Headin' Home

You read it right! I'm heading back to the Good 'Ol US of A. But before I go I got some quality stuff that I need to unload. Check below for descriptions of all my goods on sale, prices, and pictures as well.

Going Back Home Sale

Most items available immediately. Prices Negotiable! May be able to deliver within Kumamoto City.

Bike- 3000 yen. Bike, mountain tires and street tread tires, lock, rear wheel rack, spare tire tube, large air pump, hand air pump. This bike is sturdy and reliable whether biking around town or taking biking trips in Yakushima or Shikoku. Grip-shifting.



2 person Tent- 5000 yen. Lightweight, easy-to-assemble heavy duty tent great for hiking/camping trips. Rain cover has vestibule to keep things dry without having to bring them into the tent.





3 person tent- 5000 yen. Large, but compact tent. Perfect for those less than hardcore campers!



Japanese DVD player- 3000 yen. Sick of watching all your movies on the computer and not being able to rent movies in Japan because it’s a different region? Here’s the cheap solution. Comes with remote.



Double Bed Mattress and Headboard- 30,000 yen. Amazingly comfortable bed that is roomy enough for 2. Perfect for those sick of futons! Bonus: Comes with heat blanket/pad great for winter months.




Oven- 10,000 yen. This Oven is awesome! It’s less than 1 year old, big enough to bake cookies, cakes, casseroles, meatloaf. Has 3 cooking modes, Microwave, Oven, Toaster grill.





Rice Cooker- 3000 yen. White. Less than 1 year old, like-new. Has timer so steamed rice can be waiting for you , ready-to-eat when you wake up or come home from work. Comes with rice measuring cup.





Sandwich maker/ Grilled Cheese machine- 1500 yen. Great for a snack or when you want an easy, quick lunch/dinner.





Laptop Computer Set (leather carrying bag, speakers, microphone, mouse)- 40,000 yen.
Dell Inspiron 5150 Laptop Computer with Mobile Intel Pentium 4, 3.06 GHz, 512 MB Ram. Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home edition With DVD/CD-RW drive. English Operating System. Bonuses: Comes with all my itunes music, speakers to play it on, a microphone for calling family and friends back home for cheap. Need a computer or sick of a bulky desktop? This set is perfect for Jets’ needs. See below if you want to upgrade the speakers (can be done at a discount)



Speaker Set- 3000 yen. Awesome set of small but powerful speakers and a subwoofer. Can hook up directly to your computer or ipod thereby avoiding the need for a stereo. So powerful that you can’t turn it up to full volume. (i.e.- Goes to 11)



Dumbell Weights (3 dumbells, weights up to 10kg per bar)- 1000 yen per bar. Great for keeping in shape if you don’t want to pay out the wazoo for a gym membership
Bonus: I’ll throw in a yoga ball if you want it. Great for situps and stretching.



Set of 2 x 3 kg small dumbbells- 500 yen



Inflata-mattress- 3000 yen. Perfect for those sick of futons, when friends are visiting, or if you are crashing at someone’s place. Comes with automatic plug-in inflator.




Dining Room table- 5000 yen. All wood dark table with 4 like colored stools. Perfect for those with room in their house/apartment for a table. Great for those who host parties or like to have people over for dinner.



Iron and board- 500 yen




Computer Desk/Table, Small Chest of Drawers, Shelves, Reclining floor chairs – 1000 yen each


Boardgame lover’s fantasy set!- 4000 yen. This is an awesome collection. Scrabble, Monopoly, Clue, Risk, Twister, Guess who, Pictionary Jr, Charades for kids, Boggle.
This is great for people who want to have a game night, or for those with English club. Also it’s the perfect collection for a family. Can’t beat the price. Can be sold separately for 800 yen apiece.

Everything you need to teach Elementary School English set- 3000 yen. This set includes flash cards (about 400), Dr. Seuss books (10), English kids’ song cds, English Videos (Disney songs, Where the Wild Things Are), laminates galore, Bingo Board Games, stickers, assortment of prizes to give winners of games

DVD Movies- 500 yen each. Japanese Region. English with Jap subtitiles: Splash- Tom Hanks, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington- Jimmy Stewart. English & Japanese Audio and Subs: The Simpsons Film Festival (4 episodes), The Simpsons Bart Wars (4 episodes)

VHS Movies- 350 yen each. 3 for 1000 yen GREAT FOR ENGLISH CLUB!!!

English with Jap. subtitles: Ally McBeal season II vol. 10(2 episodes), Alien- Sigourney Weaver, Die Hard 3- Bruce Willis Samuel L. Jackson, Moulin Rouge- Nicole Kidman Ewan MacGregor, Matrix- Keanu Reeves, Speed- Keanu Reeves.

