World Cup Countdown!!

I'm really looking forward to the World Cup. Team USA is the real wild card this year. They are coming off a strong performance in 2002 and experts say they have their best side ever. So they could play the role of spoiler and reel off some big wins, but they are also in a very tough opening round group where they could fail to advance. Either way, it should be pretty sweet!

Pain in the Back
My mom managed to injure her back pretty bad recently. All she can do it either lay down or stand up, she can't sit or bend over, and she's in almost constant pain. And the healthcare system is letting her down. She managed to see a doctor for an MRI and get some painkillers, but it will be almost a full three weeks until she can see the doctor again to get a diagnosis. Until then, there's not much for her to do other than wait and be in pain. Fortunately (knocks on wood), she tried a new medicine which seems to work better for her, so let's hope things continue to improve.

JET Placement Info
I almost forgot to mention this! I received my JET placement info. I'm going to Bungoono-shi, which is in Oita-ken, on Kyushu! Oita is known for its mountainous terrain and hotsprings (onsen). There is also a park famous for its wild roaming monkeys, which should be interesting . Plus, it looks like I am pretty close to a major JR line, so I should be able to explore pretty well.

It was pretty close to my first choice of Fukuoka, at least I should be only a couple of hours from there. Also Oita-shi has an airport, and Beppu has plenty of ferry services, so that should help other domestic travel.

Unfortunately, I have yet to hear directly from the local board of education, who will be my actual employers in Japan. Until then, the details will be pretty sketchy. But at least it appears that I got a cool placement.

Hail-acious
Free ice for everyone! Check out these pics from a recent storm. Fortunately my car was in the garage at the time, so it wasn't damaged. Later this storm would spawn a tornado in Cabarrus County. Of course, I locked myself out while taking these pics.

These were slighty larger than quarters- does that make them golf ball sized? Who knows!

Lazy
I'm real sick of work. All I want to do is sit at home and play videogames all day. Seriously

Class of '06
Congratulations Katie on getting your D.P.T! Guess you are officially the smartest person in the family now!!

Japan Trip Set
Everyone clear your calendars, because I finally got my plane tickets for my trip to Japan in June. I'll leave Charlotte-Douglas at 9:50 in the morning on Sunday, June 11th and arrive at Narita at 3:30 PM on Monday the 12th (phew!). I'll leave from Narita at about 12:45 on Saturday the 17th, but at least I'll get the day back from the trip over After a quick bus/train ride, I should be in Machida or Yokohama the evening of the 12th. Which leads to the question of what to do? Well, that night both Japan and the United States are playing in the World Cup, so I believe a trip to the Hub is in order. After that, Obirin, karaoke, izakaya, soccer games, Yodobashi, BookOff/HardOff, and all the old spots in Tokyo and Yokohama need to be hit up. Heh, maybe I can finally make it up to Nikko for a day, that would be nice.

Well I'm sure you're asking, Mike aren't you going to teach English in Japan for at least a year? Why spend all this money when you're leaving again in less than two months? Well, I have several reasons. Mostly, it's for the people. My old homeboy Sammy Nave is going to be there, and Kanami will be leaving for Canada pretty soon so we've got to meet up before she leaves. As for JET, I still could be placed anywhere in the country, and domestic travel in Japan can be damn expensive, so if I'm far away it wouldn't necessarily be a whole lot cheaper. And this is a trip that's been a long time coming, who knows the next time we'll all be able to meet up... why wait any longer.

So- if you're in the greater Tokyo area, and want to hang out from June 12-17th, drop me a line. Like I said, this is mostly about the people, so be sure to get in touch!

Close Call
I almost had a really big problem with JET this past week. Apparently, some really important forms that I mailed out on the 13th never reached Atlanta, and I received an email from JET stating if we don't get these forms by Tuesday, you're disqualified. Great. So I had to rush to the post office, fortunately I made copies of everything, and express mail it to Atlanta for $15. I was able to contact the JET people, and it looks like everything will work out, but still that's more stress than I would prefer to have.

Also my Aunt and Grandma stopped by for Easter, which was great because there's always a bunch of food when they show up. Seriously whenever extra family is around we eat like kings. Which is nice, but then again it's no surprise we've got some big people in our family. Anywho, I'm still working on my gum cache from Target, mmm delicious.

In gaming news, I finally beat Resident Evil 4. Which basically means that I get to play it all over again! It's one of those games where you can really experiment and play through the game different ways. For example, if you go up the tower in the village, the villagers start to throw fire grenades at you. Or if you barricade yourself in a certain house, the chainsaw guy comes after you. Fun stuff like that. For the next game, I'm thinking of sticking with Capcom and getting Killer 7, it looks pretty cool. Anyone here played it?

Cold Case
Had a mega-bad day at work today. First of all, everyone (well, almost everyone) had Good Friday off, so the mall was totally packed and people had us running ragged all day. That might not be too bad, but on top of that I caught a cold complete with sore throat, runny nose, fever and fatigue. Fantastic. And then, tomorrow's Saturday so I almost certainly can't ask for the day off- they need me to sell stuff on the busiest day of the week. This sucks.

Breaking News
I got into JET!! Woo Hoo!

(big sigh of relief)