sometimes you need a little muscle car in your life

the big news...

I'm coming home in April...

Im taking a week off from work to come home for Easter and my cousin Seth's wedding in Pheonix. I'll leave Japan 3:25pm Saturday April 8th, and arrive in California 9:03 April 8th. I love the time change coming back to the states. Then ill return to Japan the following Sunday in time for work on Tuesday. If you will be in San Diegio or LA during those dates, leave a comment, email me, or call me and we'll try and meet up.

Im so excited for seeing as many people as possible, Mexican food, not being seen as a gaijin, warm weather, driving the Mustang, seeing my whole family for once, having a real steak, eating apples that don't cost over a dollar each, speaking a lot of english, buying a bunch of candy and food to take back to japan with me, and just enjoying home for a bit.

so let the countdown begin. to San Diego, California in 40 days

cell phone pics

a couple from work, my desk is the one with the chair pulled out between Ms Inada, and Mr Anata, two of my favorite english teachers. Then the mountain of papers i graded from students talking about their hobbies. i wrote down a bunch of my favorite quotes, but seem to have lost the paper sadly


pictures of driving into town on a beautiful friday afterwork for Japanese class in downtown. Even getting stuck in traffic is fun when the weather is nice.

driving home this morning in the rain

thursday night means more pictures

sunset bridge at high speed

Somedays in japan...

I think ive come to the realization that the absolute best part of my job is being able to interact with my students. Sometimes, for sure some are lazy, boring, not interested in what you're trying to do, or even sometimes a little rude, but the huge huge majority of the time, i find the vast majority of them to be charming, really sweet, and in general make my day better. There is something so sweet about them that its hard to describe. Walking down the hall and hearing "HELLO" or "goodmorning!" yelled at me from these kids is an expereince i would have never imaged before coming to japan. In the states, no foreign teacher would ever be treated with the respect, playfullness, or level of interest i feel that is focus upon JETs.
The japanese school year is currently winding down, with testing and end of the year activities leading up to graduation Saturday March 11th. As a result, im finishing up my last classes ever with my 3rd year classes. At the end of class today, one of my classes, 3-8, not even my favorite, or i guess in anyway what i would call distinctive to me really surprised me. As we did the final class ending and bow, 31 of the 38 students ran up to teh front of teh class and showered me in cards they had made me. It was completely unexpected, and i had no idea it was going to happen. They had obviously put a lot of effort into them, and i was just taken aback by them. i can see now how teaching can be so rewarding,




i like the fact he told me that spider-man was not angry on the card, on the inside, he said he also wanted to be Spiderman when we grew up.

Barcelona on July 13th 2004

in a finding nemo style

2 years ago today...

pictures from my day: Feb 18th 2004

a blast from BartinRome

so i dug this beast up a little while ago, my 1:44 scale 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A that i took around with me in Europe taking really random pictures of at random spots of interest. Im not really tired at the moment and was screwing around with my pictures and realized i have literally hundreds pictures of this thing, ill clean them up a bit and post some of my favorite pictures of it with me in Europe. This thing has come everywhere with me from easter sunday mass at the vatican, to Sombrero's back in san diego i need to take some pictures of it in japan, and get back to jumping pictures. first i just need a new camera.

sometimes you just need a drive

Feb 13th has officially been the most beautiful day ever

it was sunny, 0% chance of rain, with a cool breeze. man, i feel spring coming and i can't wait

randoms for tonight

and a good mopar picture for good measure

kenrokuen winter light up

current weather: 27F, heavy snow, winds 15mph

thinking about madrid on a cold night