English Audio Only: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone- Daniel Radcliffe, Gladiator- Russell Crowe, Bourne Identity- Matt Damon, American Pie- Jason Biggs, Jurassic Park- Sam Neill, The Perfect Storm- George Clooney, As Good as it Gets- Jack Nicholson, Mrs. Doubtfire- Robin Williams, Top Gun- Tom Cruise, Uncle Buck- John Candy, Manhattan- Woody Allen, Midnight Run- Robert Deniro, Citizen Kane- Orson Welles, The Man who Shot Liberty Valance- Jimmy Stewart & John Wayne, Aladdin- Disney, The Lion King- Disney, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi sold ONLY as a set


Jamie Mackay

English Superstars

English Superstars
Originally uploaded by Yo-Jimbo.

These are two awesome 1st years at my Junior High School. They signed up for the English Speech Competition not knowing quite what they were in for.

The English Speech Competition is an event where Junior High Students choose a passage from their textbooks and then present it, word for word at a county-wide contest. Some schools recruit their best students but I have always told my school that it should be voluntary and based on motivation rather than skill. Then the students rehearse and practice these dialogues for a month before the contest.
Now these are some of the most boring dialogues you can imagine. Here is a real one that many students present year after year;
"Two hamburgers and two colas, please.
Large or Small? Large please.
For here or to go? For here.
That's 450 yen please. Here you are.
Thank you"

Now imagine practicing this over and over for a whole month! Its like taking a word from the english language and repeating it over and over and over again until you start to think that it sounds really strange and begin to question whether you are pronouncing it right and whether it is actually a word at all. That is what this contest is all about.

Well, we first found an intriguing dialogue from the text about a boy who has lost his wallet, tickets, and cap and is late for a flight. Oh the acting possibilities were endless. Then we all stayed after school rehearsing it over and over, tweaking pronunciation, adding gestures to the point where the kids had nervous ticks associated with all things english.

Then it was on to the county competition. It was a nice day off of work and I was confident my kids were pretty good. But there is one thing that stinks for Americans at these competitions. The 3rd year Junior High Students always seem to recite the passage in their text that recounts a young girl and baby dying from the radiation caused by the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. After about the fifth time of hearing this, I want to stand and scream "Enough already, I'm sorry" And there is something very awkward about the way students present the end of the passage. It finishes with a touching line
"The sun rose, but the little girl never moved again."

Then, as the listeners are wiping the tears from their eyes the speaker breaks into a wide grin and in the peppiest voice imaginable says "Thank you for listening" as if she hadn't just described agony and suffering beyond comprehension. Oh well.

My kids turn comes and they do fantastic. The crowd lets out a rare Joey Lawrence "whoa" and I am pretty sure we are champion bound. Sure enough my first graders won the county (and the 3rd graders came in 3rd). The problem with winning the competition is that now my kids must compete in the state-wide competition which means another month of the same dialogue. I was psyched for my kids but felt there wasn't much more I could do for them, unless we changed our format to recite it as a musical or a rap (which I tried desperately to convince them to do).

Anyway, after continuing practice for another month my kids had it down, or if they didn't there wasn't anything I could do about it. During practice sessions I wold have them take breaks and we would play games and I tried to stress the importance of taking time out once in a while and relaxing. This is something that Japanese people aren't used to. They feel guilty about taking a break when other people might be working. I tried to tell them if they work too hard on this they will go crazy and end up at the top of a bell tower yelling english at every person who passes by. And no one wants that.

At the state competition they perform and to be quite honest, at the time I had no idea whether they did a good job or not because I had practiced with them too many times. So the award announcements come and lo and behold they win the whole darn thing! I was really proud and they were beaming. I immediately texted my boss for a raise and he quickly replied and I quote: "Congratulations!
You are the best English teacher I have ever met.
raise? hmmmmmmmm"

Which in Japan means no. But I returned to school and recieved congrats from everyone. One I particularly remember was "Jamie, this is great. This is the first cultural award this school has won. Seriously, we are a jock school, so this is pretty amazing"

So its nice to give my little r and l challenged learners something to brag about and to bring some culture to my jock school. All in a day's work for the magic gaijin (foreigner).

Aso Sunset

Aso Sunset
Originally uploaded by Yo-Jimbo.

Cool sunset the other week. Where I live is amazingly beautiful.

Scrabbletastic

Scrabbletastic
Originally uploaded by Yo-Jimbo.

I handed a few of my junior High 2nd graders a scrabble board and returned 15 minutes later to Brilliant English Chaos. Oh, the power of scrabble.

