My (Not Yet Fully Operational) Death Star

Now that things have settled down a little, I’ve been furnishing my apartment with things that I’ve bought myself. The stuff that my predecessor left me is functional, but it kind of makes me feel like I’m living in someone else’s house. I’d been getting really restless during idle moments at home, but I think that this may have something to do with the fact that my apartment doesn’t really feel like my apartment. I’ve started small and have bought new trash bins, lamps, magazine racks, clocks, etc., and it’s been curiously addicting. Next up? Some curtains which aren’t pink. I never really bought into that feng shui business, but I moved my television and my couch around the other day and felt strangely revitalized. I’ve also got a table with four chairs in my kitchen, but have yet to actually eat on the thing…I may have to look into trying that out sometime.

NHK紅白

This year's lineup:

Red:
aiko (7)
Thelma Aoyama (Debut)
Junko Akimoto (Debut)
Ayaka (3)
Angela Aki (3)
Ikimono Gakari (Debut)
Sayuri Ishikawa (31)
Ai Otsuka (5)
Miyuki Kawanaka (21)
GIRL NEXT DOOR (Debut)
Kumi Koda (4)
Natsuko Godai (15)
Sachiko Kobayashi (30)
Fuyumi Sakamoto (20)
SPEED (4)
Yoshimi Tendo (13)
Mika Nakashima (7)
Mitsuko Nakamura (13)
Ayumi Hamasaki (10)
Perfume (Debut)
Yo Hitoto (5)
Ayaka Hirahara (5)
Ayako Fuji (16)
Fujioka Fujimaki and Nozomi Ohashi (Debut)
Kaori Mizumori (6)
Akiko Wada (32)

White:
Masafumi Akikawa (3)
Aqua Timez (2)
Hiroshi Itsuki (38)
EXILE (4)
Saburo Kitajima (45)
Takeshi Kitayama (4)
Kimaguren (Debut)
Yusaku Kiyama (Debut)
Kobukuro (4)
Jero (Debut)
Shuchishin (with Pabo) (Debut)
SMAP (16)
TVXQ (Debut)
TOKIO (15)
Hideaki Tokunaga (3)
Kiyoshi Hikawa (9)
Ken Hirai (6)
Akira Fuse (24)
Porno Graffiti (7)
Kiyoshi Maekawa (18)
Kenichi Mikawa (25)
Mr.Children (Debut)
Yutaka Mizutani (Debut)
Shinichi Mori (41)
Naotaro Moriyama (3)
WaT (4)

No モー娘。:-/ And how is it that Mr. Children are making their first appearance? Not sure why I never noticed that before. Looking at that lineup though, I think I might just skip this year's show. I suppose I wouldn't mind seeing TOKIO if they're performing「雨傘」, and I quite like SPEED and いきものがかり, but not enough to sit through the rest of that stuff. I'm actually into GIRL NEXT DOOR and Perfume as well, but their live performances are pretty brutal.

ガキの使い

VOL#１２： ￥６８００



But worth every yen.

The Jordan Brand: Why Sneakerheads Die Broke

So it looks like the XI/XII pack is going to be Bred/Taxi. I was really hoping for a Concord/Playoff combo, but this is still easily the best countdown pack in the series, and the only one even remotely worth the massive MSRP.



With that, I give you my top 5 Jordans. I’m not really that big of a Jordan head, but I’d be willing to sell my soul for some of these.

5) Playoff XII



These are a piece of work, and I was straight praying that they would be in the upcoming XI/XII countdown pack. If I’m not mistaken, MJ wore these en route to his first championship since coming out of retirement. A lot of kids had the red/black ones back when we were in the 6th grade, but I was way too busy salivating over the Air Max Penny to bother. Remember the days when we were only allowed to have one pair? It’s good to have a job.

4) Nick Anderson X



I was a pretty huge Orlando fan in the 90s, and believe it or not, it was Nick Anderson, not Shaq, who was my second favorite player behind Penny Hardaway. People will never forget Nick’s 4 missed free throws in game 1 of the 94-95 Finals, but not everyone remembers that this dude could score with the best of them. The Chicago Bulls edition with the 45 stitched on the side is probably be the most coveted incarnation of the X, but there’s just something about the Anderson PE that calls out to me. It’s essentially impossible to find, but we can all dream.

3) True Blue III.



Widely recognized as Tinker Hatfield’s first contribution to the Jordan brand, the III came out before I was in the game, so I won’t even pretend that I’m an expert on them. I was probably about 4 when they dropped, so I don’t think that I was really into anything besides Sesame Street and chocolate milk. What I do know is that they remain a really great looking sneaker to this day, and that the elephant print featured on the shoe opened a lot of doors for the wild designs we see now.

2) Quentin Richardson XIII.



Aside from the XX3, the XIII remains my favorite incarnation of the Jordan to date, and Q absolutely blew my mind when he rocked these player exclusives during the 04-05 season. What’s funny is that Q apparently thought he was Jordan when he wore these, as he went on to set a Suns franchise record for the most 3-point field goals attempted (and made) in a single season. I’m probably one of the few people out there who’d lose it over some orange Jordans, but as a Suns fan, it don’t get much better than these. I still can’t help but feel that the hologram is a little corny, but the design of the XIII is just so sleek and clean.

