World of Big Makkusu

Limitless

2012-01-30T10:49:00.000-08:00

This could well be the week I've been waiting what seems like forever for. This is the week I'm due to get a decision on my visa from Japanese immigration. I'm pretty confident in it being a positive outcome. Myself, my lawyer and my school have made sure we hit all the points immigration are looking for, really they have no actual reason to turn me down, only the 'just because' reason. Damn that would be harsh. But yeah, it looks good, they asked my school for one last bit of information two weeks ago after nearly three months of processing. Got to be a good sign. So fingers, toes, and bollocks crossed they do the right thing, and then it's just a matter of the certificate of eligibility being sent to England followed by a short trip to London to get the visa in my passport. The second that's done I am out of here!

It feels like forever since I was getting on with my life in japan. I had no plans to be away for three months I can tell you that. The hardest thing has been not getting to comfortable here, the reason why I haven't got a job or made much of any effort to see friends here. I know that's a bit stupid, but I wanted to keep my eyes on the prize. My place is not here, I have remind myself sometimes. Of course when I've been at the football recently and shopping at those familiar local shops it sometimes does feel all too comfortable. But the second I hear from immigration I'll forget that feeling and 'real' life will come flooding back into that scrap of meat I call a brain.

After the whole Narita disaster I fell into really deep depression until just after new years, it wasn't until January 4th (yeah I know the exact date) that I dusted myself off and thought "well if I've got another month minimum to wait I might as well do something productive". So I decided to do two things, firstly get serious about my disgusting fat body, and secondly work really hard on my Japanese because it was a bit of a joke. To be fair it was ok, but most people I know in japan are somewhat fluent through school everyday, or they are making the effort to get there. If there's one big change in my thinking this year, it's to think if that person can do it, so can I. No excuses. This is a year to stop being a pussy and take what I want! I actually started thinking like that after watching the film 'Limitless'. You know where he takes the pill and his brain starts functioning at full capacity, and he thinks 'how did I live like that'? Well I'm not saying that inspired me in anyway, but that's how I'm thinking now. If some people can have a body like that, why can't I? If people I know cab be fluent in a language through hard work, what's stopping me? Nothing that's what!

So my goals are, and I will not fail:

Body like Ryan Gosling and Rafael Nadal
Be on the road to fluency in Japanese by the time I return. This means finishing book 2 of Japanese For Busy People, and have the top 1000 most frequently used words locked down.

No excuses, no problem!

Sexy Body Here I Come!!

2012-01-29T10:31:00.001-08:00

So being fat huh? What's that all about? I can honestly say I have beaten the bulge and changed to a completely healthy lifestyle. All those times I tried briefly to eat right or do fad diets, what was I thinking?? I know what I was thinking, I wanted a quick easy way to get slim and I wasn't at all dedicated or realistic.

What's changed then?

The simple fact that I know what I'm doing now, and when you do it all properly it works. You lose weight, fat, and put on muscle, all at a very steady pace, and you know what? It's actually really easy and fun. At least I think it is.

It all comes down to such an easy set of rules.

1: Eating a calorie deficit of what your body needs for daily maintenance.

2: Nutrition nutrition and nutrition. Not being lazy and eating processed crap. Eggs, meat, fish, fruit, veg, it's not hard to do, and you know what? It actually tastes better.

3: Exercise done in a correct and structured way. For me that's cardio Monday-Friday for 40 minutes, and full body weight training 3 times a week.

Doing these three things combined I've become a fat burning monster. It's taken a lot of dedication, but it's not that difficult once you get into the swing of it. The thing I'm finding the most difficult is trying not to work myself to much. Resting is just as important as training.

My end goal? I want a body like Ryan Gosling. Unattainable? I don't think so. I think anyone can do it doing the right things.

My current stats:

Started the new life style on January 4th.

Today: January 29th

Now: 87.4kg Was: 92.1kg
Waist: 38" Was: 41"

My ulitmate ideal weight is somewhere around 80kg, but I know that will take care of itself as my upper body gets more toned and that fat continues to blast off.

Yeah, so basically I've cracked that little part of life. Just gotta keep doing what I'm doing and be patient.

No diet, just doing the right thing!

2012-01-10T06:29:00.000-08:00

So I've been blasting my body into shape the past 3 weeks or so and it's going really well, so I thought I'd write about what I've been doing.

Let me say, I've always been bothered about my weight since I hit my twenties. Never really fat or big, but always a bit of a belly and man boobs. Good I hate man boobs. After the Tokyo ordeal around a month ago I was so depressed I just started stuffing my face with chocolate and god knows what. A couple of days later I looked at myself in the mirror and I looked like a disgusting fat pig, and with nothing but free time on my hands it was time to do something about it, no excuses, let's fire this body into the best shape its ever been in and surprise everyone once I'm back in Japan.

So for the first two weeks or so I did what I've done a million times before, the thing that never works in the long term, I went on a diet. TO be fair I was really good, I cut what I eat right down, because when I don't care I eat enough for five people. Along with that I started dancing again after being to depressed to do it for a long time. But this is all small beans and probably wouldn't last.

My big weight loss break came when I downloaded My Fitness Pal app on my iPod. It's basically a calorie counter where you long all your meals and excersise everyday. But the best thing about the app is that it gives you a personal daily calorie target and also deducts the calories you burn from whatever excersise you do. Couldnt be easier, it's almost like a game. if I want to eat more, excersise more. If I really want to get ahead, excersise and eat well.

So my regime now is:

Fruit for breakfast.
Omelette, scrambled egg, jacket potato or a healthy sandwich for lunch.
Fruit as a snack.
Sensible dinner.
Water, nothing but water.
60 minutes of dancing of 30 minutes jog everyday, no excuses.
100 sit-ups
25 push-ups
20 bicep curls on each arm

My eating rules are simply stay away from processed crap, zero snacking, as little alcohol as possible, and no Coke, water Only.

Simple!

It really feels like I'm on the road to a blasted body at long last. How's my weight doing? Well I stated at 92.1kg and as of today I'm 89.5kg and falling fast. My ultimate goal is around the 70kg mark and to look hot... To be honest.

Im weighing myself on Tuesdays and Saturdays, I'll keep you all up to date, or friend me on My Fitness Pal. My user name is BigMakkusu.

The Tale of Bobby and His Fight With Japanese Immigration.

2011-12-19T03:51:00.000-08:00

Ok let me just state this story is about a friend.... of course. It would be silly of me to write illegal things about myself, what if people like Japanese immigration were to read this. So yes, this is a story about a friend and is probably complete fiction.

What will he do to dance parapara in Tokyo? Anything he can, and sometimes even that's not enough. Bobby (my friend) has been banned from a lot of things in my life but never a whole country? Yeah it's a first even for him.

If you've been following his life adventures you'll know he was meanly kicked out of Tokyo at the beginning of November when his tourist visa ran out and he is waiting to get the green light on his full work visa application. Even though his visa is due anytime now he thought there had been a long enough gap inbetween his last visit to tokyo to just fly out on a tourist visa and enjoy Christmas and New Years there.

Now just to make sure immigration wouldn't give him a hard time about being in Tokyo so much, he applied for a new passport before he left. Somehow he managed to lose his current passport with all those stamps showing he'd been in tokyo for nearly 18 months. What a coincedence. So passport sorted, flight booked, all was set.

The journey to Heathrow started badly, a sign to Bobby that all was not right with the stars. After picking up his passport in Peterborough he boarded the train to London. No gates at the station and a full standing only train means only one thing, free train ride. Unbelievably for Bobby, a Geordie cunt of a ticket master showed up on the train and started doling out his Cameron justice. That'll be £47 quid he said to Bobby. I think not, Bobby said. I think it will be or I'll call the police. Go on then, Bobby said, I'm not paying £47 to stand by a fucking toilet that doesn't even work. And so a cunt off commenced. Alas with Bobby flying out in the morning the last thing he needed was a stand off with the fuck masters at the other end. What with previous court appearances for similar offences... So Bobby stood down and paid the massive cunt price to the massive power mad cunt. A rare defeat in the battle against cunt kind for our hero Bobby.

Onwards to Heathrow airport Bobby, be free and live that dream for all of us!!

Heathrow airport 5am, stage one of the 3 stage immigration rumble plan. Stage one was a matter of checking in on a one way ticket to Tokyo. Not illegal but not exactly allowed by a lot of airlines, must have an onward ticket and all that.

STUMBLE!!!

The automatic check in machines show nothing but error signals to Bobby. So on to the desk he goes to be greated by a smiling woman who is all to happy to check in his bags and give him that all important ticket.

SUCCESS!!!

With stage one complete it looked like plane sailing was ahead, and indeed it was until he landed in Milan. Because of a chnage of airport in Milan Bobby had to collect his luggage and check in at the other airport across town.

COCK BALLS!!

This time the automatic check in robot worked and spat out the final leg ticket, that golden ticket ticket to Tokyo. But of course there was trouble at the desk. Did he have an onward ticket from Japan? Why of course he did.... maybe. Ok maybe not after they checked. Thus began a meeting with the management. After far to long they decided to print out a fake ticket to hong Kong for January 3rd. Fantastic Bobby thought, blank passport, onward ticket, why wouldn't they let me into Japan.

Finally after the grueling 18+ hour journey from London Bobby arrived in Tokyo. The weather was beautiful, he could see Fuji-san all the way from Chiba. It was looking like one perfect day. Just that final most important stage to pass now. Tokyo immigration....

Passport handed over, looking good, finger print and face scan, still looking good...

Can you go with this lady please Mr Bobby?....

Fuck stains, this is not good.

Bobby was taken into a questioning room where he filled out many forms and answered a thousand questions. Of course Bobby had done nothing illegal, it all came down to him having been in Tokyo for 8 months in the last year and so he did not meet with the tourist definition. He told them all about his passion for Japanese dancing, the reason he goes so frequently to Tokyo, but you know what they said to him?

'I think you've danced enough!'

After torturing Bobby for 4 hours.... In which time they tried to find out about friends of his in Japan and of course tried to find out if he had been working in Tokyo. Of he hadn't, not to my knowledge anyway. Strangely even with all their paperwork on Bobby they didn't he was in the process of applying for a working visa. That could've spelled danger for Bobby and his work sponsor.

So four hours of nonsense and they finally told him he had to fly back to England on the next available flight. This of course meant Bobby had to pay the massive on the day flight cost.

And so our hero was defeated, a rare defeat it was, but not one that will stay long with good old Bobby. Yes Christmas and New Years is ruined, yes he dreams of continuing his life in Japan, yes money gone, but money comes and goes, not a big concern.

What are Bobby's future plans? Well he plans to wait for his work visa to get green lighted, any time now, and fly back asap. Hopefully he can have everything sorted before January 10th, that's when his sponsor would like him to start work. A matter of waiting, forever waiting. Of course I hear Bobby has a plan B, C and maybe a plan D, but he wouldn't tell me those.

Wow horrible story huh? If that happened to me I'd be pretty devastated. But we now Bobby will not be defeated, he'll get back there to dance and see those kids he loves so much before you know it.

Funnily enough I'm also applying for a work visa in Japan that is due anytime now, maybe I'll have a drink with Bobby in Tokyo sometime. I'll show him around Koenji.

Comfort

2011-12-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

So here I am back in England, back in the house I grew up in. You'd be forgiven for thinking life has taken a massive turn for the worse, but you'd be wrong. A small setback yes, but nothing more than an inconvenience.

I've been back here for almost one month now, and to be honest it's not all that bad. Of course it's a great thing to see friends and family, and to have a break from work and life. But that's just it, a break from life. I don't need a break. Life back in England is so comfortable, no language barrier, nothing to adjust to, just no effort needed. It'd be oh so easy to get a nice career in teaching and take the comfortable road.

Sofas, pint of Stella mate, town please, how much??

But one thought of those kids and the life I've built in Tokyo and I quickly remember where I should be, who I am. Comfortable was never part of the life plan. Life plan?? There was no life plan, but if there was, comfortable would never be included.

So now I just wait for the word from that ellusive lawyer of mine. Word from immigration that I can continue living my life. Just a sticker in a passport, how difficult can it be, just do it before I sit down for too long and get too comfortable.

The status of Max

2011-11-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hey all in Internet land. Thought I'd update you all on what's going on with me and my whole visa situation.

Basically a couple of weeks ago I got word from my lawyer that immigration had rejected my work visa application. Needless to say that was one of the worst days of my life, I thought my life here in japan was over and I've never cried so much in my life. But the next day things got a lot better. I went to immigration with my lawyer who has handled my whole visa application to see the immigration inspector. We went through my application, and it came down to the fact they can't except part time work as previous experience, and you need to have three years experience in your chosen field to get a work visa if you haven't got a degree. So my total work experience added up to just short of three years.... Bollocks!! But the inspector told us to change the one reference, they know the references are bullshit, and I'll get the visa in about four weeks.

So thank god it looks like I'll get this damn visa afterall. It's just a stupid sticker in your passport but it's the key to me living my wonderful life here. Ok so the only bad thing is my current visa runs out on November 9th and I have no choice but to leave the country and wait for my visa to be sorted out. All this means I'll be heading to England on the 9th and staying until either early December or new years at the latest. It's a total bitch having to leave but I will be back soon. I hate that I miss a chunk of my life for no reason, like a couple of big school events and a Parapara DVD filming, but I have no choice.

So that's the status of Max right now, small setback but no big deal.

D-Day is coming.....

2011-10-10T07:41:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is it, D-Day. The day I find out if I get my full work visa or not.

I am nervous as shit let me tell you. Pretty confident I`ll get the green light, and so is my immigration lawyer. I have to get it otherwise my life in Japan is over, and this is where my life is. My job, my friends, my whole damn life. I would seriously have nothing to go back to in England. I went to immigration on Friday and I basically have 30 days left on my current visa. No way is October going to be my last month in Tokyo. How could I ever leave my kids??? I would cry myself to death, I couldn't do it, there's no way, just no way.

BUT... lets not think think that, I`m confident. Please pray for me tomorrow <3

Life changing day!

Life is pretty sweet right now. Adventures a plenty and good times at school. My German housemate just left the other day, it`s weird going back to living alone, but it`s all good.

Went to see a big fireworks bullshit in East Tokyo on Saturday, turned into an allnighter in West Tokyo drinking on the streets with a bunch of straight up Yakuza guys. They were chilled as shit though, chatting about all sorts of shit, including AKB48...

Speaking of AKB48.... I finally won a ticket to see them at their theatre last Sunday. Of course it was awesome. Six months of applying in that damn lottery and I finally got to see them. The best bit was chatting with them briefly after the show and hugging my favorite girl Miorin. I so wanted to give her my number but alas... security. Next time I`ll have business cards ready.

I`m thinking of starting a book, or a blog series more like, about how to life your life like a massive shit. As in me. I think pretty much everything I do and have done in life I`ve done it in the wrong way, but everything is golden, pretty much always. Anyways I have a lot of interesting and dirty things to share that would make for good reading. It`d also make me one hell of an open book.

Let`s Get Shitfaced on Rumham!!

2011-09-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

There`s a lot on my mind but where to start.

Life update!

Still doing what I love, loving life, loving Koenji, and forever waiting for my visa to get the green light. School is great, preparing for sports day which is actually a big festival with lots of dancing and fun times. I`m joining the parents and director for a big Kara dance number, it will be awesome.

It`s been great having a room mate, and also a work mate for the past three weeks. He`ll be around for another two weeks, but we`ve been having fun times. We`ve been interviewing people for the job at my other school for the past forever, everyone has been unsuitable until Friday when Garth from Australia came for an interview. perfect guy and he started today. He`s under my wing for a week, but I can see he loves the kids and loves to get down and dirty. Perfect really.

My search for a love life goes on and on. 31 years 3 months and counting. I had the owner of a local bar trying to set me up, but she couldn`t find anyone suitable, and alas everyone else ever is just not interested. But I keep on looking and trying, surely someone one day will want to join me on the adventure that is my life, or maybe not.

Starfire was awesome as ever, as was SEF Deluxe. I think I love to dance parapara the more I do it. I almost felt personally offended when people at SEF didn`t know a bunch of new Starfire routines. Learn them dipshits.