I Don't Get It

So when the hell did I become more conservative then President Bush and his lackeys in the House and Senate? I know that up to this point I have kept this blog relatively free of political commentary, but I can't take it anymore. We have a President who espouses about as much conservativism as Brown University. The sad truth is that the democrats at this point are still clinging to their failed strategy of whining and taking every bit of bad news and screaming outrage about it when they have no actions of their own to back it up. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

I have always claimed that I am someone who walks the line between blue and red, R and D. When I was working in politics my co-workers would be surprised because one day I would agree with the dems and the next I would be yelling about how the repubs were right on the money. I'm hard to peg down. But I was born in the South (by the Grace of God) and I think I know what conservative means. I ain't sure that Bush does, though.

EXHIBIT 1) A conservative wants to limit the Federal Government and the inevitable intrusions it brings into people's private lives.

G.W. has been at the front of one of the most expansive federal governments since FDR. He has been a harbinger of government inefficiency and waste. The Department of Homeland Security, while having a catchy name, is a bureacratic mess of agencies not sure of who is in control or what they are supposed to do. Yet they are happy to take your tax dollars every April. Also, we've all seen how appointing friends who don't know what they're doing will bite you in the ass like it did with Katrina, but that is a problem with all presidents, not just the current one. But I can't believe the Republican Party is towing the line with the Patriot Act! I thought the republicans prized their privacy and rights (especially the 2nd) above all. Well all this act does is trample all over those rights. Since when did the republican party think it was okay for the federal government to check your library records and to follow, wiretap, and surveil people and groups without warrants or probable cause. You don't think just a few of those might be gun collectors? You think its just library records they're sorting threw. Its not unseemly to guess that they'll be sorting through hunting licenses, gun licenses and purchases too. I think this was one of the few times I was proud of former Rep. Bob Barr from Georgia who railed against this horrible act. Of course after 9/11 things had to change, but since when did it mean that government wasn't susceptible to error and corruption in the face of fear? Watergate wasn't that long ago. Terrorism is an easy excuse to keep many questionable practices secret.

EXHIBIT 2) Conservatives are fiscally conservative.
Need I say more. You don't have to look far to see how this administration and the Republican control of both houses has spent more non-existent tax dollars than any tax-and-spend liberal. I think the tax-and-spend liberal monicker has a fair bit of truth to it, but Bushy sure isn't trying to show that he's any different is he? The amount of money he keeps asking for and the appropriations bills absolutely stuffed full of pork projects (we're talking about you Ted Stevens and your bridge to nowhere) that he gladly signs into law just seems to prove my point. GW asks for more money before he has even spent it and Cheney's old company is trying to milk all the countries tax dollars by over-charging at the same time. Last time I checked the economy wasn't that good again. Say what you want about Haliburton getting all the contracts, but you would at least expect their former CEO, who happens to be Vice President and claims to be quite conservative himself, to keep his old company from trying to rob all the hard-earned tax dollars from working conservatives that voted to get him re-elected. But no one seems to mind that he can't keep them from actually charging what they should. Did you also remember when we gave all of that money to Iraq? Bushy made sure that we had no intention of getting it back (not a cent) once the country was on its own. No loans, just free money to people who don't pay taxes. I thought that surely would upset conservatives, but nope. Not to mention there are some infrastructure improvements here that could use plenty of money instead of it all going to another country with no hope of it getting paid back. Does the President and the Repubs in Congress understand that most of our debt is held by China, someone we probably shouldn't be beholden to? The deeper in debt we go the more control China has over our economy. Forget its military and nukes, if it wanted to attack us it could just stop buying all those dollars and switch to Euros or yen and send us quickly into economic turmoil. Now I thought surely conservatives wouldn't be too comfortable having the largest Communist Country (economically) keeping the US stable, but no one seems to nervous but me (and economists). You really want to cut taxes, again? I want taxes as low as possible too, but if I don't have a job its a bit of a moot point don't you think? Any new programs and cuts should be well financed and a debt reduction (a realistic one) should be put in place immediately. And we should use our troops to secure that oil and pipeline so that Iraq can start paying for its own reconstruction and perhaps our protection, too. I've noticed that the price of oil is quite high recently. Which brings me to ...

EXHIBIT 3) Conservatives don't like nation-building.

