Lazzy the Spazzy

Yeah...I'd probably be depressed at the funeral. From the few times we met, he seemed like an awesome grandpa. One of those people who's really into sports even for their age and can actually play soccer and other sports with you. It'd be creepy to see him like he would be at the funeral... My mom's coming back this coming Wednesday.

Oh yeah. You sent me that PM with Ha's pictures in there, remember? And there was also that one when you asked about Kendrick, and it moved into this sort of discussion about Hak's omniscience. Yeah, Arch-Angel, I got kind of sad afterwards...not sad, more like nostalgic. But it's really fun to experience. Thanks for all the comments, people.

The five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.

He was cremated a couple days ago. I wasn't at the funeral, as he lived overseas; only my mom, his daughter, was there.

As a premier member, I have room in my inbox for 1000 messages. But the PMs I've been getting over the years I've been here are stacking up, and already past halfway. I panicked, and went on a sort of cleaning spree, reading through some of the PMs and deleting ones from the same thread. I did this at first to clear space for future PMs, but soon found myself happily reading the PMs I sent to friends and vice versa. It awoke so many good memories...Hak discussing his Hunters of the Dark comics...Dwin and I talking about BZPower, the Final Battle the RPG...Me, asking Moutekea about catalysts...that MoC of Lazok that Khote sent to me...The 'how could you' PM I sent to Hahligirl56 after her character, Alta, was killed...All those PMs that I and the other four mods of the Naruto RPG sent back and forth...I remember sitting late at night, typing up the rules for the RPG, rules and more rules...It took hours, didn't it? Haha, I even uncovered that PM that Black Six sent to me for posting one of those 'I'm the first one to post on this page' posts. I lost proto for that... ^^; And then I found this PM that I didn't even remember sending; it was this guest star request for an epic that Nidhiki99 (now Nid) was writing. I didn't even know that I knew Nid from before BZPRPG! And there was even this PM that Lady K sent to me! Imagine that, one of the BZP legends talking to me, just a normal member! Man, reading all those PMs brought me back...I feel so old right now. I've done so many things on BZP, some that I don't even remember anymore. Good times, good times.