The last season of Curb Your Enthusiasm was gold, and the first two episodes of It`s Always Sunny have been shit the bed funny. Rumham is just genius. Watch both if you have a funny bone.

Crazy On Emotion

2011-09-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

Sup faithful stalkers.

I say stalkers because I interviewed a guy at my school for a job position and he knew all about me through my blog.... weird!!! Hello Aaron if you`re reading this.

The last couple of weeks have been fun gonzo times. My ex workmate and good friend David came over to Tokyo. He`s staying for just over a month and is basically my roommate. Really nice having someone around the house and especially at work, just nice to have an adult to talk to. Anyway we`ve been hitting Koenji and Nogata most nights for jub and yakitori delights, meeting lots of new people and just getting up to no good.

There`s a cracking little jub near my house we found, awesome friendly people and cheap beer. What more could you ask for. The Mama who half runs the bar has made it her mission to get me a woman, so next week me and David are going there for a kind of blind date thingy lol. Who am I to argue.

What about 9loveJ???

Ohhhhhh the woe that it is. It`s no more. 9J is gone.

Ok so we still have 9loveJ but it`s no longer a para event. It`s no merged with a huge otaku and dance night in Ginza. When we got there last week there were massive lines to get in and we couldn`t see any para people. It was the weirdest thing ever. Inside was a heaving mass of otaku`s and no para. After awhile we found a set of stairs going to a bassment bar and a tiny dancefloor that was playing a mix of dance, jpop and about 3 para songs. All the para crowd were down there but it sure wasn`t a para night. After awhile we all just got down with the otaku music and a whole lot of AKB48. It was however all you can drink and it wasn`t long before 20 glasses of wine were on the table and drinking games started.

It`s such a shame to lose a big para event, but it is a fun event in it`s own right. I doubt we`ll ever see any more lessons or dvds from 9loveJ ever again. Ah well, Starfire, SEF, B-1, and a bunch of smaller events live on. Starfire and SEF hold the key to the future of para in Japan. If they ever stopped... apart from my life being over I think para would officially die.

That`s all, move along.

Keep checking my youtube for all the lesson videos as ever. Sorry no Starfire lessons I was passed out in the toilet....

www.youtube.com/user/maxsubobs

A K B....... 48!!!!

2011-08-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

What an awesome weekend it was just, happy days all round. Koenji Matsuri, Starfire and the DVD release, and....

AKB48 AT A-NATION!!!!!!

Yeah that`s right, I finally finally finally got to see my beloved girls live after entering the lottery at least 3 times a week for the last 6 months or more. I can now die happy.

I got invited by a friend to A-nation a few months ago and I`ve been looking forward to it so so much. Wasn`t much interested in the other artists tbh. Oh my God when the girls came out I could have died happy, and LEMON-CHAN!!!!! was in the lineup. I couldn`t believe that, she is like my favorite girl but isn`t very popular, but it was all the main Senbatsu like Acchan and Yuko, and then little Lemon-chan in the back. They sang 6 songs and just the big hits like Beginner, Ponytail etc, but that was more than good enough for me. Oh my god they`re so awesome.

I could gush all day, you get the point. Just amazing!

Apart from AKB48 there were loads of other artists like TRF, Koda Kumi, Ayumi, AAA and a million others. I thought most of them were rubbish performers tbh. Ayumi was soooooo bad, I felt offended at her performance. AAA made me want to kill myself. Koda Kumi was average at best. TRF made my ears bleed.

I really loved Moumoon, she was fantastic.

But I`d say apart from AKB the best performance by a mile was the special secret artist, and that was GACKT!!! Haha I couldn`t believe it. It was his new group Yellow Fried Chickenz and man alive did they put on a great show. Flames, sex, guitars, and Gackt just being Gackt. And to top it off they sang Vanilla, it was just like YES!!! when the intro came on haha. And I don`t even like him.... great performer!

Now to see AKB in their own theater and to meet Ami-chan <3

Apart from that cum fiesta of a day, the weekend bought us Koenji Festival. A huge matsuri featuring traditional dancing and of course, half of west Tokyo drinking their brains to death. I can`t say I remember much of it, flashes of trannies, and memories of people in my house drinking spiritus.... good times.

That evening was Starfire.... I was so So drunk　when　I　got　there,　I　spent　the　first　half　passed　out　on　the　bathroom　floor　but　came　around　for　the lesson. Great Starfire as ever, I think.

I`ll do a separate post about the DVD but you can download it now over at para-center.net. I`m actually really happy with my video, came out really well.

Tomorrow is the last day before the new school term starts. Summer school has been going as ever this week, with all of 10 kids, but today a bunch of kids came in before the start tomorrow. It was awesome to see Momo and Julia and my football boys. I can`t wait to see everyone on Thursday!!

By the way, everything is back to normal at school, everything is being chilled out again. PHEW!!

You can fly with me

2011-08-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

What up nets.

Summer is in full mother fucking swing in Tokyo, everyday is like walking through a shield of butter. Constant 35c temperatures and 300000000000% humidity, but you get used to it. Whats the one way to combat such devilish heat? Go drink tequila in a river by the mountains you shit.

One of the highlights of the Japanese summer, well the two summers I`ve lived here now, is the mountain BBQ. Oh yes, good people, good food, good drink, THE RIVER.... it`s a brutal combination, and this summer as it happened the two big BBQ`s were on consecutive days and in the same spot.

It started with Starfire BBQ. Just one big river of tequila. You can`t beat sitting in the river with a bottle of tequila playing jan ken shots with everyone, it`s just a beautiful thing.

One of the booze beds...

After everyone left at around 5pm myself, Jasmine and Hiroshi stayed and drank in the river until it got dark and then had a little explore of the area before we spent the night by the river. Sleeping on a bed of rocks... not recommended. Some chunder moments later we were up bright and early and ready to meet the Bonkura BBQ gang for BBQ number two. Of course it got messy, I put my back out for a week, Ylva burnt herself more than a human being should ever EVER, and Jazz got blind BLIND drunk as ever.

SUCESS!!!

Bonkura BBQ group shot.

In the riverrrrr

Me, Jasmine and Ylva <3

What else has been going down? Well apart from the usual clubbing, jubbing, boozing and living the dream, we hit up Campus Summit 2011.... because we got 50 free tickets and it was all you can drink. It was fun, me and Jazz got many strange stares for dancing to a little techpara set that was played. Jasmine was throwing cocktail bombs at egg models and we lost ever to the sea of gals. Standard stuff...

Made my bedroom into a darts bar... me and a mate are on a quest to become good darts players, but good while drunk. Expect to see us winning every league in the coming months. Of course you need darts names. Mine is Bobby Dazzler, and my my team mate is Terry Darts. Perfect!

Ah shit now Kevin is out of the country I better start recording the parapara lessons again... just thinking.

Work is still a little weird, but always getting better. I`ve had some problems over the last few months if you didn`t know. It`s just the Japanese work way. STILL waiting for my full work visa to be accepted. My lawyer has had to tweak and diddle the paperwork a few times so it`s exactly what immigration want. He won`t stop until he gets it me, which is pretty sweet. It`s just because I don`t have a degree that`s it`s taking so long, you wouldn`t believe how much work experience I have now... I now speak 4 languages, have done translation work, taught, and a million other jobs.

It`s actually the summer holidays at school, has been for about a month and continues until September 1st, but for some reason I`m working every single day. I`ve given myself a summer mission to repaint the whole school. Which in reality means I can laze about a lot and say I`m going to buy more paint when really I`m going for a beer. No but seriously I am on a mission and hopefully it will surprise and delight the powers that be and put me firmly in the good books when term restarts.

Woah earthquake, house shaker....

Gone.

Not much planned for the weekend. It seems everything ever is next weekend, as always is the way. Koenji festival is Saturday and Sunday and could be deadly. Starfire is Saturday night, and of course the DVD release! Sunday is a bastard because it`s SEF deluxe and Avex Nation Concert. Avex Nation is where I finally FINALLY get to AKB48 live for the first time ever. I`ll probably faint.

What else? On a diet, or rather eating better and less. There was just an obscene amount of bread and Coke in my diet. Why? Because a gorgeous girl said she`d go out with me if I lose a massive amount of weight. What a bitch, but I can at least try.

I`ll love you and leave you

Starfire DVD Filming,

2011-07-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah just another day of making those life ambitions come true.

So this past Saturday was the filming for the next Starfire DVD, which will be a Starfire Vs B-1 DVD and have a shit ton of tracks that have been taught at B-1 over the past year or so, as well as a brand new euro track. Ouuuuu exciting! I`d tell you all the tracklist but then Banchou would cut my balls off and I`d be deported. But I think if editing goes well it should be out on Saturday. So of course expect a rip here.

So on Friday we finally got to know our song, one I hardly knew at all, and with 9loveJ on Friday night that didn`t leave much time to learn it. But learn it I did, and me and Sofia had a quick practice before 9J and all was good.

I better say a few words on the last 9loveJ in Shinjuku, and those words are `bullshit`. Worst para night around, but great for getting hospital drunk.

Saturday morning hit and I had a top 3 hangover, and if you know how many bad hangovers I`ve had, top 3 means I contemplated suicide. But it all worked out! Saturday was a community festival on my school grounds and around the school shrine, so a few friends came over to enjoy that with me. It was tough times because if you know Japanese matsuri`s you know half of it is about getting drunk and just having a blast. But with the filming starting at 11pm I really had to try and stay sober. Good news is I did just that. The matsuri itself was great, so traditional Japan. Stalls of food and booze, and kids games, as well as traditional dance on the stage. Of course loads of the Mums and kids were there, I love love local matsuri`s just for the fact the Mums get drunk and I get to see them not give a shit. It wasn`t long before I got distracted and started playing with some of the kids, how can I not.

Love it!!

I would have loved to have cracked on with people but time was short and I had to hit the studio in Edogawabashi for the filming.

I got there at 11:30pm and already Harumi and Satomi had done one song. All the gaijin crew were there getting ready, Kevin, Heather, Sofia, and Amber. So it was like 11:30pm and Ryohei calls me over to ask if me and Jasmine would dance a different song. Yeah sure... we don`t know that one... any other song on the list but that one... So we asked Kee-tan to show us the routine and filmed her quickly, and then hit the changing room to learn it. It didn`t take us long before we thoughtwe had it perfect, and then it was just a matter of chilling and watching everyone else before us. We were on at 3:30am.

Out of everyone I think me and Jasmine were the least nervous, but then when it came time to get up and strike that starting pose.... the nerves well and truly kicked in, it was like I forgot how to dance. We went from having it down perfect to looking like a pair of dickheads. After like 10 mess ups we finally got it, but when we saw the replay it was rubbish, just no good at all. Me and Jazz just sat there sulking and being angry at ourselfs for the next couple of hours and then decided fuck it, we can`t have that as our finished dance. So we asked Banchou if we could have another go when everyone was done and they were more than happy.

So some intense practicing later we got up infront of the camera a hell of a lot less nervous and after one mess up nailed it. So I`m still not 100% happy, but at least we don`t look like total dipshits. You can see on our faces in the final take how serious and focused we were, not a hint of a smile, it was all business.

Heather, Amber and Sofia did pretty well I thought. Amber especially seeing she learned her routine on the night and isn`t a para veteran like the rest of us. Kevin you tell was really nervous but he really pulled it off, and I know he will only get better.

So second DVD done, I hope the third will be easier!

Hong Konged like a bastard!

2011-07-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

Yo yo!

Well I`ve been a busy boy, going off on all sorts of gonzo adventures, and as you probably know, I went to Hong Kong for a long weekend just over a week ago. I`d like to say it was for a holiday, but alas, my visa is still being processed so I just ran out of time and had to exit the country. You know what I`m talking about....

HONG KONG!!

So I flew into Hong Kong on the Saturday, and as I`ve seen from the air before, it`s a beautiful city when you land. The mountains, the bay, the famous architecture. Hong Kong airport was like any UK airport, little did I know that was a hint of things to come. So similar to Gatwick and Heathrow in London. I hopped on the train and took in the mountains and beautiful bay, and the tower blocks, and the cranes, and the.... must be a developing part of the island. Cracked a taxi to hotel and was amazed at how everything is like England. The buses, road works, double yellow lines, the shops. I could list a million things.

Ahhhh the hotel.... ohhhhh shit!! What did I book myself into!!??

i did a shit ton of research on the best hostel in HK, and found Paris Guesthouse which is run by a British ex-army guy. Good reviews, very central. So I booked the super deluxe room and hoped for the best. What a fucking shithole!!!!!!!

It was in what I now know is the world famous Chungking Mansions tower block. Famous for all the wrong reasons. It`s basically a tower block with the dirtiest market on the ground floor, ran by a mix of the Indian, African and just generally nasty people that will rape your Mum just to fuck with you. I had to walk through half of the market to get to the elevator to go up to my luxury suite... After fearing for my life in that deathtrap, the doors open and I`m greeted with murder alley and about four doors, none of which have any signs on... I go in the first door and I`m greeted with a grunt by an Indian guy who`s on the verge of suicide.

Yes this is the reception to Paris Guesthouse. Errr ok, so whats my name? No I`m not giving you my passport or any details until you give me some goddamn motherfucking ID!! It turned out ok, but I already knew this was going to be bad times. And where was the British guy??? Tied up in a closet no doubt. I was taken to the 10th floor where the smell was unbearable... was it death? More like poverty. My room was actually ok. Imagine half the size of a student room, but with no window, the smell of death, and cockroaches crawling up your leg. After showering and defunking the room the best I could it was time to get the fuck out of there!!

Lets just forget about Chungking Mansions shall we.... but please one last word. Don`t ever stay there, whatever you do!!!! You will not be as lucky as me and you will die in a bath of sand.

Ok so onto the nice parts of Hong Kong.... Let me just say I took a million photos all on my ipod, but the cable is gone, so they stay on the pod for now.

My first call of business on this Saturday evening was to meet with Ken and some of the HK parapara people. They took me to dinner and were just the nicest people ever. Oh the food? Let`s just say I`ve had better.... out of a bin.... sorry I wasn`t a fan of the food, it was just all so bland for my taste. Oh how I longed for the breads of Japan!!

Speaking of breads, the 7eleven there was just an English newsagents. You could buy UK chocolate and drinks, great, but not a patch on Japans version. Chinese beer you ask? I have pissed tastier beer into my shoe. Seriously bad. I had to resort to Stella....

Ah yes but I digress... After dinner we walked up Nathan Road, which is just Oxford Street, and into the lovely park where the guys and gals wre holding a parapara meeting in a dance studio. It was great meeting everyone there and I had tons of fun, awesome bunch of people who made me feel right at home! Afterwards we hit a restaurant (why does nowhere serve booze??) but after a couple of hours I was fading and so tired from the travel.

Ahhhh shit I forgot to mention I transfered in Beijing, they take the crown for rudest airport. Paris is now down to second! YOU MAKE ME SICK!!!

Sunday I awoke from my cockroach invested slumber to head out and meet up with Ken. Man alive is it hot there. About the same temperature as Tokyo, 35c, but 2000000% humidity compared to Tokyo`s 1000000%.

I`d planned some history walks around the islands, you know because I have a massive love of history and architecture, you didn`t, well now you do. I often go on history walks around Tokyo by myself, it`s a beautiful thing. Seeing as British history is my favorite subject I had to check out a whole bunch of shit in HK. As luck had it, Ken used to be a tour guide, so we headed over to HK Island to check out some architecture. Some lovely collonial buildings as well as the gorgeous new sky scrapers, yes that`s the HK I had been expecting! I have an amazing story about three buildings which face each other but it`s hard to explain without photos. So another time! Knifes, cannons and don`t reflect me you bastard!!!

After the culture we headed out of the city to a monster arcade to meet some people and get some para gaming done XD Great arcade! Food food and then they totally indulged me by taking me to the touristy bar area. Hong Kong really doesn`t seem to be big on drinking so this one big u-bend of a street with a thousand bars on was just Brits on tour.

OI OI!!!!

It might as well have been Ibiza. Well I can see how it`d be fun to have a weekend with mates getting fucked up, but even saying that there`s better cheaper places in Asia.

