働き蜂

title translation: hataraki-bachi (worker bee). it means to be working all the time - to be a workaholic.
so. apparently everyone has been keeping a candlelight vigil, singing church songs with eyes closed, waiting for the return of my blog. well, here it is. the second coming.

you all know that i make the trek to school every day. well, it's 4 days - monday, tuesday, thursday and friday. there's no school on wednesday. but what you might not all know is what i'm doing for employment. at st. john's, all four years i was employed at the school of theology as a computer boy: easy job, good security, sitting on a computer. now, though, i'm in japan, and there's no more work like that. i have to use actual skills and stuff. but not just any skills. skills that i had no problem acquiring - i just have to speak my native language to people, and they throw money at me! i also use one more skill that is a little more exciting. see below.

so now i'm working three different "jobs." i will list them in order of bizarreness. (least to most bizarre.)

1. chat lounge assistant
mmhmm, i'm back at my old study abroad stomping grounds, bunkyo university - or shall we say BABEnkyo?!?! HAHAHAHAHA! wait, that's nearly impossible to say. nevermind. for this job, i earn a lot of money - seriously, more than i've ever made before - to sit in a room and wait for interested students to come by and listen to me talk about stuff. i often start talking about how cold it is in minnesota, or how much i like peanut butter. then most people smile awkwardly and sidestep out the door. but it's by far the best money i've ever made. thanks, bunkyo! they don't even know that i never passed the first grade! ah, to be white in japan.

2. one-on-one conversation partner
one of the students at the bunkyo chat lounge found me another little money-making morsel of fun: a private conversation buddy. but this is no normal person i'm conversing with, now. he's 27, has numerous piercings, wears all black, and writes death metal songs. i help translate them. he also wears his pants really low so i can see his butt. i honestly feel like dan holth is talking to me half the time. i'm just waiting for him to show me his "paintings" so i can be even more weirded out. still, good money. i can be goth for good money.

3. hair model
yes, everyone, the rumors are true. i was approached by a weak-looking little japanese man at school. he told me (in japanese) that he was looking for models. i asked why. he said he was the representative of the tokyo metropolitan area at the national hair tournament. HAIR? i said. i told him i have lots of gray hairs. he said not to worry - my hair was abundant and beautiful. basically, he needed to cut it. he offered to do it for free and pay for my transportation. "why not?" i thought. so i went and he made my hair look like this:

i look like a reject from west side story or something. all i need is a pack of cigarettes in my shirt sleeve. well, i got a little scared thinking he was going to leave my hair like this, so i told him to take it out. before he would, he explained that he wanted me to come to his salon once a week to have this done to me. to practice for the competition, he needs a live head, after all. every time he would do my hair up, maybe put some color in it, and then take it down. hmmm. i thought about it. i asked him how much i would be paid. he said about $10 each time i came. i told him to give me more. he caved, saying that because i was a "top-level model," he would give me $20 plus transportation. OK! i said. so now i am a hair model, and i make ridiculous amounts of money for sitting in a barber's chair, and i will have this done once a week for about 45 more weeks, and i will be a hair modeling star in magazines and stuff. and then all of you can begin to kiss my milky white feet.

so that's it for employment. i'll let you know if anything else comes my way, but my 3-odd-job lifestyle is paying the bills.

other news:
i went to a mlb vs. japan all star game at the tokyo dome. no twin made an appearance, which means that i saw the only game joe mauer didn't play. i think. i wept inside. but it was fun, because, for one, i got to see ryan howard hit a ball to china. here's a picture of the game:


i picked this one because you can catch a glimpse of those god-forsaken "rally sticks" or whatever the hell they're called. they kill me. every spectator got a pair of them. on the package it proclaimed that the sticks were "american style." i've never been more ashamed.

2. obsession
i am obsessed with "lost," the abc show. i downloaded the first season and i can't stop watching. right now i'm waiting for season 2 to arrive on my hard drive, and i'm having patience issues.

3. daisuke matsuzaka
i only wish the father of the gyroball could replace francisco liriano this season.

i will sign off now. keep it real, homies!
また来週！

tom