Love songs a dying art?

I must admit that neyo and chris brown are most certainly talented. But in terms of the genre of love songs, it pretty much starts and ends with the two of them. And rhiannna is certainly a very slender, attractive 20 year old, but to compare her to whitney houston is not even a joke, it is an insult. Whitney had and has ZERO need to dance.

Another reason for my growing disillusion with american culture. Cant people do some things for reasons other than maximizing profit? Geez. We went from stevie wonder to what? Soulja Boy? The temptations to Flo Rida?

Damn, at least in the early ninties there were actually singing groups. Boyz II men, Az yet, Color me badd, 112. But you cant maximize profit when you split it with 3 other guys. Of course with three other guys, you can create harmony without using digital recordings of your own voice song in a different key.

America doesnt have any culture, just fads. Cavarichiis, Hammer pants, Boy bands, Cabbage patch kids, Carolina blue jordans, and the maccarena. No substance at all. People are trying to create traditions for christmas and all, but how can you when the local store that you buy your turkey and food stuffs from gets bought out by wal mart and replaced with hormone pumped, melamin laced, over fertilzied super food? America is the money jungle and survival in it has only to do with ones willingness to consume or devour someone weaker. Japan will never outsource kimono production to china. Italy will never outsource wine brewing to china. Mexico will never buy torillas made in China.

But americans buy american flags made in china. Flags that used to be made in america.

It is only natural that music turns into candy store, pop crap that gets old in a week. I have felt guilty when i downloaded honestly good music. But when ive downloaded crap, it was a relief to know that i saved money.

Does whitney houston listen to rhianna?

Does rhianna listen to whitney houston?

Do you think whitney houston listens to current pop/soul/r&b music when she is driving her car? I think not. I cat bearly tolerate my tv, much less mtv. I dont get anything out of it. When i hear stevie wonder sing, i feel emotion. When i hear 2pac, i feel it. When i hear Jay-Z, i feel nothing. LL? Nothing.

have people forget who Malcolm X and MLK were? Do they not acknowledge that officials in state across america are working to keep black people from voting in places like ohio and florida? Use your skill and talent to stir people. Not every song Jay Z and LL, but A song. Stop singing about selling drugs Jay Z. People around the world think all black men are god damn hustlers. Do a song about a woman you appreciate that isnt your mother. Do song about MLKs birthday (stevie wonder), a song about registering to vote. a song about something bigger than your wallet, your dick, getting into a girls pants, a car, how easily you will pop your gun off, and how street you are.

Sing about something bigger than yourself.

my hand hurts.

It is interesting to me that the only time we foreigners are seen as equals is when we are being asked to pay money. I can think of nowhere where i have gotten a discount for being forienger, but i have gotten ripped off because of it. I am suspicious that i have a broken bone in my left wrist.

I can

1) Use the cheap, New Zealand insurance that my company recommended (but is not considered adequate in Japan), pay all of my costs up front and hope for a rebate.

2) Sign up for insurance that covers (get this) people who are not working and pay the whole premium myself and 30 percent of the medical costs

3) Continue my petition for social health care where my company pays half the premium and i pay the other half plus 30 percent.

When i call my company, they say, call the insurance company in australia.

When i call the labor commision in fukuoka, they acknowledge that i am being wronged but the tax dollars being payed to employ them all are enough to force them to , guess what, regular labor practices.

When i call the city hall, they tell me to pay.

So why even write laws saying that people with full time jobs are entitled to social healthcare, without writing "unless they are foreigners" in the law. Because it isnt written, but it is there. I wonder how japanese people would feel if the australian or english governments excluded them from the system because they exclude british and australian people here from the system.

mark my words, the city hall will not get a dime from me until they get up off of their ass and enforce their own law.

One of the reasons the suicide rate here is so high is because of bullying. Sure there are signs, commercials, and hotlines for people to call, but its only lip service. In a society that not only turns a blind eye to bullying people weaker or in lower social positions, but to an extent protrays that as the definition of manliness, what do you think it would be normal for trains to be late once or twice a month at the local station due to businessmen jumping in front of trains. This is a place where a woman was raped in a commuter train bathroom and people stood by and did nothing. These large corporations just break the law openly, and yet the establishment sits by and wonders why their health care system is running short on money to care for old people. If you cant enforce the law, is it really a law? Or only a law for those stupid enough to obey it?