As it happened it was Beerfest 2011 on the street.... but we only caught the last hour, which just meant retreating indoors for drinks. Well I had to taste the touristy nightlife of HK and there it was. Leveled down on Ju-beat, as is the way when drunk, and then hit a taxi home. Taxi`s are cheap as shit, as is most of HK. Infact I found it hard to spend my money.

Monday was my last full day and a day I planned to spend at the history museum and just wandering the city. The museum was awesome, I was really looking forward to seeing all the British items there and I wasn`t disappointed! I ended up spending most of the day there and didn`t even see the end before it started to close. I had a good wander around London.... I mean Kowloon. It is just central London tbh, just not as exciting.

Late at night on my last day, only one thing left to do, para filming!!

I met up with Ken and Yuki (great girl and you should check out her para videos!!) and headed to the bay to film a million and ten videos. It was great because just about all of them were one take and me and Yuki fit really well as a para team. Anyway, I had a blast and it was a great way to end the adventure.

So Hong Kong was not what I was expecting, I wouldn`t recommend it as a holiday, but the people were fantastic! Thanks to everyone for making me feel so welcome. I`ll totally come over for the HK parapara 11th anniversary!

I`ll upload a million videos and photos next time.

For the record I had no problems getting through immigration in Tokyo, and boy do I know that Japan is my home!

Cunt weekend

2011-07-02T23:05:00.000-07:00

Yo yo longtime no post!

I`ve been busy busy busy with Birthday weeks, work, and just plain old having fun. Haven`t had much internet time, which is always good. I really hate sitting on my arse like a giant silly cunt. Sorry that`s my word of the weekend `cunt`. Everything this weekend is just one massive cunt.

Well my Birthday week started off on the right.... foot with SEF Deluxe as you may have read. This was followed by a nice easy B-1 Dynamite where I got my wish just to dance. The big Birthday weekend came and beat me up as I fully expected. It started with a house party at my mansion, and I mean mansion. Loads of people pulled out last minute like the massive cunts they are, but it left a great group of friends that made for an awesome night. Well, with two bottles of Spiritus it was always gonna be a good night. I was serenaded with a beautiful rendition of `If Living is Without You` by Mariah, fantastic! I`m sure it was a great night but alas the next thing I remember was waking up on my living room floor with a bucket next to my head, the house empty but for a few silhouettes of people in another room.

Good night indeed!

I woke up at midday feeling still very much drunk, the days mission was to sober up for the nights big event that was Starfire. I can`t say I did that very weel. Before I could blink I was at an izakaya having a beer before Starfire, and then BAM!

STARFIRE SHOW ME YOUR DESIRE!!

I danced, I tried to stay away from the booze that was being thrown in my face, but then of course it was Birthday time. At Starfire on your Birthday, if you`re awesome, you get to sit in the Birthday sofa and have a cake and a bottle of champagne. Or rather everyone shouts down it and you have to down the bottle as fast as you can and the cake ends up on everyone's face.

Here`s the video, it`s on Kevin Dary`s facebook so I don`t think I can embed it here. But here`s the link:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=10150220647572142&comments

AWESOME!!!

I ended up in toilet chundering with Uga lol. Banchou payed for my Birthday, what an awesome guy!! I felt like I beat Starfire by being able to walk at the end, other people weren`t so lucky...

All in all a fantastic Birthday week, and thanks to everyone, love to you all!!

If you haven`t noticed I`ve stopped filming the parapara club lessons, just because Kevin `Mr Techpara` films them all and uploads them faster than I can. But let me know if you want me to continue filming them. I`ll crack some DVD uploads in the mean time next week. Magical Rave DVD s that is.... Tsu XD

In other life news, I`m still waiting to hear from the visa people. I should receive my working visa any day now, but man is time getting short. My current visa runs out on July 12th, so if I don`t get my visa next week I`ll have to think about leaving the country, even if it`s only for a few days or a week. Can`t leave for any longer, I have work and BBQ`s to go to!

Speaking of work, they flipped the script on me the past week with a bunch of teachers getting on my back about having a 30 minute break and there seems to be a total lack of trust at the minute. It`s like the last year and a half have counted for nothing. I really hope my dream job suddenly doesn`t turn sour. All they have to do is let me do the job I`m payed for, am brilliant at, and have been doing with no complaints for the last year and a half. It`s going to be interesting to see how things pan out. Just let me play with Lemon-chan and the gang!!

There`s a small chance I could have a date with an actual girl sometime soon. I`ve been being way more forward and just saying `I`d love to take you out for dinner and drinks sometime.` This one girl I met ages ago got in touch again out of the blue and we`ve been texting. Who knows, maybe it`ll lead to actual face to face contact....

You know if you are reading this and live in Tokyo... wanna get a drink sometime... If you have a pulse you meet my requirements!

But all is good good good, lets just hope for the love of God the whole visa thing gets done soon soon soon.

I`m meant to be going to a gal circle event which starts... now, but alas a mix of people being busy, lazy, or just not getting back to me means I think I`ll have to give that a miss. Really don`t fancy that on my own. But Magical Rave is later, nothing will stop me going to that!

Laters!

Top 50 hangover, SEF equals tequila

2011-06-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

Thank God I have Monday off work because I have a top 50 hangover right now. One of those where suicide is a realistic option... oh the pain. I`ll survive as Gloria once said. The cause of this almighty hangover??

SEF DELUXE!!!!!

Ah man I have so little memory of the night. One minute I was sipping tequila cocktails and the next I woke up on the floor at Roppongi crossing, no wallet, no ipod, no glasses, no money, no memory. But after talking to people I have pieced together what happened like a detective!

Ok so remember it`s my Birthday on Thursday so yesterday marked the start of my Birthday week, and I have Monday off work, so I knew SEF would get messy. But it started off so well. I met Heather and guest gaijin para star Kevin, aka Mr Techpara from France. We hit the sushi and beers in yoyogi park before meeting up with Jasmine and heading to SEF. It was great as ever, good songs, good dancing, good people. By the way, Kevin is a better dancer in person than on his videos, which is awesome seeing as his videos are great...

Techno people like Yoshi and Keihei were coming up to me asking who my friend is and `wow he`s awesome`. If Kevin lived here I have no doubt he`d be dancing with Ryuichi and Yoshi on the Starfire DVDS. It`s nice not being the best gaijin techno dancer in Japan anymore XD

But I digress, where was I?

Ah yeah, all was going well, two drinks down and the lessons started, then.....

BLACKOUT!!!

I woke up at Roppongi Crossing all my possessions gone, feeling like crap, my shirt ripped, wax all over my shorts, an earring in my shoe and no money in my pocket. What the hell??? So according to others I chundered at SEF and had to be carried out by Kenya.... Thank you Kenya! Heather took all my stuff for safe keeping at least. When I got my senses I decided to get a taxi home seeing I have money at home.

I`m such a dickhead sometimes, I really wish this would stop happening, it`s not like I planned to get really drunk or anything. I also really REALLY friends would stop leaving me for dead on the streets. I know I must be a handful when I`m drunk but I would never ever leave people I care for on the streets like that. It`s not much to ask to have your friends look after you now and again is it? No worries this time, but you know... next person that does that... don`t expect to ever speak to me again.... just saying.

Anyway it`s awesome to have another gaijin in Tokyo thats super into para like I am. I have Heather and Jasmine sure, but they might go to 1 out of 5 events I go to. And nice to have a guy around! Just need Alex to get his ass over here and we`d have the best gaijin para team ever.

Anyway, day off work today. Disco 90s tomorrow and B-1 Dynamite on Wednesday, I fear for my liver and glasses there where I can`t escape the tequila. Maybe my birthday wish should be don`t get me drunk, let me dance!!!! Friday I`m having a Birthday house party bonanza at my place. I have a huge house, a pro dj setup in the living room, so it should be awesome. I`m seeing if Banchou or Daisuke wanna DJ My own personal Starfire XD

Saturday of course is Starfire where it`ll be mine, Kee-tan and Ryohei`s birthday. Nothing good can come from this!!!

Oh yeah, the lessons at SEF Deluxe.... I have no memory but Kevin uploaded the techno to youtube and I`ll get the euro asap for you para freaks.

PARA LISTS ARE FUN!

2011-06-13T07:22:00.000-07:00

Oh Mondays how you bore me so very much.

So let`s call those top ten song lists, newer songs top ten, huh? So how about about stuff? Well lets do a `off the top of my head top ten list for post Para Para Paradise songs that are always ALWAYS played in the clubs. I`d call this era of para 3rd boom and the last two years songs (or maybe a bit more) 3.5 boom. The general opinion of para people in japan is there was no 4th boom, maybe one day. I know how us westerners love to call all the recent stuff 4th boom.

Ah wait... who cares... boring...

3rd Boom Club Hit List!

Let the Rain
Eldorado
looka Boomba
Like a Fire
Shock Out
Love is the Name of Love
Sunday
Time For a Miracle
Can Can World
Spitfire
Yes I will
Final Destination
Gas Gas Gas
original Sin
Melody
Beautiful Day
Sex (Max) Crime
Super Rider

Get the idea??

ParaPara Paradise Hit List

Dance and Party
Want to be Your Emotion
24 Hours a Day
Kingdom of Rock
shadows in the Night
Mikado
Play the Music
Hot Vampire
Dance in the Fire
Kiss Me Kiss Me Babe
Night Clubbin
Big Brother
Lucky Tango
Express Love
Fight Fore Your Empire <3Power GunEasy Techno `Always played God These Songs Bore Me` Hit List!

Esto Es La Vida (or whatever)
Tequila
Techno Shock
Fly Me So High (kill me now this is one boring ass routine)
Tokyo Go!
Made In New York
Just Play The Music
So What!
Believe
Hyper techno Mission
Kams Quest?
Bandido.... BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zorro
TRF songs...
Move Songs
I hate these
Cuerpo
Everythings Gonna Be Alright
X
Babe You Got The Key
El Diablo
Destino
So High
Overdrive
You Just Want Sex

These routines feel like I`m just going through the motions when they come on, and at B-1 everyweek there is always a set of these bullshit bastards. I`d love to just sit down and give them a miss but my body can`t refuse the para...

Songs that are regularly played that you wouldn`t think are popular hit list...

Let`s Turn It Up
Radio Tokyo
Baby Blue
Raining In My Heart
Nevermind
Dream Of You
Body To Body
Let The Rain
Fire On The Beat
Vision Of Paradise
Kingo Kingo Beat

Ok I`ll stop there... hope these interest someone out there. I`m thinking I might start filming at least one popular but somewhat obscure club routine every week so everyone else can learn them. Good idea? Maybe I`ll get a guest para star each week to join me XD

TOUCH!!

2011-06-12T03:05:00.000-07:00

It`s been one of those rare no para weekends in Tokyo. Or rather as always is the way, I have nothing going on for 99% of the week, everyone is busy and the one day people want to do something is the only day filled with para events in Tokyo. Alas today (Sunday) is para free and people free, boring days.

B-1 Dynamite last Wednesday, awesome as ever, not that many people there but fun fun fun. The lesson was Like a Child by E-Type again, a routine that`s really growing on me, I`ll have to learn it before Wednesday fo sho. Ryuichi said he forgot the routine and relearned it from my youtube video. Funny! I`ll have to watch what I say when I film the lessons now I know people from the clubs watch them....

Nobody found my top 10 euro dancers ranking interesting? Maybe it was a bit pointless if you don`t actually go the clubs here.... Maybe an all time greatest para dancers ranking would be more interesting huh? Hit me with yours people! I am so doing a ranking of international paralists. Oh the hate it would cause.... Oh and I can`t believe I forgot Hitoshi from Starfire, he is without a doubt in my top 5.

Another thing I`ve been meaning to start is a monthly song ranking. As in what songs are popular in the para clubs in Tokyo at the minute. So here is the euro and techno top 10 tunes for May:

Euro rankings

1 - Samurai Blue
2 - New Horizon
3 - I Won`t Fall Apart
4 - Because of You
5 - 1,2,3,4 Fire
6 - Baby Come Back to Me
7 - Let the Rain
8 - Eldorado
9 - Passport to Dance
10 - Yes I Will

Techno rankings

1 - Hellworld
2 - Midnight
3 - Dragon
4 - Virgin
5 - Will I See You Again
6 - Future
7 - Just Like a Gun
8 - Stay You World
9 - Arrancar??
10 - Killer

These rankings are so not official in any way and totally off the top of my head thinking back over the last month of para in Tokyo. And remember the only regular club now B-1 Dynamite so the tastes of the DJ`s there shape this a hell of a lot...

Here at long last is the 9loveJ DVD from May:

Kiwami Euro Best

http://www.sendspace.com/file/1r76om

Enjoy and share share share! If anyone has any tips for DVD ripping please hit me up. I use isofter and get the custom settings the best I can, but it never comes out perfect and the opening always comes at the end for some reason... help?

I`m off for a big Jubeat session in Nakano, today is the day Air Raid falls!!

Chardonnay

2011-06-11T12:04:00.000-07:00

Well it`s 3:30am on a Saturday morning, I`m drunk, the wine, the champagne, the rum, the beer, it`s all good.

Life it`s a bollock isn`t it. I love it and angst in equal measures. Maybe, I`m sure I love it more than not. Yeah I love it but I do long for more, don`t we all? Yeah we do but so do I but I don`t. What do I want? Who knows? Do I? No not really. I have no idea. Career is beautiful, love it, fuck me I love it, so much I wish it was Monday tomorrrow not Sunday. It`s done, it`s sorted, just more people are needed I guess, but then I have people so don`t be greedy. BASTARD!!!! Don`t do it, no need.

Why?

What?

I don`t know, someone to share those simple things withs. Samurai Blue? yep. Came on but who is complaining? Not me. Why? Kicking up the light? Wish there was para tomorrow, but alas not so bread and jubeat is on, call it off? Well maybe. Bloody hell it`s all just wasting time isn`t it? Life????? Wasting time. Constantly wasting time waiting for something more but what???? I feel my life wasting away the big thing on the horizon, the visa, get it anfd then what? Dreams comne true of course, no doubt, no doubt indeed. What then??? Visions of something. But what????

Horizons.... of course that was done of course.... of course. What next? Something? Nothing? Not nothing, never nothing, I strive for everything, but something? Yes. it must be. But what???? WHAT??????? Who can say??? I can. Surely. I am the one in control of things. Lets get to it. NOW!!!!!!!!!! WOAH!!!!! Get on it, be pro active, no doubt about it, it comes to those who wait.

DDrunken...;.

Yes of course

I hate this blog system, strangers reading, I don`t know you, do you know me? NO of course not, rubbish I don`ty think this is a viable option. Getting drunker,,,, is that a word? Doubtful. But who cares.....

Leave this for a minute and take some rum....

tap tap enter enter

A message, someone needs my words..... pointless drivel.....

The options???? More booze, more booze, more booze, or passout, or more booze in the school beer garden. It all equals brilliant whatvever. But wait, the toilet calls, I will return, I`m on a ro,ll and I can`t ruin a golden gonzo moment. GONZO??? More like MAKKUSU,,,,, right. What a twat.

Just a second...

Piss

End... not really, feeling more alive. FUCK!!!!! It must end, it will. Be back....

i hate to try and be Gonzo, the great man I am not, my drunken self only brings out these words and nothing more, what more do you want????

FUCK FUCK FUCK..... I miss england right now but then again not, I miss a few people. Would love it to see them but it`s here where the life is, life is right here, you can`t deny, are you a fool??? Walk through those streets of Koenji, alive with the sights and sounds of my life, everything I love right here in one small district, done, in, perfect, fuck, love it.

It calls to me with a pulse, a heart beat that says my name, my place is right here, no doubt about that. Now? Wine calls my name, wine in a paper cup, classy it is not but I never claimed I was. Perfect more like. Then what? More rum? or passout? well I can`t decide that, not for me.

Those smells of Japan, of Koenji. I love it, you`d love it too. Fuck my life the smell of my school, of my life. fantastic.

Ah shit light is showing over the horizon, it tells me to stop but I must go on. Fuck I`m getting sober and I feel like drinking until I passout. This can only mean downing what is left of my wine and moving outdoiors to the rum. I hear birds, the dawn is coming, I wonder if anyone knows I`m in my schoiol at 4am,,,,, fuck me what am J doing????

