Mike Mike Mike
You bought these Haichews to give away as gifts, but sure enough you just eat them all for yourself. Of Course.

In other news, Mike Tyson got beat pretty badly by some guy. I saw the fight, I couldn't believe it at first, but we shouldn't have been surprised. First of all, the guy is 38 years old. I mean, that's old. People still have this invincable image of him for some reason, I think that's pretty much all but gone now though.

Good news, I bought NFL 2K5 for about 17 bucks, which is just incredible. They're practically giving this game away, folks. And the rest of the game is as good as the price, my only problem is that I suck at passing and throw way too many interceptions. Other than that, I'm having a great time.

Finally, about the last post, I didn't mean for it to come off as negative or complaining, but I guess that it did. It was just an observation that I had made, nothing more, nothing less. And, that's about it.

Frohman's Special Thoughts
Well, I'm back in the United States. Everything is in English, I know what all the foods are, I know what to do and where everything is, I have car transporation to anywhere. I guess that it's pretty solid overall, but I definitely want go back to Japan soon. I mean, I left a lot of people that I like behind there. But, I like my family, and my car, and my house. But life in Japan is so much more interesting. Yet, life in NC is more relaxing. See where I'm going with this? I could go either way. Bottom line- it's great to be home, but gotta to go back to Japan someday.

My goal of this trip was to be challenged and rewarded, and I definitely think that happened in the past year. I handled a lot of crazy situations, and improved my Japanese, so that's not too bad at all. I wanted to go to a foreign country for the first time, and also get a chance to see the USA from a new perspective after living in another country for a while.

And after coming back from Japan, my first observation was, Why do we need such big things in America? Why do we need such huge sodas? Huge cars? Cable with 60 channels? Big Houses? Big people? Big roads? I'm not questioning the reason for their existence, just why does everything have to be so big here? Hope I'm not complaining to much, but this is just what I've noticed since coming back.

Back in THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Hello readers, I made it back to North Carolina safe and sound, and in one piece. Had a nice long layoff at Houston Airport, and had to throw out a bunch of junk from my luggage at Narita, but other than that a pretty pleasant trip. Got home, and had Taco Bell, which was nice. Not much else gonna get done today I think. Tomorrow, I'll get something done. I swear. Send me some email people!

What's going on here
A lot, actually. I bit the bullet and laid down the cash for Spiderman 2, must say that I don't regret it at all. Some finals down, some more still to go. Got a part time job, 6 page report, fireworks, meeting host family, gift buying, packing, canceling the cell phone, and Tokyo trips to attend to, so it's going to be quiet around here. Probably. As usual, I'll update when I can. Departure date is July 25.

Canton, OH will determine the future of this country
No, really. According this article, it comes down to who wins Stark County, Kerry or Bush. With extra added intrigue of Timken as well! Exciting.

Apologies to all that don't live/have never been to Canton, OH.

In news that's also got me excited, there's gonna be another series of Famicom Mini games! Click!! Too bad I'm not going to be here to blow all my cash on it though. I'll find a way to pick them up somehow though.

It's HOT out there
July as come, and with it the crazy summer heat. Take this from a veteran of sticky North Carolina summers, this is rough. It's so hot, I'm sweating on the inside. And the cool (well, not cool) thing about Japan is that it doesn't cool down at night! Yep, that's right, at about 11:30 last night the temperature was still 28 celsuis with 110% humidity. No wonder people walk around here with towels all the time. Well, at least the trains are air conditioned.

In other news, with the end of the school year and the end of my trip in Japan coming up, I'm going to be pretty busy with assignments/errands/social events, etc., So don't count on too many frequent posts for awhile. I'll try to update when I see or do something interesting though. Later.

10 Years after
I don't know if you've ever seen the documentary movie "Hoop Dreams", but even if you don't like basketball at all I recommend that you do. It's probably the most compelling movie that I've ever seen, and you're totally there in a movie full of twists and turns, successes and defeats. And to top all of it off, for better for worse, it happened for real.

So, a decade after the release of the movie, the Washington Post has done a follow-up on the charachters involved, why don't you check it out and then watch the movie? Or better yet, watch it first then read the article? Just make sure you watch the movie, above all else.

Link Here

My 4th of July in Japan
It's been interesting to be in Japan during all the major American holidays, and see what it's like over here. Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Easter were no-shows, Christmas was just an excuse for department store sales and to decorate the town, and New Year's was a blast. Couples do stuff for Valentine's day, but I don't remember what exactly- I think you just buy chocolate for your loved one or something.

That leads up to the Fourth of July, which has become one of my more favorite holidays recently. For obvious reasons it isn't celebrated here, except on military bases. I didn't get on base this time, and we kind of got in trouble for fireworks earlier this year, so options were limited.

What I ended up doing was going to the "tanabata" festival. It has to do with the Milky Way, or something along those lines, but more or less it was thousands of people strolling around, eating Japanese fair food from stalls, and looking at extravagant laterns. Maybe I'll have some pictures up soon. It was pretty cool all around, especially with many people dressed up in yukata (summer kimonos). So, it wasn't exactly patriotic, but I did do something interesting on the Fourth of July this year.

Hope that everyone had a good Independence Day. Drop a line and let me know what you did.

First Summer Movie Post (It's about Time!)
If anyone knows me, they know, among other things, that I enjoy going my fried chicken hot and my beer cold. They also know that I love to see the latest summer blockbuster at the movie theater. Preferably, the more explosions the better. Spiderman 2, even though I only moderately enjoyed the first, looked at it had all the qualifications to be said enjoyable movie blockbuster. And then, lo and behold, I read this from imdb.com:

"Critics seem to agree: Spider-Man 2 (which opens at midnight tonight in most cities) is a marvel. Most of their reviews are packed with apparently shameless hyperbole."

Followed by glowing reviews from about every movie critic under the sun. So, even though we all know movie critics can be douchebags, I'm definitely looking forward to the film now. It hits in Japan July 3rd- movie ticket cost- about $15 bucks! Oh yeah, I'm there.

As an aside, anyone seen Farenheit 9/11 yet?

You are currently using 0 MB (0%) of your 1000 MB.
Cool. I got a gmail account, it's the new thing from Google. The main attraction is, of course, the whole gig you get for storage space. It's still in development, so you can't sign up for it yet. But if I get some invites and you want one, pass a note along in the comments and let me know.

In other news, got a haircut yesterday. It's always fun getting a haircut somewhere when you really can't communicate, and where the styles are different. Well, I guess that's what hats are for, right?

One more thing- just passed the one year anniversary of this blog. It's been quite a year.