| so after some weird job interviews, crappy job offers and a couple of months of dole bludging, i've got a job which seems decent. no kids, not so strict and not nova/geos/aeon/gaba/shane. i start next month.
i'm not going to miss riding my bike all the way to the dole office (called 'hello work' in japan!) in kiba.
i am going to miss the money i was making in my old job though. this new one is about 100,000 less.. but only 4 days a week..
oh, and i'm going to (eventually) get 80% of my unpaid wages back from the last job.
tomorrow mari and i are going to italy and france! rome for a few days, a couple of days in florence, a couple of days in venice and then the rest of the time in paris. we've never been to europe, so any advice?? | comments: 13 comments or Leave a comment   |
| the company i was working for just went bankrupt!
and they owe me more than one month's wages!
i'd been working there for a year and it was a great job with good conditions and pay. which means the next job is inevitably gonna suck in comparison. i certainly don't want to go back to the fast food english school world (nova etc), nor do i want to teach kids (which most jobs seem to involve these days) and of course i don't want a drop in pay (but i think this will be unavoidable).
so i'm currently looking for a new job.
any ideas? | | comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment |
| on friday night i went down to que in shimokitazawa to see hazel nuts chocolate, harco and golf.
hazel nuts chocolate put on a bit of a different show than usual. the singer, yuppa, was looking a lot more serious than usual and the band decided they were a rock band. still incredibly cute of course, but it seems as if cuteness is becoming less of a part of their style. their last album, 'cute', apart from having the most fitting title of all time, had some great silly ditties and crazy plus-tech squeeze box-like moments. one of my favourite things is how yuppa tries to fit too many words in a line in her sped-up child-like voice. anyway, on friday night it seemed to be all about the guitars and funny rock poses. definitely the band of the evening. i was grinning like an over-supportive mother throughout the whole performance.
all the young girls who were up the front worshipping yuppa during hazel nuts chocolate moved back to let the older ladies move up to grin at handsome harco. i have one of his cds around somewhere that i bought years ago and liked during my late-90s preppy japanese pop phase. i've also been listing his shows on tokyo gig guide since it started but had never actually seen him play live. on friday night he sounded like hideki kaji if hideki kaji were a kinda boring keyboard-playing singer. funnily, the best song was one that harco wrote with kaji. i know harco is an important tokyo indie-pop scene veteran but i wasn't really in the mood on friday night. not cute enough.
i had been really looking forward to seeing golf. i really liked their mini-album 'the gift.' interesting, quiet, experimental pop. i wanted to see how they would be live, however since they recorded 'the gift' it seems like they've become more.. just pop. live, and with their latest mini-album, 'yellow', the singer has become more confident and his great voice is what leads the band and what could actually make them popular commercially. seriously, his voice is quite beautiful. but for me, the best thing about them are the sublime moments with trumpets and melodica, or when they incorporate electronic sounds and beats. the rest of the time it's fairly standard guitar pop/rock. they were a tight live band and a friendly-looking bunch of guys and girls. they seemed to be good friends plus a bit nervous so were always looking at each other and smiling and giggling. cute!
i also posted this on my new blog which i'm going to try to update more frequently than this dying livejournal. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | yo la tengo | | Subject: | kill! | | Time: | 09:11 pm | | Current Mood: | sick! |
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| Plastic bag with torso found on street in Tokyo; body parts found near rail tracks
last night i had a weird dream that a friend had killed a couple of people. first he and i were really indifferent about it. then later i started thinking and realised that murder was actually a serious thing and tried desperately to convince my friend of the seriousness of the situation.
then i woke up and almost forgot about the dream..
when i got to work today there were cops all around the building with yellow tape blocking off the street. i had to enter the building from the side. nobody at work knew what was going on. we watched as news crews turned up at the scene. in my first class, a beginners class, i asked the students if they knew what was going on. one of them had heard something and explained it to the other students like this:
student 1: "person.. kill!"
student 2: "kill?"
student 1: "yes. kill.. dead!"
student 3: "dead person? here?"
student 1: "here. dead!"
student 2: "killer?"
student 1: "i don't know."
etc..
later we found out on the internet that a bag containing a headless, limbless torso was found right near the school! and the head and limbs were found nearby next to the yamanote line!
pretty exciting. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| a couple of days ago i stopped my bike in front of yamaya. as i was locking it, a cop stopped his bike beside me and said, "konnichiwa". i had a quick look at my bike and where i had park to confirm that i had not broken any laws, and said, "...konnichiwa..." he then asked me if the bike was mine, if i had bought it, and if it was registered, and to see my alien card. he radioed my bike registration number and name to the office. they radioed back confirming the bike was of course mine, the cop said thankyou and pedaled away. the episode really left a bad taste in my mouth.
this is the 4th time i've been stopped by cops while riding my bike! i guess they'd had some stolen bikes reported recently and thought the best way to catch bike thiefs was to stop foreigners because, apparently, we're much more likely to commit crimes. of course this is untrue, foreigners in japan are actually less likely to commit crimes than japanese.
this morning while i was taking a shower i though i heard a sound in the apartment. i had a paranoia attack because i had left the back door open and thought that a burglar may have come in. when i got out of the shower there was a knock on the door. it was the police! they told me that the burglar who had broken into our house last xmas eve had been caught!
i remember after our place had been broken into, the cops came around to take photos and fingerprints. one of them said that the burglar was probably a chinese gang member.
i should have asked the cops if the robber they had caught was a foreigner. i bet it wasn't. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| if you're concerned about having someone who almost never updates on your friends list, feel free to remove me.