I miss ginger people.... and stoners...

Must go and do something the dawn is getting stronger,

Tokyo Top 10 Euro Dancers Ranking

2011-06-06T01:40:00.000-07:00

This is just a bit of fun, something I`ve been meaning to do. Please remember this is just my opinion.

TOP 10 EURO DANCERS MAY RANKING!!

1 - Kee-tan *Stafire*
2 - Uga *SEF Deluxe*
3 - Harumi *Stafire*
4 - Ryohei *Starfire*
5 - Innochi *Starfire*
6 - Sattomi *Starfire*
7 - Saki *9loveJ*
8 - Take *Starfire*
9 - Manami *SEF Deluxe*
10 - Kaori? *Magical Rave*

18 - Max XD

Zero thought in that. What are other people`s top 10 or 5?

I should do a international ranking, oh the dramas that would cause!

Euroheat

2011-06-06T01:27:00.000-07:00

Still haven`t uploaded that 9loveJ DVD, what a dickhead!! Sorry about that, I`m having to use the school computer for any internet needs, but will get it uploaded tomorrow. It`s really not that good anyway...

Lot`s of parapara has happened in the past week or so. We had 9loveJ, Starfire, Chiba Rave, Magical rave, and of course a couple of B-1 Dynamites and even a Disco 90s. Phew, that`s a lot of para!

9loveJ was the first one this year I think, or at least the first I`ve been to. The last one was meant to be in March but mother nature fucked that up. Ah 9loveJ and your poor playlist, it inevitably turns into one big drunken party with not a lot of actual dancing going. Some of the Starfire crew came along and were drunk drunk DRUNK before they even got there, I don`t think they lasted long. Certain people *cough* Kee-tan *cough* were falling into the dj booth lol and celebrating a birthday that isn`t until next month. Classic!

Memories of food fights and Jasmine chundering on herself. Classy days! There were a lot of people there though, so I hope they hold it next month as well.

The lesson was Aitakatta by AKB48 of course. Well everyone knows I`m a massive AKB fan and yes I did cream my pants. Average routine but who cares it`s AKB! Anyway you can see that and all the recent lessons on my youtube channel as ever:

www.youtube.com/user/maxsubobs

Starfire was the very next day. BRUTAL!!! As always an awesome night, as good as parapara get`s in Japan. They had the now monthly tequila challenge on stage, five people, a glass of tequila each, fastest one to down it wins.... who knows. I don`t think anyone wins, maybe a free month of Starfire lol. GREAT! I took part in this months challenge though... I got busted for drinking to early so Bancho poured me even more, no way could I drink that much so I just took the full glass for drinking games with everyone else. SMART!!

It`s so awesome when it`s me, Jasmine and T-Rexx dancing at the front of the stage together and it`s just normal. YES!!

B-1 Dynamite last week was pretty sweet. There`s two rooms at Roppongi Forum, usually they have main euro and techno on the main floor and maniac or oldies in the other room. Last week was techno only in the smaller room, so I spent a lot of time in there. DJ Backie played loads of good stuff from all the clubs, I was in my element!

Chiba Rave on Friday was a Starfire DVD release night, that would be the DVD I`m on if you didn`t know XD Weird having your own video playing on the screens. Pretty crap night, not many people there and they played way to much old crap. Man I HATE HATE HATE old euro and techno now. I hope next month is better.

Magical Rave, me and Jasmine were already very drunk from a free bar in the afternoon at the Swedish Embassy, dirty times. Was an average Magical Rave, they played some good stuff but way to much average stuff.

What do I consider average stuff? Songs like God Knows, Para Girl, you know those routines that just aren`t that much fun anymore. Fun routines for me would be stuff like Let the Rain, Legendary Heart, Baby Come Back, Sex Skiller etc Just stuff that makes you really happy to dance. But I guess it`s different for everyone.

You know I hate to say it but isn`t the para scene in Japan full of weirdo`s. I do laugh sometimes when I look at the dancefloor and it`s full of such strange people. Of course I`m one to talk... weirdo number one. But I wonder why parapara attracts such axe murderers... I guess it`s just the whole otaku anime and gaming connection, and the fact to a lot of people parapara is more about collecting routines like collecting Yu Gi Oh cards.

Anyway it`s hot as a mother fucker, summer is starting to hit Tokyo hard so it`s time for an ice cream.

Thundersome bye bye and other ranting/musing

2011-06-02T05:15:00.000-07:00

Ok FINALLY settled in at my new place, I guess I better explain what happen. It`s been a bit of a roller coaster couple of weeks.

The short story of it is one of my housemates did a bit of a cunt move on me and Jasmine, she emailed us both to say she`d moved out, but with only a weeks notice until the next rent was due. Total cunt move because it was quite obvious me and Jasmine couldn`t afford that extra massive chunk of rent within a week. So after a lot of panic and calming down and panicking again we made a decision, we would leave the Thunderdome.

WOE!!

So Jasmine left for Chiba and I made arrangements to move into the almost empty house my school owns. There`s many ups and downs to this move. Living in a massive family house is a major plus, my god is it nice to have space again. Living almost in the school is awesome, leave late, take an after nap... it`s all good. The downside`s are most definitely living on my own, I really miss coming home to people and being able to tell someone about my day. Alas I don`t have that, and it`s back to the days of going days without talking to anyone over the age of 6. Boooo!!

It`s totally the end of an era though. The Thunderdome was such a fun time, I`ll never forget it. It was the longest I have lived in one place away from my family home, and leaving Jasmine is almost leaving my wife, we`ve had such a cosy living situation for what seems like forever.

But ah well, cunt move is done and we all move on. It has really made me realize I need more friends in Tokyo, I don`t what it is about Tokyo but I don`t have a trouble making casual acquaintances, but turning them into people that actually want to hangout is a difficult thing. It`s weird because I always seem to be pretty liked wherever I go, but getting someone to give me their phone number to actually do something another time, like pulling teeth.

That`s the one major downside working at an all Japanese school, I can`t really be friends with the other teachers. I don`t think they would want to be anyway, they barely say two words to me in a week as it is.

Jerry Seinfeld put it perfectly when he said `people are impossible to meet. They`re all around us everyday, we can`t get away from them, yet we can`t meet any of them. UNMEETABLE!!`

Very true.

I do long for a companion I have to say, a WOMAN... I could fall in love with a guy or girl, of course, but a guy equals no kids. But yes, I have lately, as in god knows how long yearned for a girlfriend. Again, I`m a liked guy, I`m funny, interesting (I hope), but this leads to not a crumb of success when it comes to women. Hanami a month or so ago got me texting with a girl, but she stopped replying, alas that`s the closest thing I`ve ever come to dating or anything like that. I would just love someone to share things with, that`s all.

My advert to the world:

Wanted: WOMAN.... must have a pulse, must be happy. That`s it.

I don`t know this is just constantly on my mind, I mean I`ll be turning 31 next month, I think I`ve been alone long enough. I guess my Mum grilling me about all this on the phone the other really made me a bit sad. She asked me don`t I think about having a girlfriend, and for the first time ever I told her yeah I do, I just can`t seem to do it right. One is a lonely boy.

But hey I`m not complaining, I never would, life is pretty awesome.

Thank god for drunken prostitute adventures I won`t die a virgin...

--------

Tomorrow, 9J DVD, weekend para report.
Soon, top 10 rankings of Tokyo euro and techno dancers, top 10 rankings of euro and techno in the Tokyo clubs at the minute. Gonna start doing that every week.

trololol

2011-05-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

You can find all three lesson videos from the weekend on my youtube, so go go learn learn!

I'll rip the 9J DVD and update about everything tomorrow when I have access to a computer at work. I'm all iPod at the minute.

Starfire was just the most fun I could ever have, praise be! Tonight is the last night in the legend that is the thunderdome (my apartment), tomorrow I move into the house that is almost in my school, but only for a month and a half until my visa should be sorted out.

じゃまたね！

Omoishiroi.....

2011-05-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

Just a quick iPod update. I'm just finishing moving house hence the lack of updates.

9loveJ was awesome last night, a total drunken blur of food fights, to much booze, chunder and the odd bit of dancing. I don't much care for the playlist there but thats what I have B-1 for. The lesson was Aitakatta by AKB48, I creamed my pants. It's up on YouTube. I got a DVD which I'll hit you all with tomorrow. It's a joint wa euro DVD between club J and Starfire.

Speaking of Starfire, that's tonight. Always the best para night. Should be awesome.

Will update more about everything tomorrow when I've finished moving.

Conquered a MOUNTAIN!!

2011-05-14T03:39:00.000-07:00

Long time no post!

I've been a busy bunny recently. I think... yeah I've done quite a bit actually. So...

GO GO LIFE UPDATE!!!

Golden Week in Japan came and went in the blink of an eye, I spent the first half of it relaxing and the second half CONQUERING A MOUNTAIN!! In a bid to join the rest of Japan and do something traditional, myself and a couple of mates headed out to the western edge of Tokyo to Mount Mitake. I adore the mountains around Japan, they really are breathtaking, and Mount Mitake is no different.

Beautiful!

Getting the train from Ome to Mitake was amazing, the scenery took my breath away.

It was a pity it was such an overcast foggy day, it meant there was no view from Mitake. Usually you can see right across the skyscrapers of central Tokyo and Mount Fuji on the other side. Alas you could hardly see your hand infront of your face on this day. The sign in the picture says 'Skytree'....

Climbing mountains in Japan is very different to the west I think, it's not really climbing, more following as path and taking a cable car. The best thing about mountains in Japan is they have plenty of booze stops along the way, so hot sake was at along the way as well as beers at the 2000 year old shrine at the very top.

We made the mistake of walking all the way down to the waterfall, which was pretty lame, but it meant we had to walk back up half the mountain. Now that was a beast!

A lovely day out of the chaos that is central Tokyo, but at the end of the day I do love that chaos.

Last Saturday I was invited by my friend Kee-tan to her parents house for a dinner party, what an amazing house that was, I had such a good time. Her Dad is in a band and they were playing away all night long, it felt more like a jazz bar.

Later that evening me, Ke-tan and ryohei headed to a random para night down the road. They had a projector playing random para DVDs on the wall. It was weird seeing us three on wall as your sitting there having a drink... For the record it was a really bad para night.

That weekend I went into para overload actually. I hit Chiba Euro Rave on the Friday, the Throb on Saturday and Megahit on Sunday. I was exhausted halfway through Megahit. Oh yeah, B-1 Dynamite had a Golden Week special as well which was so much fun, lots of people there, unlike this week... but it was raining like a mother fucker.

SCHOOL!!

Work is fantastic fun as ever. I adore the new years kids, they are all fantastic, I have a whole crew of awesome kids to play with, I'm almost neglecting the older years because the youngest kids are so much fun. This past week they started having lunch at school for the first time, I've been looking forward to eating with them all, lunch times are comedy times. I get told off by the teachers as much as the kids for being to loud and playing to much...

We had one of our big field trips recently where the whole school got on buses and headed out west to an amazing park for a big picnic and play day.

Coach trips with kids are just the best, fun fun fun. All the Mums came as well, so I got to have lunch with them as well as the kids. I ate with my favorite girl Akane and her Mum who I know quite well.

As is usual with field trips the Mums always make me lots of food, I ate so much that day. I laughed how the other teachers all ate together away from the kids, and I was only one eating with them. They find it funny how I really do enjoy spending time with the kids, of course they all love the kids but it's still a job to them all, for me I'd do this job for free.

After lunch we played for a few hours in the park and rolled around in the dirt. I came back to the coach looking like I'd been in a war. The coach back I sat with the awesome pair that is Akane and Reina.

Those two are comedy legends, we were joking about all the way home while the rest of the coach was asleep. Their Mum's were happy I took them off their hands, my pleasure!! Great day!!

Everything at work is awesome over all. Obviously the kids are amazing as ever, and the school director loves what I do more and more it seems. I've been put incharge of hiring a new foreign guy do the same job as me at the sister school. I have to advertise, interview, and pick the guy. They really do trust me there. I still wise the other teachers would speak to me more, or more than one word a week.... but it's all good.

What else blog worthy happened to me??

Ohhhh I went to the local elementary school as part of their book festival where I read English books to kids.

I love going to that school and seeing lots of kids that graduated my school over the past two years, they all come running up to me and want to play.

After the reading was done I had lunch outside with some of the kids and then got to watch some taiko drumming and cheerleading displays from some of the kids.

One of the cheerleading teams was made up of kids from my school, they were awesome of course. made me proud! I had to escape at the end because everyone still wanted to play, but alas I had to somewhere, the Koenji street festival up the road!

The festival is held every year and is where the streets of koenji are full of random acts. Of course it's a massive excuse to get blind drunk on the street... Myself and friends were watching a random but awesome mime show, drinking away, when I saw a bunch of Mums and kids from my school. So I ended up chatting with them and playing with everyone. I love that the Mums are drinking themselves and don't mind that I'm a bit tipsy. I saw quite a few of my kids throughout the day, it just makes me so happy to see them.

Of course karaoke followed, which meant I was blind drunk by the time I got home at 11pm and Starfire started at midnight... I spent the first half of Starfire chundering and trying to sober up enough to dance, which I did and then had a bottle of champagne shoved down my neck... back to being drunk again. I love that me and Jasmine can dance at the front of the stage at Starfire now and not feel like pretenders... you know? At B-1 as well we're on the stage every week now, can't ask for more than that!

Well that'll do for now. Just a few of the things I've been up to recently, that I can remember anyway...

Next... interesting para shit.

Stomach in, chest out

2011-05-02T02:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the nice comments on the New Horizon video, be it on here, Facebook or where ever, I really appreciate it! I'm so happy with the way it turned out, and just so happy to have achieved a massive life ambition.

Yesterday was Magical Rave, that unusually fell on the Sunday the day after Starfire. You could tell, everyone seemed a bit tired and I've never seen so many outfit repeats XD I went solo and wasn't much up for socializing fun times, I was a bit tired and just wanted to dance. The awesome thing about the para scene at least in Tokyo, is that if you wanna just keep yourself to yourself and dance it's all good, no one will really disturb you.

Magical Rave is a really good mix of club songs. Always get tons of SEF, Starfire and random stuff, and of course it's the only place you can dance to Magical Rave techno and their awesome anime euro. I die happy every time they play K-on, which they did twice lol.

The lesson was Nagisa / Friends, which is a old song you might know.

Nagisa / Friends

Good routine!!

The little event known as Starfire happened as well on Saturday XD I was already really drunk by the time I had to get ready for it. A small matter of a festival in Koenji with friends and about 8 hours of solid drinking. So I spent the first few hours of Starfire trying my hardest to sober up, which I did by about 3am and then had champagne shoved down my neck and proceeded to get blind drunk again.

Happy days!!

The lessons are a bit of a blur... the techno was average, but the euro was awesome. Alas I left my camera at home, sorry! But you know those bad boys will be on youtube in the next few days. The lessons were followed by a tequila drinking competition that my friend Jasmine failed at worse than anyone in history, SHAME!!!! The winner, Yoshi, actually won nothing... after downing a half pint of tequila he won.... the tequila he downed. Haha gotta love the mayhem that is Starfire!!

This week is Golden Week so B-1 Dynamite is a super special that starts at 4pm! It's going to be the appocalypse!!! I can't wait! Chiba Rave is Friday, The Throb on Saturday, and Megahit on Sunday. Busy para weekend, but how many of those will I get to?? That all depends on adventures before the events and how much alcohol is involved.

We shall see!!

A New Horizon

2011-05-01T02:49:00.000-07:00

Well it's out! The new Starfire DVD myself, Jasmine and Heather are on.

I'm just about to go to Magical Rave, but I'll leave you with the full DVDRIP, and a couple of youtube uploads. I just have to say I am so proud to have done this video and would you believe I'm actually happy with the way it turned out.

Enjoy!! And hit me with any feedback on my dancing!

Starfire Vol 20 - http://www.sendspace.com/file/on805t

AWESOME!!!!!!!

Magical Rave time!!

