see the twelfth team. But the presentation went really well, I thought they'd nailed the performance and there was a strong chance they'd get a shiny colour prize. Bronze isn't that shiny after all.

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

2005-10-16T17:11:00.000+09:00

Chikako and my shadow, Kusasenri, Aso

Crisis? What crisis?

2005-07-18T22:33:00.000+09:00

I've heard so often about how Japan is in a population crisis, what with the aging population, and low birth rate, Japan's population is actually expected to shrink within the coming years. My old Board of Education head (now since retired) urged me to find a nice Japanese girl, settle down back in Toyono, and have lots of babies to replace the low numbers of enrollment my town is having. The picture is generally seen as bleak.

The thing is that, looking around the country, it doesn't seem so bleak. I don't doubt the seriousness of the issue, nor can I speak for 130,000,000 people. But while in Fukuoka this past weekend to catch some baseball games, the stadium had healthy numbers of young expecting mothers, or young mothers already. It's a random sampling of 30,000 people, but who knows? The future might be rosey. Either that or pregant women like going to baseball games so my sample was skewed.

Post script: Don't Japanese women look young? I guess men too. But going back to these prenant women at the baseball games, many looked like they were in their late teens or early twenties. And alot of the mothers of kids at my school look young too. There's the fact that Japanese women seemingly start families earlier than Canadians. There's also the element of, as I said, Japanese just generally looking younger. You could be talking to a 35 ear old, and think they just graduated university.

Noah's Ark

2005-07-11T15:47:00.000+09:00

Going by the old saying that when it rains, God must be watering his lawn (I don't know if it's an actual saying; I just remember thinking it as a kid), God must have gone to the Supermarket and left his sprinkler on, since it hasn't stopped raining here recently.

It's definitely the rainy season here, so I guess it's supposed to rain. But after starting the rainy season off really dry with no rain, I saw a segment on the weather channel that was expalining the dry phenomenon. You knew, of course, that as soon as they made mention of how dry it was, that it would start raining buckets. And it did. I don't think it's stopped raining since that broadcast.

This past weekend was particularily bad; I saw footage of flooding in and around Kyushu, people's homes being washed away, and people shovelling mud and debris from areas that were likely once indoors.

To the big guy upstairs, you've left your sprinkler on. Please turn it off as you are wasting water.

中体連tournament

2005-07-06T00:41:00.000+09:00

This past weekend was the annual "chutairen" sports tournament. Students from all over participate in tournaments for their respective sports; the reason that this is the big one is that the grade 9 students will retire from bukatsu. The idea is that they'll now turn their attention to studies so that they can get into good high schools.

Last year was my first chutairen. Although all my school's teams lost on the first day, my heart was nearly broken as the kids lined up, tears streaming down their faces, and thanked us for supporting them. I have great pride for my school anyway, but you sure realise it when you see that.

This year, although confidence in my school's teams wasn't terribly high (my principal didn't even schedule any spectating for day 2, the Sunday), my kids gave it all and competed with their hearts on their sleeves.

I started off watching the soccer team, who ended up getting pasted 7-0. Hmmm, not much to say about that except 'where was the defense'?

My first love is baseball and the baseball team, and I got to watch them play next. When we got there, we were leading 3-0. Keisuke belted a mammoth homerun. Shinji was on the mound, and things were looking good. Then the skies opened up...

There was a rain delay for about an hour as we all took cover. We really wanted to get the game in, since we hadn't played 5 innings yet, if the game were to have been cancelled, the score would have reverted to 0-0. Not that we couldn't have taken Matsubase anyway, but hey. The weather cleared, the field was drained (I helped with that; nothing like a little work in the mud for the benefit of the boys), and we continued. We went on to win the game 4-1 and advance to the semi-finals on Sunday.

