Look at me, I still has the internets!

But for how longs? O.o

This is what my neighborhood looks like right now. I haven't opened the windows yet to see how bad the winds are, but it's not currently raining, and with 22mph winds, I'm thinking not only snorkeling, but also beach is out. Which sucks. I wanted to go on my last day.

However, I'd be much more happy if I can go to Taiwan without problems. The prediction map looks good for me. This is what I want it to do. Go further and faster west so that it'll hit China by the 29th and not be over Taiwan AT ALL. It's already changed a lot since yesterday, doing exactly what I want it to. Let's all keep on pushing it a bit more?

Read at least the beginning? It's long, so key words in bold.

Okay, I need your help again. I'm flying to Taiwan from Tokyo on July 29th. I need the typhoon to not still be over Taiwan at that point. Here's the typhoon right now. The first number, that's what day they predict that the center of the storm will be somewhere in that big circle. I need it to go FASTER. I need it to go WEST. This time not pushing it out of the way, but pushing it faster west so that it passes over Taiwan quicker and will be on it's way to China by Tuesday. So, please think about the typhoon going faster west. Further West. This will also be a good thing because the less time it hangs out over the ocean, the less chance it has to get stronger, the weaker it is, the less damage it'll do.

Now for an update. Yesterday was awesome. I got just about everything I need to do done and all that's left is my bed appointment at 11am tomorrow. And then packing up the last few things. And then going. Woo.

I also went for my run yesterday. Now, this was suppose to be my w1d3 run after my 30 minute run. The wind was KILLER. Like, on the way over the bridge it was fine, strong, but nice. On the way back it was pushing me sooooo hard. The final hill, it literally felt like I was trying to run through water. I gave up, about 2 minutes from the end of my 30 minutes and started to speedwalk, and I went FASTER. It was rediculous.

So then, I do my 5 minute recovery walk and start on w1d3. Now I've had two minds about this week. I've found the 1 minute interval too easy. But I leave for Tokyo then Taiwan on Monday, and I didn't want to push myself so hard that I got to a point that I'd be pushing myself during my trip. I don't expect to be able to run every other day, and I expect that my progress, due to inactivity, will slow down considerably. I don't want to be pushing myself hard before I leave only to find that the level I make it to while I'm on my trip kills me because I'm running after sightseeing all day. If that makes sense.

But yesterday, I was just sick of it. I accidentally over ran the 60 seconds for the 2nd time that day, and I just said to myself, fine. How far can you do? So after 4 of the minute intervals, I did a 2 minute interval (and felt a bit winded, but good), walked for 90 secons, did a 3 minute interval (felt a bit more like I did at the very beginning of the program, rather winded and happy that I could walk again), walked for 90 seconds, and then did a 3rd longer interval, but lost track of the time, and was comfortable to run until the end of the 20 minutes, so around 4 minutes. I followed the day with a cool down walk. It was good. I think, I don't know. I think I'll just have to try and see what feels comfortable for me during my trip. I think that if I need to I'll stick with week 2 after my 30 minute run, but I'll forgive myself if all I do is the 30 minute run and a 30 minute walk, if that's how tired I feel. Or less, if I find that I don't have time after seeing everything I want to see. I can exercise any day, I can walk around Takoro Gorge probably once in my life.

Afterwards I hung out on the beach for a bit with Juliane ("YOU lee AHN eh" she's German) before driving back, catching a shower, and walking around Miyako Matsuri for a bit. All of the other girls were all dressed up in yukata, but mine's all packed away :( But it was fun, and we got some cotton candy before heading to pizza where the whole old skool crew was there, it took us about an hour to get our pizza, another 45 minutes to another hour to get our salads, but good company, and I've finally met the infamous Owen-sensei, who's on Miyako for the summer with his wife and his 1 year old.

We didn't quite leave before they started otori, but left before too long. Milton's wife, Tomoko, wrote me a beautiful good bye letter in English (which she doesn't speak very well, so it showed extra effort), I really need to keep in contact with them.

Then we headed to Anchan and Ryu's new restraunt that doesn't open until the 1st, but they had Hiroko's birthday party there. Good atmosphere, good location, good people, good fun, dangerous floor. I fell down a step I didn't see and didn't hurt my ankle! I had a choice, in that second of falling. Recover and possibly really hurt my ankle again, or just fall. So I just fell. I have a hugenormous, beautiful bruise on my right knee. About 3 inches long ;)

After, sleep and waking up too early for the final bill with the gas man. Because of my deposit, I only had to pay about 17 bucks for the last two months ;D

Then, with the typhoon in the area, things were girigiri today about weither we could go snorkeling or not. (They're pretty much muri tomorrow, but we may try to go anyway). But me, Juliane, and Jason tried anyway out at Arugusuku. It was windy. And the waves were ROUGH. But it was awesome. I swear, about half of the fish I saw, it was my first time seeing that species. Soooo good. And for a while, me and Juliane were swimming INSIDE this school of fish (about 6-7 different species) but they were swimming in front of, surrounding, behind us. Literally getting within a few inches of our bodies. It was like they were uber curious about us! not the other way around. We also saw this HUGE fish, about a foot and a half long, about a foot tall, fat, that just chilled out, looking at us. And you could tell, it was checking us out. We'd watch it, it'd watch us right back. I figure it figured we were the only things in the area that were big enough to eat it, so it was being cautious.

Then, or rather, from the beginning, Juliane's mask was just Not Working Right and she just gave up, and went back towards shore, keeping an eye on me from there. I went around a bit by myself and saw a long skinny fish, about 2 feet long, silvery, with a long snout, and an eye bigger than the old silver dollars (the Old ones, like Ryam has), with a body about only 3 inches in diameter. It was funky. I also saw a school of about a hundred zebra striped fish, but yellow, not white, and a I think you call 'em sea slugs? The pretty little brightly colored things? This one was orange. A ton of sea urchins and anemones, and a couple nemos. I gave up about an hour fifteen and went back towards shore, where it turns out Juliane and I have the same foot size, so she borrowed my fins and mask and went back out for another 40 minutes or so while I watched her from the shore.