A story of a charmless man

2011-04-28T03:42:00.000-07:00

The para scene kicks back into action this week with a big. Starfire on Saturday, and Magical Rave on Sunday.

YES!!!

And of course that means THE Starfire DVD as well, I'm so nervous to see it...

There has been two B-1 Dynamite's since my last post, always the savior of my midweek in Tokyo. Which also means two lessons, or does it? Well no it doesn't because this week for some reason there were only a handfull of people at B-1 so they just didn't bother. It did mean the techno sets were almost everything I wanted though... I think maybe people are saving money for Golden Week holiday that starts in Japan tomorrow, most people go away for that. Personally I plan parks, mountains and lots of booze, with the main aim of rolling down a mountain blind drunk. Should be spicy!

But I digress... there was a lesson last week, a rather good techno lesson. It was 'My Load', a song and routine I didn't much care for until I heard it a million times at the Starfire filming. Yeah it's on the Starfire DVD.... who dances it is the more interesting thing. Just wait until Sunday when I upload it XD

Here's the lesson:

My Load

9loveJ vol 8 and 9 DVDRIPS....

Vol 08 - http://www.sendspace.com/file/x1dn72

Vol 09 - http://www.sendspace.com/file/0fdi9l

Enjoy!!!

Coming soon... a review of this weekends para bonanza, Starfire 20 rip, Magical Rave rips, and my unoficial highly subjective para dancers ranking for Tokyo.

Electric Love

2011-04-19T07:56:00.000-07:00

Konichiwa from the land of Para and fish

There's been some para over the past few week here in Tokyo, not that much, and may Hanami had something to do with that.... YOU BASTARD!!! I so wanted to hit up Chiba Rave, The Throb, and Magical Rave, but Hanami had other plans. First Magical Rave I've missed in over a year. WOAH!!! But there has been a couple of B-1 Dynamites and SEF Deluxe. I don't really go to Disco 90s anymore because I find 2nd boom euro and old techno boring as fuck. Although saying that I am tempted to go tonight.

NO!! It's boring. Not that any para is on around Tokyo this weekend. I thought Starfire was this weekend but I got punked, it's next Saturday. Booooooo!!!! Need to see how shit I look on the DVD!!!!!!!! But B-1 Dynamite on Wednesday fuels my para needs for a few days at least.

So B-1 has had two lessons since I last posted any videos. Both are the lessons from Starfire. Do people want to see B-1 lessons if they are repeats?? I think it's worth it just to see Ke-tan dancing, she's so my favorite euro dancer now. Her style is so perfect.

B-1 Dynamite lessons -

Luna Matada / DJ Energy

Baby Come Back / Virginelle

SEF Deluxe was awesome as always. It's such an older crowd there these days but it's all good, love what they play, superb mix of Starfire and SEF techno, and that barman.... strong mother fucking cocktails, I'm talking pints of tequila with a splash of orange. What a cunt master!! Love him!

But I digress...

Lessons were pretty shit I thought and good old already uploaded them. But I'll upload mine anyway, multiple angles and all that...

SEF Deluxe April Lessons -

Passport to Dance / Eurodudes

Give Me Another Chance / Rave Force

Here are two videos I randomly took at SEF when everyone was pretty drunk, good times!

Finally here are DVD rips of Starfire Vol 17 and 18 -

Starfire Vol 17 - http://www.sendspace.com/file/i6trew

Starfire Vol 18 - http://www.sendspace.com/file/5sxgd4

ENJOY!!!

Next rips, 9loveJ vol 8 and 9.

You can see me and Jasmine at the beginning of both DVDs....

Kanpai'd the shit out of the world!!

2011-04-12T02:22:00.000-07:00

Well it's been one busy mother fucker of a week, and what took up most of it?

HANAMI!!!!!!

Hanami has become one week in the year I now dread but love oh so much. A week of getting into amazing drunken gonzo adventures whilst pretending to appreciate the beauty of the sakura trees, which are oh so beautiful.

The tradition in Japan is to have a picnic under the sakura trees, but this always turns into one massive party in the park. This year.... the past week I managed to go to four Hanami parties, two were planned, two really weren't... I'm gonna recall these adventures starting with the least brutal, that would be:

HANAMI THURSDAY!

This started out with me meeting up with a friend from England, Sat, in Harujuku, with the plan to have a few quiet beers in Yoyogi Park. WRONG!! CHIGAU!!!! We'd sat on the grass for a few minutes before we'd been engulfed into a Hanami party, a Docomo work Hanami lol. These guys were top gonzo action and drinks and laughs were had.

Alas they left before we were really hitting our stride, but after a piss in the bushes I returned to find Sat with another group. After sometime the plan was to hit zn izakaya, but alas, two of the girls could barely walk, so that never happened. Instead me and Sat hooked up with a friend and hit a 100 yen izakaya.

Brutal Hanami rating = 3/10

HANAMI SUNDAY!

Another Hanami that wasn't a Hanami. I headed to Yoyogi on Sunday with a blinding hangover from Hanami Saturday (hold on) to meet Jasmine, Ylva, Heather and a few others. A small weekend wind down was the plan, but do bring the 50% Mintu booze with you, and beers and chu-hi. I hit Yoyogi to find the biggest sea of people I'd ever seen in my life, so big the Softbank phone network was in meltdown, so it took me ages to find my group. But great spot by the lake!

Drinks were had, drinking games were had, bumped into a million people we know (small world), Heather and Amber found us, and then we really started cracking on. Especially when it started getting dark. We decided to go and join Heathers original group, while waiting for people to finish pissing and chundering we were delighted by sights such as a naked guy on a bike in the lake being attacked by bats.

Serious bat country!!

We finally made our way over to Heather to find her group had left but Heather and Amber had joined a gal circle hanami lol. One or two of them knew me and Heather from the para world lol. Drinking games, more drinking games, before me and Jasmine lost most people and decided to join an otaku hanami at abound 11pm.

So very drunken AKB48 dancing and para was had before we couldn't stand up anymore, Jasmine chundered on a tree and that was the signal to try and find our way home....

Brutal Hanami rating = 8.5/10

HANAMI SATURDAY!!!

Godamn they just keep coming!!

This was a planned one... but one I thought would be a fun warmup to Saturday night. How wrong I was!! It was my mate Naoyuki's Hanami, and boy do the Japanese knpow how to plan!! He got like THE perfect spot under the tree's, even had to spend the night there to protect it. What a legend!

By the time I arrived there were at least 30 people there, maybe 50. Big Hanami times!! I knew a handful of people there but everyone was awesome and up for a laugh. Needless to say the booze was flowing. Found booze from the previous week was flowing. Herpes, a legend of a guy who's comedy knows no bounds... or pants, it wasn't long before he had cock out doing his comedy routine. We ended up having a bit of a comedy face off... Booze booze booze....

I was kinda setup with a girl there by this legend of a guy, I forget his name. For some strange reason she liked my drunken comedy antics and we're going out later this week. Hurrah!! Infact Hanami turned me into quiet the ladies man lol. Well for some reason I had many Japanese girls hitting on me. I guess Hanami does turn up my comedy factor by at least 10.

Park done with everyone got in taxis and headed to an izakaya in Shibuya for a big party. That was pretty brutal I have to say, pitchers were being downed at an incredible rate! I sat down at a random table and the girl next to me was like 'MAKKUSU!!' It was Kanako from the para scene who I haven't seen for a long time.

MESSY!!!

Izakaya done with one of the guys I'd met who's name I forget... he invited to carry on at a bar with his mates, and who was I to say no??!! A few chunders down Shibuya Center Gai later we joined his mates. They were boring as shit so I lost them and ended up at a table with two girls drinking spiritus (96% death juice). The next thing I remember I woke up in Ikebukuro with next to know vision and no clue what was going on. FUCK IT!! I am no way attempting to walk home, I could barely walk at all. So with trains finished I did the thing sober Max hates the next day, and that's take the beast of a taxi home.

I woke up the next day with a top 10 hangover, so many sent messages on my phone, and McDonalds wrappers in my bed.

Brutal Hanami rating = 9/10

On to the last Hanami you'll be happy to hear, and that is:

SUNDAY HANAMI AKA THUNDERDOME HANAMI!!!!

This was the Hanami that myself and Jasmine planned as our house Hanami. It was actually the first of the four I went to, and one I learnt from my mistakes at....

We headed out to meet people in Harujuku at midday armed with mountains of booze and a packet of crisps. Food is not needed!!! A few early people gathered we hit Yoyogi to set up camps and kanpai the shit out of the world. Drinking games started, more people arrived, more boozing, then Satomi arrived and the spiritus was introduced. Two minutes later...

Well I have to say after this I have like zero memory of anything. I was told I joined a baseball game. I do kinda remember swimming in a lake of leaves trying to find my glasses.

TOTAL BLACKOUT!!!!

I awake... it's pitch black and almost midnight, the park is deserted. WAIT!! I have no glasses...

SHIT!!!!

WAIT!!!! I have no shoes...

TRIPLE FUCKING SHIT!!!

It goes without saying I am drunk as a fucking fuck that has fucked the shit out of a fuck. I have zero vision, bad times when a lake is infront of me. Wait... why are my clothes wet... who can say...

I have two options for the way to the station, it's a 50% blind as a bat chance. I pick the wrong one.... but end up flowing a yellow brick road (seriously) that leads to the promised land of the train station. Where the fuck are my shoes??????

I wake up the next day having sent many offensive phone messages to people with half the park on my clothes. I have to laugh I messaged my mate Ryohei saying 'you pussy motherfucker!!' Haha!!

So....

Brutal Hanami Rating = 10/10 TEN OUT OF A MOTHER FUCKING TEN!

..............

Top Hanami gonzing there, I'm pretty sure I saw maybe one sakura tree. Who can say? After the Thunderdome Hanami I always tied my glasses to my head. SMART!! And asked someone to take care of my shoes for me. All in all it's going to take a lot of beating next year.

HANAMIIIII!!!!!!!!!

Just some useless words...

2011-04-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

Just a quickie to say is just fantastic at the minute, I'm just beaming with a lust for life. Everyday is a joy.

I've spent the last few days getting to know the new kids at my school, I already love everyone of them to death. I have a bunch of favorites already, Mai-chan, Akari-chan, Leon-kun. Legends they are!! The other two years come back to school next week, it'll be good to have them back!

B-1 was awesome as ever last night. Will write about that tomorrow and also post the lesson and Starfire DVD vol 17 and 18 while I'm at it.

Hanami needs a massive gonzo write up as well before hanami part two starts on Saturday...

Anyway, I'm off to catch some sun in Yoyogi Park and grab a few sneaky beers in the process.

Laters yo <3

Starfire DVD vol 20 filming!

2011-04-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

What a weekend, to say the least. Starfire DVD filming and Hanami the next day. Dreams and ambitions were met and then body's were broken the very next day.

If you know me at all you know parapara makes up a good 90% of my life and by brain power, it's what I live for to tell you the truth. The other 10% is made up of kids and playing tag... And if you've ever spoken to me you probably know that my big ambition in life has always been to be on a major parapara DVD. It just so happens Starfire is my favorite club and they are the one's who asked me and my para partner, Jasmine, to be on their next DVD. This past Saturday was the day of the filming...

AMBITION MET!!!

The studio was the one used for the B-1 Dynamite anime DVD, Stafire vol 15.

We all met up at 4pm and got everything set up, all very professional, Ryohei was acting as the director and had a schedule up on the wall.

I'd love to put the tracklist up, but I don't think I should, so you'll have to wait until Starfire this month to find out, sorry. I will say that our track was New Horizon and there's a bunch of tracks you'd expect and some you wouldn't.

It was so awesome being with all these awesome dancers that everyone learns from and consider the best, and just being part of them, not a guest or there as a favor, actually part of it. It felt like, yeah, this is right where I should be.

P.S... fuck off K-Gami seriously...

The dancers were:

Ke-tan
T-Rexx
Negi-chan (Starfire dancer but her first DVD)
Satomi
Harumi (their kids are old enough to bring to events now XD)
Ryuichi
Yoshi-B
Tomoki
Lakshimi
Take
Random techno girl team
Random techno girl team 2
Max
Jasmine
Heather

The techno boys were up first and nailed there song pretty quick, they rock it as ever.

Up second..... Team Thunderdome, my team.

Me, Jasmine and Heather had practiced New Horizon a million times, and speaking for myself I'd got it down in my sleep, every move was exactly how I wanted. BUT.... then Ryohei, who choreographed the routine, he watched us dance through it once and then showed us a bunch of sections he's decided to change. Man alive does he want every single move exactly perfect.

So after a bit of practice we were ready to go, FILMING TIME!! I was so SO SOOOOOOOO nervous. I never thought I would be, I mean I've been partying with these people for what seems like forever. But when we had to get into our starting postions my hands were shacking and my head was all over the place. It's soooooooo much harder to film infront of everyone than you'd think, so different to filming para for youtube or vimeo or whatever.

I was the first person to mess up, and mess up again, and again, and again. In the end I was just thinking 'dance it like you would in the clubs, try not to get everything perfect'. But it's easier said than done. There's going to be a lot of me swearing on the credits and joking about I'll tell you that. We got it on our 8th attempt... Tomoki and Bancho were making me smile so much, I'm sure it'll look like I'm laughing. We got to see the playback but it was hard to take in, but I think it's ok. We could have done way better but everyone always says that. I know it'll probably spark a lot of drama in the western para community when this DVD comes out, with people saying we're not good enough, but man alive, it's so nerve racking. Funnily enough I think the Japanese para community won't think that at all, seeing how they see us every week in the clubs and know we're better than this DVD.

Maybe we were good... I really can't say until I see it again....

That was our song done, after that we got to chill out with everyone and watch everyone else mess up lol. At least we weren't the one's that messed up the most, that honour goes to the team of Ke-tan, Ryohei, and Negi-chan. 9 attempts XD

We left with a few songs still to film. I can't wait to see the finished DVD, just whatever happens I will always have that ambition ticked off. Hopefully we'll be on the next Starfire DVD, I'm confident we will be, I think we're pretty much part of the team now, and with this experience under the belt we can only be better and better.

Just.... YES!!!!!!

I have a bunch of videos I filmed but I feel it would be a bit wrong of me to post those before the actual DVD is out. Sorry, you'll have to wait!

Dirty Hanami report to come... and man was it one dirty adventure!!

DY-NO-MITE!!!

2011-03-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

B-1 Dynamite you cocktease!!!

Nomihodai (all you can drink) but only for the ladies, which is fine normally I just steal female friends drinks, but last night I was on my own and there were pretty much like no girls I know there.

What a tease!!!

But B-1 was awesome as always. This week they had a second dance floor which was all maniac, which is very rare in the para scene these days. I know there's no maniac at any other para club in Tokyo. The main floor was all normal euro and techno. I love the euro at B-1 the most I have to say, they play loads of random 3rd boom stuff that tests even the best para peoples memory. The end euro set is always awesome recent starfire stuff, so much fun, and the techno is always a killer mix of old, new and B-1 techno. They played a bunch of techno songs back to back that were to die for. Something like Hell World, Killer, and Just Like A Gun. I'd say dancing those.... better than sex. YES!!

Anyway.. the lesson was:

Sex Skiller / Go Go Girls (danced by Ke-tan)

Good club night as ever! I was going to hit up Chiba Euro Rave on Friday for about the first time in a year but alas it's cancelled, probably eartquake damage to the venue boooooooo!!

Here's the last Starfire DVD, vol 19 that I promised:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YH9BP869

Also if anyone has any dvd requests feel free to hit me up.

School graduation, sad times!! B-1 returns to save the day!!!

2011-03-29T23:34:00.000-07:00

With everything that's been going down in Japan the past few weeks my schools end of year graduation passed by without too much celebration. In fact I almost forgot it happened, well, not quite.

We held it on March 15th only a few days after the earthquake and tsunami, so everyone was still really on edge about the whole situation, aftershocks were still hitting pretty much hourly and the threat of the Fukushima nuclear power plant going up in smoke was very real. So understandably the huge graduation ceremony we have every year for the oldest year was cut short. It was such a shame because so much preparation goes into this. From the kids practicing the formalities of recieving their certificate and singing their song, to the parents putting on a big show, as well as tearful video montages from the kids.