Until now, apparently. I have a hard time believing that I am the only one that knew if we went into Iraq, WMD or not, we would be there for 10 years. As a matter of fact, I remember people bringing this up before the invasion. I didn't want to go to war with Iraq, but knew that if we did we would have to give it our all (all our money, our time, our soldier's lives, our patience) and not half-ass it. Unfortunately Bushy, with all of his intelligence briefings and generals giving him advice couldn't see what a nobody working on capital hill could've guessed. We would have a short honeymoon period and then we had better make these people feel like their lives were improving or the blame would quickly shift to us. I can't believe that all conservatives have really been believing that this has gone according to plan. Not only are we nation-building, we're doing it pretty much alone. And we knew we would be when we went in. History has shown us that nations must evolve, they can rarely hold up if built, especially by a nation extremely unfamiliar with the religion and customs. Now we are stuck there with a common problem of nation-building. If we leave the country will probably destabilize, but the country can't stabilize with us there because they see us as intruders. And its shameful that the administration was claiming we should look to Japan after WWII as an example of how it can work. Nothing about the two situations were or are the same. Republicans, you now are some of the biggest nation-builders in America's history and it doesn't look to be going so well. Maybe you're starting to remember why you weren't a fan of it in the first place.

EXHIBIT 4) Conservatives believe that a person's word is their credibility. When one is broken, so is the other.

Wow, where to start. I find myself explaining to people from other countries that GW is (or was) popular among Americans because he is a straight-talker. He may not be eloquent but he says what he thinks and doesn't try to change his words to hide behind them (like Clinton). That used to be the case, but this president seems to becoming more and more of a fan of restating what he meant. He first said that we were going to war over WMD. None there, no problem. We're now going to war to liberate oppressed people (how liberal can you get?!) I also know for a fact that conservatives take America's defense very seriously. Yet there were no calls of treason when the administration outed an undercover CIA agent (it shouldn't matter who she was married to. In a true conservative's eyes that's something someone has to answer for). They haven't even revoked Rove's classified security clearance. Not to mention Bush said, firstly that no one in his administration was involved (Lie) and then said to the nation he would fire anyone in his administration found to be involved with leaking that information (Lie). Turns out he decided to change his mind and said he would only fire someone if they were found to have done something illegal (you couldn't get more Clintonesque). Now maybe I'm crazy, but I tend to hold the leader of the free world to a higher standard than anybody else. When Clinton lied to me about Monica Lewinsky and then tried to weasel his way out of it with all this definition of sex BS, I agreed with the Republicans who wanted to throw him out of office. Let me make myself clear, ANY PRESIDENT WHO LIES TO THE PUBLIC SHOULD BE THROWN OUT OF OFFICE So why are the Republicans all of a sudden trying to act like BUSH didn't say what he said. And that idiot McClellan is up there trying to cover up the lie because he lied too. But then again thats a press secretary's job so should we really hold him accountable? The press should. But because I am a bit conservative I believe the buck stops at the man in charge. Am I the only one? Not to mention, didn't he campaign on bringing ethics and intergrity to the white house. He gets a big F on that one. He also seems to be bringing down the ethics and intergrity of the nation in the world's eyes as well. Which, say what you want, is important now more than ever before. Especially when nation-building.

Now after Harriet "shoulda seen it coming" Miers, even the Republicans in congress are wondering where Bushy's conservative side went. Forget the compassionate side. I honestly believe that Bushy's lackeys, who for some reason are seen as the ultra conservative ones, and the ultra liberals are destined for failure. There needs to be a party that emerges that brings the reason of conservatism and the compassion of liberalism that would truly represent the majority or people. Although no one from their own parties seem to like them much, god bless the moderates. Maybe the Democrats can take a hint and take up some of these worthy conservative causes and stop cowering to the all-complaint, no-action extreme left. Someone should fight for them now that Republicans have abandoned them.

Now that I am more conservative than the president, I guess I should sign up with the NRA. Well, maybe I'll do what Bush should do more often and think about it before I do it.

What's In a Name?

Mini Dik
Originally uploaded by Yo-Jimbo.

We came across this store as we were road-trippin across Shikoku. The marketing consultant that came up with this one should be fired. Although, I can't put my finger on it, but it seems oddly appropriate for Japan.

Don't Mess with Mackistan!

Super sick of waiting in line
Originally uploaded by Yo-Jimbo.

I was thinkin bout my trip back home and how I lucked out that many in my old crew were back in town. This rowdy collection of guys and gals came together early on in Junior High School. We weren't considered the "cool kids" in school which was annoying but it kept our bonds strong and our egos grounded. Well, somewhere around 8th grade all of us hit our growth spurt before the "cool kids," formed the core of the varsity football team and wouldn't ya know it, suddenly we commanded a bit more respect. Its funny how fate and karma even things out, aint it? We're a tight knit bunch and as this picture shows we got each other's back no matter what the breaks. Sometimes I worry about being so far away from everybody and missing out on things, but its nice to know the second I meet up with these wildcats its like we never missed a beat. Here's to you T-bone, T-Rex, WC, Bummy, Morrisey, KB, and El.