What is the benefit of paying taxes if no one will ever make you?
What is the benefit of being honest with your time card if there is no oversight against all the other people who are exploiting the system?
Why play by the rules if the refs have blindfolds on?

We like to believe in rules and order, but it is only a function of how important it is for everyone to have to follow them. What kind of rule makes sense if it has 15 exceptions? If the rule is to pay 10k dollars, you best believe i will find one of those exceptions that fits me.

The city hall is trying to bully me as the city hall and a large company against a long foreigner. But that wont play. We americans dont play that shit.

Enforce your law, then i will pay.

Ok, i cooled down a bit. As american, it is so disappointing hearing all of the merits of social health care, then i come to a country that supposedly has it, but i cant have it because im a foreigner.

Shame on Japan.

Why Japanese Basketball has a long way to go.

This is not meant to be an essay, just a mere expression of my observations.

Yesterday i watch a tournament of 15 basketball teams of japanese middle schools. In that group of say 175 to 200 kids, i saw about 4 kids that could dribble well enough to beat the guy they were guarded by off the dribble with either hand.

So what does that have to do with anything.

1) I means that when a kid can beat his guy off the dribble, he is a the mercy of a referee having the guts to call a foul on a kid driving to the bucket. In other worlds. If a kid with premium skill is guarded by a stronger kid, the stronger kid get to recover not by his feet, but by his hands. The result, the stronger kid can basically push a kid out of bounds. That is not basketball. You guide the offensive player out of bounds with position, not with strenght of hand.

2) Offense is basically 4 or 5 passes around the key and a jump shot, or 4 or 5 passes, with a pass into the post and then he shots. There is movement, but not to the basket, only lateral movement. No backdoor cuts. Why? because if you get beat, you can just push the cutter out of position. That is not basketball.

3) The games are refereed by the teachers (coaches) of the leauge. Ordinarly, this may not be an issue if coaches are honest. But this is Japan, where places in society matter in word choice, behavior, everything. So guess who has the strongest basketball program in the county? The guy with the highest teaching position in the county. That is at the core of what is wrong with basketball in Japan. You are not good because of who you play for, you are good because of what you can do. I watch a game where this given teachers team play a quarter without a single foul. In fact, his team committed its first foul 13 minutes into the first half. The other team was in the bonus for a 2nd quarter by then. That isnt basketball either.

I love basketball, as i did my most cherished girlfriend. I can not and will not let japan try to japanize the basketball that MY KIDS play. Basketball is back door cuts, over the back calls, guts to call a travel, its even beating your man off the dribble. It isnt 15 passes in a possetion for no reason. It isnt having partical refs that use their game of being a referee to show acknowledgement of a given individuals place. A team hasnt gone to the Ken tai kai (State tournament equivalent) in 10 years. 10! That says everything that needs to be said about the state of basketball in Kasuya gun.


I saw only 2 or 3 teams that could correctly run a 3 on 2 break yesterday.

I worry that my kids will lose not because of their ability, but because the team they play against may be coached by a guy who is a vice principle.

That is where i draw the line with japan. Ok, you think black people arent good enough for your cute college educated daughters. Sure you think all we can do is sing dance and have a good time. Sure most of you cant name 3 black female actresses. Sure you are surprised that i can speak your language. But you will not, destroy the game of basketball for these kids.

Sports is the one play where the playing field is actually supposed to be level. If you take that away from middle school kids, what do they have left? only music and books. Sports is a way to express oneself via atheletic action. It is a way in which someone can define who they are. It is a way in which anything can happen in any given game.

And basketball is emblamatic of all of these things. Until japan understands these things, having a japanese nba player will remain but a dream.

Am I a vampire?

As a college football fan, I gotta be. The Miami UNC game was awesome.

Im kinda getting used to it. I kinda have days where i just dont talk to anyone anyways. I have my boy Ken, he calls. but outside of him, my social life is flat when i am not at work. So why not just go to bed at 8 and wake to watch football.

I kinda find going out to be a dilemma. The club scene is a bit old. A trip to Infinity is a true display of darwinist theory in a meat (pussy) hunt survival of the fittest. Women basically look a guy up and down and decides in 3 to 5 seconds if he is worth a dance. Unfortuantly for us brotha, it is best to mimic the soulja boy wardrobe mixed with a little Mr T. No room for an intelligent come on there.