if you're concerned about having a married guy approaching 30 on your friends list, feel free to remove me.
the wedding was great. we were nervous as hell but i think things turned out well. i haven't really seen any photos or videos yet but i can't wait to because my memories of the day are a bit hazy due to the overwhelming feelings we were experiencing. photos may or may not be posted here. i don't think i've ever seen wedding photos on livejournal. seems kinda weird..
i do clearly remember the drunken karaoke at the after-after party. my parents being among the most enthusiastic and drunk participants. it was so weird to see my parents and their partners hanging out together and getting along!
my brother and cousin turned up completely out of the blue a few days before the wedding. they had managed to find their way to japan and from the airport to the tiny izakaya we were having dinner at with my parents. mari and i didn't have any idea they were coming. a lot of beer and wine was consumed that night and my mum and mari's mum may or may not have been dancing in the izakaya.
another fun night was with tom, david, carol and meri drinking at the shinagawa prince hotel's plush 39th floor bar for 3 hours of all-you-can-drink cocktails. this was followed by lots of singing, dancing on seats and umbrella-guitar in a karaoke box with smuggled drinks.
( many a laugh was had. see pics: ) | | comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment |
| my laptop screen died!
it'll cost Y60000 to fix..
or i could spend about Y25000 on a new external monitor and use just use that. or would that be weird? i really only use it at home anyway..
i'm in an internet cafe now. there are ads for porn sites all over the walls. i hate to think what the guy in the next booth is doing..
because my ipod is also broken, it's been weird to listen to actual physical cds.
i have 6 days off over o-bon so i think i'll go somewhere in the mountains or the beach far from tokyo. out of the city and (hopefully, if it's possible in summer) away from the crowds. might get the seishun 18 kippu. know any quiet places? | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| ILL SPAGHETTI
TEDDYBEAR UNDEAD
THE Dust Fellows
GREEN HERB STRAIGHT THE TIME
the Oriental bus stop
the blah,blah,blah
minimal hug
PINK PARTY POODLES
In197666
BURSTED BOOB
BATHTAB SHITTER
Pudding paranoia
the oriental mosh pit
BLOODY CUNT
ruin close reptile
Large House Satisfaction
THRASH MUFF
up wife
CLEAVAGE
hot hip trampoline school
NISEUO cosmic-chang mothership progress
Who the Bitch
slob
The NAF in the SweLL
Solid Afro
TeenargerBloodyKilling
DJ FUCK RYU
contagious orgasm
Fuck'n Windows united 101
BRASSIERE HOOK
S AND THE NICOLE KIDMEN(ex.PANICSMILE)
no-side-whiskers
butterfly inthe stomach
SEX INSTRUCTORS
FUCK THE LOTS OF YOU
Balls Of The DRAGON
NO FORE PLAY
golden tampon
NAPALM DEATH IS DEAD
Egg Murder
Bulldog In Twister
The Dilemma of Hedgehog
GOOD BYE ME HAVE A NICE DAY | | comments: 10 comments or Leave a comment |
| 
the dirty three with audience members dancing on stage. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | i saw deerhoof and afrirampo 2 weeks ago. what a great show! | | Subject: | job interview, hotel rwanda | | Time: | 04:34 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/sad.gif) thirsty |
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| my last class yesterday was 3 naughty little brats who just shouted and beat each other up. after that i went to shinjuku for a job interview. i was tired and nervous so i talked alot of shit and probably didn't make much sense. 2 guys interviewed me. at first one of them was really friendly and asked questions while the other sat back with a serious face and took notes, then about halfway through, they changed roles. it was quite funny. they made me plan a 100 minute lesson in about 5 minutes. i can't believe how much i rambled. anyway, i guess i have about a 50% chance and i'll find out by tuesday..
i wanted to ride to asakusa today, so i planned out my route on google earth, and then while i was eating lunch i thought i'd just watch the start of hotel rwanda. but i got hooked and watched the whole movie. i don't think i've ever cried so much while watching a movie. i'm kind of glad i didn't see it at the cinema! if you haven't seen it, see it! at first i thought it was weird being in english but i guess that's the best way to get the message across to a bigger audience, so i let it pass.
there are so many english speakers who are afraid of subtitles. i don't understand why. is it laziness? poor reading skills? poor vision? in other countries (such as japan) people always watch subtitled movies.. | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| 1. Open a music player.
2. Go to 'all music'/'library'.
3. Hit shuffle/repeat/randomise.
4. Find photos of the first 25 artists/bands that come up (no repeats and no cheating).
5. Have people guess who the artists/bands are.
6. Paste this in your journal and do it too, so I can have fun guessing as well.
( here are mine ) | | comments: 16 comments or Leave a comment |
|  
my pal foot foot are fun, regularly reinventing themselves and always original. they are part of a group of japanese bands including tenniscoats, the andersens, maher shalal hash baz and puka puka brians who are ever-evolving and different every time you see them. tonight kei orchestrated them jamming with the singer from the andersens who was playing sax, banging things and squawking.
saboten remind me of the middle-aged housewives i teach every day. but saboten have been playing in a wild indie-pop band for over 2 decades. the old guy on the drums was cool. their short bizarre songs were the best.
i hadn't seen sekifu before and was really impressed by them. their sound is hard to describe, maybe psych-folk meets ennio morricone. they reminded me a bit of the andersens latest incarnation.
the cannanes are the cannanes. a bunch of middle-aged aussies in blundstones playing catchy cute indiepop that hasn't changed much since the 80s. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
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tokidoki's journal
