CANYONING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went canyoning in Gunma on Sunday… included sliding down waterfalls, jumping off ledges and hitting body parts on rocks… good times. The water is all snow run off and was FREEZING... we all had to wear wet suits, rash gaurds things, and an extra layer under a wetsuit jacket, boots, gloves, helmets and harness to do climbing...We jumped off of a 20 meter water fall, and slid down falls named the Abyss, Washing machine, and the Twister. It was crazy and despite swallowing tons of water and getting pushed to the bottom by the force of the waterfall.. it was sooo fun and really exhausting! Here are some pics~

small ledges...eck

Jimmy... ready to hit the falls.

15meter tall waterfall

WATER FIGHT~

I think I lost

Sooo scary... hanging like a monkey... screaming the most Ive screamed in my entire life

funny jokes..

my brother and Jimmy in the background

CANNON BALL!!!

Go ALBIREX!
JEFFREY AND JIMMY ARE HERE

After waiting at the train station for 3 hours they finally showed up on the SHINKANSEN around 9:00p.m. They were exhausted and went pretty much straight to bed. On Wednesday night we hit up an Albirex Soccer Game in good ole Niigata which is about 30minutes from my house. We got free tickets and were pretty disappointed to be on the S. Side visitor side when we saw all the hardcore Albirex fans on the other side…

But it ended up being wayyyyyyyy better because Albirex scored a quick 3 goals on our side of the field RIGHT IN FRONT of us. Then the 2^nd half came and Yokohama decided to get it into gear and scored in the second ½ right in front of us again. The final score was 3-1…Albirex getting a V under their belt and we were so happy that we got to see every single goal right in front of us and didn’t have to stand up all game like the crazies on the other side.

So surprised. SPANISH is JAPAN? Vamos Niigata!! Vamos!

check out the shoes..with the matching clapper, towel, shirt and hat! Pretty fly for a JAPANESE guy....

In true Japanese fashion, they have kawaii characters for EVERYTHING.
The female duck had the manliest walk Ive ever seen!

Big Swan Stadium

Jimmy and Jeffrey stoked pre-game!

The score was 3-0 at this point...but I know we look like some idiots cuz you are prolly wondering what Ros is DOING! I know I was....
my action sports shot!!! So proud of this one!

Congratulations!

I love you guys and am super sadface that I couldn’t be there to celebrate with you guys… but we’re doing it big in Hawaii so ALOOOOOHA and pass me a Corona! See you guys in less than a month. I hope you are partying it up like ROCKSTARS!

Willimelenium Cheesco!

Shabooty!C to tha OrrieRadio!!!The Head WenchRaaaYANNNDY!

So this weekend I have to give a seminar and I have been working allllll day on it.. so in honor of my presentation... SLAM POETRY.. :)

Realization

Contemplation... lack of dedication...
Flirtation, not man enough to avoid the temptation...
Lack of conversation, causing frustration,
Navigation... to another female who's a poor imitation...
The lies, the suspense when you cheat that leads to deceit...
The finesse, her caress, taking your woman's kindness for weakness...
Lack of trust, the lust,
The attraction,
Fantasies about taking action,
The plight, causing arguments that lead to fights so you can try to sneak out another night...
The misconception of your woman's perception...
She's been aware of his ways since the inception but didn't want to face the rejection...
And as she stares at her reflection,
She realizes why men cheat,
There is no exception...
So love him or leave him but never feel like you need him

...and the last one because it made me laugh:

…or at least until you wake up one morning and notice an itching rash on your top lip. EWE.. sorry didn’t mean to take it there… but seriously, I’ve been thinking more about what I wrote yesterday and I have some stuff to add (shut up B :).... ) … where was I though??? Hmm, oh yeah…So KISSING and its drug-like effect:

that drug like effect can be enough to cure bad days,
leave you dreaming while your awake, walking around in a haze,
make you forget about “what you SHOULD have learned” from the laaaast time,
repeat mistakes you PROMISED yourself you would NEVER make again,
lead to bad break-ups and fuck ups,
the beginning to great hook-ups,
or maybe even be the first step to the “reeeaal thing.”
THIS person, mwuah, this person is mine, MY LOVE I pronounce, I dare to announce, to the WORLD… This is my life partner, my girlfriend, mistress, fling OR flavor of the week, whatever it may be, we are together NOW for the whole world to see.

A kiss which seems so miniscule in value has sooo much effect it’s crazy.

Story time:

My "friend" and her good-for-nothing boyfriend were having “relationship troubles” but they had been together too long and she had put in too much effort into the relationship that breaking up would inevitably seem like failing. Failing had a certain stench to it and she was DETERMINED to do anything it took before she let it stick to her. BUT...It seemed like the more she wanted the relationship to work, the more he would pull away. Push, pull… pull, push. She was at her wits end, crying all the time, eating ice cream by the carton, checking her phone for reception over and over knowing damn well that HE wasn’t calling and her phone’s reception was just fine, hitting the refresh button on her email, listening to sappy ballads on repeat, watching The Notebook over and over and locking herself in her room. She FINALLY, all cried out and exhausted, decided, THIS WAS IT! No more! It was OVER! She was an independent, intelligent, funny and not to mention a HOT 21 year old with a lot to offer and if HE didn’t appreciate it then it was HIS loss and she would find someone who WOULD. She went out clubbing with her girls determined to flirt, dance, drink and get her groove back. She was wearing a mini-skirt, heels, make-up looking flawless and a brand new shirt that read: “SINGLE and ready to MINGLE.” She was dancing and her feet had started to hurt so she sat down at a table to take a break… who else walks in BUT her EX-boyfriend… that good for nothing loser, he was surely going to eat his words now, look at her, she looked AMAZING…he would walk up to her and she would say: “To tha left, to the left” and with a flick of her hair she would turn and walk away switching her hips as she left so he could get a gooooood look of what he was MISSING! What in fact happens? He comes up with her favorite drink, and without a single apology, kisses her on the forehead, and says “you look beautiful” then he tilts her chin up and kisses her again…. And THAT’S ALL FOLKS! She is back in love. Juuuuust like that her entire rehearsed RANT is out the window, her week of crying, seclusion and cursing him is forgotten and she feels silly for wearing that DAMNED shirt.