1) Old Love XX3



Or whatever they're called. I’m probably in the minority here, but this is my favorite makeup of the XX3. The titaniums are incredible, but it just seems fitting that the cleanest XX3 is a Chicago Bulls colorway. The new trio set to release later this month (UNC/CHI/Motorsports) are beautiful as well, but I guess I'm just a really big fan of white. Simply put, the XX3 is such an incredible shoe that it barely matters what colors you throw onto the thing. It’ll set you back $185 to land a pair, but the shoe’s intricate balance of cutting edge & classy is simply unparalleled. Arguably the most stunningly crafted sneaker ever made, Jordan or otherwise.

Contextual Fury And I

Listening to:
YUI
My Short Stories

The A in ALT stands for assistant, but I’ve been teaching classes by myself since last week. The teacher for the first graders has been out tending to a serious family issue, so I’ve been running all of her classes in her place. I actually don’t mind given the circumstances, but considering that I have no formal training in the field, managing 35 students at a time can be quite a challenge. Ideally, the foreign teacher (me) should be a warm, approachable figure, but the reality is that you can’t always be that when you’ve got a class to keep in line. I already lost it once and yelled at a pair of students who were goofing around in the middle of the lesson, and the dead silence that followed was a step or two beyond uncomfortable. One girl standing at the back of the class had a look on her face as if I had just murdered someone. Now, I’m here to help the students learn English, not scare the shit out of them, but I guess that the two can go hand in hand within context.

One of my friends from one of the outer islands came to stay at my place over the weekend, and he couldn’t stop talking about GTA IV. I hadn’t thought particularly much about gaming over the past few months, but now I’m finding that I really want a next-gen console. I usually find a suitable reason not to take the plunge, namely money, but that isn’t so much of an issue for once. We’ll see. With T6, SFIV, and FFXIII all due out in 2009, I can’t see myself not having a PS3 by next year.

Brock Lesnar, UFC Champ

Believe it.

ビールと枝豆の炊き込みご飯

I'm not ashamed to admit that I take cooking tips from comedians from time to time.



That's the good stuff right there.

My (Favorite) Mistake

Listening to:
Sheryl Crow
The Globe Sessions
"My Favorite Mistake"

I usually take my lunch in the teacher's lounge, but in an effort to get to know my students outside of a classroom setting, I've also started to eat with the kids from time to time. The students down here have lunch in their homeroom classes, so it's a bit different from the states, where cafeterias are the norm. The first time I ate with one of the classes, we had a real chill, mellow conversation about Hawaii, Okinawa, sports, Stevie Wonder, and entrance exams. My intent was to have a comfortable chat about life with some of my students, and I certainly felt that I succeeded. But for one reason or another, I made the mistake of assuming that lunches with different classes would all follow a similar script. To say the very least, I was incorrect. I decided to eat with my favorite class the other day, and what ensued was not lunch, but sheer pandemonium. I never really stopped to consider what it'd be like to literally have 40 teenagers trying to talk to me at the same time, but needless to say, it doesn't make for very favorable lunching conditions. After not eating for a good half an hour, we finished with an impromptu photo shoot and a considerable amount of incomprehensible shouting. I didn't get to chat about life with them, but I did learn that, simply put, my favorite class is utterly incapable of shutting up. But I guess that's probably why they're my favorite class.

R.I.P. Jeff Foster

I stopped playing fantasy ball years ago, but damn:

Amare Stoudemire - 49 points, 17-21 FG, 15-15 FT, 11 boards, 6 dimes, 5 steals, 2 blocks, 1 homicide.



I know it's only been 5 games, but the dude is dropping 25 per on like 70% shooting.

Steve Nash. Like Us. But 10x Better.

His days as the league's best point guard may be behind him, but he's clearly the funniest dude in the game.







It's like, you know, people say, "Hey, you don't wanna swim with sharks," but I'm faster than sharks, so it's not a big deal.

考え事

Listening to:
GO!GO! 7188
竜舌蘭
「考え事」

One interesting thing about the schools down here is that they have chorus competitions in which the classes compete against each other in the hopes of moving on to larger regional meets. For what it’s worth, I spend roughly the same amount of time in every class and should thus be unbiased when watching competitions that pit the kids against one another, but the reality is that I tend to like some students and classes more than others. Whether or not you perceive that to be a dent in my moral character is up to you, but I think it’s a little silly to pretend that teachers are above subjectivity. It’s our duty to give each student the same opportunity and the same degree of attention, but I think it’s unfair to expect instructors to be sub-human to the point that they don’t feel differently towards the students who make the most of those opportunities. To be perfectly honest, I still don’t consider myself a real teacher - at least not by the high Japanese standards - but I nonetheless like to think that I have a lot to offer the kids here. Anyway, one student that I’m particularly fond of was the conductor for her class during the aforementioned chorus competition. She’s one of my favorite students, not because she’s really great at English (she’s not), but because she makes an honest effort with her studies and unfailingly greets me with unbridled zeal when our paths cross. Her homeroom class, which I’m also quite fond of, had high hopes of landing first place and moving on to the regionals. The class unfortunately came up a little short, but she went on to receive an award for most outstanding conductor. She had tears in her eyes she went up to accept her award, but not tears of joy; she was absolutely crushed because her classmates weren’t being recognized with her. It generally takes me a while to get emotionally invested in anything, but it really broke my heart to see her crying when she conceivably had every right to be celebrating. Much like any other junior high, my school has its share of brats and bullying, but I’ve also seen a brand of camaraderie and warmth that I think is unique to the culture here.