Jason was out spearfishing this whole time, but didn't see anything big enough to catch. He said he saw a small octopus though. Groovy for him. I'm glad it was small and he didn't kill it. At least he's the kind of fisherman who takes only what he'll eat.

The waves and the current were really strong, but the viability was good and we saw a bunch of stuff. I'm gonna call it a good day.

After I dropped them off, I did a shower and an errand and went to Mitchan's for lunch. Where he gave me an awesome book on the fundementals of Buddhism (and I got his email, he wants to know what I think of it), and a present for Leo for his birthday. We had a really good conversation, going every where from linguistics to religion to experiences, to temperature, and beyond. He said that his new lesson for the day was that in degrees Fahrenheit water freezes at 32 degrees. He didn't know that previously, or the formula for converting it (degrees C x 1.8 + 32, I love the internet), and that that would have been something that he think would have been interesting to learn in school, as it has real world implications (ie: you travel to America and you need to know weither to bring sunblock or a sweater).

Then, on his suggestion, I went to San-e to get a caligraphy pen, and because I was there I poked around the clothing. I had a faint idea to buy Leo (or myself) a junbei, but I didn't see one I liked enough for the price they wanted, but I did find a sale on exercise pants, dry fit, and as the ones that I've been using for school have started to wear thin in the crotch (10 buck pants, I wore them for about 6 months, totally worth it), and they're starting to get tight around the thighs, I figured getting two more pairs of capris that fit better and a new pair of shorts would be worth it (21 bucks, 3 new dry fit pants ;) ). The thigh problem is not because I'm gaining weight, mind. It's because of the running. My thigh muscles are getting more fit, and a little bit bigger, so all of my pants have become a bit tight around the thighs. I don't mind it, I think they look better. They're no longer sticks with a bit of fat round the buttocks, but actually neatly proportioned legs, with nice calves and good thigh curvature, before getting to my now a little higher and firmer, but seemingly just as squishy badunkadunk. Yes, you may in fact see me in spandex at dragon con this year.

In a little bit the second day of Miyako Matsuri starts where they're crowing Miss Miyako and the have a giant tug-a-war, which they'll cut up and give out for good luck. I'm gonna go, but I need to finish my crunches first (I've used this as a rest time between my push ups). I'm still pushing myself too hard on my push ups, doing w3c3, but I think it's good. I'm still going up in numbers, even if I'm not going any higher than the max. And this is after snorkeling in rough waters this morning, so I still feel good about it.

I think they cut of my internet later tonight, so I probably won't be updating much in the next few weeks. But I'll have my computer with me, so maybe I'll try to write up a bit about my trip and then post it late.

Couch to 5k

I'm playing around with google documents and I rewrote the couch to 5k plan because I don't like the spacing on their website. And google has a publish to blog button. So I'm trying it out. Anyway, this is the program that I just finished and am doing again :P

Week	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
1	5 minute walk 20 minute intervals 60 seconds running 90 seconds walking 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 20 minute intervals 60 seconds running 90 seconds walking 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 20 minute intervals 60 seconds running 90 seconds walking 5 minute walk
2	5 minute walk 20 minute intervals 90 seconds running 2 minutes walking 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 20 minute intervals 90 seconds running 2 minutes walking 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 20 minute intervals 90 seconds running 2 minutes walking 5 minute walk
3	5 minute walk 2 repetitions: 90 seconds running 90 seconds walking 3 minutes running 3 minutes walking	5 minute walk 2 repetitions: 90 seconds running 90 seconds walking 3 minutes running 3 minutes walking	5 minute walk 2 repetitions: 90 seconds running 90 seconds walking 3 minutes running 3 minutes walking
4	5 minute walk 3 minutes running 90 seconds walking 5 minutes running 2.5 minutes walking 3 minutes running 90 seconds walking 5 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 3 minutes running 90 seconds walking 5 minutes running 2.5 minutes walking 3 minutes running 90 seconds walking 5 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 3 minutes running 90 seconds walking 5 minutes running 2.5 minutes walking 3 minutes running 90 seconds walking 5 minutes running 5 minute walk
5	5 minute walk 5 minutes running 3 minutes walking 5 minutes running 3 minutes walking 5 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 8 minutes running 5 minutes walking 8 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 20 minutes running
6	5 minute walk 5 minutes running 3 minutes walking 8 minutes running 3 minutes walking 5 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 10 minutes running 3 minutes walking 10 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 25 minutes running 5 minute walk
7	5 minute walk 25 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 25 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 25 minutes running 5 minute walk
8	5 minute walk 28 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 28 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 28 minutes running 5 minute walk
9	5 minute walk 30 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 30 minutes running 5 minute walk	5 minute walk 30 minutes running 5 minute walk

Now that they're gone . . .

So yeah, bowling last night was awesome. Or, I didn't do badly, and *I* won a game (everyone else did dismally). Then I went out drinking with Ikemura-san, and Justin, and some other bowling peeps. And I got home late, rather . . . drinked, and decided to go ahead and take that last day of nenkyuu I had today. Good plans.

I slept until about 9:30. I got up, got dressed and started to clean. And oh! the cleaning that had to be done, and I had an appointment at 5 for them to come and do the final check on the apartment. So I start cleaning, and then at 10am someone knocks on my door. It's the apartment people.

. . .

*sigh*

I freak out and tell them that they can't come in now because my appointment was at 5 and the apartment wasn't ready yet.

And that scared me enough to really dig in and start cleaning after they'd gone.

