take on a trip id like to go some day so i ended up running the minimos in 50:17 grr. i was aiming for 50mins! mildly annoying but its good to know that im close. i ran without a watch so im suprised by time was so close to required pace. also the timing chip they had only measured the ending time.. not the start. and i figured i took a good 10-20s to reach the start line, so i very likely did it in time. but unofficially (blergh)

afterwards i headed off to Lugarno (yeh i didnt know where it was either) for lunch. we had these massive lamb shanks which were tasty even though i wasnt really hungry. It was really nice to catach up with some work ppl from head office.. but the drive home was deadly. since id woken up at 6am for the run i was really tired. i had a few microsleeps on the long drive home. once i was saved from oncoming traffic by a small median strip (phew). in hindsight i shoudlve pulled over an had a nap.

last friday i went to the Sydney Film Festival to see this movie called American Teen. I went in with very low expectations cos it sounded like some boring reality tv-like doco-drama.

this past saturday was really busy. I had JET training most of the day which was awesome. from what i gathered by reading the forums i was very worried that the JET program would be full of anime nerds who spent their days flaming and trolling. but the people there were realyl nice and cool. suprisingly though there are 5 Sydney people going to Fukushima and 4 of them are asians (incl me). we also went to Akaneya afterwards to bond.. and drink.

afterwards i went to this 21st/farewell, where i was the only guy who turned up... there was like 11 girls.. and ian =p it actually sorta looked like a hens night cos the girl had this halo headband thing which sorta looked like those mini-veils that hens nights have. it was kinda weird at the start.. but then i was like.. uh.. this isnt so bad =p

my jet number is 20080300027.. i have no idea what its used for.. i imagine japan must have high tech serial number/microchip embedded in my forehead to keep track of my buying habits or something.

in other news: i finally got my green Ps (w00t!) also i get to burn a year worth whislt in japan. But annoyingly my licence expires in Sept 08? wtf? im going back to the RTA tomo to sort it out. I hope I dont have to pay for a new licence.. it seems liek they made the mistake more than i did, but if i know the gov it wont matter who made the mistake, ill have to pay.

Labels: drinking, japan, jet, running

shot through the heart! and you're to blame! on monday we had yum cha and lasertag. yum cha was normal.. laserzone was cool but we spent most of the time waiting in a horrible long line. although they kept screwin up our group, first there werent enough vests (overbooking?) then 3 people had vests which didnt work. but we did get a bunch of free games which was cool (although quite tiring). also frisbee was cancelled yet again.. so we filled int he time with 2 hours of 2 person karaoke.. *cough*splutter*.. bleh.. my throat is now sore =p

i've been doing a bit of running(~40km) in the last fortnight, its like so painful but still so fun. im running the 10k MiniMos fun run on Sunday, which i guess im sorta training for. Im very confident i can make the distance, but there are some pretty hectic hills in the run which make it kinda scary. Im hoping the adrenaline will carry me over those massive uphill parts.

im getting too good at turning off my alarm clock. I can sorta do it while im 90% asleep now, which oft leads to sleeping in. It might be time for a new clock anyway cos part of the LED is broken.. causing the numebrs to appear all wrong.

so today i went to the dentist to fix a chipped tooth, which i suspect i got from indoor this week. but apparently it wasnt even a tooth, it was a really really old filling, old enough that i dont remember getting it. The dentist just grinded off the filling and it seems fine now..... except for the 6 other cavities i have! which need to get fixed before I go to Japan. I suspect my old dentist was a bit sketchy, cos It hasnt been that long since i last went, how can he miss all 6 cavities?

i think i may have been clocked speeding this morning. gah! it will be mildly annoying to have a suspended licence when i apply for an international licence =p although apparently if i quickly go and get my green Ps, then ill have 6 points and thus not have my licence suspended.

in other news: it seems that ill be able to wear converse all stars to work in japan (yatta!) although i probably wont be able to wear different coloured ones =p

Labels: dentist, driving, japan, jet, karaoke

turning japanese so the big news of the past week or so is that i got confirmation of my position in the JET programme! yatta! Im headed to the sleepy town (technically a city) of Shirakawa-chi in Fukushima prefecture. I dont know heaps about it other than what ive read on wikipedia, but apparently its in the mountains, is close to the snow and is famous for its ramen and soba. Oh and google maps shows me at least two McDonalds and a KFC and a Baskin Robbins.

Speaking of Google maps, in Australia if you use the "get directions" function it shows you how to get there by car. but in japan it shows you how to get there by public transport and by foot. Which may by slightly annoying since im gonna drive everywhere in japan, but it is kinda cool that the train timetable (incl fares) is integrated into google maps.

i didnt do much else this week. i went to see Tuesday Spoils at the Lansdowne.. which was ok. the $5 steaks was alright too. also i saw the new Indiana Jones movie, and it gets a bleh from me, it wasnt particularly good. the story didnt really make much sense, the action was cartoon-like ridiculousness and dialogue was just plain awful.

also there was frisbee.. i didnt play league cos of my ribs. i got my ribs xrayed and the results were negative. i did play indoor.. but we still lost in the grand final. grr. i havent found indoor to be great since it quite advantages taller players, but this weeks semi and grand final were both heaps fun even though we lost.

since i misplaced my wallet some time this weekend ive sorta been living on shrapnel, luckily for me i have a lot of it. since i cant really take it with me, i though id count it up so i can either spend or bank it. this morning i counted $239.5. which took a couple of years to accumulate, but still thats a lot. most of it is $2 coins, $136 to be exact. ninety $1 coins, forty three 50c coins, fifty 20c coins, forty-eight 10c coins and forty four 5c coins.

Labels: japan, jet, money