TEAM 16: TEAM HISTORY: Team 16 is a new team, having been only formed for a day. However, the team's members got along extremely well with each other, and exhibited great chemistry, completing a mission successfully on their first day together. Team 16 shows the most promise out of the three new Genin teams so far, and has been advancing quickly. SENSEI: Name: Yuuhi Tasare Member: All mods Age: 21 Rank: Jounin (Genin team sensei) Village: Konohagakure Personality: Tasare has inherited the laid-back personality of his godfather (and father figure), Nara Shikamaru, though not to the extreme degree of apathetic aloofness. He loves puzzles and other games that challenge the mind, especially Shogi, and holds intellect and sharp wit to be key to shinobi battles. Tasare deeply admires his role models, especially Shikamaru, but unfortunately, has picked up negative traits of Shikamaru as well, such as the habit of smoking. Tasare gets along well with his teammates and comrades, and is often the mediator in arguments between friends. He is looking forward to mentoring his own Genin team, but harbors slight doubts about being able to manage as a teacher. Appearance: Tasare wears the standard Jounin outfit, complete with green jacket and black clothes. His shinobi sandles go up past his ankles, and his kunai holster is on his upper right leg. He carries a belt-pouch as well, which holds basic ninja necessities as well as a cigarette pack and a small ash tray. His face bears striking resemblance to Asuma's, but his hair is long and shaggy like his mother's, reaching almost to his shoulders. He wears his headband on his forehead. Fighting style/skills: Tasare has had Shikamaru’s trait of anticipating enemy moves ingrained into him, and thus his fighting style focuses on reading an opponent’s move and quickly devising a counterstrike against it. Tasare’s mental skills are nowhere near the level of Shikamaru’s, though he has been lauded as sharp for his age. Tasare focuses mainly on Taijutsu in battle, although he has a natural aptitude for Genjutsu as well, being able to “sense” when a Genjutsu is being performed on him before it takes effect. Tasare can also throw off enemy Genjutsu with considerably less effort than average ninja, but this does not hold true for higher level Genjutsu. Tasare is able to wield Genjutsu expertly himself, capable in all five fields of Genjutsu. He uses Genjutsu often in missions that require them, such as interrogation or infiltration. In battle, Tasare often starts with close-range taijutsu, fighting long enough for him to note his enemy’s habits or fighting style, then devising a counterstrategy to render the style ineffective. Tasare hardly ever uses Genjutsu in battles. Weapons: Trench knives are crucial to Tasare’s battle style. He learned how to use them from his godfather (who in turn learned them from Asuma). List of jutsu: Incomplete list: Jubaku Satsu; Unnamed Interrogation Jutsu; Kokohi no Jutsu; Kokuangyou no Jutsu; Kori Shinchuu no Jutsu; Flower Petal Escape; Flower Petal Dissolve; Magen Narakumi no Jutsu; Nehan Shouja no Jutsu; Katon: Kasumi Enbu no Jutsu; Katon: Haisei Kishou; Hien; Konoha Senpuu; Konoha Dai Senpuu; Konoha Gouriki Senpuu; Konoha Raiken; Konoha Kage Buyou; Konoha Shoufuu Clan: Yuuhi; Tasare is considered the same clan as that of his mother, according to tradition, though he holds traits from his paternal clan, such as a natural fire affinity. Trivia: Tasare was born on the same day that Uzumaki Naruto became the youngest Hokage in history. His mother was Yuuhi Kurenai, and his deceased father Sarutobi Asuma. Tasare’s overprotective mother, Kurenai, was the one who requested that Tasare substitute in as the Academy teacher while Shikamaru was organizing border patrols for the Fire Country. Kurenai hoped that Tasare would get some practice teaching, however Tasare did not, as Shikamaru returned to the Academy earlier than expected. Tasare’s Jounin mentor was Rock Lee; it was from him that Tasare picked up his taijutsu skills. Tasare has chosen training ground 56 for Team 16. GENIN: Name: Sunawara Shizake Member: Hydraxon of the Pit Age: 14 Rank: Genin Missions completed: D: 1 C: 0 B: 0 A: 0 Personality: Shizake is a laid-back quiet teenage boy that enjoys reading. He has a cool temper and doesn’t let a taunt aimed at him affect his external mood. He doesn’t hold grudges, and is loyal to his friends at the Academy. However, some other students see him as a social misfit. He is respectful to his teachers and enjoys learning from his teachers. He can be rather closed to those he views as annoying. Shizake also tries to treat girls with healthy respect. He doesn’t like fighting girls, preferring to run from a potential conflict with a female. However, when his friends are insulted, he is quick to speak up for them. However, his actions can be rather awkward around girls and makes comments which unintentionally offend them. On the inside, he is calm and collected, this aspect of his personality is also amplified to the outside, which can result in him ignoring people and focusing on details. He enjoys schoolwork, thinking tacticallyzs and plays games like Shougi, and Xiangqi. Some other hobbies of his include rock collecting, drawing (one day he hopes to train under a certain Konoha Anbu that uses his artwork in battle), and building small marionettes to entertain his younger siblings. He would like to join the ANBU in the future. His primary aim is to one day lead his clan and increase its reputation, size and overall degree of influence in Konoha. Appearance: Shizake has dark brown, almost black hair.His hair has a small, but noticeable spike in the middle, the hair is gelled upward creating a “dramatic” effect. Shizake keeps it at medium length. He is 5’9”, thin, and agile. His eyes are a golden brown, and he keeps his nose and mouth covered by a black mask. His skin is pale and smooth. The mask is connected to his long sleeved shirt, which is black with a small red spiral on his left sleeve. He wears a dark blue vest with a large neckband and his clan’s symbol adorning the back. Two cream-colored bands criss-cross across his chest. He keeps his chokuto strapped to his back angled towards his right hand. He wears long dark blue pants with a kunai holder on his right leg. Dark metal arm guards cover his forearms. He also has small earrings in both ears. Since his stricter taijutsu training, he has also begun covering his hands with bandages to protect them. Shizake’s shuriken and scroll pouch is attached to his belt, a finely multi-linked silver chain. He wears the standard shinobi sandals. Around Shizake’s neck is a small pendant, which is the Kanji for water, a gift from his parents symbolizing his clan’s affinity to water jutsu. He also wears black weight holders on both his legs (to make him train to increase his speed and let his Body Flicker technique get faster). Fighting style/skills: Shizake has above average chakra control and potentially high chakra levels. He specializes in genjutsu and ninjutsu. He has received clan training that assists him in stealth and how to assassinate an opponent with minimum noise. He is also at the beginning stages of his clan’s genjutsu training, as such, he can only dispel E to C level genjutsu. He often starts out a sparring match or battle by using the Hidden Mist Technique before using the Body Flicker Technique to approach an opponent swiftly, to cut short the time spent in hand-to-hand combat. His taijutsu is average, as such; he is working on improving his hand-to-hand combat skill. He lack of stamina; the cause for his taijutsu training, is one of his major weaknesses, as he tires easily during a prolonged taijutsu battle. He possesses his clan’s affinity for water jutsu, and also has an affinity for wind-based jutsu. However, he has received little training in his wind-based jutsu. Another weakness is that he is afraid of letting down his friends or clan, and is afraid of being surpassed by his peers. His cautiousness can also be a disadvantage in a fight that can give an opponent time to gain the upper hand. Shizake has learnt tracking, as well as outdoor survival skills from his clan. He also has photographic memory and is semi-ambidextrous. Although Shizake possesses an eye kekkei genkai, he has not yet awakened it. His has high mental strength, but at this point, he lacks large reserves of physical strength. Weapons: Shizake carries a chokuto, a straight single-edged sword (like a katana), made of the same chakra-friendly material as that of Sarutobi Asuma’s trench knives. He has been training with it for the past 4 years. However, he has not yet mastered how to infuse it with his natural chakra and is still only proficient with it in hand-to-hand combat. He uses it for short to mid-range attacks. List of jutsu: 1. Illusion Clone Jutsu 2. Substitution Jutsu 3. Body Flicker Jutsu 4. Hidden Mist Jutsu 5. Henge/Transformation 6. Suiton: Teppoudama Clan: Sunawara clan. This clan is relatively new and quite small, only having come to Konoha in the past 18 years. It is related to and led by, Ranmaru. Members of the clan possess a kekkei genkai that can create incredibly convincing illusions. However, it does not appear automatically, and must be awoken by a dangerous situation, before it can be used. It is similar to the Byakugan, and allows users to see through solid objects, have night vision, perceive someone’s “life force”, create illusions with chakra circulatory systems, and partially predict upcoming attacks. It can interfere with the workings of the Byakugan and can affect the ordinary vision of others. When activated the eyes glow red. This clan specializes in the art of swift and silent assassinations as well as the study of kekkei genkai based – genjutsu, water ninjutsu, and tracking. Most members of the clan are not taijutsu specialists. Their preffered fighting styles are genjutsus used to immobilize and confuse opponents before using close-range lethal ninjutsus to finish off the trapped opponent. Name: Mercuto Robert Member: Robo Age: 11 Rank: Genin Missions completed: D: 1 C: 0 B: 0 A: 0 Personality: Typically mild mannered and lazy, Robert prefers to do as little as possible. Was forced into the academy by his father who failed to be a shinobi. His mother and older brother (who were shinobi) died while trying to bring honor to the family, and that is the only reason Robert doesn't just quit. Will normally ignore bullying unless someone is picking on his short size, then he goes berzerk and often attacks the person making fun of him. Appearance: Appearance: green hair in a crewcut. Green eyes. One foot shorter than most kids his size. Favorite outfit is a black muscle shirt under a red t-shirt with baggy red pants. Wears black sandels with moss sown to the soles so its harder for him to leave footprints. Has pale skin that makes him look perpetually ill. wears a ring on his right index finger that has the symbol of his clan (A snowflake with a kunai in it) imprinted in it. Wears thin-framed glasses to correct his nearsightedness. Fighting style/skills: Specialized in ninjutsu, no aptitude for taijutsu, and stopped bothering to try genjutsu. Particular talents within bloodline are water jutsu. Fights at close and mid range, but cannot fight longrange due to nearsightedness. Small stature gives him excellent agility and maneuverabilty and speed. But, because of small stature, direct hits cause more damage. Robert heals slowly. Has a nerve disorder in right elbow that enhances sensations (pain) in that area to near cripling levels. Able to reduce breathing and heart rate to make himself completely silent. Combine that with his smallness, and he's great at sneak attacks and spying. Weapons: A single dagger that has been passed down through the generations of the clan. Whenever a clan member dies in battle with the dagger, a bit of his life essence is imbedded into the blade, making it harder and harder to destroy or dull.The handle is made with a sacred wood that helps focus (focus, not enhance or change) chakra. List of jutsu: 1) Substitution jutsu 2) illusion clone jutsu 3) body flicker technique, 4) [unnamed] Mizugakure 5) Kasumi Juusha no Jutsu/Mist Servant 6) Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Penguin Clan: Mercuto clan. The clan is small but thriving, but the bloodline is fading with every generation with the exception of the occasional person born with 'whole blood', or, born with all of the traits of the bloodline, like green eyes. No specialized style of fighting, but have a natural tendency to use water justus and have a great aptitude for them. They have an heirloom as well, a dagger that is passed down through the generations. The Mercuto Clan originated in Amegakure, in the Land of Rain. It was a very prominent Clan of the village, but was divided during the Civil War that ravaged the Land. The 'pure blooded' half of the Clan remained with Amegakure while the non-pure blooded half fled. It was the kindness of the Second Hokage that saved them, by allowing them to come and live in Konoha. Because of the 'blood-loss', the part of the Mercuto Clan in Konoha hasn't had much skill surface, leaving them in anonymity. In fact, there have been no successful missions completed above C-rank by the clan. Trivia: Rob’s birthday is August 21st. Rob’s father is named Mercuto Richard. Name: Uchiha Ukuru Member: Shard Esquire Age: 13 Rank: Genin Missions completed: D: 1 C: 0 B: 0 A: 0 Personality: A "punk" of sorts, very disobedient and rude at times, but only on the outside. However, Ukuru is helpful and considerate when need be, and has a strong conscience. However, Ukuru is very gentle and kind with animals, especially the robin who lives on the tree outside his window. Ukuru cannot bring himself to kill, no matter what the circumstances. During a battle, Ukuru is in total focus, to the point of ignoring just about everything arond him. Ukuru is also a very light sleeper. Ukuru is very interested in smithing, and would go into it for a career, if he was not a ninja. He can also Appearance: Ukuru is about 5'7". He wears baggy shorts with a belt, and chain down the side, with a black tshirt. Ukuru's left arm and leg are bandaged, like Neji's were, as he had a large tattoo on both arm and leg. The tattoos are 6 black lines intertwining multiple times, with a black rose in the foreground. Ukuru's eyes are the normal Uchiha black. He also has a tan, but it isnt too deep. His skin is smooth, and is tattooed with a thorn band across his upper right arm. His hair is grown straight down, and is very shaggy, going to his shoulders. His hair is also highlighted with dark red, and has is spiked down in the back and bangs. His ninja sandals are like normal, except have the Uchiha Fan imprinted on them. He has fingerless gloves, think Kakashi's, and wears his kunai on his right leg. Ukuru has an extra pouch for his bomb tags, also on his right leg, because he uses them a lot. He wears a greyish jacket on occasion. (Picture coming soon.) Weapons/Fighting Style: Ukuru has no fighting style, per se, but fights at midrange. The chain on his shorts functions as a close range whip, and is much longer than it looks. He has Fire Element chakra, and uses bomb tags with special skill. His fighting style is a "Float like the Butterfly, Sting like the Bee" one, and his battles always start with a Bunshin or two for reconnaissance. After the Bunshin, he uses many shuriken and bomb and smoke tags as a distraction. His weaknesses are skilled Taijutsu users and Genjutsu in general. Ukuru has almost no defences against Genjutsu, so he is currently training extra hard. Ukuru can also hold his own in Taijutsu, but is quickly overcome by the likes of Lee. (At the start of Naruto 1, like when he beat Sasuke before the first exam.) Jutsu: 1) Kawarimi 2) Kage Shuriken 3) Illusion Clone 4) Kanashibiri (Temporary Paralysis) 5) Henge no Jutsu 6) Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu Clan: Uchiha. His father was away on a mission during the massacre, and was spared. However, his father's wife was killed in the massacre. He later remarried and Ukuru was born. Itachi later discovered this and came back for Ukuru, but his parents were killed instead, which is why Ukuru won't kill.

