In memorium

Most of my posts will be about Japan, but I have to take time now for a personal note. I found out last night that Leroi Moore, the saxophone player for the Dave Matthews Band passed away last Tuesday from complications involving an ATV accident he had in June. I am realizing that being here keeps me a little disconnected from the world back home even with the internet. The fact that a member of my all-time favorite band died and I didn't find out for a week is a little strange. I was shocked to find out while just randomly surfing the web. He was an incredible musician and one of the founding members of the band. Dave Matthews actually gave Leroi his demo tape back when he was a young musician trying to make a name for himself. So in a way, he was responsible for the forming of the band which is pretty amazing because he was always kind of the one in my mind that stood in the background and let the other guys get the glory. There have been many nights that I have sat back listening to DMB alone or with friends and just being amazed by the smoothness of Leroi's sax. I don't know anything about the instrument, but I know he's one of the best I've ever heard and I personally will miss listening to him play.

I'm including a YouTube video of one of my favorite live songs by the band. This song kind of features Leroi Moore and he has a great flute solo followed shortly by a sax solo that all builds up with the violin and drums to a pretty cool climax. That to me is what this band is all about, and I think he had a lot to do with that. The song is called #41 and this is from the Listener Supported live album. It's about 10 minutes long. You can watch the whole thing if you want, but if nothing else skip ahead to 3:45 and listen to the classic DMB jam session that follows. If you've never heard Leroi play you're sure to be impressed.

He will be missed.

Video!

Well those who have checked Kelly's blog in the past few days know by now that we have internet in our apartment finally. Kelly has put up some pictures on her site that we took a few weeks ago as well as some new ones and also on our Flickr account so you should check those out. I'm going to put up a video that I recorded on our first morning in Fuji back on August 1st. It was very early and I was very tired so please excuse my lack of energy and cleanliness. But you can see a tour of the other apartment that I use basically for showering in the morning in the middle of my roughly 3.5 km bike ride to work. That's kilometers for all of you Americans out there. Yeah I still don't quite get the whole metric system thing. I do know that I am 176 cm tall though. Or something like that.

I was at the Yoshiwara High School camp in Susono for the past few days. We had a lot of fun with the 40 students and 10 ALTs. I recorded a lot of video and as soon as I have a chance to sort through it I'll get some of it up on here. It was great to finally get to meet and work with some of my students. They are very good and for the most part did a great job with their English so I'm looking forward to working with them some more.

Anyway, enjoy the video. Keep in mind that I had been in Fuji for just over 12 hours when I filmed this so obviously I know a little more about things now. It's a bit long and choppy I guess but I didn't really feel like doing any major editing tonight. Hey there's nothing wrong with a little extra Kory in your life. Later!

When you've already read your textbook twice...

...the day can certainly drag by. I try not to spend too much time on the computer at work but this day has been the first day since I got here that I have absolutely nothing to do. There are about a total of 6 teachers here today and I don't think anybody has anything to do. I was about to fall alseep at my desk and I figured that I would rather be seen sitting at the computer forever not doing work than sitting at my desk sleeping. I know that once school starts there will be so much to do that I'll never be bored but right now is officially the dog days. But the good news is that I leave Wednesday for a three day orientation in Kakegawa. So that should be fun. So anyway, I guess I should open up a word document and read it. That at least looks like work. Sleepy, sleepy, slee...

Mt. Fuji!

Well after exactly one week in Fuji, Japan we finally have a Mt. Fuji sighting! It's been so cloudy that we haven't been able to see the enormously large mountain that sits 15 miles north of us but last night right after dinner I went outside and there was Fuji-san! It is definitely big and we have a great view from our apartment. I could still see it on my ride (I now have a bike!) to work this morning but it's gone back into hiding for the time being. Kelly took a lot of pictures though so I'll try to get some on here soon. It's kind of tough right now since we still don't have internet in our apartment but be patient and soon you'll see lots of pictures and posts. I'm staying late after work just to post this and I'm not one to do that very often so consider yourselves lucky.

We had Kelly's school's camp the past two days and that was a lot of fun. It was my first chance to work with any students and they were really cool. My school's camp is in a few weeks and tomorrow we have Jr. High day where 700 jr. high kids will come to our school and see what we have to offer. Kids get to pick what high school they go to here so I have to put on my best show to make the kids want to come here. It should be fun.

OK I'm ready to go home now so that's all for this post. Talk to you later!