Although I wasn't gonna receive a time-in-lieu day off from my school, I wouldn't miss the baseball game on Sunday for the World. Toyono pride runs in my veins after all. Shinji was on the mound again, and despite a first inning homerun, he settled down and started to mow down the opposing batters. Still, down 1-0 we needed to get the bats going. It's weird, back home when I was playing baseball, you'd pitch for maybe 3 innings at the most, then a new pitcher would come in. And you didn't often throw back-to-back games, not to mention that bench players would get to see some action. Well in Japan, there's no thought of potentially burning a kid's arm, thus Shiji could get back-to-back starts. And just like the pros, when you get a start as a Junior High School pitcher, you are expected to go as deep into the game as possible. And bench players have about just a chance of seeing game action as Steven Seagal has of seeing an Oscar in his awards case.

Anyway, Shinji settled into a groove, and we ended up scraping 1 run around the 6th inning. After 7 innings, or a regulation game, the score was tied 1-1. Shinji had now thrown 14 innings in less than 24 hours (the rubber-armed wonder, or a future Tommy John surgery candidate?). After 8 innings, still 1-1. In the 9th, Shiji beaned the leadoff batter, then got an out before being pulled in favour of a fresh Yohei. Outstanding work, 8 1/3 innings, 1 run given up. That's crazy. Yohei ended up escaping the inning without further damage. In the 10th inning, each time was given an opportunity with bases loaded and no outs. No worries. We surrendered 3 runs, making the score 4-1. It was our turn. But we could only muster 2 runs before our luck ran out, final score Tomiai 4, Toyono 3.

Outstanding work guys. You are my heroes. You make me proud to be your teacher...Great game, and what a great bunch of guys.

2005-07-06T00:16:00.000+09:00

The team

2005-07-06T00:15:00.000+09:00

Yohei

2005-07-06T00:14:00.000+09:00

Shinji

2005-07-06T00:13:00.000+09:00

MaeShin

2005-07-06T00:11:00.000+09:00

Aki

Live 8

2005-07-04T15:51:00.000+09:00

The series of global concerts aimed at educating people and pressuring G8 leaders wrapped up yesterday. Let me say, I am thoroughly impressed at the power of one man to change the world. Perhaps some people think "what can I do to help Africa?" or "my contributions are insignificant in the grand sceme"...well I look at Bob Geldof, with help from friends in high places, and I feel inspired.

Too often is Africa the forgotten continent, the place that people ignore all together, the place that is brushed off as "it's not my problem". I've been made aware of my ignorance, and my eyes have opened in a big way. I would have flown to Tokyo to attend Japan's installment of Live 8 had I not had a special day of work on Saturday. But spending an afternoon at a concert, rocking out and enjoying the vibe is easy. The real work begins now, in a real continent that has real problems.

Thank you Bob Geldof, for opening my eyes and showing me a deeper, greater understanding of the plight of Africa, and for showing me the power one man has to change the World. Let the work begin...

The Grand email error

2005-07-02T22:40:00.000+09:00

If you needed to see with your own eyes why we should be careful when emailing to a list serve, check out this email from this afternoon (names changed and personal info not included).

Miss C,
This is Mr. L. Maybe you recall going to karaoke with me and 3 other ALTs last night? It was the first time that I enjoyed Karaoke in about a year. I came late, and for some reason you had to leave early. Whatever the reason, it is not important. Although, as a participant, we expected everyone to pay their even share. I'm not sure how much you recall the events around the time of your departure, but one fact remains clear. You didn't pay.

I don't know what your intentions are/ were, but I am very disappointed in you as a PA, and more than upset with you at a person. I paid your share, seeing as the other ALTs are all leaving the country in a few weeks. That was not the last memory that they were hoping to have. I kindly hope you will pay me the 5000 yen that was given on your behalf.

Please contact me through my keitai:

I hope we can settle this in a timely manner,

Mr. L

Hahahahahahaha. Ouch!!!

School Tests

2005-06-28T14:58:00.000+09:00

I've got a lot of topics for future blogs, just not all of them can be drawn out into full blog length. Maybe I'll do a whole series of rapid fire mini-blogs in the coming days. For now though...