So yeah, today I cleaned, I packed, I set aside everything that's going with me, everything that's getting shipped to Narita to meet me at the airport, made lists of everything that I can't pack yet (computer, shampoo, etc). I feel all 10 kinds of accomplished. And I'm really glad I took today off, because if I hadn't there's no way in all of God's creation that I would have gotten it done, even to just the point I did, by 5. Just check out my list and how much of it is all struck through :)

They just came, and we had long and engrossing conversations about stuff I'd already cleared like 3 times, I'd already explained and had explained. *sigh* But it's over, and they gave me 4820 just for the pleasure of living with them for a year. And then the boss asked if I'd had any problems this last year, and the main problem I'd had was standing there in my kitchen with me, so I didn't say anything. Except the termites. But again, that's over.

Now tomorrow I get to go into work, give them that copy of the tickets, print out information from the hotels in Taiwan so I know where I'm going and have a phone number if I don't. Oh, the train information too. Then I get to (hopefully) cut out early to deal with signing over the name of my scooter to Jeff and Mike. And then I get to go to the post office and become a poor woman. Fun fun. And I need to go ahead and get the Narita suitcase ALL packed up and I think I'm going to go ahead and send it, if I can. Or go down, get it weighed, do everything but give them the money, and then make Jeff do it after I'm gone. And I need to find a box for my computer (that'd be so much simpler if I just felt comfortable with taking the dang thing with me to Taiwan. Maybe I just should. I mean, I'm sending my harddrive and all my electrics in my suitcase to Narita, but my computer I was planning to mail to Marnie to meet me in Tokyo, but . . . I really just don't want to deal with any of this. Oh, and I need to go to the used shop tomorrow to see what I can sell.

And, since the post office is closed (at 5, so that appointment screwed up all my plans for the rest of the day, too) I don't have anywhere to be. I don't have anything to pack. I don't have anything to clean. I need to run in a bit, but I think I'm going to wait until full on sunset to do that so I don't have to bother with sunscreen. And I'm doing my push ups as we speak (or I'm writing between sets as my arms feel like wet noodles), and I'm not sure how well it's doing. I've bumped up my max a whole bunch, and now I'm really struggling to keep up. I mean, the first set nearly killed me and now my arms are shaking through the middle of the 2nd and 3rd sets. I'm taking them REALLY slow. I might have to cut down to column two.

I did my crunches last night before bowling. That went well enough. They still start to get really hard towards the end of em, but I'm still moving up. Woo.

I did really want to get both the crunches and push ups done yesterday, so I'd be on an alternating day with my running, seeing how I'm not bowling anymore, but the drinked. Also, I was invited to a turnament on Sunday, so I don't know what's going to happen with my workout. Maybe if I get up and do them first thing on Saturday, right before the gas guy comes, but either way, I'm going to have to not do them or do them two days in a row somewhere. Which is not good. I don't want to just give up. But I won't get a chance to do them on Monday, and then I'm traveling, so who knows when I'm going to be doing them over the next 3 weeks . . .

That last set of push ups *really* hurt. It was HARD. I barely, barely did the min max. I really hope that I don't crap out on day 2. If I push myself, I *should* be able to do them. I *should be able to finish this week and move on. Again, it goes with the being able to continue while on vacation . . . Oh, I need to print out the program tomorrow as well . . .

Oh, and color me distracted. I had another fangirl moment (similar to my Warren Ellis Moment). Yeah, you know how I was pimping The Guild? If you haven't gone and watched it, you should. It's funny, and doesn't take a whole bunch of time. And it stars Felicia Day. Who commented on my blog. Yep, she somehow bewitched the interwebs and found out that I'd made the link to her website. (Thanks, by the way, for the original heads up.) And she came back to my blog, and commented. It's just a little thing. Just a few moments of her time. But dood, that's cool. That she would take her time and do that. I mean, yeah, it's self advertising, but it made me feel all appreciated and stuff. And now I think I am gonna actually buy The Guild on DVD when it comes out, because it is funny, and I think I'd like to support her endeavors. Because she's a cool person. Because she took time out of her day and commented on my blog.

Again with the whole argument that we're all people living in the same world and why shouldn't we talk to each other.

Still busy

I've gotten some cleaning done, and I'm up on my exercise, but I don't think I'll be packing anymore today. It means that a BUNCH of packing will have to get done tomorrow. But I seem to work better (read: more directly with less distractions) under pressure, so it should be okay. They're coming to do the final apartment check on Wednesday, so I still have 2 days.

I did my week 4 test for both push ups and crunches. I got 27 pushups, which is a vast improvement and means I went up one rank again. However, 27 puts me in column 3 for a week 4 and 5 progression, and that's a kinda scary jump for me, seeing how so far I've gone from w1&2c1 to w1&2c3. We'll just have to see how many I can do on Wednesday. I also did a marvelous 75 crunches. I'm really proud of my progress this last week, as I actually improved, as well as went up one rank, so I'm on w6c3. I'm taking that as a sign I'm back on track and moving up normally. I guess I need to start thinking about what I'm going to do when I can actually do 100 crunches in a row. I want to continue having them in my workout, but I don't know how many I want to push myself to do in one workout session. As it is now, I'm already doing about 200 crunches total every other day, maybe I should work up to being able to do 200 in a row? Sets are wonderful, but surely doing that much at one time without a break is more work on your muscles, ya?

Oh, by the way, with very little pomp and circumstance, I finished couch to 5k. I did my week 9 day 3 on Saturday. I did it down by the port, nice, flat, cushy. I kept a good pace the whole time, didn't feel extremely winded at the end of it. It went really nicely--more of a normal running day than a completion to a program (I started on May 23rd, so it took me 1 month and 4 weeks, I usually didn't take 2 days off a week, just ran every other day).