Since my first post in the RPG is already too big, I have no room for the profiles for characters. Keeping them in a Word Document and showing them to the members when necessary has worked well so far, but I think putting the profiles in an easily accessible page would be easier, so in the next few days I'll be putting profiles by team in my blog, starting with Team 7 and their substitute teammate. TEAM 7: Brief history of team: The team got along very well, the three Genin of the team becoming close. However, Inuzuka Mimi, Takeshi's girlfriend, recently disappeared from the village, leaving an empty spot on the Team. Shortly after, Urbaen Zahimaru, another member of the team, moved to Amegakure for diplomatic reasons. This has left the remaining original member of the team, Ishimaru Takeshi, and the team's leader, Nagare Seita, emotionally devastated. A Genin from Ame, Reigan Aster, moved to Konoha to take Zahimaru's place, and another Konoha Genin named Hyuuga Hiryuu has recently filled in for Inuzuka Mimi temporarily, but it will take a while for Team 7 to recover from this loss. SENSEI: Name: Nagare Seita Member (s): All mods Age: 24 Rank: Jounin Missions completed: Unknown Village: Konohagakure Appearance: Seita is 5 feet 10 inches, and has excellent muscle tone. He is in peak physical condition, which shows. Seita wears the standard Chuunin/Jounin flak jacket, with a black full-body jumpsuit beneath. The tight fitting jumpsuit extends up Seita’s neck, and down to his wrists and ankles, over which he wears standard ninja gloves and sandals. Seita has a shinobi belt complete with a belt-pouch, and wears his kunai holster on the upper right leg. Seita wears his Konoha headband loosely around his neck. Seita has a high forehead, and lets his silver-blond hair fall down to his shoulders. His eyes are brown. Background: Seita had a fairly normal life, becoming Jounin only a year before taking on his first Genin team. He has witnessed sad events with his Genin team, however; his student, Mimi, and her ninken Fang, disappeared two weeks before current time. He lost his other student, Zahimaru, a short time later when he left for Amegakure to train. Personality: Seita has become gloomy and depressed with the loss of two of his students, but has promised to himself that he will treat Takeshi, his remaining student, like all three of his students and train him even more vigorously. This may be a way of dealing with his loss. A small part of Seita feels like Aster is intruding on Team 7, but he wants to do his best to make Aster feel welcome here, and thus tries to forge a friendship between Aster and Takeshi. Seita does not allow his feelings to affect his fighting…most of the time. He is fiercer and more emotional now in battle, possibly to drown his sadness in battle. Abilities: Seita is a mid-range fighter orienting himself with water ninjutsu, mainly using straightforward techniques in quick succession to eventually catch his opponent off-guard. Seita often used this to set the field up for his students’ finishing moves, providing a deadly one-two combination. However, after the loss of two of his students Seita became more of a close-range “blitz” fighter, using water clones to attack his opponent alongside him and deal as much damage as possible. Because of this less strategic fighting style, Seita leaves many openings for his opponent, which could be fatal in certain situations. In terms of weapons, Seita is passable with a katana, wielding it with two hands in a pseudo-kendo style. In the past he never used it much, however, relying on his group-oriented fighting style. Seita uses his katana more often now since the loss of his students. Seita has ten tanks of water sealed in the scrolls he carries. The tanks are as tall as Seita himself and the water inside is infused with Seita’s chakra. Seita uses these tanks of water when there is no nearby source of water for his jutsu. However, some of the more powerful techniques that require more water, such as the Daibakufu jutsu, cannot be fully utilized even with Seita’s tanks of water. List of jutsu: This list is incomplete, as Seita has many more jutsu that he does not often use, but this list is of the jutsu that Seita commonly employs in fights: 1) Daibakufu/Great Waterfall 2) Hahonryuu/Destruction Torrent 3) Konbi Henge/Combination Tranformation 4) Mizu Bunshin/Water Clones 5) Mikazuki no Mai/Dance of the Crescent Moon (note: Seita uses this technique with Water Clones instead of Shadow Clones) 6) Mizuame Nabara/Starch Syrup Capture Field (Seita used this jutsu particularly often to set his enemies up for a more direct attack from his students; has been using this jutsu less and less) 7) Mizu no Tatsumaki/Tornado of Water 8) Mizukuri no Yaiba/Sword of Draining 9) Mizurappa/Violent Water Wave 10) Shunshin/Body Flicker 11) Suigadan/Water Fang Projectile 12) Suijinheki/Water Encampment Wall 13) Takitsubo no Jutsu/Waterfall Basin Less commonly used jutsu: 1) Bunshin no Jutsu/Illusion Clone technique 2) Kawarimi/Substitution 3) Henge/Transformation 4) Meisai Gakure no Jutsu/Camouflage Concealment 5) Mizu no Muchi/Whip of Water 6) Teppoudama/Bullet GENIN: Name: Reigan Aster Member: Kakumei Age: 14 Rank: Genin Missions completed: D: 2 C: 0 B: 1 A: 0 Personality: Aster is a calm person, he is polite and a gentleman. It is unusual for him to be angry or upset. However, when provoked, Aster will typically grind his teeth or bite his lip. He was raised to be quite, and will always do so. Unlike his older brother, Aster is an optimist, always looking on the bright side, often saying things like "It could be worse" or "Think of it like this..." Appearance: Aster has mid-length black hair and pale skin. He is an average height of about five feet. Aster's appearance changed frequently as he arrived at Konoha until he found a 'look' that suited him and the environment he was in. He now wears a high collared black shirt, which hangs below the waist, two sashes with two weapons pouches strapped to them. He wears standard black Ninja bottoms and sandals. White tape is wrapped around his ankles and wrists. He now also wears his head band on his forehead, as opposed to around his neck. Aster's hair has also been cut since he arrived at Konoha, it is much shorter, but still spiked at the back, much like a younger Madara. Aster’s original appearance Aster's current look (from behind); A (poorly) edited image of young Madara Fighting style/skills:Aster is a mid-range fighter, using tricks and traps. In some cases, he will use his monster of a sword Youkou. Weapons: Average Ninja weapons [Kunai, Shuriken, Sickles etc] Aster carries a scroll on his back which contains both his weapons, his Sword and currently unknown weapon. Large sword—the sword's hilt is wrapped in a crimson tape. The guard is silver. It is also thick and heavy. The blade is black. Team: 7 Relationships within team: He is on good terms with his new team mates. List of jutsu: 1) Onikaze No Jutsu - Art of Demon Wind—Allows the user to move at a much larger speed. Gravity around user also lessens, making heavier objects lighter. more to be revealed 2) Senukiyome No Jujutsu - Magic of Thousand Lives Eye 3) Kawarimi No Jutsu - Substitution 4) Bunshin No Jutsu - Art of Clones Clan: The Reigan Clan's orgins are in Amegakure. Each Generation of the clan chooses his or her own fighting style, this is what makes them so unique. Most are born with Fire Element Chakra however. The Reigan Clan's history is long, However, it's Kekkei Genkai is only a century old. It is unknown where exactly it came fro, but Mitcheru, heir of the clan, believes that when on a mission, a few of the women met Uchiha Madara. His newly formed Mangekyou Sharingan was passed down to the next generation, if somewhat weaker. It evolved over time into what it is known as today. The Senukiyome. It is rare to have this ability, only 5 people in the entire clan's history ever have fully awakened it. Mitcheru is one of them. Name: Ishimaru Takeshi Member: Allen Walker: Soldier of Life Age: 17 Rank: Genin Missions completed: D: 2 C: 5 B: 1 A: 0 Personality: Intelligent, and brave. He likes to kick back when nothing important goes on, but he enjoys a good sparring match.... at least, that was before Megumi Inuzuka, his girlfriend, and her sister, along with Mimi's Ninken, Fang, had disappeared. Now he's extremely emotional on the subject, and tends to snap when thinking about them. He is more isolated now, often keeping to himself for days at a time. Appearance: ht-6'2" wt-183 lbs skin color- light tan (I would say....Sakura's skin color) texture- da *BEEP* sorry..... ...I would say smooth... hair color- jet black hair style- it's combed back, so it looks like the Sandaime's hairstyle eye color- dark brown, almost black. accessories; left ear- an earring with the symbol of the Rock Village (three rock piled together) right ear- Konoha symbol earring face- he sometimes wears glasses (SUN glasses XD ) hitai-ate loc- Left ankle (Rock village, not Konoha; thanks to my old profile pouches- none; his pockets are big enough to act as the pouches, and are locate on the sides of his shins. shuriken/kunai on his right leg, scrolls on his left. clothes; chest/upper torso- long-sleeve shirt, black. Ishimaru clan symbol on the back (I have to get that on my Maj, don't I ^^; ) legs- light grey jeans, reaching his ankles feet-standard Ninja sandals hands- fingerless black gloves no belt Fighting style/skills: specialty- Dojutsu (earth ninjutsu) uses Earth Chakra; currently trying to learn to control Lightning chakra in order to cancel out his weakness uses all ranges, but is predominantly a short-range fighter. because of the limits to the human body, his strongest techniques are in short-range he has no disabilities, allowing him to try out a lot of things, but his affinity for earth has kept him from branching out too far. normally uses Taijutsu, and progresses to ninjutsu when the situation demands it. weaknesses; his body can only go for so long, like everyone else. wind jutsu are his weakness when it comes to fighting. and... he likes the women. He'll try to be chivalrous, more courteous and such. special skills; information gathering; thanks to his Kekkei genkai (explained later.) Weapons: He has Seki Mugendai, an heirloom in his clan. It is a staff with a weight on each end, stylized to make the entire staff look like a goblin. H normally uses it for mid- to- long range attacks. Team: 7 Megumi Inuzuka (former; location unknown): Mimi and Takeshi were lovers, but she and her siblings mysteriously disappeared from the village, and he has lost all contact. Zahimaru Urbaen (former/ training in another village for an unknown amount of time)- they were like brothers, and at the same time, rivals. Takeshi knew he was going to leave, but it struck him deep all the same. Sensei - Seita Relationships within team: *points) please