I have a few bars i like to go to. The people there are cool. But going to bars along to chill get a bit repetitive. Not to mention the topic of conversation with every new person i meet is the same.

Newly met japanese person: Wow you can speak japanese.

Me: Yes, i studied in school (just like most college students study a foreign language)

Newly met japanese person: How long have you been in japan?

Me: 5 years.

Newly met japanese person: How long are you going to stay in japan?

Me: Im not sure just yet.

Newly met japanese person: Wow, you japanese is so good.

What you must understand is that i have had this conversation at least 200 times...THIS YEAR. THAT gets old very quickly. So when those are the two choices, i just choose not to go out sometimes. I need to go to a good hip hop event, but in the last 3 years, japan has gone crazy over this new japanized version of reggie. I really dont like it and its hard for me to feel it. Japanese pop culture is notoriously fickle.

Ok ok, pop culture is fickle. Thats why i dont like it. I bearly even use my tv. it is such a relic. CNN, Sports Center, BS1 for sports, occasionally discovery channel (when they arent doing CSI/Hot Rod/Profiler/X files type science fiction crap) Im more interested in current events anyway.

I never thought i would become so disillusioned by media. Fake culture that is sitcom tv, music, and movies is just boring. These days, the actual news is much more (gulp) exciting in a very very bad way. I choose american football and basketball as my means of being distracted and fitting into the matrix.

Oh and a precious 30 days and 14 hours until NBA basketball.

I feel the nerves now.

I will get progressively more nervous as the game nears on sunday.

I dont have to worry about this group of kids wanting to win, they are all very motivated to win. If we can box out properly, we can win this game. Dealing with kids, its important to let them know that giving their best is what is most important.

It is also important for them to know that effort is key to victory. It is the effort you give when you are tired that makes all the difference. You have to want it more, but you have to control your emotions while doing it.

The best kid on the team has incredible talent. His brother is an amazing player as a freshman in high school. But he is an emotional player. That must change. Emotions have only a small place in being a good player. A great defender can maniuplate is opponent's emotions to woo him into making bad decisions.

Mental toughness is the key to being a great player. You must hide your true emotions and instead play with your head. Of course expecting that from a group of 13 year olds is quite difficult. In fact, its almost lunicy. But they should know what i expect.

Man, i am nervous, and the game is two days away.

It is times like these where i dont need a woman, because i always have my true first love.

I love basketball so much. I would never marry a woman that had a problem with it. I will expect my children to play. And i will always need to be involved with it is some form or fashion for the rest of my life.

Kasuya Higashi, number one baby!

I have these days where...

...I look in the sky and wonder how in the hell did my brother, sisters and i lose our mother so damn early.

I have months where i dont get a single email or phonecall from anyone in my family.

THAT is a result of Jaine Mae Thomas Pierce not being here.

The hardest part is that i grew up thinking that family was much different. When i was young and went to the youth church retreats, i was confident and to a point, cocky in my pride of the family i came from. My grandfather with an elementary school education worked to own a 50 plus acre farm and pastor of the church that held the summer camp for all of the black church of gods in the state of georgia. My father, an engineer who still had time to coach baseball games. My mother, slight in stature and reserved in public had an aura about her that drew attention everywhere she went. She raised a daughter after marrying a man that caused the pregnancy under dubious, i may even say forceful, circumstances. The marriage lasted less than 2 years as she left in the early seventies as a single black mother with a young daughter. She met my father and the rest is history.

But when i think of her, the strength she had, how she held our nuclear family together, I can now see how much we really lost. With her, we lost christmas. We lost sunday dinner. We lost "home". That home became just another house. That makes it all the more difficult for me to retain my emotional health on the bad days. I should have had more than 15 years. My brother should have had more than 6. He can never know what a real christmas is like. Its not about money, never has been. It is about family, the love that comes together when a healthy family celebrates life.

The reason we should respect women is simple. Without them, there is no us. Misogony and Male supremecy have come to be known as "Manly". Thoughtfulness and reservedness are seen as "weak" or "soft". Im cool with those labels if people are willing to admit that civilization hasnt moved forward any since ancient rome. It is still hard for me to use the "B" word for one reason, my mother.

The hardest part of me adjusting to this "so called" adult life, is that the outside accounts for 99% of what adult social life is. What car, What clothes, What hairstyle, What jewlry, weight, height, social circles, eye color.