I still can't run for 5k yet, I did the program on time, not distance, so what I started today was My Plan. I've been walking 30 minutes after my run for the past 3 weeks or so (starting at 10 minute walks, and moving up 5 minutes each week, until I got to 30 minutes), and today, seeing how I'd finished week 9, I started week 1 day 1 after a 5 minute walk at the end of my 30 minute run. It went well. I felt awesome during the first few intervals, and didn't even really get uber tired at the end. I found and kept my running pace quickly, and was amazed at how fast that minute went by, remembering just 2 months ago how long that 60 seconds seemed, how it never seemed to end. I'm really positive that I can work it that I'll be able to run one hour in about 2-3 months (I'm moving back to the US from Japan about halfway to April, but in the meantime, I've got one more week here and then I'm traveling in Taiwan and mainland Japan for about 3 weeks. While I'd like to be optimistic that I'll be able to run regularly while traveling, I'd rather be realistic, and plan to run when I can, but not push myself when I've been sightseeing all day in the outdoor heat). On today's run, which I did on the Kurima Bridge, I saw 1 sea turtle, 3 really long thin fish (light gray, about 1.5-2 feet long), and a really long large brown thing that I thought may be another turtle or possibly a dolphin, but turned out to be most of a tree trunk. I then lounged about the beach, swimming occasionally (this is permitted as visiting the beach, while not specifically on my to do list, is one of the things that I'd really like to do as much as I can this week. As well as finishing my largest heaviest book, which also got a bit done on the beach. Oh, I can update my Shelfari!

Other than that, I had fun at Teresa's birthday on Saturday night, got a bunch done that day, I think. Mostly concerning the computer. Then yesterday was Sanitsuhama, which was the lowest tide of the year and the bay by Shimoji was all not a bay (it was kinda smelly, seeing how that dirt never sees the air) and they had tug of wars and races and horses and a volley ball tournament that Jeff, Jon, Jason, Greg, Hajime, and Nema had a team for (they one two and then lost to the team that eventually won), and Teresa, Ryu, Acchan, Nishi, and some guy I don't know had a team and they won right up until the final, when they lost to the team that obviously won. Then dinner at Sunnyside with Jeff and Nana, and then bowling practice with Justin and Ryuta (I didn't suck, but I didn't do as well as hoped, but I was really tired from being in the sun all day).

And now tonight Scott and Makiko are having a naming party for their newest son Alex who was born about a month ago. So yeah, I'm gonna chill and read and then go to that.

In other news, while I'm thinking about it, and have the windows open. The Guild is a really funny WoW Players' Real Life skit on youtube, but also with a dvd coming out in August. I think it's hilarious. And it stars Felicia Day from the recent Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. She also writes and produces much of it (I think). Good times.

Oh, and I also went back and updated the necessary info on my travel itinerary. It's all fixed and up there now.

All the lonely people . . .

7/28 -- 10:05am -- JTA 072 Miyako to Haneda
7/28 -- Narita -- Hotel Marroad Chain
7/29 -- 13:45 -- JL645 Narita to Taipei
7/29 -- Taipei -- Happy Family Hostel
7/30 -- Takoro -- Catholic Hostel
7/31 -- Takoro
8/01 -- Tainan -- Confucius Inn
8/02 -- Tainan
8/03 -- Tainan
8/04 -- Taichung -- Athens Taichung Hotel
8/05 -- Taichung, Changhua, Longshan Temple
8/06 -- Taipei -- Happy Family Hostel
8/07 -- Taipei
8/08 -- Taipei
8/09 -- 14:30 -- JL648 Taipei to Narita
8/09 -- Tokyo -- the Weekly Something or Another
8/10 -- Tokyo
8/11 -- Tokyo
8/12 -- Tokyo
8/13 -- 3:10pm -- Delta 56 Narita to Atlanta

Things are going pretty well according to plan. I got up and went to Shimoji this morning at around 9:30. I was glad I took the extra 5 minutes in the car to tailor my good bye speech to Shimoji, because yes, they had me do one. And the did a question and answer session, Nariko-sensei retranslating for me after I gave my answer in my beautiful broken Japanese. I almost cried, but didn't. Got a few pictures of them.

Then I went to the airport and asked about checked luggage and airport shipping. 2 Checked bags are okay, she didn't have a clue what airport shipping was. So off I went to the Post Office!

At the Post Office I asked about airport shipping and was told that I could, but then told that I couldn't, but that Kuroneko Yamato could and where the store for that was. I drove there and was told that they'd ship my luggage, up to 25kg, and hold it at the airport for 2 weeks. I think that's the route I'm gonna be going. And that I'm going to put my electronics in that suitcase, so I don't have to rush ship a box home last minute of things I need up until that last minute. I like that plan.

Then I went to the doctor and told him I was going on a long trip and needed 2 months worth of meds, which he gave me.

Then I went to Geo and tried to rent the music that I've been listening to in my car for the past year. I was mostly successful and now have to return all of the CDs tomorrow.

Then I went to the fruit and veggie market over by the Shimoji Max Value and got 6 passion fruits for 200yen, and 4 red dragon fruits for 200yen. Along with the yogurt I picked up at San-e, that was a wonderful lunch.

From then on, I've been at home, doing things with my external hard drive, doing laundry, cleaning, and making piles. I've run out of steam a bit, and will probably resume my labors after a shower or something. Maybe some reading. And I need to email people again about the crabs. I only *think* I know where I'm going.

Oh, and I need to workout today . . .

Sports Updates and whatnot

Bowling didn:t go too terribly on Tuesday, if you don:t count that second game.

My last day on the league is next week, so hopefully I:ll get a practice game in the middle of the week, and actually sleep the night before. At least I don:t have to ride the ferry anymore.

Push ups are still hard, but that total number continues to climb, even though yesterday:s max was lower than previously that week. I put that up for being just tired with everything needing to get done. Crunches are going much better this week than last week. Now that I:m actually paying attention to the time between the sets. Hopefully my max test will continue to go up. Yesterday I did 8 more as my max than my previous exhaustion test. I feel much better this week than last week.

Today, I:m going to work until 4 and then leave right after work to go running. I:m going to do it early, because as soon as I go home my motivation runs away and I need to run today. And I need to get some things knocked off my list. So I need to run right after work. しゃやないな. Right now it:s 84 @ 79%. I *shouldn:t* die.

