I missed the festival.....
The comedian known as Borat appeared briefly in Amsterdam Thursday, praising the city's freewheeling nightlife and defending his portrayal of the central Asian country of Kazakhstan.
Borat boasted of picking up a date at a popular Amsterdam bar known as a gay meeting place.
"This woman reminded me of Kazakhi woman, she was more tall than me, with hair on arms, and some hair on face, and deep voice," he told the Dutch press.
Borat Sagdiyev, played by British comic Sacha Baron Cohen, has been criticized as a homophobic, misogynistic, English-mangling caricature — the very traits that endear him to fans of his satire.
Kazakhstan's government placed four-page advertising inserts in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune last month countering Borat's portrayal of the ex-Soviet country as a backward place.
Borat said Thursday the ads were placed by agents of neighbouring Uzbekistan and threatened to "commence bombardment of their cities with our catapults," if they do not stop.
In reality, Kazakhstan profiles itself as a forward-looking pro-Western nation, with double-digit economic growth and immense oil reserves.
Last month, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev met with U.S. President George W. Bush to discuss economic ties.
Borat claimed that the true aim of Nazarbayev's trip was to promote Cohen's new film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Hanabi (Fireworks)
At the end of the Yosakoi festival there is a large firework display , where all the women wear summer kimonos called Yukata and the men wear Jinbei which are light shorts and jackets.
Yosakoi
I wish i had taken better pictures to share with you guys, but actually i caught it all on video.
osaka and more work
Ive been slowly rising up the ranks in this city's educational system. I am now going to teach english at A junior highschool ,and a nursery school. I went to osaka over the last weekend and did some shopping and stayed at a luxury hotel with castle view. Ill load pictures when i get a chance.
Today is my first Typhoon which is more like a tropical storm then anything else.
More work
I have been official hired to teach english replacing a girl from Calgary who is travelling to Russia. I will take over her classes as well as teach a full day once a month at an nursery school.
It really really really hot here now. Like florida in mid summer , crazy hot.
The sun is finally shinning
Its been a while since i could feel that tommorow will not rain, but finally the day after Typhoon #3 i can say that summer has finnally arrived. Not that it wasnt hot before, just that now its sunshine in the forecast. I truly feel like i am in the tropics, huge bugs everywhere, crabs walking on the streets, and terrential downpours. But all that aside its nice to be able to suntan beside the ocean or a river. Its seems that i may become a full time employee at the school i have been working at , which is nice because they told me they need teachers to attend a summer camp at beach 2 hours south fo Kochi. I would love to spend a few weeks at the beach and get paid for it. Ill keep my fingers crossed.
Tonight at 4 am i will watch France Vs. Italy.
Its nice to Zidane in top form , and especially nice to see that Italy is finding ways to win.
no big news
I currently work at a school partime about 5 hours a week in an english conversation class. I will be getting a job interview on the 8th to be a fulltime teacher teaching kids. So things here are getting better. I recently went to a great park called Ya sea park but i forgot to bring my camera, which is ok because it rained for a few hours. Its tsuyu here which is rain season and apparently i got it easy as it only rained a few times. But i Know now where the expresiion "when it rains it pours" comes from , because holy shit man i never saw so much rain. I ride my bike with an umbrella which is kinda funny because in toronto people would look at you strange. Here they look at me strangly because im gaijin, foreigner. But not because i have an umbrella open while riding my bike. now that the rain has let up , i should be taking many more pictures and since i have met some wonderful people i should be going out more often. Apparently i will be going surfing soon which is really exciting and watching the world cup has taken up most of my nights.
Also every saturday at 1030 on asahi Tv i watch this show called TATEMONO
it is a really neat architucture show showing off some of the nicest homes in Japan.
check out the website if you have some time
http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/tatemono/html/02_housou.html(the links on the page will bring you to see pictures of each episode in order of date)
and this one is really nice too.
http://www.tezuka-arch.com/
More Pictures
Godaisan Shrine
The Rocky mountains ?
How about a little Creap with your coffee?
Piatto Bistro
