The status of Max

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.....

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!!

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

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!!!!

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

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,

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!