read the above! List of jutsu: 1) Kawarimi/Substitution jutsu 2) Henge/Transformation Jutsu 3) Bunshin/Illusion Clone Jutsu 4) Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Goblins 5) Tsuchi Bunshin no Jutsu/Earth Clones 6) Doton: Restudo Tensho/Revolving Earth Split Palm 7) Kuchiyose: Bakemono Meiro! –This jutsu creates a stone wall around the user. 8) Buin no Enma--This jutsu can transform Takeshi's Seki Mugendai in various ways, including size, length, and shape (Note: Takeshi has not mastered this to its full extent) 9) Bakemono Seme- Buntai--This jutsu is a variation of the summoning technique; instead of summoning only one goblin, Takeshi summons five smaller goblins that can in turn perform a jutsu of their own (below) 9a)Obake-Taijutsu: Mini-Tama Danmaku-This jutsu is performed by Takeshi’s goblins. The goblins roll into spheres and roll around, slamming into enemies. Clan: Ishimaru Clan- this clan has been around for a long time, and is one of Iwagakure's oldest clans; no one here has heard about it much because they tend to be secretive, and are one of the lesser known clans. Nonetheless, they are a strong, healthy clan, sticking to the clan house. (Takeshi had to take care of his younger siblings and cousins much of the time ^^;; ) their specialties lie in keeping hidden, but also their clan-specific Taijutsu, Yontensuryu (Four points style), which utilizes a firm footing in order to make one's self well defended. Their Kekkei Genkai is the Eichi-Me (Eye of Wisdom). when activated, the user's iris changes to a diamond/ four-pointed star shape, while their eye color most frequently becomes gold/yellow.The Tomoe take the form of Kite-like rhombus shapes, in between two main points of the Iris. This doujutsu allows the sense of sight to be enhanced allowing the user to focus on things in their field of vision better. This Doujutsu has four levels. The user's current level of power is indicated by the number of Tomoe. Each power goes on to the next level (EX. lv 4 has all the powers, but each has to be activated separately): lv. 1) grants more focus to your field of vision. lv. 2) can see farther distances than the normal human eye can see lv. 3) allows the user to memorize any document that he/she looks at with these eyes. lv. 4) nothing noticeable for about a month after it's achieved level four, but the user eventually gains access to an even stronger version of Eichi-Me, called Go-Tensu Me (Five pointed Eye), which gives the user the ability to see Chakra... it's kind of like the Sharingan, but not nearly as strong... I would say that it focuses the user vision enough to see the particles that make up one's chakra, allowing them to see the flow of chakra outside their opponent, making them appear to have an aura around them. The major downside to this level five is it immensely eats away at chakra, and when is canceled, the user could possibly fall unconscious from exhaustion. Name: Hyuuga Hiryuu Member: .’~Advent Child~’. Age: 17 Rank: Genin List of missions completed: D: 2 C: 2 B: 2 A: 2 Personality: Hiryuu can best be described as a daydreamer, content to, for the most part, remain aloof and far away from most of society, being allowed to silently observe what goes on around him. This leads to some people mistakenly calling him lazy, but Hiryuu is anything but. His level of commitment to his friends is nigh indestructible, his loyalty unshakable. He's somewhat well like for being one of the few Hyuuga who has a large amount of disgust for those with a cold or high and mighty attitude, but the usual Hyuuga arrogance tneds to take hold of Hiryuu from time to time, especially in the presence of most Uchiha. His arrogance skyrockets in the presence of his rival/friend, Uchiha Shawn. Appearance: Hiryuu stands garbed in a white kimono, left untied to freely flow open, over a black fishnet shirt, and black hakama tucked into white bandages up to the top of his shins. His arms are entirely covered in black bandages for the most part unseeable due to the sleeves of his kimono. The bandages cover ceremonial tattoos, placed on him as a rite of passage when he became old enough to be inducted into a set of young Hyuuga being trained in an ancient style of Hyuuga martial arts, the Mugenken (Infinte Fist) in order to better protect the family bloodline. His almost-black, indigo hair hangs to his feet, and is usually braided in order to keep it out of his way. Black sandals sit on his feet, and a kunai holster sits on his right thigh. His headband hangs comfortably around his neck. Fighting style/skills: Hiryuu mainly fights using a combination of the Jyuuken (the Hyuuga stle taijutsu), and the more common martial art, Wing Chun, combining the Jyuuken's precision with Wing Chun's hard hits and great speed. Hiryuu as a whole specializes at short to mid-range, as he prefers to keep his enemy away with powerful jutsu, and tire tem out long enough to rush in, and beat the opponent into submission. He's currently beginning to learn Iaido (The art of the quick draw), to better wield a blade he recently aquired, Amatsuryuu no Tsurugi. He has two chakra types, Water as a primary, and Wind as a secondary, and truly aspires to be an elemental jutsu master, as it's common knowledge that just because a person will do better with jutsus of their chakra type, doesn't mean that they can't use other elements. Hiryuu's especially dangerous using the Jyuuken, as he's double jointed in many places, mostly the joints in his arms (his elbows, shoulders, and index, middle, and pinky fingers are all double jointed.), as well as him having hyper-extending shoulders. Hiryuu's physical attributes are mostly notable for his speed and durability, though his strength is somewhat lacking when not using chakra. His biggest weakness is genjutsu, as despite his Byakugan being able to see through most genjutsu, without it, he has no genjutsu defense whatsoever. He also doesn't have very large chakra stores, forcing him to use devastating jutsu sparingly, or otherwise suffer from fatigue caused by loss of chakra. Finally, he doesn't have many skills beyond taijutsu and ninjutsu, and he's pretty much a sitting duck once his arms are incapacitated. He's moderate at tracking, thanks to his Byakugan, which has far above average optical range, but he hasn't trained himself in tracking beyond the basics, and thus is better suited to lookout or rear guard. Weapons: Hiryuu, on rare occasions due to recent training, utilizes a blade called Amatsuryuu no Tsurugi. It is a blade containing an ancient dragon spirit, and will only be wielded by those it deems worthy. It sat in a unused room in the Hyuuga complex until Hiryuu stumbled upon it. It's not particularly spectacular looking at first, seeming like a regular handguard-less nodachi with an ivory sheath, the blade of which is inscribed with "Amatsuryuu no Tsurugi" in appropriate kanji. When unsealed by the wielder, the blade changes, the back edge shifting and expanding to look like fire, and the blade changing from bright silver to deep royal blue. chakra constantly flows visibly around the blade, and the chakra influences the user, causing his eyes to glow a bright blue, and his pupils to become slitted. This, strangely enough, is not visible in Hiryuu, as his Byakugan eyes somehow negates that effect. This doesn't mean he isn't effected, as anyone who can see chakra can see the effect the blade has on Hiryuu's natural chakra. The blade has a final form that Hiryuu has yet to figure out how to unlock. Team: Team 9 (temporarily filling in for empty spot on Team 7) Relationships within team: Hiryuu only has a passing relationship with Thanan, as Thanan tends to keep to himself. He's more familiar with Slota, and sees him as a friend, though since he's also more often than not off by himself, Hiryuu doesn't see him as a best friend, but more a very good comrade. List of jutsu: 1) Henge no Jūtsū 2) Būnshin no Jūtsū 3) Kawarimi no Jūtsū 4) Hakkeshō Kaiten 5) Hakkeshō Dai Kaiten 6) Hakke: Rokūjūyon Shō 7) Hakke: Hyakū Nijūhachi Shō 8) Hakke: Sanbyakū Rokujūichi Shiki (Semi-Mastered) 9) Mūgenken no Jūtsū 10) Mūgenken Oūgi: Tenryūsho 11) Kūchiyose no Jūtsū 12) Bakuhatsu Fuin: Kai Custom jutsu: Mūgenken no Jūtsū A technique that, at first glance, creates a film of translucent chakra with wisps of aura rising off of it over the arms of the user through continuous chakra expulsion. The continuous emitting and focusing of chakra from every tenketsu in the user's arms creates controllable "chakra afterimages" That for the most part follow the user's arm's every move (the after images number from 7 to 10 afterimages on each arm). The afterimages are fully capable of striking and harming an opponent, and the user's arms, as well as the chakra arms are stronger than usual due to the chakra enhancing the strength of the user. Once activated, the technique is usually used in combination with the Jyuuken to achieve maximum effect, and thus has many techniques in addition to this one. The technique has two further stages of strength, as of yet unrevealed. The biggest weakness to this technique is that it's entirely reliant on the user's chakra to remain active, and constantly drains from the user's stores to stay cohesive enough to cause damage, thus, this technique is recommended to be used by someone with either elite jounin level chakra stores, or a secondary/chakra enhancing source. (This technique was used by Hiryuu during his fight with Shawn in the Chunin Exams.) ------------------------------- Mūgenken Oūgi: Tenryūsho The full extent of the first form of the Mūgenken, the user channels large amounts of chakra through the multiple hitting hands, using them as "gateways" to expel chakra, then guides it into one palm, creating a massive focused ball of compressed energy, which is then further focused into dragon shape. The dragon shape is used due to the dragon shapes ability to mangle upon first contact, then, as it tears through the opponent's chakra pathways, shred with it's scales, claws, and spines. The user then strikes with the palm at high speed, and releases the focused dragon into the opponent, making no outward injury aside from the bruise from the palm strike, but causing massive damage to an opponant's insides and chakra pathways. The multi hitting ability of the Mūgenken further strengthen's the attack, as it causes each spine, scale, claw, and fang to hit twice. The major downside to this is once again, the lack of chakra, as well as the fact that the attack diminishes in power from the time it's fully formed and solidified to the tim it dissapates. It also bears the weakness of range, as despite the fact that it indeed can be fired off towards an opponent, with no direct connection to the user, it's forced self sustained chakra source dwindles at an insane rate, causing the attack to fizzle out before it can go very far. Clan: Hyuuga