Today my goals are:

*Things To Go--put in piles
*All disks to Hard Drive (at least get started on this)
Clean out car (because today was my last day teaching, I can at least get all of the school supplies out and clear out my book bag and get that ready to go to Taiwan)
*Exercise-- Running-- Thursday
*Mail invoice to Jake (If I can)
*Mail invoice to Jeff (toothpaste x3, sunscreen x1, and scooter)

If I get all of that done, or at least started, I:ll be pleased with myself. If I do more than that, mostly concerning the state of the kitchen and the pile of stuff in the entrance way, mores the better.

Aaaaand, Yes yes yes! Keep it up! Keep thinking WEST! Just like that!

You probably won:t be hearing from me much in the next week or so

Here:s why:

This week:
@ home:
Practice pack
Things To Go--put in piles
Things To Go--Pack and send off
Selling stuff email
Make suitcase box(es)
Call Tokyo Hotel (Marnie?)
Decide electric box
All disks to Hard Drive
Pention paperwork --Power of atterny, final paperwork
Clean
Hair dye?
Showerhead
Set up email posts
Clean out car
Exercise--Pushups Crunches--Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Running-- Thursday, Saturday
Break into Change Jar
deposit said change into account (got about 25 bucks, not counting 6 500yen coins that the ATM wouldn't take.)
Type up itinerary and post it for all the paranoid people
Mail invoice to Jake

Out and about:

@Post office
Electric--last bill date, cut off date, cancel autopay 28th @ 8am
Gas--last bill date, cut off date, cancel autopay 26th @10 am, 28th off
Cable--last bill date, cut off date, cancel autopay 26th, paid
Ask about Airport Shipping

Go to doctor-get meds
Get Boxes
Reference letters, Yamaguchi, Noriko asked, recieved
Ask Airport about 2 checked bags
Hair cut
GEO music
Used Shop--clothes

Next week:
Nenkyuu
Trash, Moday (Tuesday), Wednesday (Thursday), Thursday (Friday)
Ship Stuff--futsu (BY FRIDAY), electric (Friday), computer (Friday)
Exercise--Pushups Crunches--Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Running-- Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
Suitcase?
write Japanese thank you letters

In Tokyo:
Clean out Bank Account
Cut off Keitai
Suitcase?
turn in gaijin card at customs office

You might get a few things here and there. But probably not too much.

I need you.

I need your thoughts. Your prayers if that's what you do. Or your good juju. Or your good thoughts or intentions or just positive thinking.

I need the typhoon to go WEST.

I need the typhoon to NOT hit Miyako.

I need the typhoon to hit Taiwan and continue straight on to China.

This weekend is Miyako Matsuri. There are 3 festivals going on this weekend. Events all over the island. It's my last big cultural weekend here, and ALL of the events are outside. All of the events will get canceled if the typhoon hits us.

Right now were in danger for the center of the storm this Friday, but there's a good chance it will also miss us.

The events this weekend are the reason I'm not going to Ishigaki to see my friends there one last time. But if the typhoon hits, I wouldn't be able to fly anyway. If the typhoon hits that weekend will be full of the suck.

Please. Typhoon. West.

Scattered things I'd like to share today, things of little concequence.

The muppets are coming to Atlanta. They're coming to the Atlanta History Center, October 25,2008-January 18, 2009. They're at the Center for Puppetry Arts from last September to next September. Including Kermit and Ms. Piggy. Found via

Next, push ups and crunches. Today was HARD. It might have been due to the Virtual 5k I ran this morning (details over at ), or it might be due to week 2 just being hard (remember I've moved up two ranks, but I've had to redo week 1 and now 2). Or it might have been due to this past week just being bad with personal stuff going on and me skipping a few workouts. Or actually paying attention to the "rest 60 seconds" between the crunches, and that REALLY hurt.

Version: modified push ups
Progress: w4(2)d2c3
Today's Max: 19 (+4)
Today's Totals: 70

I'm really upset with myself for with the crunches. Due to . . . lots of things . . . I didn't really pay attention to the "rest" numbers last week, and while I should have been getting shorter and shorter between the sets, I didn't really bother. And that, along with skipping a day, I think really impacted what I was able to do for my test at the end. I moved up only 1 crunch with my end of week test, so I'm redoing week 6, column 1. That's pathetic. Not nearly as pathetic as how hard (and I mean HARD) it was to complete today's numbers. After the first set, only waiting the 60 seconds, it started to REALLY HURT after about 25. I finished them, but only after stopping for a few breaths every now and again.

Version: normal crunches
Progress: w4(6)d1c1
Today's Max: 45 (+3)
Today's Totals: 184

It's going to be REALLY annoying this week, being on different days for the different programs. I think, because there's a test for both programs at the end of this week, I'm just going to do day 3 for push ups twice to get me back on the same day. No harm done there, I think.

However, this week's mantra is "I will not fall off the horse, I will not fall off the horse." Last week I was dangerously close to doing so. But last week was a bad week. This week will not be.

And finally, I again updated my flickr site. This includes the race photos, but also goes back to some beautiful scenery shots and some pics of my students.

This was written last Friday

They keep on finding me so I shouldn:t leave yet

So, today is my last day at Shimoji, and I didn:t know it. Apparently that last day, the 18th, is a ceremony day, so that there are no classes that day. Would have been nice to know that sooner, I was originally planning lessons right up until the end.

So I find this out last night. Now get how I found out. Akemi-sensei, my coordintor at Heiichi calls the BOE to get my number. I get in contact with her, and she asks me if I can stop by that last day during their cerimony. I say I have class in the morning and can:t. She says, no, you don:t. And I:m all like, wha? So I get here today and ask if there:s classes next friday, and they:re all like, no. So I scratch today:s lesson and teach my final lesson. In doing so I tell them that this is my last class with them, I:m going back home after. And the teachers are all like, wha? You:re going home? I didn:t know! And I:m all like, how did it not come up!?!?! But apparently it didn:t. So yeah. They:ve been coming up to me all day with letters and books and pictures and all kinds of nice things. I might cry if this continues.