How can i fit into a world where people care so little about who the people are that they spend their lives with. A world where its ok to steal from your neighbor so that you can be rich. Why should i want to black children in a world where as many as 15% of white americans are voting in the election simply because one candidate is black.

As i remember my mother, and keeping a spirit of generousity that both she and the father of my youth taught me, im glad that she doesnt have to live in this dog eat dog world. She doesnt have to see how much uglier humanity continues to become. She wont have to live through the basic breakdown of social order that is soon to come to America when enought people become desperate enough to do what they must to survive. Of course if she were here, im certain that my prioities in life would me much much more selfish.

But since she isnt, a new, different montrell, more interested in change than money was born.


Yet after 17 years, i miss her more today than ever. A song dedicated to her and all of the women that struggled to ensure my existance. (and one of my favorite rap songs ever)

Its been a long time...

...i shouldnta left you, without a dope rhyme to step to.

Well, lets see what goodies we have to look at today?



Wow.Wow.

On to other things, this weekend are the seeding games for the tourney that decides seeds for big tourney in july. In other words, important, but still an opportunity to teach the kids. I really enjoy coaching. I would like to say i have found my calling, but this kind of job is so tenuous, i can rarely look more than a year in the future. Damn, gotta pay high behind local taxes in a week.

The strategy this time is to jump on the team with a full court defense. They are bigger, but they only have one kid that can dribble. I am working on the kids goading him into picking up his dribble, or better yet, making long lobbing passes. My kids are small and quick, so we have to make sure they eat up their clock getting the ball over half court. Probably we will either play a soft man (no denying passes) or just bunch up into a zone. I havent decided just yet, but playing zone makes rebounding more difficult due to the confusion of the kids knowing who to box out. All things considered, we should win both games this weekend.

Another day at the office

I grow more pretentious about the election daily. As a black american, i dont really feel i have a culture or a home. Just survival skills and chri'mas. I do really wish i knew my true ethnicity, where my family was really from, but history kinda took care of that. I wouldnt have minded being jamacian or hatian or someone from a country rain by people that look like them.

Instead, im from a country of people that think like this. People that think the world belongs to them. That us killing innocent afghan kids isnt a big deal, but 9/11 is the worst tragedy ever. The both are bad. Horrible. But kids shouldnt die in adult wars.

Anyways, maybe thinking too much is not good, as it leads to finding out the truth about people. That we kill each other, take advantage of each other, use each other, all for our own means.

I assume someday, something very very good will happen to change the fate of humanity, or something really really bad will happen to change the fate of humanity.

And by good, i dont mean something that involves killing or torturing anyone.

"Dont Front" doesnt apply in Japan

We all learn lessons in life, and i just finished learning a good one.

Being the Selfless niceguy is being stupid.

Not that i can possibly be more cynical than i already am, but after having a girlfriend/female friend for nearly 5 years, on and off dating and my sacrificing japanese progress by only speaking english, it ends with her saying Im her "brother" both no longer have any romantic interest. What did it mean everytime she said "I appreciate that."

Translated, "I will call you when I am bored or need more help with English".

It completes my totally changed view of asian women, and it helps me understand why guys come over here for a year or two, fuck their brains out then leave. Or worse yet, marry one, and stay here and fuck as many other women as possible. I actually feel good because her english is american eventhough her aspiration is somewhere else. I sacrificed for her and she cant forget that. Emotionally, im not even hurt that much. And i know i helped someone help reach their dream, even if they gave very little back.

But using the word brother, and good friend, and appreciate, and grateful? The are just words she learn out of some book. I hate the politeness of japan sometimes because its so fake. People live these lives behind masks trying so hard to say the right thing. It ends up with many people living lives without purpose and passion and living lives concerned with how people view them.

When they say "when in rome, do as the romans" I understand it now.

To continue to use someone who is constantly asking if they are being used, and for that person to say constantly that they arent using you. How can you trust someone that will do that? Why not just say "You know, i think you have the wrong idea, ill just find someone else to help me"

Society here isnt about right and wrong. Saying sorry is just words. A guy who is about to be fired because of incompetence overspeeds a train that runs into an apartment building killing 100 people. Company officials make a big scene saying they are sorry. Almost 2 years later, people in Hyogo who lost family still dont know why one person would do something like that. They only have video tapes and writing letters in flowery japanese language, but no answers or vindication.