Neither places were on the trip itinerary, they were never planned by the scout organizations in charge. Since the group didn't plan to go there, I couldn't either; I'm going with a group, not by myself. I don't have complete freedom in my choices of where to go. There's another reason we didn't go to Hiroshima or Nagasaki, or specifically the atomic bomb sites. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are to the Japanese what the Holocaust is to Holocaust survivors, so going to those places as Americans would be very insulting and offensive, especially considering our goal. I don't think any Japanese people consider those sites as tourist spots; there are most likely many painful memories that still exist.

This is a journal depicting my trip to Japan. The entries span several days, from two days before the trip, to one week after. Keep in mind the dates listed are the dates that the entries are written, not necessarily the dates the events happened. JANUARY 29 There are two days until I leave for Japan. I’m nervous, a bit scared, and half of me doesn’t want to go. My parents scoff when I tell this to them, though; according to them, this is an honor. That’s what I thought, too, when I first got selected. I figured I was pretty lucky to be chosen as one of the 40 people out of the Boy Scouts of America to go to Japan as “ambassadors” (32 scouts, 8 adult leaders). This is our supposed title and job there, to strengthen foreign relations between the USA and Japan. But really, this is just a mix between a tour and an exchange program; we’re going to have a host family for 3 days there. But I digress. I was very excited when I first learned that I was chosen, about two months ago. Until, of course, when I started to prepare for my long absence from school (two weeks). Five subjects in which I have to make up two weeks’ material, plus a band concert in which I need to practice extra hard in. I’m doing my best to split up the work so that I’ll do some before I go, and some after I come back. It’s hard to keep track of, especially with juggling the tests, labs, and assignments I have to make up, plus preparing for the trip, etc. Today, as my mom was driving me to an outside orchestra, she lectured me about safety in Japan. The usual stuff: follow your group, don’t go off by your own, wear lots of layers of clothes so you don’t get a cold, be careful around strangers and in places you don’t know (which is basically all of Japan), keep your money safe so it isn’t taken by pickpockets, don’t get lost in the airport, don’t get lost in Japan, don’t get kidnapped, etc. I’ve heard this plenty of times before, so I wasn’t really concerned about that. What I was concerned about, though, was something else. My mom has the habit of using elaborate hand and arm gestures when speaking, to make her point. Now, this may be okay in a normal conversation, but it freaks me out when we’re driving on a highway, and my mom waves both her arms around instead of planting them both on the wheel. This turns into a thirty-minute long torture when going to orchestra and back. Basically, the whole thing will be 12 days. The first day, all us people scattered across the country will travel to Texas to meet as a group and stay a night. The second day, we’ll go by plane to Japan, and arrive the third day in Japan (third day, meaning the flight doesn’t take a whole day but counting the huge time difference, we’ll take a “day” to get there). We’ll meet our Japan counterparts, do some icebreakers, and spend the next 6 days or so touring the country together. The last three days, our group will be split up to stay with various host families, and on February 11th we’ll be flying back. I’ve packed my bags, but I’m scrambling to get all my schoolwork done before I go…the stuff I can do at least. JANUARY 30 I’m leaving tomorrow at 5 o’clock to catch my flight. I’m memorizing the stuff I need to do at the airport, step by step. Since I’ll have to go to bed early tonight, I’m going to hurry up and finish all the homework I can finish. JANUARY 31 7:15 A Pacific time I’m on the plane to Dallas right now. My parents and I spent the night before packing. I went to sleep at about 11 PM, and woke very early this morning—4:30 AM. My mom was already up cooking eggs for me, so after getting dressed I went down to eat breakfast. After that we brought my stuff out to the car and drove to the airport. My mom helped me check in, but after that I was on my own. I was a bit nervous about going on my first flight alone, but I found my gate alright. I met one of the adult leaders at the gate, so I’m not as nervous now. He’s an adult, so he should know what to do…I hope. It would be bad if I couldn’t go to Japan after all. JANUARY 31 9:47 P Mountain time Today was a long day. I don’t mean long as in boring, but fun. All the people I met are really nice and have a great sense of humor. We spent the day in Texas. Today is supposed to be a meeting day; since all 40 participants are from across the country, we gathered in a hotel at Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. For the first five hours after I arrived, we all met in the lobby, eating an excellent lunch provided by the hotel and getting to know each other. It was great meeting people from different parts of the country. At about 3 o’clock we went to the National Scouting Museum in Irving, Texas together. Some of the artwork there was amazing. I took a lot of pictures. After coming back, we had some more free time. Some of us wanted to go up to the pool on top of the roof, but apparently it was too cold and windy. I didn’t go up there myself, so I wouldn’t know. We had a great time anyway, past dinner and the first speeches by the adult leaders. We split up into patrols each named after one of the four major cities of Japan; my patrol was named Osaka. I got to be one of the two assistant patrol leaders in the patrol; we wanted to keep all three candidates happy. The guy who got to be patrol leader—we call him T-house—seems to be a hardcore scout. He has three or four silver palms and around 50 merit badges. Our senior patrol leader is even scarier: 102 merit badges, and he’s only a year older than me. Makes my 21 merit badges look pathetic in comparison. Our patrol decided to watch the Clinton-Obama debate that was going on at that time on a TV in the lobby. Speaking of which, a bunch of the soon-to-be-18-year olds and just-turned-18 year olds are angry that they’re going to miss Super Tuesday. I don’t see anything lost by going to Japan instead of voting, but then again I’m not at voting age yet. On the other hand, we are getting a really good deal out of this trip: 5 flights, two of them international flights, and stays at different 5-star quality hotels every night, at an extremely low price (most of it’s funded by the scout organizations of the US and Japan). I can’t wait to go to Japan. 13-hour flight, here we come… February 3 9:04 P Japan standard time The flight yesterday was horrible. I was nauseous he whole 13 hours, and I threw up five times total—2 during the flight, and 3 right after. Japan made up for all that though. The hotel is the only part of Japan we’ve seen so far, but it’s awesome. We spent the entire day today getting to know the Japanese scouts and having discussions with them. I didn’t really get to know any of the Japanese scouts, it was partly because of a communiation problem—we had translators and everything, but none of us didn’t really make any friends. It’s also too bad that we’ll be saying goodbye to the Japanese scouts tomorrow—we only interacted with each other for a day. I’m kind of tired right now, so I’ll end my entry here. FEBRUARY 6 10:20 A Japan standard time I haven't made an entry for two days now. I’ve been neglecting my journal duties because of laziness. Sumimasen. Speaking of, I’ve been neglecting my schoolwork, too; everything’s just tiring me out so much that I haven’t had the time. Once we get to the hotel and have dinner, I just go to my room, plop on the bed, and go to sleep. I’ll catch up with my homework eventually, though. We’re on the bullet train (shinkansen) right now, so I’ve done a bit of my French homework. Looking at my Feb. 3rd entry, I don’t think I’ve done justice documenting the great day we had with the Japanese scouts. So I’m going to start over and write about three full days. Here goes. We arrived at our Narita hotel in the evening of February 2. We were supposed to arrive at two in the afternoon but there was a 3-hour delay. Those airline companies need to get their stuff straight. Anyway, like I said in my 2/3 entry, the flight was pretty miserable for me. So we got to the hotel, and when we stepped off the bus, we saw this line of Japanese scouts in the hotel, clapping to welcome us in. It made us all feel honored, but at that time I had a bag of my vomit in my hands. It would be very awkward walking through the crowd like that. Luckily one of the other US scouts gave me a hat, so I could hide the bag behind the hat and hold it close so no one could see it (I didn’t wear the hat, of course; there was always the chance the bag would rupture, and…moving on…). Next we went to this huge room for an opening speech by a guest of honor from Ireland. I was still feeling horrible, so I couldn’t pay much attention, but the slideshow the guest showed us about scouts helping the world was touching. There were some photos about scouts volunteering after Hurricane Katrina, and the rest dealt with other countries’ disasters. The shinkansen is almost at Osaka right now, so I’m wrapping up my entry right now. Still three days to catch up on. 11:09 A Looking at Shizuoka flashing by through the window of the bullet train, it is amazing that Japan adapted so quickly from a feudal society to this in a little more than a century. It is one of the most urbanized places in the world, one of the leading countries in technology. It’s sort of weird how, in the supposed home of video games, manga, and the like, we haven’t come across any of that in our travels. But we’re not here to see any of that, we’re here to see Japan. So I won’t dwell on that. As you may imagine, all these cities makes it hard on the Japanese scouts to do scouting activities. But as we learned from the Japanese scouts Sunday, there are actually more than enough national parks across the country for the scouts to go to. We were split up into discussion groups the morning of the third. Each of the groups was made up of around half American scouts and half Japanese scouts. We discussed ways to improve international relations and the state of the world as scouts, and promote world peace. In the afternoon we met up together to write a recommendation to the World Scout Organization to improve the world. Many of us felt that this particular meeting was a waste of time; the recommendations started out with lots of vague suggestions like “improve communication between countries”. This made a few of us frustrated, because we just spent the morning making these vague suggestions into specific, realistic ways to improve the world. We did make the recommendation more specific, but it still took up a lot of time. I personally feel that we could have spent that time hanging out with the Japanese scouts. We really didn’t have any time to get to know the Japanese scouts; only a day. But that have school, so it can’t be helped. I would have liked to hang out with them more. We never forged any friendships due to the lack of time. That’s one thing I think could be improved. We did have some fun together at the exchange dinner, but that’s about it. We left early the next morning as acquaintances, not friends. 