Usually, I:m allowed to bug out of Shimoji after lunch, around 2, but because it:s my last day, I:m hanging around a little longer. In order to not be suspicious (the only computer I can use here is in the teacher room), I:m emailing this to myself to post later, that:s why the date is wrong. I:ll probably go before too long, but. Also, they asked me to come next Friday, even if it:s just for half an hour or so. I:m going to try to hit as many schools as ask me to come that final day. Right now I:ve got 2.

I:ve said this in talking to some of you, and maybe here, but I:m going to say it again. I think the biggest regret I have for leaving is that I:m just now getting the hang of this whole teaching thing. I mean, I:m really starting to connect with my students. I:m really starting to REALLY *get* what they are and aren:t capable of. I mean, they are just now, JUST NOW beginning to READ!!!! WORDS!!!!! That:s just so amazing to me and makes me so happy and it makes me sad that if I:d stayed, I bet I could have had some of them reading books by Christmas. Not big books, not important books, but BOOKS!! And I:m really worried that Jake:s not going to continue their phonics studies. I:m worried that theyr:re not going to remember the sounds coming back from natsu yasumi and I:m really worried that Jake won:t pump it back into their heads. But it:s no longer my job, so I shouldn:t worry about it right? Besides, that alone isn:t a good enough reason to stay compared to all of my reasons I have for leaving. So it:s good that I:m coming home.

In related to getting out of Japan news, this article is just scary, outrageous, and just plain worrisome. It's about how foreigners in Japan don't have the same rights as citizens and basic human rights can be taken away. Fun times.

Virtual 5k--race breakdown

Okay, so today I got up at 8:30. On a Sunday. Look at my dedication. A little water and a little breakfast (I go for some fiber bars, I've found my stomach can't handle much more that early in the morning) and I go out of the house by 9 and was at the beginning site of my 5k race at around 9:30. A few minutes of stretching, then promptly at 9:35 I began.

Now, I'm not a couch to 5k grad. I'm still in the middle of week 8, and while that is impressive, my 28 minutes of running doesn't even begin to cover 5k just yet. So I began the race with a 5 minute warm up. I figure, I'm going to be walking during parts of the course anyway, why not have some of the walking occur while I'm fresh and can actually walk my normal quick pace?

After 5 minutes, I begin running. I run until I hit the first incline. Now again, I'm going to be walking some of the course anyway, there's no way I could run for the full time, so why not make it work for me. I walked up the hill. I walked up the hill probably faster than I would have gone if I'd run it, and it took less out of me. At the crest of the hill I began running again, and nearly sprinted down it, I was feeling so good.

I think I might have pushed myself a bit too hard because I felt winded before I got to the next uphill, and had to slow down considerably. Again, I walked up the hill and ran back down it. The same for the third and final hill. By the last hill however, the heat was starting to get to me. And the lack of hydration was starting to make itself known. I usually go running in the afternoon or evening, after drinking at least 2 liters during the course of the day. The glass of water this morning soon after I woke up had made my stomach a little shaky, so I didn't drink more than that, and I could tell the difference.

I got down to the bottom of the third hill, expecting to run as far as I could back to the finish line, and was sourly disappointed when I didn't make it a third of the way from the base of the last hill back down to the end of the bridge. I was starting to get a stitch in my stomach (right side, usually if I get a stitch from eating then running I get it on my left, so I don't know why I got this one), and the lack of water was really starting to get to me. I slowed to a walk, but it was a brisk walk, faster than I really would have liked. And as soon as I got some wind back, I began running again. Although again, I couldn't make it the full way across the bridge and slowed again for a few minutes of walking before finally running to the end of the bridge. When I hit the turn towards the finish, I again walked, then ran, then walked. I glanced at my watch and was bitterly disappointed that it had reached the 3 (I have an analog) as this meant that I'd just gone over my 45 minute best time that I'd done with my w8d2 on Friday. I figured though, since I was already over my goal and the end was near, why not just sprint to the finish? So I did. Finishing at 10:15:15. For a final time of 46:15. This upset me, but I figured it was due to the heat and the hydration problems.

Then somewhere during stretching, I thought again. Wait, I didn't start at 9:30, I started at 9:35. That means that my time was 41:15. Holy cow in the pasture of the Lord. I cut 3 minutes and 45 seconds off my time since Friday. I bet this was due to my walk uphills and the not finding my good slow steady pace when I started running again, tiring me out quicker, and forcing me to walk more.

All said and done, I'm very proud of that time. It shows me I really need to work on my endurance, I would love to be able to actually run a full 5k, hills or no hills, but I figure that's an excellent start.

Here, have some race photos!

Before. That bridge in the background is my route.


The start and finish. The change in the pavement marks the line.


The race route.




The beginning of the bridge.


From the top of the first hill.


From the bottom of the first hill, looking at the second.


After the turn around, looking up at the last hill.


View from the top of the big hill






View from the top of the first hill, going back to the main island.


After. Tired, but alive :)


The Victory Ice Cream. From this little place in the middle of Miyako called Utopia that grows it's own fruits and mixes them into soft serve. I got the papaya.


I don't plan to end every race with ice cream (it's kind of anti-productive), but I'm leaving Miyako in 15 days, and when will I be able to eat this lovely ice cream again? So I think it's worth it, this once.

So, final time: 41:15

w8d1, and last days

I post about my exercise here a lot. I'm sure you've noticed. You've probably also noticed that I don't post a whole lot else up here. That's probably because I don't really consider my life that interesting and while yeah, I'm living in Japan, not a whole lot happens here day to day. Maybe it would be different if I made more friends. I don't know. Anyway.

The reason I write about my exercise is not to shove it down your throats, all though that might be a side effect. If you want to do the same programs I'm doing, fine, please do. Misery loves company, after all.

I hate exercising. I really really really hate getting off my butt and moving. I like the results of exercise, and while I'm doing it, it's not so bad, but I really hate getting up and starting. Same with cleaning. If I wasn't sitting here dripping with sweat right now, I'd be cleaning. But that would just end in tears--big large painful tears as a result of the sweat pouring into my eyes--so I'm not going to do that just yet.