We had the first term tests at school last week. Whenever these tests go down, I usually have some hand in it, from making the test questions, to correcting and so on. Today we gave the tests back. There's something weird I noticed about what Japanese teachers think is a good score compared to what we as Canadians (I use the term generally, however this is what I perceive to be true back home) think.

A few students get in the teens and 20's, for example 10 out of 50. If you're keeping score at home, that's 20%. On the comments they get at the bottom of their page, my teacher wrote stuff like "I can see you are doing well", "your effort is finally paying off" and so on. On the one hand I can see not damaging someone's fragile confidence, especially when it comes to learning a language like English (I'm not sure what goes on in the other subjects when a test is returned), but creating a false sense of confidence also seems not good for the kids. I don't think these kids should get complimented after pulling a 10 out of 50; instead they should be offered constructive criticism and hints on how to improve the next time around.

On a related note, we calculate the average score for each class. When these classes are pulling an average of 32 or so, they get complimented. Why is that? That's only 64%. The academic level when I was in Junior High on a test like this was like 40...it seemed that everyone could pull or pulled at least 80%.

I really hate that

2005-06-15T11:39:00.000+09:00

Back from a very good month with my brother, that means (hopefully) I'll be back blogging on a regular basis. To kick things off, this is something that really annoys me to the point of making my blood boil: people who are too stupid to use email properly.

Here's what I mean. Most people know what a list serve email is, and probably most people are either on one, or have been sent an email by one before. List serve emails are general in nature, as their contents apply to everyone who gets the mail. Or at least that's how it's supposed to work.

I belong to a list serve of fellow Kumamoto Jets; the emails sent are updates, upcoming events, things for sale and so on, the kind of stuff that is somewhat important to read. What drives me absolutely crazy is when people reply to the general email specifically to one person, yet don't change the address of the receiver. Are they stupid, or do they just forget? AHHHH. It's kind of common courtesy, not to mention common sense. Here's an example of emails that often appear in my inbox:

Hey John,

Are you going to the party this weekend too? Hell yeah, rock on bro. Can you give me a ride? I'll bring my futon and sleeping bag and liquor, so if you could pick me up that would be great. Failing that, we could meet at Starbucks.

Later dude,

Steve

Of course that email is sent to the list, so everyone gets to read it, although it was only meant for John's eyes. And people like Steve are often repeat offenders, they commit the cardinal sin of emailing on a regular basis. I don't think I need to read any email that appears in my inbox, but giving people the benefit of the doubt that they can't possibly be that stupid, I always read them and get disappointed. Maybe I should order a case of emailing for dummies rom Amazon...

Baseball Ruminations

2005-05-12T00:12:00.000+09:00

Japanese baseball games can end in a tie. What's up with that? What kind of bastardized version of baseball do they play here? Part of the beauty of baseball is that you play till someone wins, whether it takes 6 hours and 18 innings or not. There are no ties in baseball. So it's so foreign to see ties in the morning paper boxscores.

A foreign relief pitcher, Marc Kroon, apparently hit 159km on the radar gun when he pitched tonight, a new Japanese baseball record. Since there's 1.6km's in every mile, he almost hit 100mph which seems strange that it's a record. I think pitchers (whether on steroids or not) regularly hit 100mph and beyond in the big leagues.

And further eveidence of just how Kiyohara is a turkey. He homered today, then was hit by a pitch in his next at bat. Well he sparked a bench clearing brawl. The pitch may have been intentional, but there's never bench clearing incidents in Japan. I think he thinks he's hot shit...not the case. I can see through you Kiyohara!!

Getting tickets in Japan

2005-05-09T22:41:00.000+09:00

If you read my post about Japanese photocopiers a while back, you'll know that a certain level of faux-efficiency is here in Japan. I don't know how that started; the Japanese certainly don't do a lot of patting themselves on the back saying "Look how efficient we are". I guess it is us, the non-Japanese living here, who propagated the rumours before coming. You can think that Japan is the most efficient country in the world before coming, then when here, you'll start to believe the opposite.

This is not to say that Japan is the most inefficient country, just that Canada has it beat on a few things.