But alas we only had the formalities of the certificate giving, as well as the speeches, all the songs, and the class photos outside. We did have a few aftershocks hit during everything but only small tremors, and this being Japan everyone ignored them, they didn't exist. But of course it was still so so sad, knowing you're seeing around 60+ of your best friends for the last time. WOE!! And that's what they are, my best little mates, I love them so much I could burst.

The best part of the day was after all the formalities were taken care of and the parents are having lunch and just staying around the school, it's a time I use to say goodbye to everyone and wish them the best of luck at elementary school, and of course take a lot of photos with everyone. I managed to fit in a five minute last game of football with the boys and game of tag with the girls. Some of the girls wanted the flower on my suit so had a jan ken show down for it. FOR MY LOVE!!...

How can you not adore these faces!!

And that was graduation, short and sad. I have two weeks of spring holiday before the new year starts where I get to meet a whole new gang of awesome guys and girls. During the holiday some of the kids come to school for nursary, which is basically just a hangout while their parents are at work. But it does mean I get to hangout with some of my favorite graduated kids for a bit longer. I guess on Friday I will have to say goodbye to them for real, but the new year shall be fun fun fun, so no need to be sad.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the day <3

Those are some sweet mother fucking photos!!

B-1 Dynamite returns tonight after a three week hiatus. YES!!!!!!!! Should be awesome as ever, look out for the lesson video tomorrow and Starfire vol 19 DVD. Para plans for the week?

B-1 Dynamite - tonight
Chiba Rave - Friday I'd love to go to but that never happens.... jubs instead
とある小杉の超舞踏会＠武蔵小杉Throb (ex Jager Paradise) - Saturday if I am not passed out
Magical Rave - Sunday..... wouldn't miss it for the world!!

And.... Starfire DVD filming on Saturday!! Our song is New Horizon which is pretty sweet, I've been practicing in front of a mirror like a maniac. Must be perfect!!!!!!!!!

It's our house's (The Thunderdome) Hanami picnic on Sunday in Ueno Park, looks like a lot of people are coming. Hanami is always so very brutal, you have no choice but to drink drink and drink some more. No doubt the spiritus will be flowing.

If you haven't seen them the lessons for Starfire are up on youtube already thanks to Tsubasak3. I love love love 'Baby Come Back'. Here they are:

Baby Come Back / Virginelle

Luna Matada / DJ Energy or Zorro...

Laters <3

Starfire, SEF Deluxe 009 DVD, and other weekend adventures

2011-03-28T01:29:00.000-07:00

The weekend is done and time to relax. Oh wait... it's Monday, time for work. Seeing as it was Starfire and SEF Deluxe back to back there's no chance of that happening. What a beast of a weekend!!

Oh yeah I just thought I'd say, although I'm going to be posting a lot of parapara news, reviews and videos on here, this little blog isn't just a parapara blog. It remains my personal blog, so if you you just wanna come on here to grab the para stuff go ahead, feel free to ignore the other rubbish. Saying that here's how my weekend went down....

Friday was a late one at school as it was officially the last day of the school year and a few teachers were leaving. It was all very sad with speeches and presents and WOE!! Very sad, but I'll stay in contact with a couple of them. My mate is being a pussy and heading to England for a week or so because of parental preasure, you know, radiation in Tokyo and all that...a lot of westerners left for the same reason. But I digress... drinks in Shimo Kitazawa, that was the point. Such a good area to drink in, so many funky jubs. I actually biked from Shin Nakano where I live to jub central, it's only about 5 or so k's, but it's a lovely ride if you take the back streets. I do love biking around the backstreets of Tokyo getting lost, interesting times. I actually got so very lost trying to get home though, ended up going west instead of north. Managed to get back somehow, it always works out, and ended up boozing in my apartment watching girlie movies... good work drunk Max.

Saturday meant only thing... STARFIRE!!!!!

That pretty much sums Starfire up. Yoshiyuki having a bottle of Tequila shoved down his neck. DRINK IT!!! The night was the same usual awesome mix of dancing to some great mixes and drinking an insane amount of alcohol, what more could you ask for. It was Bancho and Ryuichi's Birthday month so it was always going to be brutal. They celebrated by having a champagne downing contest on stage...

That turned into DJ Teru forcing a bottle tequila on everyone. Good work man!

The lessons were....

Baby Come Back / Virginelle
Luna Matada / DJ Zorro

I forget to film them... but I'll upload the video from other sources asap.

Euro was pretty good though, no Sex Skiller, but that'll take a lot of beating XD Techno was DJ Zorro and sounded like everything ever and was average at best. Great Starfire, we came out alive, which is all that matters in the end. Well, me and Lucie just managed it, just. Heather lost the battle of the booze ;p

I only just made it...

Got back from Starfire around 7am, passed out, woke up at 3pm still drunk.... shitttt SEF starts soon. Well fight fire with fire, hit the beers and get ready! One booze train later and I'm at club A-life paying a massive 4000yen because it's a dvd release night. Mother fuckers raping my wallet!! It's all good!

SEF is a very different feeling night to Starfire, to me it feels a lot more about the dancing and has a bit of an older feel. Nothing wrong with that, and I love the mix they play, often it's the only club that plays SEF songs, and I love me some SEF routines! Saying all that the barman at A-life, who you can see on the new dvd, well he is a menace and will give you pretty much a full glass of tequila. BAST!! For some reason I always dance way more techno at SEF, probably because they play a mix of all the clubs techno.

Lessons were.... I can't remember, Paracenter is your friend there.

Here are the videos:

IT's A Party... I think. Techno lesson:

Euro lesson: Sideways for some reason....

AND here's the SEF 009 DVD, ENJOY!!!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/rjhajk

I'll start ripping all the Starfire DVD's starting with vol 19 counting back to vol 01, and the last two 9loveJ DVD's, vol 08 and 09. So look out for them.

Peace out.

MORE PARA!!

2011-03-22T00:12:00.000-07:00

I realized I never post on this bloggy blog about the thing I love the most in life, that of course is parapara. Silly really when I bet there's lots of para loving people out there who would love to read about events around Tokyo and the adventures that unfold at them. So let's change that, I'll start writing about the nights I go to and put the lesson videos up as well.

At the minute, in Tokyo at least, it feels like a time of big change for the para scene. For awhile now attendance at the traditional big para nights has been getting lower and lower and it seemed like we could be left with a really small community of die hard para fans going to the same few events every month. But I've noticed recently that a lot of younger gal circle type people are more seriously getting into it. Obviously para is always associated with gal circles, it always will be, but they only now the odd routine and don't really go to actual club nights. But recently there's been maybe half a dozen guys and girls around 18 who have been at para nights, and they all know a hell of a lot of routines, which if you do para you know takes a bit of dedication. So you can tell they aren't into just a fad but actually really love it. There's even a guy and girl I've seen recently coming to nights who know a lot of maniac routines, I was impressed. I know 6 people or so isn't a lot but it only takes a few in a group to get everyone else going.

The last two para nights I've been to is where I really started to notice a bit of a new generation coming through. For awhile there's been a few younger people on the edge of events looking like they want to get into para, but most younger people that go to para nights tend to give up and disappear, and for some reason they always look at me on the dance floor for the routines. But lately everybody has known all the newer stuff, more than I do, and they were all pretty awesome to be honest. And at the last night I went to, Koiwa Blue Keys, it was 90% people under 21 and it was such a good mix of songs, everyone was drinking and just having a good time and loved the para.

I can see what the future holds for the para scene in Tokyo if things continue. The big traditional clubs will shrink to having just the same old para people, playing the same playlists and doing what they do, or they will die. I think 9loveJ is close to vanishing, and it's their own fault for being such a closed non friendly clubnight. I don't think many people would shed a tear and just remember how good it used to be. SEF and Starfire will always continue as long as para exists, just because they are so much fun and most people in the community goes to them. They are like the definition of para. But a lot of other nights need to reach out to the younger crowd if they don't wanna have piss poor attendances.

B-1 Dynamite is such a paradox. The staff and especially the organiser always wants it to be the most fun night, more about having a drink and a laugh rather than serious business para, obviously you can have a good dance and a laugh at the same time. But B-1 for some reason has become more the serious business para night, and for that reason most younger people stay away. For them to continue being a weekly night they need to do two things.

1. Lower the price.
2. Reach out to gal circles and get involved with them now.

I shall definitely be going to more random nights that I didn't fancy going to before, and maybe those gal circle events I always get invited to. It's a good job I get on really well with all these kids, don't wanna be considered part of the old school, luckily I fit right in with both crowds. Whatever becomes of the para scene it will always be around, still way to many people who would die without it.

Incidentally, B-1 dynamite is cancelled for the 3rd week running this week, but that's due to earthquake rubbish. I will have para on a Wednesday so I'm having a B-1 vs Roppongi Street at my house. Wonder how many people I can get to come. 9loveJ is also cancelled, but Starfire and SEF Deluxe are still on this weekend, should be a good one. SEF is a dvd release event so expect a rip of SEF DX 009 on this here blog next week. Also on April 2nd myself, Jasmine and Heather, will be joining the Starfire crew to film the next Starfire dvd. Exciting!!

And here's the last lesson from Magical Rave because I haven't seen it online anywhere. Can't remember the name of the song, little help?

I feel the earth move under my feet

2011-03-20T06:32:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a surreal week to put it mildly...

So you heard about that small earthquake that hit japan last week, well i just happen to live in Japan. Tokyo to be exact. Well let's start at the beginning, Friday the 11th when the Earthquake hit.

It was 2:45pm, I was at school with the remaining kids, around 30 or more, playing dodgeball outside on the grass. Suddenly the head teacher ran outside and started yelling something, and everyone was like 'get down on the grass there's going to be an earthquake'. Now we have many earthquakes in Tokyo, but they feel nothing more than a bus going by. this however.... was a beast. It started lightly and I was standing up thinking this is nothing, then it really hit and everything started rocking and rolling, and it just seemed to get stronger and stronger. I was looking at the school and the shrine next to it thinking, 'if this gets any stronger they are both coming down.' Infact the shrine was going side to side so much I was sure it was going down. And then there's the huge tree in the middle of the school playing field. At the time I just kept on thinking if that starts to fall I can only carry maybe four kids, and I actually grabbed them close to me ready to run.

But it finally stopped after what seemed like minutes, the ground continued to move in circles for a couple of minutes and then it was over. It's school procedure that as soon as a big earthquake hits all the parents come and pick up the kids. So I was just looking after people until they were picked up. In the next hour we had two more big shocks, each time we had to hit the deck and pray they didn't get any stronger. It wasn't until around 5pm when we checked the news that we saw the real devastation in and around the coast of Sendai. That's when we knew we were the lucky one's. It was amazing to think we'd just been involved in one of the biggest earthquakes in the world. It measured a 6 where I was, nowhere near as big as the the epicenter north, which was a 9, but still huge. It really hit home when I saw all the teachers worrying about friends and family up north, especially as all the phones were down. Most teachers were struggling to get home as well with all the trains being down. I was really lucky living walking distance away. Although I ended up staying with a friend near the school. Nobody wanted to be alone that night with all the aftershocks going on.

The next day we woke up to see the devastation on the television, and to find out that the Fukushima nuclear plant was in trouble. Since then it's been very surreal. Pretty much every westerner I know in Tokyo has gone back home to wait this all out. One of my housemates has left for good. The stores are really bare even now, which means I have been sans breaded goods for over a week. Power is being conserved everywhere in Tokyo, which means the main city centers are so dark and dim and just so not like Tokyo. And of course there's the constant threat of the nuclear plant, although that has been getting better for quite awhile now. I'm really not worried about that at all anymore. It was slightly scary on Tuesday when my Japanese coworkers were starting to get worried about news of a radiation leak. Even the speakers on the street were saying stay indoors if it rains acid....

But it all seems fine now just over a week on. We still get regular medium size aftershocks, but I'm almost used to them now. They just wake me up and rock me back to sleep. Of course people in the tsunami affected area aren't as lucky and the effects will be felt for many months to come, and it goes without saying that my thoughts and prays are with everyone involved. But here in Tokyo it feels like we're close to getting back to normal. I haven't been into school since graduation on Tuesday due to hardly any kids being there, but Monday shall be business as usual.

Probably the strangest thing since the main event is everyone leaving. I'm lucky that an English friend of mine, Lucie, has moved in and stayed in Tokyo. I really needed someone around while everything was hitting the fan.

So yeah, I'm fine and feel like a lucky mother fucker!

Let's all meet up in the year 2000

2011-03-10T03:10:00.000-08:00

Yo yo what up??

Sad times at the minute, it's graduation for the oldest kids at school on Tuesday. So the past week or so has been full of them practicing for the ceromony. I am going to be a mess of tears on Tuesday, it's like 50 of your best friends leaving you. Woe is me!! Today was the mini ceremony where the other kids give the oldest ones presents, do some performances and everyone sings songs to say thank you and good luck. I really had to try my hardest not to cry when looking at their sweet faces.

Ah but life goes on and life is sweet as a nut. Jubs, breads, dancing, friends. What more could anyone ask for? On the work front I had some dodgy times in the last month. But to cut a long story short, my school just wanted to get rid of someone else. So all is good and I'm wanted in the longterm, so just a matter of getting that visa stamp on my passport and I shall lve here forever more. It's been nice the past few weeks having a fellow gaijin working with me. A guy who was there before me and is kinda on study leave to get his degree. Anyway, nice to have someone to talk to apart from the kids, most of the other teachers barely say a word to me throughout the week.

Two sweet pictures from school....

Oh you know I almost had a date.... an assistant teacher at the sister school who has always been a bit flirty with me but would never do anything with me because of my lack of Japanese. Well after a work jub pissup, I was walking to the train station with her and we were just chatting in Japanese all the way and she was like 'oh wow your Japanese has improved loads'. So I asked her if she wanted to do something the next week and she was all for it. But when I actually texted her she pretty much said she wasn't into me. Ah so close to date number one in life. I'm sure someone else will come along in the next ten years....

I'll be filming for the next Starfire dvd on the 20th, how exciting!! I feel like I've finally earned my place with the top para dancers in Tokyo. What with the Avex event, this dvd, and just feeling like I'm part of the Starfire team. I'm not exactly part of the team, but close enough. And in most clubs when 3rd boom onwards is played so many people follow me for the dance. Happy days!!

Spring is in the air and hanami is coming, and you know what that means?? Piss up in the park!! Or make that many piss ups in many parks over a couple of weeks.... expect me to be hospitalized. Good I-D-E-A!!

Breads and misadventures in clubbing land

2011-02-13T22:22:00.000-08:00

A rare day off work in T-Town, and what have I done with it?? Lounged about and eaten breaded goods. Ahhh what a life, but who am I to deny those breaded wonders?

Ah variety pan, it's one of the top 10 things I love about Tokyo. Every conbini has a big aisle of breaded wonder that includes such delights as butter scotch bread, soba in bread, cheese breads that are made by the gods themselves. I'd have to give Seven Eleven top spot in the bread rankings though, a big brick of butter scotch bread goes down a treat and is number one hangover/drunken food. I swear I could live just off variety pan and that wonderful boulangerie Cafe. And you wanna know the best thing about variety pan?? I continue to lose weight while I stuff my face full of it.

I mean what could be in that bad boy?? It's always a lottery, but one you always win.

Wonders of Japan!

It was a dirty weekend of jubs and clubs as ever, fun and angst all rolled into one explosive big ball of booze.

Friday was low key but delightful all the same. I hit up the jub owned by the ex caretaker of my school, good old Matsuhashi-san, which happens to be about 5 minutes walk from my apartment in Nakano-Sakuae. SWEET!! I went with the ever strange but entertaining Tommy, a German/French co-worker who works at my sister school. A lovely traditional jub that serves Hokkaido food and drinks that I'd give a solid 8/10 jub rating. Add the fact that the director of my school phoned over and bought me a bottle of nice shochu (rice wine you uncultured fools), well happy days indeed.

