where i work

Here are a few photos of where I work...

This is a photo of me punching in at the beginning of my shift.

This is the teaching area. We sit in these cubicles with a maximum of four students. It can get pretty loud sometimes on busy days but we make due.

This was taken at Mister Donut where I usually go for coffee in the mornings.

It looks like Matt and I might be moving to Naha, Okinawa in the fall. We’re crossing our fingers!
listening to the sweet sweet hum of our air conditioning unit.

above average

I got my mid-term report card today and I’m happy to say that that I’m above average. This sheet bares a striking resemblance to my elementary school report cards. Look mom and dad, I made it above the satisfactory mark!!! Don’t worry about the attendance and punctuality thing, my boss has changed it to a good because I have paper work to prove my eyes decided to take on a k-1 fighter look for a while.

I do realize I still have a lot to work on, my goal for my year end review is to turn as many of those g’s into e’s. I’ve posted this fine work of art on my tiny fridge. It has a Pizza Hut and Mister Donut magnet holding it up for all to see. I done good! Here’s to a successful 6 months!

In other news, I went to the Tokyo Museum of Modern Photography today where I saw a couple of terrific exhibits. The first one, World Press Photo, was a tough pill to swallow. Some of the images were so powerful they pretty much moved me to tears. I have never seen such an overwhelming show in my life. People were sitting on benches in the middle of the gallery wiping their tears away…some of these photographs will haunt me for years to come. Seeing such powerful photographs shakes you out of your bubble and makes you realise, unfortunately for only a brief while, how very lucky we are. There is so much pain and hatred in this world. Kudos to the photographers who have the strength and courage to lift their cameras under such conditions. It could be argued that they do it for the money but I prefer to think their intentions dig deeper than newspaper pockets.

After that dose of reality I headed down to the basement where there was a show on the many faces of the lovely and talented French actor Isabelle Hupert.

Don’t get me wrong I think she’s terrific but it’s tough walking into a show about the life of a beautiful rich actress after seeing so much pain and suffering. She been fortunate to pose for such great artists such as Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, Herb Ritts, Robert Doisneau, Nan Goldin and Philip-Lorca diCorcia. It was a great show but I think I should have seen it before the World Press show.

I broke down and bought myself a fancy Holga camera at the museum gift shop. It has a built in multicoloured flash and an optional 35mm back. I think I may have loaded it the wrong way…I guess I’ll have to shoot the roll and find out. I want to capture my Fuji Rocks experience with my new toy : )

It’s Friday night, the calm before my stormy work week. Summer has hit us with full force, we had a high of 37 today and apparently this is nothing. I never thought I’d hear myself say ‘thank god we have air conditioning’! I bought myself an ever so popular sweat rag last week and I’m putting it to good use. I’ve never experienced such humidity in my life.

Peace and kisses

d

let's go to the movies

i had my first movie theatre experience in japan last wednesday.

imagine a scaled down version of the paramount without the smell of grease and sound of a million trailers going on at once.

imagine buying a plain popcorn, a caramel popcorn and a large grapefruit juice for the low cost of $5.00.

imagine getting a reserved seat.

imagine half price tickets for women on wednesdays!

imagine the person who makes an announcement to the audience about turning off cell phones (at least I think that’s what he was saying) taking a bow before stepping off of the stage.

imagine forgetting a small sweater to cover your shoulders from the air conditioning and finding a cartload of blankets at the entrance of the theatre and last but not least
IMAGINE seeing a movie with no one talking or eating loudly.

needless to say i like going to the movies here. unfortunately there isn’t a heck of a lot of variety but spike lee’s latest flick ‘inside man’ was quite entertaining.

matt and i are going to the fuji rock festival on july 30^th. i vowed never to go to another huge outdoor festival but it will be worth seeing not only for the bands but also for how civilized a festival of this magnitude will be here. i’m soooo happy to hear the happy mondays have been added to the bill. it was sheer torture only hearing their music pour out onto granville street when they played the commodore ballroom back in 1990…sigh. other great bands on sunday include mogwai, jenny lewis, the raconteurs, the strokes, broken social scene, super furry animals, rinocerose and buffalo daughter. i haven’t seen a rock show since january, hopefully this will satisfy my ears for the next few months.

listening to asobi seksu - citrus