Friday night, I was given the opportunity to DJ a set for the Nagasaki Leaver's party. I've never had more fun in my whole life, even though my set was the first and hardly anyone was there. The best thing about it is playing the stuff that I like and getting compliments on my music taste. Let me try to remember what I played:
The Cure - Just Like Heaven
Sneaker Pimps - Six Underground
Thievery Corporation - Warning Shots
Grandaddy - Now it's On (got some major props on this one)
Postal Service - Such Great Heights
Weezer - The World Has Turned and Left me Here
Belle & Sebastian - Your Cover's Blown
Smashing Pumpkins - Eye
Modest Mouse - Float On
Groove Armada - My Friend
Beck - Girl / Hell Yes (by request)
Cake - I Will Survive
Interpol - Evil
Muse - Supermassive Black Hole

And a later set:
Muse - Hysteria
New Order - Crystal
The Kinks - Turning Japanese
Placebo - Nancy Boy
Editors - Munich
Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
Franz Ferdinand - Take me Out
Arctic Monkeys - I Bet you Look Good on the Dancefloor (by request; I'm not especially fond of this song)
Smashing Pumpkins - Today
(I was told to "wind down" the crowd because it was 5am by this point, but I had nothing mellow so Debbie stepped up and played some U2)

Saturday night, I DJ'ed again between Morning Cood and Wesley's sets at Big Blue Sky. It was great fun, until the CD Wesley was singing along to STOPPED without any explanation...I felt like a dumbass for screwing it up for him but he was absolutely cool about it...I'll miss Wesley

She burns like the sun, and I can't look away
She'll burn our horizons, make no mistake

This is what happens when a retard applies sunscreen:


Don't build your world around
Volcanoes melt you down

Not only am I trying to learn this song on guitar, but I also visited the local volcano recently:

Beautiful, isn't it?

On a hanto[island] in the sun
We’ll be playing and having fun
And it makes me feel so fine
I can’t control my brain

I was surprised how many people turned out for our "Hanto Lovefest" last weekend...we played on the beach, ate food, and lit sparklers.


There's a broken beam inside of the big big bridge
I guess that whole thing is caving in
Maybe it is time I learn how to swim
I'll be a dolphin, I'll be a dolphin


During the Hanto Lovefest, we took a cruise to see some dolphins. There's a huge shoal of them living near the Amakusa islands.


Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different woman[man]
Time may change me
But I can't trace time

I just found out today that in September, my whole teaching situation will change. I currently teach at one junior high school all the time. The folks at Minamishimabara city have decided that in addition, I will go to Kuchinotsu Junior High every Friday, and rotate between 6 elementary schools every Tuesday. I think it might be a good thing, since the kids tend to take me for granted since I'm there all the time, and I really look forward to working with different schools...especially the elementary schools!

“i think there r more dolphins on my shore,” Carlos wrote in a text message last week. Since early this year, an alarming number of dolphins have been washing up dead on Carlos’ beach. We don’t know why and probably never will, so for fun let's just blame it on the old standby: Global Warming.

Instead of imagining the darkly comic image of a dolphin being pan-seared by the sun, I felt a wave of emotion, similar to seeing roadkill decomposing or dogs dressed in sweaters for the humid Japanese summer. The thought of suffering is never far from my mind, which is why I am at least partially vegetarian. But what I didn’t expect to feel was the desire to actually see the deceased!

I bought flowers in hopes of having a little memorial service for the poor creature, but left it on the table when Suzie came to pick me up. So, armed with only incense, we proceeded into Futsu (that’s “normal” in Japanese – funny considering the abnormality of this situation) to get Carlos and pay our respects.

Well, it turns out that we also forgot to bring something to light the incense with. So we held our sticks of incense (and our noses) and said a little prayer. It was sad leaving it on the beach amidst decades of rubbish, but I feel like we did our part...I will certainly not be able to push the image out of my mind any time soon. And I would post the pictures, but don't want to traumatize anyone.

Only for the morbidly curious:
I know a dead dolphin when I see one

So what does one do after paying respects to dead dolphins? Why, go to Uniqlo, of course!

And what did we eat for dinner (only because it was a Hawaiian restaurant and they put it in everything)?

TUNA! *gags*