Saturday was a little more dirty as is always the case. Now I've been on a mission for the past two weeks to really try and enjoy normal clubbing. We know I love love love parapara clubbing, but lets be honest it's very different to everyday clubbing. For one I know just about everyone in the para scene, and it's just a total comfort zone going to para nights. Normal clubs, for me, are a totally different thing. For one thing, I rarely go to a club where I enjoy the music at all, so as much as I enjoy dancing it becomes a bit boring... SHITTTTT!!!!

Of course I love my booze like nothing else (I don't have a problem....) and am happy to go anywhere and booze it up. But of course the main reason most everyone goes clubbing is to pick people up.

SEX SEX SEX....

Which leaves me twiddling my thumbs not doing a lot for most of the night, because if I'm honest I have zero interest in sex or flirting or picking up people or any of that. I never have been as a lot of you probably realise. I must have a wire that wasn't inserted correctly at birth, because I have never met anyone in my life that doesn't have any interest in all that stuff. Never. People say I'll grow out of it or you don't need to have these things they will come. But at 30 years old I think I know what I want and all the normal thoughts people have just don't seem to enter my brain. If I was to ever have a girlfriend/botfriend (no preference to be honest) someone would have to come up to me and lay their cards on the table.

The big question I have, if you were me would you class yourself as A-sexual?? Not that I really care about these labels, but hey, we all need them!!

So my efforts to like normal clubbing have officially failed. The last two weeks have ended with me leaving a club and walking about 3 hours home rather than stay there. And on Saturday I did what I often do when faced with doing nothing at a club, I went down the street, bought a bottle of whisky and drank on a street corner like a bum. But that's way more fun in my eyes. So I shall stick with para clubbing, jubs and whatever adventures come my way. But the real world of sex and real people can stay well away from this fool!

BOOM!! Pro para dancers are we!

2011-02-13T03:19:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a week, the week I became a parapara dancing champion and stepped into the pro dancing ranks!!

Everyone reading this probably knows that parapara is my number one love in life. It's what I live for. Well last week Bancho, the organisor of my favorite para club event, Starfire, he asked me and my para dancing partner Jasmine to be part of the team for a live event on the Thursday. Of course we jumped at the chance. What it was was a live internet streamed event on Nico Nico, where the big three para clubs were invited to dance a couple of hours sets, all to promote Super Eurobeat 210 album.

Well we had no idea what to expect, all we were told was to be at Avex records headquarters on Thursday at 8pm. SWEET!! Oh and it would be fancy dress/cosplay as well. DOUBLE SWEET!!

So the day itself came and we hit Avex and finally found everyone after wandering around lost in the marketing department. SEF, 9loveJ and obviously Starfire were all there and each club had their own table. Everyone was surprised to see me and Jasmine seeing as it was just the best dancers from each of the clubs. Well we're Starfire dancers now so suck my dick!!

It was such a professional setup, like a proper tv show. The other side of the waiting room was the studio itself with the dj booth, stage, and big screen. Anyway the night was setup so SEF went on at 9pm, 9loveJ at maybe 11pm and Starfire last at 12:30am. At around 9pm all the other Starfire dancers arrived. They were (for those interested)...

Keetan
Innochi
Shintaro
Ryohei
Harumi
Take
Negi
Hitoshi
Heather (from America)

It felt amazing to be part of such an awesome team and even more amazing to dance with them. I love that Harumi, Innochi and Keetan were asking me to show them some of the dances. I feel like they really treat me as an equal in the para world. I know they've been around so much longer and let's face it are the kings of para, but I've worked really hard on my para style for a long time so I could be up there with them, and I've gotta say I feel I'm pretty good these days. Jasmine as well.

Well it wasn't long before Take and Hitoshi hit the conbini for alcohol goodness. We were all a little worried to have more than one drink seeing as this was quite a big event, but the Avex director '7A' came over to our table and told everyone to not worry and just have a good time, and generally just do what Starfire does best. And that is get drunk and dance! So that's exactly what we did. While the other clubs were being super serious and practicing in the toilets, we were all doing shots and having an awesome time. Bancho who was dj'ing was pretty drunk by the time we went on... haha, what a legend!

So it was getting near to us going on, so we all hunkered down around the setlist to decide who would dance what songs. There was about 70 songs in our set. I got to dance a lot of songs which was nice, and I was picked for a bunch of songs because me and Hitoshi were the only one's who could remember the routines.

Starfire dance time STARTO!!!!!

First song was Kingdom of Rock, and Hitoshi and Take went up first but Harumi was pushing me to join them, and who am I to argue!

Ohhhhh my days was it like a dream come true to be dancing with my favorite para dancers on tv (well internet). I danced a whole bunch of songs with all different people. Harumi, Hitoshi, Innochi, Keetan, Take, Jasmine and Heather. Just.... awesome!! The Starfire set went by so so quickly and we all had such an amazing time dancing and boozing. Throughout the night people could type messages that came up on screen, it was weird to see my name a lot. Messages like 'Max is sparkling'. Haha!

And I was XD

Half way through me, Jasmine and Heather were interviewed. That was embarrasing.... I just blurted out some rubbish Japanese that made little sense, but they know what I'm like and gfound me funny at least. For the end ten songs we decided everyone from Starfire would dance on camera together. That quickly turned into everyone who was there dancing, even Satoko from the parapara allstars. I just can't express how much fun it was!!

At the end the presenter wanted to interview the most messaged and requested dancer, and guess what, it was little old me XD I felt like a celeb, I was taking pictures with people at the end and we even had to sign a load of posters for avex. Awesome!!! Avex even payed for an after party. How nice! 7A the director is actually really nice, and Eri (hyper techno Eri) was sitting with us at the izakaya and she is really sweet. First time I've ever talked to her.

It was almost 7am by the time we got home and.... I had work at 8:30am. Bad times. I managed to get there by 11:30am. Not to bad....

So highlights of the night??

- Teaching Harumi, Innochi and Shintaro lots of routines.
- Dancing with the best para dancers in the world and feeling like I deserve to be there.
- Having everyone shouting 'Max Crime' when we were dancing Sex Crime.
- Annoying all the camera crew because we were all drinking in the studio
- Feeling like a minor celeb and making everyone laugh.

You can watch it all here - http://www.sendspace.com/file/p3w6eo

So there you go, one of the best days of my life, and I guess now me and Jasmine are part of Starfire. Ambitions have been met!

Take me back to Tokyooooooo

2011-01-23T23:26:00.000-08:00

Long time no blog huh?

Well since I last posted Christmas and new years has come and gone, and I've flown half way round the world and back. Exciting!! But not really. Well I did get to go back to England for new years like I planned, but to be honest, it was a bit of a waste of time. Yeah I did have to do a visa run to get onto a tourist visa while I wait to apply for my full working visa rubbish (boring as shit). And yes of course it was fantastic to see all my friends over in England, but I couldn't help but feel like I was just treading water until I could come back to my real home, Tokyo.

So yeah I did have a nice new years with one of my closest friends, and good times were had. And no doubts it was awesome hanging out with my homeboy Tristan in his crackden. BUT I couldn't shake the feeling that I just wanted to get back to work and get on with life. My life just isn't in England anymore, I wonder if it ever will be again?

There was a little drama at Heathrow airport coming back. Because I only had a one way ticket to Japan, Japan Airlines wouldn't let me fly.... bunch of cunts! Most other airlines let you fly on a one way ticket but oh no, this was a no go. So their solution was for me to buy a refundable ticket from Tokyo to Korea for 650 quid.... bad times. So thanks to my Mum I was finally able to check in and and head home. Let me back up a minute though. I'd been staying at Tristan's for a few days before, and in his wisdom he gave the little present of a 'special brownie', a super loaded one I must say. A 'take a horse to the moon' loaded one. My little plan was to chomp this bad boy before I reached check in and then it'd kick in nicely and give me a much more interesting flight back. But with all the drama it started kicking in when I was trying to sort this ticket out... it took all my energy to stay on the ball. FOCUS!!!! But saying that, it was an epic flight back....

And you know what, the immigration guy at Narita didn't even care about a onward ticket.... dickheads!!

But it's great to be back in Tokyo with all my para jub loving friends. And going back to work was sweet, loads of the kids had missed me lots, and it's been so much fun getting back into the swing of things. We had a small playday at school on Saturday where each room had an activity going on. I was in charge of the English lesson room, where myself, Tommy from our sister school, and the Japanese English teacher we have boomed out 5, 20 minute lessons. I was left incharge of planning the lessons, so they were pretty fun. We had sections like 'Max's Yahata English'. Where I taught words and phrases the kids can say to me everyday. Things like 'pick me up' and 'play with me' and 'yo yo!!'. And there was some AKB48 themed musical statues games going on. Fun fun. And then the Dad's put on a show doing anything from comedy to magic to playing the harp. Impressive!! And then I did the final act, a parapara dance medley of course, which was clearly awesome, loads of kids came on stage and danced with me. YES!!! And I got a medal for it. Haha!!

BUT THEN.... OH NO!!!

I felt so ill all of a sudden I went into the office to sit down and fainted. Well they took my temperature and it was like the sun, I should have been dead. So the director took me down the doctors and got me all sorted out with meds, and since then I've been in bed feeling like I fell out of a plane without a parachute. PLUS I'm not allowed back to school until Thursday, how boring.

So belated happy new year and let's make this the best year yet! I know I will.

Bonenkai, you mother fucker!!!!

2010-12-23T01:51:00.000-08:00

Well today is a complete write off... thanks to my third (and most definetly last) bonenkai of the week.

Yesterday was the Starfire bonenkai party, which was always going to get messy. When Bancho and Fujimoto are around it always does. I think the 4 hours original plan went a bit out the window seeing as we started at 8:30 and got home around 3 or 4am. Those swines they really know how to destroy me, or actually my liver. We hit two jubs in Shinjuku, the scene of my Saturday adventure... the first jub, Kachikachiyama, was somewhat civilized, but by the time we stumbled to the second evil jub we were all in bits.

It goes without saying I browned out, very little memory of what went down there or even leaving there. Come to think of it did I take my jacket and scarf?? Shitttttt!!!! Ah well. But today me and the girls were meant to go to an outdoor anime rave in Shinjuku that started at 12pm, well the girls made it, but alas my body is still in pieces and it's 6:30pm now. And I still need to get presents for four people.... damnnnnnn. Well still got over an hour until the shops close.

You see Christmas starts tomorrow for us here in the Thunderdome. Jasmine being Swedish means we get to celebrate Swedish Christmas day which is on the 24th.... weirdly. And then of course English Christmas day is on the 25th. I need to make paper hats, no crackers over here. Starfire tops off Christmas day and then after a hangover day it's off to England for new years. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to going back to England, who would have thought? But once I'm there I know I'll be craving my real home that is Tokyo. And three weeks without my kids, ohhhh how I'll miss them.

Oh by the way (this post is all over the place isn't it...). One of my favorite girls at school, Ann-chan, it was her last ever day at the kindergarten on Monday. Her parents are moving to England, so she'll be going to school there. Her Mum took some photos of me and Ann-chan which she printed out for me, and she wrote me a letter. I really had to hold back the tears. So sad to know I'll never see them again. What am I going to be like when the oldest kids leave in April. Ahhhhh mannnnnnn!!!!

Anyway I better get those presents sorted and wrapped. Toodles.

Fear and bloody bonenkai loathing!!

2010-12-21T05:44:00.000-08:00

My life gets more and more fear and loathing with each passing year, and Saturdays Bonenkai has to go down at the top of my list of most stupidly awesome adventures ever. Bonenkai is a tradition in Japan where people get together and drink away their sins from the year. An awesome tradition I'm sure you'll agree, but a tradition that was always going to get messy if you know what I'm like....

The story goes a little something like this....

Just your average pre Christmas Saturday night with my fellow Tokyo drinking buddies. We're in the heart of Shinjuku so jub alley it is, also known as memory lane. Ok, let's get one thing straight about drinking in Japan, if you're going to do it right you have to hit a jub (Japanese pub) with crates. That is, if you aren't sitting on a pile of crates in someones converted living room, well you are worthless as a person and I will not associate with your kind. Memory lane is one of the few crate jub areas in Shinjuku, of course if you head to places like Nakano and Koenji the jubs and crates are everywhere. But I digress. It was pretty ram a damma ding dong as far as the booze eye could see, but after awhile we got pulled into this most useless of jubs. Over priced, shit drinks, a chunder bucket by my feet. This is no way to kick of a bonenkai!!! So we move on.

To a 100yen jubber!! The promised land! This is how a bonenkai should be started, and started it was! Drinks flowed, laughs were had, but alas little Jasmine had a club night/concert to go to at midnight. Being rather tipsy myself and my fellow boozers decided to join her. So to Loft we headed for some hardcore noise dj rubbish. Of course myself and my drinking partner in crime who I shall refere to as 'Dickhead', we stuffed whsky down our pants and were ready to rock and roll. It was all average fun and dancing until we were hit by a sentence so deadly I hardly dare repeat it.....

JAGER SHOTS FOR 100YEN......

Well, those swines were just determined to kill us weren't they, and at 100 yen a pop it was just a matter of 'keep them coming'. Vague foggy memories of a spiritus bottle as well entering the arena, but of this I can not be sure. It goes without saying it was at this point it all went badly wrong. I lost everyone else at what must have been around 4am, quite a feat being a small venue. Suddenly the urge to leave came like a wave crashing sown upon my bruised brain. Foggy visions of me crashing out the doors and up the stairs, emerging with no idea where I was. Woe is me!!!

Now.... I was planning to book my flight home to England for new years that same day, and because of that I had a cool 130,000 yen in my wallet. Around 1000 pounds in real cash. The next part I cannot and will not write about, it's gonzo and fear and loathing but.... this is far to public a place to divulge such tales. So I must appologise and sensor myself, a pussy I am. If you really want to know what happened contact me via Facebook or someother form of internet magic.

BASICALLY..... In my drunken bonenkai tornedo state.... I was robbed. I lost everything. No return for new years, not even my train fair home. It has to go down as a top 3 lifetime train wreck.

The moral of the story? There is no moral, or at least run when you hear the magic sentence 'jager 100yen a shot'.... But managed to wizard up the money again the next day so it was only a minor inconvenience.

よかったね!!

Hearto Catchy YES YES!!

2010-12-16T06:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas in Japan, it just aint Christmas is it.

It looks like I'll be heading to good old England for new years, hurrah! Should be leaving on the 27th, which means I get to spend Christmas here with my Japanese family, as in the ever wonderful Jazz and Gabs. We get to celebrate Christmas on the 24th and 25th seeing how Swedish Christmas is the 24th and English Christmas is.... normal and on the 25th. Should be a good one topped off with Starfire para night on the 25th at midnight. Perfect Christmas times! Our wonderful friend/lodger, Diana, is coming over from Sweden as well. Excellent! I am really looking forward to being back in the UK, even though I know I'll be bored of it and longing for Japan within a day of being there.

I got a 10% pay rise at work, BOOM!! Almost a year working there now, can't believe it. One of my favorite girls, Ann-chan is leaving on Monday for good, sad times. Her parents are moving to London and she'll be going to school there. I've been helping her Mum with her English lol. We had our Christmas show this week. All the classes put on a performance ranging from dance to plays. Some of them were so so like a scene from Mean Girls. Jingle Bell Rock baby....

First thing I do when I'm in England? Cadburys, pasties and cheese! I am bringing a LOT of chocolate back here with me.

Anyway before Christmas there's lot's of drinking and chundering to be had in the name of bonenkai. A yearly tradition here where you end the year drinking your sins away with friends, and who am I to argue! Only two more days of school and then I'm off till the 11th. Good because I could do with a rest, but bad because, well, who will I play tag and pretty cure with in the mean time???

Samurai blue

2010-12-09T06:40:00.000-08:00

Merry run up to Christmas from Tokyo yo.

School..... my job. It's what I live for now. I'd give up everything else in life for those damn kids.... So yeah, in the past month it's been pretty fun times at school, lot's of festivals and little events, the main one being the school bazaar. That was fun fun fun. Basically the school and outside turned into one big market with each room having a theme, like Christmas, hand made goods. As well as food and games outside. I picked lot's of sentimental treasures and a mini beer pump for 500 yen.... home nama's are mine! We've had loads of small events like yesterday was the monthly birthday event and I dressed up as Santa and sang 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'. Loads of fun. I was santa for another schools Christmas party as well lastweek which went really well, they loved my Santa comedy stylings.