I keep on posting my exercise here because more often than not its the most interesting part of my day. And if I don't continue to post, then I'll probably loose motivation. It's a tool I'm using. I'm sorry if it's annoying.

Yesterday was my last day at Sunagawa Sho. They were awesome. Like had me stand up after we finished eating in the cafeteria, presented me with a speech, two framed pictures of the staff and kids, and a bouquet of flowers. It was awesome, I was so touched. And then we talked from about 3pm to almost 4:30. And they saw me to the door and said that they'll miss me and got my email address and actual address and everything. It was wonderful.

Now, back to exercising. I really hate exercising at night. Or rather, I hate exercising after dinner, because it never turns out right. So I went out yesterday and got to Maehama at around 5pm. 85 degrees, 84% humidity. It was HARD. Sweat literally poured from every pour in my body. By the end of the 28 minutes I really could have been going faster walking, I know this because I actually sped up a bit for my cool down. It hurt, but I did the full 28 minutes. I've discovered I really don't like the adding 2-3 minutes at the end. I really much preferred moving up by intervals.

By the time I got home, it was about 7 and I hadn't even eaten yet. I finally get food around 8 and just give up on doing my pushup/crunches. I was just too tired. I was in bed by 9. This was probably due to the fact that I didn't sleep much Tuesday night. I was in bed, I was tired, sleep just didn't happen. This is what caffeine does to me. It's no help at all. I should do my push ups and my crunch exhaustion test in a bit, but again with the so much sweat, I don't think I can right now.

My fan broke yesterday, to add insult to injury. I took it to the store I bought it, and after much confusion, its going to be sent off to the factory where they'll fix it. Yay. Hopefully it'll be back soon.

Speaking of how nice my last day at Sunagawa was, today was my last day at Kagamihara. It's over. That's a good thing. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

And why not.

I give you the original Godzilla movie's Japanese trailer.





It's just kinda awesome like that. And because yesterday was Eiji Tsuburaya (who was the head of special effects for the team that created Godzilla)'s birthday. Found out via .

[edit] And while I'm on the theme. Have a cgi gojira from io9.com. Looks pretty awesome, that.

Bowling and Warren Ellis

Bowling went better than expected. Didn't do under 100. Didn't do that wonderful either. My average fell a bit, but not like a stone off the edge of the Grand Canyon.

And then I got home and Warren Ellis replied to a comment I left on his LJ. Even though he was giving me a negative answer, I'm happy because he acknowledged my existence. I'm so easily pleased by people whose brains I love.

Being productive and getting paid!

Today I took the 2:30 ferry home so that I could stop by the iinkai and get my check. I got the paid. Now, I'd been counting this plane fair home money as spent, so I just received the entirety of my budget for Taiwan (weee!). I'm also really glad that we'll be spending those days in Tokyo, as it means I won't have to walk around with the entirety of this year's savings on my person while trekking around Taiwan. I love that I have a postal bank account.

I then proceed to continue to be productive and stopped by AU to ask them about turning off my phone and whatnot. They said all groovy and I can deal with all of that in Tokyo, so I'll have my keitai and contact while traveling. :)

There's bowling tonight, which is bad, because my arms and back are already tired because of workout yesterday. And then there's bowling on Friday, which is bad, because the Iinkai Going Away Fest is also on Friday, and I'll have to skip bowling. Suck.

But at least I get to see people.

I also stopped by the car rental place and paid them for my last month (or about 20 days) of renting my beautiful car, and get this. They said instead of dropping it off at the car rental place, I can totally leave the keys in the car AT THE AIRPORT. I won't need to get a ride. I won't need to get a taxi. I'm on my own time that morning. Granted, I still have to get up at way too early in the morning to catch my 10am flight, but still. Yay!

By the way, this is post 112 of this year. I did only 112 posts in 2007. I think I like writing to you people, or something :P

w7d3, w3d3

I'm getting worried. I'm getting worried that the runs are becoming common place. I mean, it's become no big deal to run 25 minutes, yeah, it sometimes hurts, but it's not a big deal. I think maybe because it's not increasing as much as it did in the earlier weeks. I'm worried that I'm loosing my enthusiasm for it. I still like it (like being a relative term), I still like doing it, I'm just not as excited about it as I was in the beginning. Ah well.

Today I tried a different running technique than usual. I tried to lengthen my strides, while keeping my slow pace about the same. I ran about 3.1k, almost 2 miles in the 25 minutes. I liked the feeling of it, but it made me think about what I was doing more (which is not necessarily a bad thing)--it made me use my feet more than I had been. I like it, I think I'll keep doing it.

And then I came home and did my push ups and crunches. Which I also skipped yesterday (I'm sure my aim is going to be horrible tomorrow at bowling because of this). I was thinking about why I'd been so lackadaisical about it yesterday. I think it's just the winding down of my time here. I mean, today I shipped my PS3 home, it's really getting close. So I'm much less enthused about my life right now. But about 5 minutes from the end of my run I looked at myself (internally, of course) and said, self, your belly is fat. You can't wear a bikini. Why should you stop doing the push ups and crunches just because you're depressed. That's a stupid reason. And I told myself I was right.

Version: modified push ups
Progress: w3(1)d3c3
Today's Max: 17 (+2)
Today's Totals: 65

Version: normal crunches
Progress: w3(6)d3c1
Today's Max: 42 (+0)
Today's Totals: 174

I'm still amazed at those totals. I'm so proud that I did 17 push ups in a row. Still not getting any higher on my max for crunches, but I am doing them after running and walking for an hour, so I get home and am drowning about 3 glasses of water before I start because I'm dying of thirst and I'm sure it doesn't help to have all that sloshing around :P

Oh, and by the way:

This is me not getting off my couch yet. So you get some things.

found via

Send your name to the moon. The link to the actual site is at the bottom of the article. Personally though, I kinda agree with his opinion about the whole thing, I mean, with the aliens and everything. But I'm still gonna do it. (Ah, weak! The certificate is only a print out! Man! X< )

Next up, a really trippy video that's featured on youtube right now. It's John Lennon giving an interview to some kid who snuck into his hotel room. Complete with trippy animations.

