paul . jp . 05/06

on the day of my departure, i was just coming out after checking my luggage in, and i see 20+ of my class mates running up to me with a huge...

so, this chapter of paul's super-ultra-fantastic-mega-lucky-wish life will soon come to an end. exactly 3 days, in fact. it has truly be...

something weird and extremely frustrating is happening to me. i no longer possess the ability to have a clear and flowing conversation in en...

this is what makes us stupid gaijin: 1. we are tall and clumsy 2. we are loud and obnoxious 3. we walk around our houses in shoes 4. we come...

because it's all melting away :(

master photography courtesy of chris the american

i'm not norwegian, so don't blame me for being excited shitless about snow. pictures tell the story better than words: this is us b...

if you've never eaten ramen before, then please - drop everything you are holding, stop what you are doing, and go out now to search for...

i wonder if you feel sorry for me, because these are the kinds of friends i seem to make. on the left, we have nikolai. words such as weird,...

this is お節料理, the traditional japanese new year food eaten every year on january 1. it consists of octopus, one prawn, roast beef slices, he...

harajuku has to be one of the best parts of tokyo if you are looking for cheap second hand clothes, cheap food, cool hair or gothic lolitas....

hi the recent zero degree winter weather has frozen my motivation to write any posts... i experienced my first japanese christmas the other ...

exactly 3 months since my last post.. a lot of awesome stuff may have happened since then, but i may have forgotten most of it. i finally m...

unless you've been living under a rock for decades, you might know that they do things differently in japan. today i was in asakusa with...

ok, so at the beginning of august piee sent me a letter of invitation to one of 2 english camps. one of them was free, and the other was abo...

hey, sorry i haven't posted in a while, but i was busy clipping my toenails and flossing. you know what it's like. anyway, for the l...

i experienced my first earthquake about 10 minutes ago. and it wasn't just a tremor, it lasted for about 45 seconds, quite alarming. the...

i was in tokyo once with nikolai, looking for a yukata (men's kimono - it looks super cool), and saw a woman who looked like she was in ...

the summer holiday has officially started, and i spent the first day of it at school. but just for swimming practice. the pool feels amazing...

testing new image feature on blogger

this is nikolai trying to look like a stupid foreigner at a japanese festival. he wanted me to put it here, because he wants to be famous. ...

it's starting to get really humid and hot.. reminding me of cairns, unfortunately. this heat actually spurred me to join the swimming cl...

lately, there really hasn't been much happening. but because i'm so thoughtful and kind-hearted, i thought i'd write a post to...

this is an update p.s. hi max

almost every day after school, nikolai and i have been going here and sitting down for hours. it's a seat outside baskin and robbins - ...

sekihan is a traditional japanese dish made of red beans and rice. it is usually prepared for special occasions like birthdays or weddings....

we went to another primary school yesterday. in hiratsuka this time. did the same thing as last time. the only difference was that nikolai ...

it's that time of the year (or at least i think it is) - bunkasai time. bunkasai is - from what i have seen - when an school opens it...

went to yokosuka with nikolai today to see a movie - sengoku 1549 . it was the premiere of the movie, so we went early because "there w...

the telephone poles here are made out of concrete. i just had to post it here. oh, and, nikolai and i bleached our hair, just to indicate t...

if you were ever wondering what japanese 9 year olds eat every day at school, just look at the picture. the tray consists of a bowl of red ...

marcia!! yuka said you are kawaii!!! hahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahaa

i was cleaning my ears last night (for the first time in about seven decades), and i must have pushed some earwax further into my ear or som...

went karaoke'ing with deb, nikorai, yuka and 2 of her uni friends last night. found this sign in an obscure corner of the place. lu...

some guys from 3rd grade (final grade of high school) that were in the same group as me for dance asked me to join their metal/cover band th...

queensland won the first origin game this year! matt bowen intercepted in overtime and scored. wish i saw it! (thanks cam) so i'm 18 now...

that's a photo of my lovely back with homeroom 101's lovely class t-shirt. it has a list of everyone's name in the class if yo...

i almost forgot - it's my 18th in 4 days. buy me stuff. here's my wishlist

just a quick snap i took with my phone of the black team practicing their dance at school the day before sports day. click on it to see ...

yesterday was the big day! our month-long dance training session finally came to an end, and what a finale it was. it was the best day...

our colour house leaders decided that after-school practice wasn't enough, so they added early morning practice. so for the past week i...

after a month of practicing our dances almost every day, i think it's safe to say that i am incredibly skilled at them. but it's not...

art class just isn't art class without the A6 homo drawing book.

this is the first time i have had more than 5 minutes to spare in the last week. today (sunday) i went to school (yes, school) for 4 hours o...

har har, i forgot to take the camera today. i'll take some pix another day. in other news, i'm glad i got put into the first grade o...

today i overcame the barrier of my aching body (rugby training & PE marathons) and laziness to get up at 8 and get ready to buy a phone!...

http://www.summersonic.com Oasis, Nine Inch Nails, Slipknot, Weezer, Interpol and alexisonfire are among the acts confirmed for Japan's ...

today - the beginning of the kamakura cherry blossom festival. the main street of town was packed as the parade made its way to hachimangu t...

my school uniform.. no - it's not velvet, and no - it's not shiny like that in real life.

team croissant is a mixed futsal team composed of 8 members - yuka, zeki, tsuna, akiyama, coochi, ayaka, anego, and miku. yesterday we won ...

i have arrived! ! it's so surreal.. i still can't really believe i'm actually here. the temperature was something like 6 degrees...

hello,���琿�摯諱�令矼迴����阨�蓖齡�皷齡纈����造發Δ垢案�本に来る日がやってきますね。早く会いたいです。 私はユカです。これから、よろしくお願いします♪ received my first (short) email from the host family ...

yeah, so i finally got a host family and a school. the school is HUGE, and it's right on the waterfront. there's one thing i'm e...