A drunk driver hits a car and kills three kids. The next day he is on tv saying he is sorry? Sorry? Sorry that you took three lives? Sorry you were drunk? Sorry you chose to drive? Sorry you sped away after hitting the car and leaving them there?

He should explain why he is sorry and what he will do to make up for it.

In japan Saying Sorry = Being Sorry.

In the west, saying sorry in itself means shit. Its what you do after.

This is a pretty long ramble today, but this whole saying sorry and not really meaning it (via action) gets people roughed up back home. Here people act like all a person can really do is say sorry.

And the drunk driver will be out of jail in less than 10 years.

I am proud that emotionally, my ex girls words didnt hurt so much. What is at issue is of course, how will i treat the asian girls i meet from now own. I feel this repressed dog inside me, i have always fought him back down.

Maybe its just time to let the dog out. Maybe snoop was right...

...

You mean i can blog on the toilet too?

How convienient.

After a morning of coaching middle school basketball i decided to spit a little on my blog.

Teaching kids requires three things; repetition, patience and repetition. and more repetition. I taught these kids so much last year and now its like they have forgotten all of it. I want to pop someone in the head to make them remember sometimes.

I have gotten better as a ref and i can feel the game a bit better.

I have decided to run a man to man without denial defense to make sure we can rebound better. Its so hard to teach help defense, it takes time for kids to understand that they should look at the ball and their man at the same time.

All of this said, we will definitly make some noise in the tournament next month.

I have decided to join the dark side.

After 32 years of living my life criticizing referees, i have decided to learn how to do the damn thing myself. Actually i have been kind of nugdged into it by the system.

In sports clubs in japan, not only must the teacher sponsor learn how to teach and play the sport, but they are also response at times for officiating games. This of course leads to some officials that dont know what the hell they are doing, but it also leads to so people really learning the sport from both ends.

That said, i started about 3 months ago attempting to ref games and took part in a clinic that had my work critiqued by a true veteran japanese official who acutally welcomed and endeared himself to me and the idea of me reffing games.

The nicest part about doing it is learning how clearly refs can affect a game.

But it is also nice to ref a game where the more skilled team wins and no one notices there is a ref on the court, i think the best example was maybe game 4 or 5 of the spurs hornets series. I think the hornets maybe lost the game but the radio annoucers were bubbling over at the smoothness of the game.

I give myself to the dark side. Maybe now, i wont be so hard on refs when i coach.

14 minutes until class.

I find myself wavering back and forth on where i want to take my career. I see the corporate world, knowing it is there and knowing if i give it 10 years, i could be making six figures. But i also know that it will change me.

Making money is important. But i feel that it is best to do something that helps people and make money in the process. Not like i feel like i am jesus in my school, but the asian stereotypes of black people bother me quite a bit. Even my rap career has be tempered a bit by my like of desire to propetuate common stereotypes held my asians.

You can see the teeter totter. sometimes i feel the pressing urge to find my career five years from now, and other times i see that speaking solid japanese as a black person in itself offers opportunity. This is one of those things that i will have to set a date and come to terms with. I am glad that the jlpt will be offered more often. Now i can fail it twice and year and not just once. ;-)

What i do enjoy is the fact that the kids of Kasuya have the chance to see something that contradicts everything they see on tv when they see Bobby goofing off. They see a black person who isnt a hustler or a clown. Just a normal intelligent black guy. Its funny how quickly the kids take to it and yet i still have trouble befriending older adults. I guess the adult part of society is so tightly knit or so predetermined, that there is no room for a foreigner in most adult peoples lives.

I feel sorry for people who expect everyday to be like yesterday and look forward to retirement.

I have always had this burning desire to actually LIVE my life. Not just by making money, but by making it doing something that is fun, time-worthy, beneficial to many people, and will be remembered for its creativity and usefulness.

I guess i cant shake these idealistic principles that i grew up having. Of course if i didnt watch my wonderful mother die as such a young age, i would probably spend more time thinking of the future than the present. But looking at the present and seeing so many people in the rat race so unhappy with their lives using their salaries and what they can buy as their main means of validating their existance, i fear that is as bad as being homeless.

People will remember Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman long after the death of Warren Buffet and who ever the richest oil man is in the middle east, unless of course they turn over their vast fortunes for the benefit of all people.

Oh, time to go the class.

I shoulda had this blog a long time ago.

I have the times where i need to vent. Times I want to share joy. Times I want to get stuff off my chest. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, google, and my decision to ignore my maliase, i finally have a way.