2:19 P Japan standard time I can’t believe how cool Japan is. The restaurant we went to had a make-your-own cotton candy machine. And the bathrooms have seats near the walls. It took a while for us to figure out that the seat was for when there was a line at the bathroom so you could sit down instead of having to stand and wait. Back to February 4… After saying goodbye to the Japanese scouts, we began the tour part of the trip. Ten percent of the population of Japan is in Tokyo, according to our tour guide. She and two of the Japanese leaders are going along for the trip. Our tour guide is very nice and gives us lots of cool information about Japan, even about superstitions. For example, it’s bad to give someone a comb as a gift. This is because the word for comb is kyushi, a combination of kyu, 9, and shi, 4. But kyu also means suffering, and shi also means death. Giving someone a comb, therefore, is wishing them a prolonged death accompanied with suffering. Went spent the fourth touring Tokyo. But first we made a courtesy call to the vice minister of MEXT. MEXT is short for MECSST, which in turn stands for the ministry of education, culture, sports, science, and technology. The trip there was very long; the traffic was horrible. BTW, Japan’s cars are really small and compact. They have to be for this kind of traffic, I guess. They also have different license plates that we use in the US. After MEXT, we had lunch, then went to the Senso-ji temple in Tokyo. The thing I remember most vividly about that was that there was this huge pot of incense behind the temple. Supposedly, if you waved the smoke from that pot over a part of your body, the incense was supposed to cure the problems in that part of your body. I waved the smoke on as much of my body that I could. After that we went to the Tokyo Observation Tower. The Tower looked a bit like the Eiffel tower except smaller (but still big) and red. There was this cool part of the floor on the tower that was clear; you would stand on the clear part of the floor and look down at Tokyo below you. Unfortunately, since it was night, the lights on the tower had been turned on, so I was staring into the lights and couldn’t see Tokyo well. After that, we went to our hotel for the night. This hotel’s rooms were really small and cramped. I’m stopping my entry here because we’re at Osaka castle now, our next stop. 10:57 PM I’m in my hotel room right now, the one in Osaka. We’re actually staying at this hotel for two full nights, so I don’t have to pack my stuff early in the morning. That’s not the reason I stayed up later than usual tonight. I usually sleep at 10 PM here, since there isn’t anything to keep me up. But this was the first hotel with a place for laundry, so I had to sit in the laundry room for over an hour. I would’ve done my laundry sooner, but our patrol was in charge of writing the blog entry for our site today, so that plus picking pictures for the day’s gallery took up a bunch of time. Interestingly, something happened while I was doing my laundry. In the nearby room there was this vending machine with drinks in it. Our senior patrol leader decided to buy a drink for one of the Venturing girls, and picked a cherry-flavored drink because she liked cherries. Of course, since the text on the can was all in Japanese, none of us understood what it meant. More on that later. He bought the drink and gave it to the girl, who came back for more because she said she liked it. Not suspecting anything, the SPL bought another one, and went back to talking to the other people there in the room. She soon came back with another girl. Both wanted another cherry drink, but the SPL said no this time. He eventually gave in to their threats and bought a third drink, warning them that this would be their last. They stole the money from him to buy a fourth drink. By now the SPL was worried; what was up with these drinks? By this time the girls had stolen (or taken by force) money from other scouts and had racked up 13 drinks total, 6 for one and 7 for the other. They were by now stacking the empty cans into pyramids, giggling randomly, and staggering around. Our SPL finally found the tour guide and asked her what the text on the can meant. She told him it was an energy drink. Mystery solved. Hopefully the girls will be okay tomorrow though. Yes, we fooled around a lot tonight. We had much more free time in the hotel today. That was because we only had two stops to go to: the Cosmo Tower and the Osaka Castle. This morning, we went to the bullet train station right in front of our Shizuoka hotel. How convenient… The bullet trains, or shinkansen as they call it here, are really fast. When we were waiting for our train, another train blew past us in a few seconds. The trains are cool in another way too. The chairs in there swivel around. Some of the other peple made two rows of seats face each other and started playing cards. We arrived at the Cosmo Tower at about 11:30. The Cosmo Tower is supposedly the World Trade Center of Japan. We went up to the 48th floor of the building for lunch. I wrote about the restaurant’s awesome features in my 2:19 entry. After lunch, we went up to the 55th floor, the observation floor. The observation floor was similar to the one in Tokyo tower from two days ago, but much higher up. We spent several minutes up there, then headed down. Next we went to Osaka castle. This castle was apparently the stronghold of both Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, two of the three famous shoguns of Japan. The castle also contains the third largest stone in the world ever moved by man without aid from machines or other devices. Two of the floors in the castle/museum prohibited picture-taking; a shame, because those two floors had some of the better artifacts. There were ancient robes of that time, that I’m sure my mom would love. She likes designing clothes; I’m planning to get a dress of some sort for her. I’ve gotten gifts for the rest of the family already. After that, we met outside the castle, where I got some takoyaki, or octopus batter balls. The takoyaki were good, but I felt disappointed. I thought takoyaki would be mashed octopus, but it’s just a dumpling with a piece of octopus tentacle inside. Anyway, we got to our hotel and had a[nother] banquet soon after checking in. One person took 18 bowls of corn chowder in one sitting. It was fun watching him and cheering him on. Speaking of which, I made a piece of cotton candy back at the Cosmo Tower restaurant and ate it in one bite. Twice. My friends joked that I might throw it up, but I actually didn’t. That’s today, I’m going to sleep now. It’s really late. I’ll catch up on February 5th tomorrow. FEBRUARY 7 3:41 P Japan standard time Deer are scary. I learned that on our trip to the Big Buddha shrine today. More on that later. We went to the Nara prefecture today. Our first stop was the site of the oldest standing wooden building (built c. 730 AD), Horyuji temple. After that, we went to the Big Buddha shrine, or the Todaiji shrine. It’s got the largest wooden building in the world, and the largest bronze Buddha statue in the world. There was this pillar with a hole through it near the floor that was the size of the Buddha’s nostril. We took turns crawling through it. Outside the temple were deer. Our tour guide said that the deer weren’t afraid of humans, but could be aggressive. I found that out when I tried feeding them special deer crackers in a nearby vendor. They crowded around me and started snapping at me, causing me to back up. Then they cornered me and started biting me. The trick was to run as fast as you can to where there are very few deer, and feed those deer. Some people put deer crackers in their mouths and made the deer snatch it out from there. I didn’t do that. After that we went to the Shinto shrine. We learned a lot about Shinto habits there, such as purifying yourself with special water that flowed through the area, and that spirits come down to earth through pointed objects such as jagged stones, etc. next we’re going to go to an area near our hotel with a bunch of shops. FEBRUARY 8 7:44 A Japan standard time In three days we’re going back home. The end of the trip has kind of snuck up on me without my realizing it. I’m going to make the most of our remaining time. Everyone else on this trip has been great. I’ve made a lot of friends without realizing it, and I suppose I’ll miss them a lot when I get home. This afternoon the home-stay will begin. First, though, we have half a day left of touring. 2:30 P Japan standard time The first stop today was the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. I took some nice pictures, but otherwise things were uneventful. We did meet some exchange scouts from Ireland, but I didn’t talk to them much. Next we went to a place called the Kyoto Handicraft Center to eat lunch. After that we spent about an hour shopping in the center. I got a yakuta (a kimono except less expensive) and some geta (sandals). I also got chopsticks and some dharma dolls, which have to do with feng shui. Then we went to the Sanjusangen-do, a Buddhist temple with 1001 statues of deities. Next we’ll be going to the Kyo-Mizu temple. FEBRUARY 11 10:40 A Mountain time I’m at the gate to my flight home right now. I’ve just been through two flights in a row. Fortunately I haven’t vomited at all this time, partly due to some motion sickness pilss that a friend gave me. It’’s weird how when we left for Japan, we hardly knew each other, but we’re commng back as a family. I wondered how we came so close in such a short time. The answer, according to another of my new friends, is simple: we just didn’t have anyone else to hang out with. Ina place where the people you’re traveling with are the only ones who can communicate easily with you, you’d obviously become friends with them quickly. I’m going to try and finish documenting my trip before I get home. On Friday, our stop after the Big Buddha temple was the Kyo-Mizu temple. There were these fortune slips at the temple. You took your fortune, and if it was bad you left it on a rack outside the temple, which symbolized leaving your bad luck behind you. Fortunately I got a good fortune. After that we went to the National Scout Office in Kyoto for our host families to pick us up. Personally, I feel that my homestay wasn’t very good. We played videogames most of Friday and Saturday; we went out once in the morning of Saturday to the Kyoto observation tower, and once in the evening to an awesome barbeque dinner. The son in our host family and two of his friends treated me and my homestay partner, also my SPL; we must’ve eaten two cows worth of beef. Some of the other scouts are jealous of me because I got to play the new Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but when you play for 15 hours straight, it gets boring quickly. Sunday was much better. We went to a cook-out for our host family’s Venturing crew, where a series of interesting events ensued. We followed the same three people who had treated us last night, arriving at a pastry shop, where we met two other scouts who had been on the same trip. We started to catch up on events with our homestays, so we didn’t notice that we ended up on the subway. There, we saw a man with a video camera pointing at us, which was, admittedly, a tad creepy. One of us four scouts remarked, “Hey, I wonder if he speaks English.” Upon which the man extended a hand for a greeting, and said, “Nice to meet you, I’ll be the man filming you today.” Apparently we would be professionally filmed for the day. We looked at our host-family buddies, who told us that we were going to be cooking lunch with their Venturing crew. After we got there, we had an opening ceremony for the meeting, with the same man from before filming us, and a lady with a microphone. After the opening ceremony we had a brief snowball fight then began cooking lunch. While cooking lunch the film crew pulled us four American scouts and did interviews of us separately. We had to answer questions about how to improve the world as a scout, such as promote world peace or protect the environment. After lunch we had a real snowball fight, and made a snowman. An interesting note is Japanese snowmen are comprised of only two large snowballs whereas in America we use three. At about three o’clock, we headed to the hotel would be staying at in Kyoto (our last hotel!). The closing ceremony on Sunday evening went smoothly and uneventfully. After that we had one last meeting, then dispersed. I tried staying up to hang out with my friends but had to go to bed because I was too tired. 11:29 A Mountain time I’m going to finally catch up on the 5th of February. First we went to the Fuji-Hakone National Park. Some of us wore only swimsuits at the park, and ran around in the snow making snow angels and having snowball fights. Next we did some sightseeing and ate lunch, going on a cruise afterwards. We ended up at a hot spring place famous for its black-shelled boiled eggs. I think it’s also the site where Hello Kitty was created. BTW, according to a superstition, if you eat one egg your life extended 7 years, and two eggs will give you 14 years. But if you eat three the years are cancelled out. Next we went to our hotel; a very nice place, very expensive-looking. I’m going to miss all the friends I made on this trip. It was amazing; I can’t describe it any other way. FEBRUARY 18 5:19 P Pacific time Closing comments It’s been a week since I came back from Japan. I’m no longer suffering from jet lag, though I have now been overtaken with the other condition called teenage coma; 11 o’clock breakfast FTW. It’s hard adjusting to life with school again; I’m used to goofing off and relaxing without anything hanging over me. I also miss my friends; I feel like we were much closer than my friends at school and I. I suppose it comes from living and traveling together. One of my friends from the trip said that he always tries to find a purpose for everything he does. So I’ll do the same. I think there are in fact many reasons I experienced this trip. It’s to shrink my world a little bit more, let me learn about another people’s culture. I realize that I truly do have so many places I’ve never been. Obviously, one purpose was to make friends. Making connections with people is important. I think it’s healthy for me to go out every now and then and make new friends. I think this trip taught me that relationships are important. It’s important to establish friendships. As you interact with people’s whose lives are different than yours, it forces you to be more tolerant. Same with where I go. This trip shattered my misconception of the Japanese, exposed myself to a different culture. I’ve told my new friends to make sure to go to the next National Jamboree, since that’s the most realistic way we could have a reunion. Even so, some people will have graduated then, and no longer be able to participate in scouting. I might never see some of these people again. This experience, and the other recent experiences I’ve had, taught me to make the best of my time. Looking back at the week and a half together, there are so many opportunities I could’ve had to bond more deeply with the other scouts. Instead, I should hang out with other people as much as possible, and be more social than I am now. I really liked going on this trip, but if you read my incredibly long blog you would know that by now. Sayonara, you all.