In Canada (or at least Vancouver, but probably the rest of Canada too), when you buy a ticket to an event, you know what you're getting. You know the price range you want, you know if you're standing or sitting, you know what section, aisle, row, seat whatever. The clerk will find out just what kind of ticket you are looking for, will search for it, if it's available you can get it, and if not, the clerk gives you alternate selections with which to choose from. Sometimes even a map of the venue is pulled out. For example, if I wanted tickets to an event at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, I might be able to choose lower balcony row 15 seat 6. No problem, it's all easily layed out for the customer's benefit. And all very high-tech I must say.

Let's forward to getting tickets in Japan. First of all, there's no Ticketmaster here, or equivalent option of getting tickets through an agent. I don't know, maybe it exists in Japan but just not inaka places like Kumamoto. For the most part, you have to get tickets through a machine at a konbini. If you're lucky enough to know what buttons you are pressing, you can proceed to looking up your tickets (this is really challenging; one wrong button can send you spiralling back to the beginning). From this machine, you are pretty much flying blind. You can't see the stadium or concert-hall where the event is taking place, you don't know if what you pay for your ticket is worth it and what not. Completely ridiculous how the cutomer doesn't really have the final say...

Here are three examples of dicey ticket purchasing moments I've experienced:

I bought a ticket for last year's Summersonic concert, as did my friend Mihoko. That was all fine and well; festival ticket, general seating, we were in good right? Not exactly. Apparently my ticket stipulated that I get a green wrist band, while Mihoko's said blue. We were gonna have to sit in different parts of the venue, even though we went together. Did the comp at the konbini tell us what colour wristband we were to get? No. But luckily we ended up together after all.

I bought yet another ticket to the Japanese-American all-star baseball tour last year too. When the price menu came up, and knowing that I effectively wouldn't know where I was sitting, I ordered the most expensive tickets. Well I ended up getting burned with right field nose bleed bleacher seats at Fukuoka Dome, so far from the action that I needed binoculars to see the game. Of course I didn't bring binoculars though.

And most recently, I bought tickets for my brother and I to the Giants-Lotte Marines game at Tokyo Dome. I had to get these seats just right though since I really want to show my brother the craziness of Japanese baseball. I asked where Giants fans sit, and these two girls at the Family Mart called their supervisor, who then called the ticket broker, who then probably called someone in Tokyo all because I wanted confirmation of where I'm sitting. Seem like a waste of time? Yes. At least I kind of got an idea of what ticket to buy... stgay tuned however for whether it's the ticket I wanted or not.

日本語で

2005-05-07T15:03:00.000+09:00

今日俺の友達からＭｉｃｒｏｓｏｆｔ　Ｏｆｆｉｃｅ　２００３を借りた。そしてすぐに日本語が出来るようにプログラムをinstallした。まだその使い方全く知らないのでめちゃくちゃに書きます。

あまり面白い話がないけど一応日本語で書きたかった。又自身が上がったらメッセジを書きます。

3333 steps

2005-05-06T20:35:00.000+09:00

A couple of friends came up from Amakusa the other day. For some reason, one of them, Kensei, wanted to climb the 3333 steps which are near my house. I think it had been his dream to climb the steps ever since he was a child. I guess the steps were more famous than I thought. Meanwhile, my other friend Yuichi and I weren't really into the whole hiking thing, but since Kensei was visiting from Amakusa via Vancouver, we thought we'd let him choose the day's schedule.

So we embarked on our hike, everyone with a 2 litre of their favourite drink. Yuichi hiked in camouflage cargo pants, and Kensei in jeans. Needless to say, they hadn't done such a good job preparing. I had shorts and a sweat preventing coolmax shirt on.

People tend to think that steps are easy, but they weren't. Especially with 3333 of them. We took our time, making sure we had ample time for breaks or what not. We knew Kensei was the most fit, but between Yuichi's smoking and my not-built-for-excercise body, we wondered who was the most unfit.