So my plan is set. Find a way to make my local board of education feel guilty for hiring a good worker who volunteers extra time to teach basketball part time. The main practice here will be simply sending a work sheet stamped daily by a principle or vice principle at the end of every day showing the times im usually at school and faxing it to my board of education along with every day that i go to coach basketball practice.

Now i must believe that they can feel guilt or sympathy for me not as a gaijin but as a person.

Other than than, im pretty damn hype about the basketball team this year. It would be nice if basketball got more tv exposure here, we could use 2 or 3 of the 21 7th grade baseball players to make our team round out to 8 or 9 kids. basketball is still some what of an underground culture here, kinda like say rugby in america or say american football in europe. People get to see tiny bits and pieces of it, but dont have a chance to fall in love with it. Baseball is king here.

Did i mention that i havent watched a full inning of pro baseball this year (but that little league world series is always riveting!!)

I must be rambling again, writing this long posts. I gotta do some planning for my private tonight. and i cant forget to take out the burnable garbage tonight. Find someway to eat a decent dinner without going back home. I need to find out how to teach 13 yr olds how to play a match up zone.

and i gotta find a place to watch streaming video of American ESPN. Thank goodness for football season. Gotta see what them Georgia Bulldogs gone do this year.

I met a young lady from california Oshioke I think, and she didnt know where UGA was.

Unbelievable, UGA hosted olympic soccer in 1994 at stegman. Californias gots to give GA its props.

I say can a brotha get some overtime?

I know that world wide, the idea of overtime is a dying concept. I understand that with the global economic crunch, some businesses have difficulty with paying the extra money. Im cool with that.

But this is principle. as a part time worker with few benefits, one of those few benifits is and has always been the right to partition for overtime pay for hours worked over the minimum required. As futile as it may seem, I intend to challenge the idea of part time workers recieving overtime in the great country of Japan.

I remember being young and hearing my mother chastize me for not speaking up for myself. Now I can shut up. In this case, it is as simple as Japanese people coming to America expecting equal treatment under the law, but not giving Americans equal protection under the laws in their country. When i say i enjoy this as a hobby, i dont mean enjoy like make love enjoy or play basketball enjoy, but as in looking back at a finished project enjoy, or fighting through a rough baskeball season enjoy.

Having a game plan is always tatamount to tackling and completing a seemingly insurmountable task. My task is simple, become a full time employee for the board of educationt that i work for. Or at least it sounds simple. Japanese law says someone in my position should be a full time employee or at least i should have been offered a full time position. Not being offered one has led to troubles with the city hall requesting the full insurance amount from me the individual and not the company that hires me (social health care).

Company...Japanese
Me...Gaijin.

Who wins? At least in the beginning it would seem the troublesome gaijin would just accept the unfair treatment and just 1) continue under the circumstances or 2) go back home. But I have invested too much of my life into learning this language.

There is a saying that gai(koku)jin have for japan; "Dont try to change Japan"

As i can recall, Japanese people were successful in many ways in changing (small parts) of Americans. As Americans, we are taught to believe that we can do anything.

Including changing that which is said cant be changed.

Gotta start somewhere.

I guess i could have started this blog 5 years ago but そのようにしたら、面白くならんと思う (Ha). I could write for days with this initial post, but i will keep it simple by saying that there are just a few major things going on at the current time in my life.

* teaching english to middle school japanese kids
* coach the basketball team at one of my two middle schools
* fighting for my rights as a full time worker (social health care), its almost a hobby now.
* an erract social life that goes from very very dead to crazy in a random fashion
* a dying desire to get in shape via playing basketball

I guess from time to time i will be speaking on all of these topics. I have a tendency to be a bit cynical and maybe even pessimistic, but its only a shield to keep everyone except that right person from getting too close. You will see behind some of my pessimism a deeply intellectual person who anyalizes the society and environment around me while fighting to remain idealistic and somewhat spiritual and not caught up in the dogma of religion.

All of this said, the fukuoka-shi higashi-kuyakusho gave my employer a call today asking about my employment and maybe even to ask from bank details so they can take money from my bank account. It would have been nice if they called asking if i had been a full time worker for three years and why they hadnt enrolled me in social insurance yet. I have my thoughts on this situation, but ill just say that here, sometimes its just easier to blame the outsider rather and enforce the law.

More on all of that later.