Don't be. As I said, I never really knew my grandfather. What bothers me is that I know I should feel sad, but I don't feel as sad as I should be, and that makes me feel guilt instead.

It was bound to happen. My grandfather’s health was deteriorating already, mostly due to his constant smoking during most of his life. Still, it came as a shock when my mom stumbled up the stairs, crying and saying that she had just received a phone call from the hospital/senior center my grandfather was at. His heart had failed during the night. I didn’t really know my grandfather. He lived in Taiwan the later part of his life; my parents had immigrated to the US, so much of my extended family was still in Taiwan. I had met my grandfather a few times when we visited him or vice versa; on one of his visits to the US, he beat my siblings and I in a soccer game single-handedly. His soccer skills were amazing. My mom said that during his prime, he had been considered for the National team in China. But during that time World War II started, and my grandfather turned down the offer to become a soldier. That’s another thing I know my grandfather for. He was a war veteran. He never talked about his experiences in the war (but then again, you can’t really talk about these things, can you?). He must have had very traumatizing experiences in that war and the war after that (the Kuomintang-Communist War), because after the war he fell into habits of smoking, drinking, and gambling. His life went downhill from there. My grandfather grew up in the midst of war. There was one incident that occurred during my father’s mid-teens. My grandfather’s father was sick and Japan was attempting to invade China. My grandfather had to take his younger siblings with him (he was the oldest) and abandon his dying father in hopes that he and his siblings could escape. From what my mom tells me, one of his siblings was captured by the Japanese. He never heard from him again. My grandfather’s gambling habits kept my mom in poverty during her early life. He was almost never home at night; playing mahjong and other gambling games and throwing away his money. My grandmother was forced to take a job of her own, and even that couldn’t hold up the slack; some of the debts on my mom’s family still haven’t been paid back today. My grandmother. She was stubborn, and strong-willed; there were many arguments between grandpa and her. My mom remembers them all too well. My grandmother landed in the hospital shortly before my grandfather did; a blood vessel near her brain burst out of stress. That happened about 5 years ago. My grandmother got amnesia, and her health’s been in steady decline since. For all their fights, my grandfather still cared about her, staying with her long hours in the hospital, and when they moved her, the senior center. He became a permanent resident there several months later; his addiction to smoking had finally caught up to him. We visited them the winter of 2005; that was the last time I saw him. He looked fine, better than my grandma at least; I was more worried about her life than his. A year after we came back, surgery was performed on my grandfather. They gouged out a hole in his throat and inserted a pipe into it for respiration. He couldn’t talk after that. I remember thinking how regrettable it was that I could never ask about his war experiences. Now he’s dead. Same difference, if I think about it that way. But I try not to. He died two days ago; the senior center he was in dumped his body in a mortuary. He doesn’t even have the money for a proper funeral ceremony. My mom doesn’t know what to do. She’s going over there in two days. My grandfather was a failure at most of his things in life. He smoked, drank, gambled…was never around to take care of his children. He was the cause of money problems for my mom’s family, the reason why my grandmother had to struggle so. Still, he’s my grandfather.