After like 2 hours, we reached the top, appropriately all arriving at the 3333 step at the same time. Going down was pretty easy, and it was much faster, though plenty of people told us that going down is what kills.

Anyway we did it...I thought I should do it at least once while I live here, but actually my more ambitious plan is to do it every Monday after school since there's no baseball practice on Monday's and that's the only day the gym isn't open. We'll see if I hold myself to it, and if I do, how it goes.

Spiders II

2005-05-03T21:52:00.000+09:00

I got home from dins tonight, to find another giant brown spider on my wall. I'm on a pace where I see one about every month. But what is it about giant spiders and my apartment? How do they get in? I don't leave my doors or windows open. Maybe they start off as little spiders then grow big in my apartment before I find them.

Of spiders, cockroaches and mukade (poisonous centipedes), which is the worst to find in an apartment? I ask my faithful readership on that one. The thing is that I seem to have a problem with these giant brown, ping-pong ball sized spiders. I guess they eat the cockroaches. I really dislike spiders, but I suppose it's alright that i find them every month or so, even though they all invariably meet the same fate.

I sprayed and drowned this one is a puddle of Febreeze, making this one clean smelling dead spider and livening up my kitchen in the process.

Current score (since I've started keeping score on my blog): Kyle 2-0 spiders

Electrical Storms

2005-05-01T13:54:00.000+09:00

I remember growing up in Ontario, where there'd be electrical storms fairly often. I would look in fascination at the lightning bolts outside my window, and I'd fall asleep to periodic thunder and the lighting up of my dark bedroom. Then we moved to BC, which produced electrical storms very rarely, I'd say once every 3 years or so. I guess Vancouver's weather is much too moderate to have decent electrical storms.

Well, Kumamoto has some pretty decent electrical storms too. I saw a good one yesterday as I drove home from the city. It was raining so hard yesterday that I couldn't clean my windshield of rain at the highest wiper speed. But I digress...I'm happy that Kumamoto has more 'extreme' weather patterns, where warm air masses collide with cold air masses. This summer should once again provide me with endless entertainment as I watch these magnificent electrical storms.

Mitsui Greenland

2005-04-24T22:58:00.000+09:00

I had a rare day off on Friday. So naturally, I assembled some friends, and went to Mitsui Greenland, Kumamoto's amusement park.

I wasn't expecting much, I thought it would be somewhat small with some not-too-exciting rides, not unlike Playland back home. But after paying 5100 Yen entrance fee, I knew I'd be in for a pretty good day.

First, since it was a Friday in the middle of April, there was hardly anyone there. There was a few high school groups (shouldn't they be taking school trips to museums or something?) but there were hardly any lines. I tried a few kinds of coaster that I had never tried before; one where you are strapped in standing up, and another where you are suspended. There were definitely some good coasters there. As for other ides, there was a giant ferris wheel that promises a view of Nagasaki, a couple haunted houses that weren't scary at all (unless you're a high school student) and a few water rides. They also had a bunch of rides with engines, such as the bumper boats, two different go-kart courses, and a slalom cart course.

A couple of highlights: I stepped up to the plate of the game where you have to swing a hammer and hit a target, then a scale will tell you how strong you are. When I went in, there was no one around, just my friends, but before I took my first swing, a whole bunch of Japanese high school boys came out of nowhere to watch me. Since I look big and strong, I didn't want to disappoint, but it made me a bit nervous and the potential to be embarrassed was there. It reminded me of when tons of Taiwanese people watched me play a punching/boxing game when I was there. With the pressure on, I swung, and luckily got a perfect 100 points much to the delight of the onlookers. I won an inflatable hook that I planned on giving away to a student at school, but I think it was poorly made cuz it kept on deflating. Oh well, several people witnessed my 100-point swing, so that can't be taken away. I also played this cork shooting game where I knocked two boxes of candy off the shelf. Meanwhile my friends didn't win anything combined all day. It's all about the bragging rights sometimes.

2005-04-24T22:43:00.000+09:00

sign of information from the Greenland of Mitsui. very incorrect, very poor. I receive pat on back because of find it.