Some updates...

So its been busy month and 10 days since I last blogged, so I figured I should at least write something down. At least let people know I'm still alive in Japan (haha).

Hockey is going great. So far, in the second season we're 3-0-1. Last game was pretty exciting as the Nayoro ALTs and my office came down to cheer me on. The opposition had a Japanese player that had played in college so he was really good. Though not good enough, I scored twice and added an assist. I think I was fueled to such success, by the fact that he was looking to hit me every opportunity he got, so I had to respond back in some way.

In fact, on one rush, I was going in on a semi-break away, he was the only defender left. He decided to come across and hit me, though I dodge he did manage to clip my head which left my neck sore for a few days. He then hit his own teammate who was in the corner, and by hit I mean completely ploughed over, it was awesome. So awesome, that I was just looking at him smiling and couldn't even score a goal on that play. Buggered weighed about 170-180 lbs, so his teammate must of been hurting pretty bad. Anyway, he seemed to hurt himself on that incident, guess thats karma.

But the season is winding down. The season ends on the 20th or so. After that I'll be looking forward to having a nice break from hockey. Most likely in April or so I'll start conditioning my body again and start weight training. I want to see if I can hit a weight of about 170 lbs. I believe I am about 150lbs from excessive eating and sitting on my ass playing guitar everyday.

While we're on the subject about guitars, we had a band practice last week, without our vocalist. (He's extremely busy because he works at the town hall.) But we managed lay the ground work to the songs, so to speak. It was especially helpful to practice with Saitou-san, my fellow guitarist in the band. We planned out who would play what part and some what sync ourselves to each others playing.

After practice we had a Jam session. Basically when I was jamming with them we were playing 12-Bar blues in the key of A with me doing rhythm and soloing parts. I never knew a rock band could be that fun when your play with people, just making music, even if its really simple. Hopefully, I'll develop my guitar skills to be able to jam with them more in the future.

Sorry, I don't have pictures of the band, I'll have to take some next time, and maybe a video during our next practice which is scheduled at the end of the month (the 25th is the tentative date). Hopefully we can decide on other songs to play then.

In other news, I'm really wishing I had a Canadian Xbox 360, so I could play NHL 08. I really miss playing NHL games and I've heard so many good things about 08. Maybe I should just wait till NHL 09 before I get an Xbox. The Japanese Wii also looks like fun to get, just because of Smash Bros, but its more of a party machine, and I don't have that many parties but I guess I could start (haha). Anyway, all this purchasing stuff is going to have to wait, as I kind of want to just save. Maybe save for that plane ticket back home for a visit.

Speaking of going back home, I may not be able to do it this August. With the Rocky Mountain house students coming over to Kamikawa, I'll be limited to 2 weeks in Canada at most. Getting adjusted to the time difference within those 2 weeks and then leaving right after seems like sort of a waste. I don't know, really want to come back home for a bit and chill out, but August is looking like a bad time to do it. May have to wait until Christmas break, we'll see how my schedule pans out.

I'm going to upload lots of photos on facebook. Take a look at those while your waiting for my next blog. Which may be a long time....