Moral of the story: NEVER under estimate the power of a kiss.

It’s CRAZY, SON!

What’s in a kiss?

When people put their mouths together, they're coming into contact with someone else's saliva, food leftovers and an uncountable number of bacteria. You wouldn't feel like kissing if you thought about whether they've brushed their teeth before or who else they’ve been playing tonsil hockey with. Maybe a kiss has a drug-like effect that makes people forget about all that other stuff for a while…

OSAKA BABY!


So this weekend I ventured on down to Osaka to hang out with Keith, nicknamed Shovelz by Pam and Shovels by Ros… there is some debate about spelling so in order to appease them both, I’ll stay neutral on it. Good times just relaxing, going shopping in DenDen town which is similar to Akihabara in Tokyo, watched Oceans13, Norbit, Martin, 300 and whole bunches of other movies, ate Mexican, and had a really nice time. I love Niigata but I would definitely consider taking on Osaka for a short time affair!

I do like:
*Zerros
*HardRock Café
*DenDen Town
*big city hustle n bustle
*movies
*authentic Mexican restaurants with graffiti covered walls
*slushy Lemonade by the pitcher
*people who speak relatively good English
*the soon-to-be hit song “you knows I loves you” lol
*wearing heels and still being shorter than the person I’m with
*the smell of Downy detergent

I don’t like:
*the smelly men on trains
*the rain when you want to go out
*6 hour train rides when you are tired
*people eating fish in cramped spaces that you can’t escape from
*being told “no”
*drunk people spilling drinks on me while I’m trying to eat dinner
*being stared at by other gaijin

Anyways, the pros far outweighed the cons and Osaka would be worth another weekend visit before I leave.

Ain’t no party till WE walk in!!!

We took a girls team down to Nagano for the All Japan ALT soccer tournament. We had 5 games in 2 days. Since I have been going to the gym, I figured that I would be in pretty good shape and would be alright. I was seriously mistaken. After doing a couple sprints up and down the field, I thought my lungs were going to burst. I hate that after years and years of training to get into shape, it only takes a matter of weeks in order to lose all the progress you’ve painstakingly made through YEARS of sweating/puking/passing out/crying/soreness/pulled muscles. It was actually embarrassing to be sucking wind after literally 5 minutes of playing when just a few years ago, I could play 90 minute games no problem and just a few months ago I was running Div1 track and field…seriously a SHAME. OH! Another thing, my legs and arms are COVERED in bruises. I look like a battered woman suffering from the last run in with her husband’s fists! I never remembered being bruised like this when I used to play but I guess old age fragility is starting to catch up with me at 22.

I also took part in character building this weekend. I worked on patience, taking my competitive level down a couple notches annnnd playing games for fun rather than to win at all costs! I even tried to talk to some of the other girl teams at first….but I quickly found I had no endurance what-so-ever and figured that was where I drew the line when it came to “character building” for the weekend and I had better take it in baby steps in order to avoid shock to my system. I have enough friends so even though I tired to go out of my way to talk to some random girl about something I had absolutely no interest in, it didn’t really work and I gave myself an A for effort and called-it-a-day. While the rest of my team -- minus Kat and Jenelle who were in the same boat as me – was learning names, exchanging emails, chatting about personal lives and making “friends” we were content to lay out and soak up some sun…and I got a pretty good tan too :)

Even though we were tied for absolute last place and by far the worst team talent-wise…according to popular consensus we undeniably shut out every other team as HOTTEST looking team there! Good to know huh? We can’t play soccer worth a damn but we sure do clean up well… egh! Apparently even the Saitama girls team was checking us out at the party that night when the ratio was 1 girl to 20 guys! Our boys were highly sought after too. Hyogo’s girl team came up to where the entire Niigata team was sitting and asked one our boys to stand up so they could all take turns licking his face and taking pictures with him! Ewe…Speaking of the party, Niigata teams also took the 1^st prize for being the ONLY ONES who knew how to party. During the wee-hours of the morning I looked up at the party and sure enough, all my fellow Niigata-ites were still going strong when all the other teams were being weak sauce and had turned in for the night! We WERE the party and after seeing what ALL the other kens had to offer, I’m so thankful that I live in Niigata with these people instead of the other thumb-suckers! We are all soooo different but every one CRACKS me up! When given the opportunity to hang out with 100s of different people, I still found myself wanting to be around the people that I see EVERY FREAKIN WEEK!

Anyways, it was a really fun but exhausting weekend filled with some pretty hilarious moments and even though I can barely move today it was definitely worth the drive and acquiring this weird stalker guy who I have never seen in my life, who decided to email me to “speak his mind” about the way I mistreated and ignored him. Yep, the weekend’s fun-stivities were even worth being flashed on by a complete stranger!