I don't know why I get on so well with kids, they just love me and I love them. Who would have ever thought that would happen. It's most certainly my calling to work with kids, although lets have less of the work and more of the play....

Life outside of school is good right now. It's all about the para and the jubs, that's Japanese pubs.... and it's really about the crates. If you go out drinking in Tokyo you have to drink somewhere where you sit on crates. It's the cheap authetic option. Ohhhh don't get me started on karaoke.... always best times ever, but always so messy with so many hours all you can drink. You can guarentee I'm getting into an arguement with the staff at some point. Either the drinks have no booze in them, oh wait I'm a mess maybe they do.... or they try and charge you triple for being a silly gaijin. In reality I'm just stupidly drunk and causing a scene....

My work visa I've decided to take my time with it seeing as I need a new passport and it takes 6 weeks to get one, time would have run out on my current visa. SO I'll have to leave the country and do a visa run, come back into the country on a six month tourist visa. Of course I'll still work, I mean vollenteer.... But it menas there's no rush. So I'm planning on a Christmas holiday to England, hopefully if all goes to plan I'll head over around the 21st and return around the 12th. It seems strange to want to have a holiday in England, but I would like to see family and friends, and just chill out in a real house for a bit. And I really want to remember why I love it so much out here, and I will do after a few days in the UK, that's for sure. But if this trip doesn't work out I'll spend Christmas here with everyone and do a visa run to Korea in January.

Oh yeah that's what else happened with school, we went to the theatre. Well.... it was to see the Japanese version of the Tweenies. It was ohhhhhh so weird, but of course fun

Hmmm I'm thinking if it'd be a good idea to get my own place in the new year. As fun as it is living with two of my best mates I really do crave something more than a corner of a living room. Time to upgrade and level up I think. Need more space!!!!!!

Ja ne laters yo

Disgrace!!!

2010-11-08T01:33:00.000-08:00

Time in Tokyo, it's just one big blur. So much happens here but I can never remember quite what. I guess it's a life brown out... that's like a blackout but where you remember bits and pieces...

I BROWNED OUT!!!

The whole of October was all about two things. Halloween and Jasmine's Birthday month. Yes, Birthday month. We celebrated it at almost all of the clubs we go to everyweek and dressed up at nearly all of them. Cake was had and thrown, many a brown out was had, and many an AKB48 outfit was worn.... The highlight of the month of Birthday probably being the house party where we were graced with the presence of our good para friends, Bancho and Fujimoto-san. Great party with far to much spiritus. I woke up with a tranny in my bed and a navaho on the sofa. Total blackout. What more could you ask for.

Highlight of my school month was a field trip to Kawagoe in Saitama, which is just north of Tokyo. We travelled to a potatoe picking farm where we all dug for sweet pototoes, had a picnic and just played about in the woods all day. I was assigned with the oldest kids for the day which was sweet, usually I'm with hiyoko year, the youngest kids. The bus rides on field trips are always so fun, everyone is so psyked, songs are sang and it's just a right good laugh. In a few weeks we're going on a trip to see a kids theatre show which looks a lot like the Tweenies. Should be good. For some reason I have to be suited up.

I'm planning a little diddle of a project of making a film of a day at my school. I'd love to show my friends and family what it's actually like and how awesome the kids are. Current favorite kid? Seina-chan, she's a comedy legend, makes me laugh so much. I have lunch with her every other day, have to make it look like I don't have favorites.... but when it comes to lunch I switch between four groups of girls. Anyway, look forward to my little movie.

I have to apply for a new passport seeing as I lost my original one the first week I was here... but it got me thinking my list of disgrace is pretty long already for only having lived here for ten months. Infact, this deserves a list. A list of disgrace and excellence!!

Passport... LOST.... DRUNK
Tooth.... BROKEN.... DRUNK
Bike.... STOLEN... ALMOST DEPORTED
Glasses... BROKEN.... DRUNK x2
SEF para night.... BANNED FROM GUESTLIST..... DRUNK CAKE INCIDENT
Kissed a married man... DRUNK!!!
Dennys dinner.... BANNED.... DRUNK FIGHTING THE MANAGER AND PUKE EVERYWHERE

Hmmm I'm missing a few bad ones. I mean last Friday night sums up the average night out. First izakaya, drunk as a brick. On to karaoke, booze hotline, to many milks, glasses broken, the room is a river of booze and chunder, get over charged, argue with the manager and almost get in a fight (this happens every karaoke...). On to bar number two.... brown out. Drink on the streets annoying the locals and getting moved on by the police. Bike home somehow.

Perfect!!

But yeah, if para clubbing is not on the agenda then that's usually the plan or some variation of that. Saying that I really need some more interests and ways of meeting new people. Apart from my housemates and one or two others I don't have anyone to call on for good times, I'm not complaining oh no, I'm pretty lucky as it is. I would just like to meet some new people. How to do this is the question!!?? Well I was thinking how much I miss playing sports, mainly football and golf. So I might go check out some clubs to do with that. Get on it Beckwith.

Ok love life, what would you do if you were me? I really have no clue what to do. So if you were me, a clueless 30 year old virgin with zero experience in anything lovelife related..... what would be your move? I'm great with friends and people I know, and lets face it, I'm awesome. So help me out, what would you do??? This is the only part of life that I feel I haven't cracked. Let's get it done.

My visa process is in full swing. I have a immigration lawer on the case sorting it all out for me. He has a 98% sucess record and says I shouldn't have any problems. Even without a degree I can get a sponsered work visa, we're going down the path of me having three years teaching experience in England. Which obviously I don't have.... but it can be anything, volenteer work, private teaching, anything. I just have to supply references and tick the boxes basically. I may have to come to England to apply in person at the London Japanese Embassy, which is silly, but at the same time I would like to come back for maybe two weeks over christmas and new years. So that could work out nicely.

I'll leave you with my fave AKB48 video of the minute, so so cute.

Yasai Sisters

Boomtown out....

BOOM!!

2010-09-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since my last post, things are great and maybe a little down at the same time, but mostly great here in Tokyo land.

My world is being consumed by my schools sports day festival which is taking place on Saturday. It's all very different to English sports days in the fact there aren't really any sports being done. No it's more of a dance festival than anything. Each year group is doing a big performance, the mums and dads are doing a dance, and the mums are doing a special AKB48 dance as well. As for me? I'm taking part in all three XD We've spent many days after school learning the AKB48 dance, well really the whole day is AKB48 themed.

YES!!! I do love me some AKB!!!

One of the mums has made me an AKB outfit with the skirt and little hat, it's gonna be boooooomtown all over the place! I'm playing the taiko drum as well during the day. It's gonna be so much fun.

Yeah school is just the highlight of my life right now which is a good thing, it really is that much fun. Over the past month David, who used to work at my school came here for a month holiday. It's been a hell of a lot of fun hanging out with him, we get along really well. It was nice having a male friend around, made me realise all my friends in Tokyo are women. AGGGGGHHHHH!!! We partied it up quite a bit and put on THE best school birthday performance in history. You see every month we have a school party to celebrate the kids birthdays of that month, and some teachers will do a play or dance. It's always a lot of fun. This month, me David and three sexy teachers did a big lio and stich para performance. We dressed up and decoracted the place and it was just awesome. The kids heads actually exploded.

BOOM!!

I think I've been a little down lately about my love life.... which I never normally am. I think it's that everyone around me is just always love love sex sex, and I'm.... a brick. Would be nice to change my ways, but I don't know what I want so... whatever. But it has depressed me recently. Just to experience a date would be nice... I'm not asking for sex, or to even kiss someone, just dinner or something would be a step in the right direction.

On a brighter note, you know I've kinda realised over the past few months how lucky I am to be me in social situations. Now I don't want ths to come across as big headed, but I really don't have to do much other than sit back have a drink, drop in a few jokes and just be me, and people seem to really enjoy my company. I do consider myself lucky with this because I know a lot of people make so much effort socially and don't get much in return. I bet this sounds so up myself, but it's just something I've noticed.

Anyway gotta love you and leave you. Lots of dance practice to be had tomorrow and it's getting late. Oh and I got arrested for a stolen bike and nearly deported, but that's another story XD

River glasses finding victory!! @ a bbq in Saitama a few weeks ago.

Dancing at SEF clubnight. Love this picture!

Me and my housemate Jasmine doing what we do best!

Burning like fire!!

2010-09-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

How much longer is this heatwave going to last??!!!!

It's been, well over three months now with the temperature constantly around 35c, in the past week it's topped 37c. CRAZY!!! It's supposedly the hottest Tokyo summer since the war. Add the intense humidity to the heat and it can get unbearable. On the plus side I've never been this tanned in my life, but man alive I can't wait for autumn to get here, then we can just relax and have a normal summer.

Actual photo of Shin Nakano where I live. INTENSE!!

School is back in full swing this week after the long summer break. I'm so glad. It's fantastic seeing all the kids again, all my little mates. The German guy, David, who I pretty much replaced at the school is back for a month and a bit. He's a really nice guy though, we get along pretty well. It's actually really fun having someone I can joke around with without any language barriers. It's also worked in my favor with the other teachers as well, because they see me laughing and joking with David and they all really like him, so they kind of see me just as my joking normal self. I've noticed they've really been making a lot more effort to chat with me. If you're wondering my Japanese is getting a hell of a lot better, but still needs a lot of improving. But it's at a point where I can understand most conversations and can at least get my point across. And I can read hiragana pretty much perfectly now. It's getting there!

Yay my kindergarten <3

The pool on the roof with a spectacular view of Nakano/Shinjuku and on a clear day the mountains to the west. Love the pool!

It's coming to a point in my stay here where I have to think about my visa. So I'm on a working holiday visa that finishes in early February. My school are happy to sponsor me for a full working visa, but having only finished half my degree it will be difficult, but not impossible, and hey, if anyone can do it, it's me! You know what a lucky son of a mother fucker I am.... I'll get legal advice soon to find out all my options and go from there. But you know I'm not leaving anytime soon. The thought of leaving my kids..... breaks my heart.

So what have I been up to lately in Tokyo? Ahhhh you know, the usual. Clubbing, drinking, clubbing, eating and sunbathing. There's still a ton of things I have on my to do list in Japan. Things like Fuji and Kamakura. Maybe number one on that list is going to the beach and just spending the night there with a bottle of bourbon and a good book. Something I may well do this coming weekend. I really want to break my routine and just go to some random places off the beaten trail. Saying that, this week looks like school and clubbing, and who am I to complain XD

Lots of love from Tokyo. Always living the dream!

Summer Holidays are over let's get blitzed!!

2010-08-27T02:47:00.000-07:00

Today marks the end of summer holidays at my school. I say holidays but I've been working in the summer school all the time as I don't get paid holiday yet.

If you didn't know I work in the most fantastic kindergarten in Koenji, Tokyo. It's an all Japanese school for kids aged 4-6. My job is basically to play with the kids all day and just be their friend. Well, it's the best job in the world, or at the very least the best job I could ever want to have. It suits me down to the ground, I just have to be my happy fun loving self and everyone seems to think I'm doing a great job.

Well it's been maybe two months since I saw most of the kids, who I pretty much consider my little mates, I'm so looking forward to next week and seeing them all again. Summer school has been a mix of easy days and boring days. There haven't been more than 15 kids there at any one time so sometimes it's got slightly boring, but the pool made it entertaining. I made that into my own hot tub XD Weirdly I was the teacher who would get in with the kids. I'm pretty unique how I go about playing with the kids. I always play 100% hardly ever taking a minute to rest, which means a lot of running and fighting and rolling around. I end everyday looking like the rest of the kids, where most of the teachers look pristine. I know the heads of the school like my style though, it's exactly what they want. And everyday I get kids so happy to see me and shouting 'Makkusu Sensei!!!'.

There's nothing that fills me with more pride than the kids calling me Sensei, and especially when they tell me they love me <3 Sweetest kids in the world and I love them all x1000000000000000 Who would have thought I'd end up loving kids so much.

I've been thinking about my visa recently, seeing as it expires in mid January. Basically the school are more than happy to sponsor me for a full visa. GREAT!! But I never did finish my degree. BAD!! So soon I'm going to get legal advice and find out all my options. Being a native Englishman gives me a huge selling point though, and hey, if anyone is gonna get a visa out of these people it'll be me!

COMING SOON.....

Some of my highlights of my stay in Japan so far, including adventures in the mountains, almost losing my arm and soul to a dirty voodoo man in Roppongi and oh so more.

Picture tours of my fave places in East Tokyo. My apartment, school, reading spots, drinking holes and the rest.

YES!

English man in Tokyo part one

2010-08-24T09:45:00.000-07:00

Hi and welcome to my blog bloggy blog, brought to you from the land of insantity and stupidness that is Japan.

You probably know me already right? Well maybe you do and maybe you don't. Maybe you only half know me. So let me fill you in briefly on how I came to be living in Tokyo.

MAX PROFILE GO!!!!!!

1980 - Born Leicester England

Drunk....

2004 - Discovers the Japanese dance called parapara

2007 - Goes to University of East London to study degree in history so I can move to Japan to dance parapara

2009 - Failing the degree decides to go to Japan via a working holiday visa for 1 year

2010 - In Japan being drunk

I'd like to think many things have happened in between but to be honest... I was drunk and I forget. So here I am in Tokyo in August 2010. I moved in January and since then I haven't looked back. So yeah, I'm here on a one year visa but I have THE best job ever and noway do I plan on leaving it in the next few years. Visa?? Just leave that to me, I never fail!!

Oh the job? Kindergarten teacher, teaching the greatest most fun kids in the world. All aged 4-6. It may sound young but they are all my bestest mates and I love them more than words could express. Oh how I love them. I love my job and I love Tokyo.

I live in Shin Nakano by the way, which is just west of Shinjuku. A great party location but at the same time really nice and with a lot of atmosphere. I live with two of my best friends, Gaby and Jasmine, from England and Sweden respectively. I love them both so much and feel so blessed to be living with them, as I know this will only be a short a period in my life.

My life in Tokyo mainly consists of working at my kindergarten and clubbing/drinking. But when I say clubbing mean parapara clubbing. Most people think it's rubbish but I love it more than anything else in life, I had my own night in London I love it that much.

I love Tokyo, the whole vibrant way of life and how it's pretty damn hard to be bored here. I do find a lot of similarities to London in the way there's so much going on but only if you look for it. I've always loved the fast pace of life, not really for me, but for other people. I like to see a city on the move. The architecture, the lights, the hustle and bustle. It's so different to where I grew up in small town Wigston, England. The things I hate about Tokyo??

Not this!! This is me and friends boozing in a river in the mountains during a bbq a few weeks ago, one of the most fun days of my life!!!

BUT.....,

I dislike the people always in a hurry being rude and just rubbish and racist. Yeah it does make me laugh how some people are to foreigners, is it weird there are people outside of Japan?? In fact most of my complaints come from the people, the way they can't communicate and are just so different, but that's just the way they are here. And obviously the lack of space. It's hard to find a private space to chill out. You can't just go to the park and read a book on your own, people are always there. But saying that deserted car parks are a great reading spot of mine XD

My weeks here consist of working at my kindergarten, para clubbing, drinking, eating, reading and the odd bit of culture when it fits into my schedule. I've never been happier tbh, there's not a lot I miss from England, although I guess I DO miss it.

Me and one of my bestest mates Jasmine <3

If you're wondering about my love life, I doubt you are but I guess it makes up a lot of peoples life's, I have none. Hell, lets be honest, it's a new blog after all. I have no love life, I never have. Never had a girlfriend, never had a boyfriend, a virgin at 30. BUT HELL, does that make me boring in anyway, hell no, I'm boom town central baby and to be honest all that stuff doesn't mean a hell of a lot to me. Ahhhh that's for another day, but just know all that stuff other people think about, it really doesn't enter my mind like hardly ever.

So yeah, loving it in Tokyo 2010, hope to stay here a hell of a lot longer. Look forward to clubbing updates, thoughts on Tokyo, the people, and life as an English man in the weirdest city in the world!

Me teaching at a school festival