I rock the ABCs

Today:s lesson was basically unplanned and went spectacularly.

I:d noticed that some of my kids on my every Friday classes still have problems knowing the names of the letters (expecially 3rd grade, but I taught them like 4 times last year? So I:m not surprised) so instead of going ahead with my planned lesson of Jobs, we branched off and went a little crazy.

First, we went over the alphabet song. Then we did the letter:s reading, one person per one letter. This has become my usual warmup.

Then I gave them cards and we played karuta. I called out the name of a letter and the first kid to smack their hand on it got to claim the letter as a point. Both lower and upper case on the tables so 2 people could get a point each round (I made enough cards over Spring Break for groups of 4 people each). I amused myself during this by first spelling my name, then going a letter at random. You:d be amazed how many kids hear *g* when I said *z.* Everyone down through 3rd grade did fabulously. 3rd was hard, because they were really talkative today, and because they don:t quite know the names of the letters yet, but we stumbled through it. I only got frustrated when we got to a letter that they didn:t know, and then just held up cards at random. The problem being that when they:d hold up the cards, they sometimes knew the letters in their hands, so they should know that that A is not a Q. But whatever. I still had the alphabet spelled out on the board so if there was a really big problem letter, I:d point to the board and sing, and then they:d get it. The 6th graders did it so fast we had time for an extra activity.

Then I asked them to as a group place the alphabet in order, upper case on top, lower case on the bottom.

When they were done and I checked it I told them they could play Memory. The 6th graders actually had time to mess their alphabets up and then switch card tables and fix it before moving on. But they were the only ones who were that fast.

Everyone seemed very enthused and it went really really well. I:m thinking next week I:m going to do colors. Because they already know most of them. And they should be able to spell most of them on their own. I:m also going to make them have to be able to tell me their names. Most of them can write their names, most can:t tell me how to spell them.

And yes Mom, your suggestions did help me come to this lesson. Thanks.

100 books in a year, and school

It has been 11 months and 5 days since I last set foot in America. And since that time, as of today at 4:00pm, I have read 100 books. I'm pretty sure I'm never going to have that much "me" time ever again, but gods was it fun. That last one hurt, though. I didn't like Wicked as much as I hoped I would. I think my problem was the characters. There were very few that I liked, so very few that I actually cared about what was happening. Ah well. I don't know what I'm going to try to read next. Something heavy, so I don't have to carry it to Taiwan with me.

Today I was suppose to have 4 classes, normal affair. But since the pool opened up, the classes have been using their free periods to do swimming class, and some teachers just don't think about when they are scheduled for English, so I missed my last class with 2-1 today. I'm not too fussed, I mean, I have 25 handouts for them that won't get used, and I stopped what I was in the middle of working of to get the classroom ready and wait for them to show up, but you know, whatever. Then I had my 3rd years, who also had a wonderful bit of schedule mismatching due to pool, but at least that all worked out. I really want to grumble about how I don't mind being left alone with good classes and mind a lot about talkative or bad classes, but it was the last time I'll see those kids too, so meh.

Funny thing, if the 2nd graders hadn't messed up the schedule, I wouldn't have been able to get through Wicked today, and I'm REALLY glad that that's over. I feel like I've been reading it forever. Only a week and a half, but to me, that's forever.

Yesterday was just painful.

Okay, so on top of getting to my last day at Miyahara and nobody but me realizing it, having them change my schedule, and then try to change it again literally so that I was teaching first period RIGHT after the bell to start first period had rung (I told them no, I couldn:t do it, because I was working on the things I needed for the class and they weren:t done yet because they hadn:t told me that I would be teaching first period seeing how I never teach first period), having my 3rd and 4th grades thankfully thrown together (we played fruits basket, because with the two grades we had enough people, 8, including me), having to make an improptu goodbye speech (whenever you say the word speech in japanese, my japanese proficiency goes down about 6 levels), and then finally leaving, I decided not to work out right away and was incredibly foolish and took myself to the bakery where I always overeat. I also took myself to the store and got some yogurt to go with the passion fruits that the school gave to me (they have a tree out back, the fruits were divine). So, 6:30 came around, and I really should have been getting out to go run, and I was still FULL. And I:d eaten about an hour before. I mess around for a few more minutes, and then a few more, and then I stupidly go out and run.

I got 4 cramps. Each one in the same place. Each one went away after stopping and stretching and perhaps some walking. But still, it makes for a very annoying run. I did about 2 minutes longer than the scheduled 25 minutes when I got the 4th one and just gave up. Then I walked for my 30 minutes (although it might or might not have been longer, I really don:t know, I wasn:t paying much attention) and remarked on how about half way through the walk, when I was really booking it, you know? I could totally break out into a 90 second run right now and be totally FINE. I:m looking forward to completeing this program the once and doing it again for the second 30 minutes.

Also, I finished The Green Mile and started on Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Because I:ve never read it, and it called to me. It:s kinda annoying though. For one, it:s long, but for two, the reader doesn:t do any kind of voices. It:s litterally like he:s just reading it to an audience. Hard to follow which people are saying what sometimes.

Then I get home, drown about 2 glasses of water, and then realize I still have my push ups and crunches to do. Stupid. So I do them and I feel like @$$ as I do, I only did the min at the end, but I did them. And then, because it:s getting really late and I TOTALLY NEED a shower by this point, I plug in my numbers. I did 181 crunches and 41 push ups yesterday. Holy cow in dairyland. I mean, it hurt to do them, but they weren:t impossible. And even as tired and beat as I was, I did that freaking many?!?!?! Wooot!

In other news I haven:t had a good nights sleep since Sunday morning (life keeps getting in the way), so I:m REALLY exhausted. I haven:t been talking to people this week, and that:s why.