Losing touch…

I’m a douchebag.

I announced that I was starting up my blog again to keep in touch with everyone, posted a few blogs, and then fell off the planet again.  Sorry.  I’ve been extremely busy recently, both at work and in my life.  The truth is I don’t really know if anybody is reading this blog and if so, what do you all want to hear about?  My life is not nearly as exciting as it was when I was living the bachelor life with the sweet job in Tatsuno.  Plus I don’t have people like Spencer around to talk me into participating in insane Japanese festivals and spur-of-moment road trips.  Now that we’re living in Kobe, I don’t really have a close circle of friends anymore.  All of my good friends are still living out in Tatsuno, Himeji, Sayo, basically in the Harima region.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Kobe.  And this is not a post to whine about my life.  I’m not unhappy at all, but without my good friends around, I don’t get into as much trouble.  Thus, my blog isn’t really much to write home about (pun intended).  My closest friends in Kobe are my bandmates.  They’re great and we get along really well, but it’s rare that we all have time in our schedules to hang out outside of practice.  I’m getting sidetracked again.

Here’s the deal.  I want to be better about updating this blog if people are actually reading it.  I will update once a week.  Now, I can get on here and go on about my band, my marriage, my job (though, probably not, because I’m a teacher and it’s such a meaningless profession), things I love about Japan, things I can’t stand about Japan, and reports on my hiking trips.  However, that all sounds pretty egocentric and really boring to me.  I doubt anyone wants to read that.  I’ll include updates on important developments from time to time, of course, but I want to know what you people want to hear about?  Is there anything you want to know about me?  About Japan?  About being a foreign resident here?  About Yuki?  Etc.  Etc.

Anyway, it seems like a waste for me to just get on here and ramble about all of my little pet projects and whatnot.  I hope you guys will respond and give me some ideas about what I should write.  I’m happy to answer all kinds of questions.  No question is too ridiculous.  Curious about Japanese toilets?  Ask away.  Want to know what it was like to wrestle in frigid weather with 10,000 naked Japanese men?  Go ahead.

Now, just a quick update on something that was special for me.
I went skiing last weekend for the first time in……………9 years!!!
It was hard for me to believe it had been that long, but I did the math and that’s how it turned out.
Last Saturday night, Yuki, Mori, Kayoko, Shiho, and I all piled into Karibu’s giant van and we headed out for Dynaland.  Dynaland is a large ski resort in Gifu Prefecture, which is three prefectures East of us.  We left at about midnight and arrived in Gifu at about 3:30AM.  We parked in front of the resort and slept in the car until about 6.  Got up, got dressed (man it was cold), and hit the slopes.  The snow was perfect.  I mean, absolutely perfect.  Plus, it snowed all day, so we had fresh powder on every run.  My technique was sloppy, which was to be expected, but by midday I was feeling pretty confident again.  If you didn’t know me in my youth, then you probably don’t know that I’ve been skiing every year all winter since I was 5 years old.  The result of which is that I was a very confident and technically savvy skier (sorry for the boasting, but it’s true).  So, I felt pretty happy to get a little of that skill back.  I even did a few mogul runs.  Now, I thought that having been Marathon training for the last 3 years that I would not get tired or sore at all from skiing.  Holy shit!  I was wrong.  Apparently, the muscles you use to ski and the muscles you use to run are totally different.  I could barely walk the next morning.  On the way home, Gifu got hit with a huge blizzard.  Big fat snowflakes fell in a torrent all the way home.  It was unbelievable.  Traffic was backed up everywhere and the 3 and a half hour trip turned into a 7 hour trip.  Anyway, it was a fantastic experience and Yuki is one hell of snowboarder.  I could hardly keep up with her.  We’ll definitely go again before the snow melts.

Okay, that’s all for now.  If you guys tell me what you want to hear about, I promise I’ll update once a week from now on.

PS.  Yuki and I will be in Indianapolis for a visit from March 4 through March 12.  If you’d like to hang out, drop me a line.