Please take as long a break as you want to, Lady K. I hope that by the time you return, you'll be your cheerful self once again. More experienced in the ways of the world, maybe, but still the Lady K that contributed much to BZP.

Well, I've gotten my Avohkii spinny. That means two years have passed since I first joined BZP. It's kind of weird when I think about it. That's two years in which I've had one more thing in my schedule. Sometimes it seems like these two years have flown. Other times it feels like BZP has been a part of me my whole life. I'm not sure what to say. But what I feel is the biggest experience I've had here, is the Academy/BZPRPG. I joined the Academy about three months after I joined BZP, and I've been in it all through its nine months as one of the top three RPGs in the RPG forums, its merge with the existing BZPRPG, dozens of battles, etc. My characters have all grown and matured, but I'm not sure if I myself have grown to the same degree. Certainly, I haven't lost any of my legs in a battle, or switched allegiances, or even attended a party in which a crazy, egotistical, fork-wielding villain was one of the guests. I’m also currently in charge of a Naruto RPG, which sort of put strain on my leadership skills from time to time. Occasionally, I’ve had to punish RPers, which is kind of hard for me, as I know what it’s like to be one of those RPers, being punished. XD The more fun part about being in charge, though, is making a master storyline with the other people in charge of the RPG. I’ve spent hours planning and discussing NPCs, and storyline events with other people, which is as fun as RPing itself. The other RPGs I’ve participated in or are currently participating in are many, easily more than ten, but include the Gate RPG, the Redwall RPG, the Star Wars RPG, among others. I was first drawn to BZP by the Library. There were a bunch of authors there at that time whose works I really liked. In particular, Tangled Web by GaliGee, which actually started a few months before I joined. There was another one by xccj, about a Miru-wearing Onu-Matoran Kanoka disk maker. I forget the title now, but I remember that it was 12 chapters plus an epilogue. Besides those I read the stories in the Epics forums and Short Stories forums constantly in my first few months as a BZPer, before I got introduced into the RPG world. I joined the short stories critics about a year ago, which was fun in that now I was officially reading and reviewing other people’s stories. Unfortunately, I sort of neglected that job, only occasionally dropping in and reading a bunch of stories at once. I myself haven’t written in a year or so, but I used to churn out stories almost every two weeks. So, I guess my second year at BZP wasn’t as productive as the first. I’ve been neglecting my duties as a critic and a writer, focusing only on RPGs, joining a bunch of them at one time then quitting them one after another as my schedule became cramped. As I look ahead at the second semester of my tenth grade year, then my junior year, along with the daily tests, AP classes, and (oh no) college applications, it seems my schedule will only get more cramped. And maybe that means that after these two years, my time as a BZPer will cease. Beside my computer sits my Eagle Rank Application for Boy Scouts. I became a Life Scout three months before I became a BZPer, and a Life Scout I still am now. Indeed, I’ve been procrastinating with my Boy Scout advancement since becoming a BZPer, when, before, I was breezing through the ranks, earning about 18 merit badges in two years. Maybe by participating in BZP I’ve lost the time I could’ve used to clinch that rank, become an Eagle scout. Maybe I could’ve pushed that extra percent to get an A instead of an A-. Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten that B+ in science the second semester of my eighth grade. Do I feel that my time on BZP was worthwhile? Of course. I’ve met a bunch of cool people, made a bunch of friends, learned what text RPGing really is, and best of all, learned that there are other people out there like me who are fans of Bionicle. Do I feel that my time on BZP was a waste? I don’t know, and I might not know until I can properly look back and evaluate my time in high school. Maybe it’s time for this Bionicle fan to say goodbye to BZP, and set his sights on new horizons. … Nah. There’s still so much I need to do. I need to wrap up all the stories of my characters, kill them off if I have to. I can’t just up and leave so many loose ends. The time when I have to log out for good is still far away. In the meantime… *gets back to posting*

I would think some people would have the sense not to trust such unreliable sites. Still, I'm glad this was resolved so that we can finally move on to something relevant.

It (the combination) is also highly effective against armies. Robbing the sight and hearing of people in the army would prevent them from seeing or hearing the signals that leaders of the army give, which also messes up strategies or formations. This mask power is one of my favorite by far. I still can't decide between the Makuta and their Av-Matoran allies, though.

Awesome...You got your own guitar. Happy [late] birthday!

This is a poem I wrote three days ago. Our marching band was warming up for our halftime show for the high school football game, our first 'performance' in uniform, and I noticed how the sky was completely covered by clouds, which was the inspiration for the poem. Please read and enjoy! Music Under a Gray Sky We stand Warming up There is no blue To watch us Only drab gray clouds that Throw the vibrant color of Our uniform Into greyscale Our scales Echo around the quad A pause We hear the Announcer’s voice far Off “Time to go,” The assistant director says we Assemble Into a block and Head to the field () And the Bionicle 'C' with parantheses around it means it's copyrighted. Please don't plagiarize.

This may seem like a random subject for a blog entry, but I've seen plenty of random entries, so I guess this should be okay. Anyway, a few minutes ago I walked into the family bedroom where the computers are, and I saw that the chair I usually sit in while using the computer was broken. Specifically, the backrest had fallen off the rest of the chair, meaning I now had to sit in something similar to a stool. I picked up the backrest off the floor and looked at it. One side was cushioned; this was the side I sat against while working at the computer. One the other side, a smiling face was painted on it with black marker. I don't remember who drew the smiley face, either me or one of my siblings. But the smiley face used to give the chair a cheerful feeling. The seat of the chair has no cushion anymore; I basically sit on hard wood. So the chair is pretty uncomfortable. But I kept using it after the cushion fell out, and I guess I'll keep using it even though the backrest has fallen out. I don't really see a moral to this story of mine, but anyway, please feel free to post comments.

That's the logo for the Writer's Assault Project. If you're wondering what the WAP is, it's a group that I joined over the summer, in the same camp that I did loads of writing in. Writer's Assault Project is basically a group of dedicated writers who meet about twice a month to share their writings. The presidents of the two divisions, NorCal WAP and SoCal WAP, are also talking about possibly presenting works to the public, which, in my opinion, is pretty cool. Anyway, I just wanted to talk about this for one of my blog entries, because I enjoy WAP. I feel like part of a team, where everyone has the same goal, and the same dedication and passion. It really helps me through school; whenever I'm struggling with Honors homework, I think of WAP, and it gets me going again. To everybody who reads this blog, I think that being in a group such as this is really good for you in all aspects of life. It gives you something you're interested in, and allows you to interact with other people with the same passion. If it's possible, try looking around in your community for groups: school clubs, music groups, sports teams, etc. It's great to be in a team, and I guarantee it will help you. Anyway, these are my musings for the day. BCE, signing off.

*shivers* With all this stuff about the Gali Nuva blog, I'm really hyped...does it come out every month or so? If so, that's 3 more months... Cool. Mrs. F as Hahli. Wow, a new villain from 2008. Can't wait!

Wow! I had been hoping that the origin of the Bohrok would be revealed sooner or later. After it was cut out from book #7, I was really depressed...

I'm guessing the censored word was idjit or something similar to it. Anyway, that's a great story. It defines the Toa's personalities immediately after they're awakened.

I got a PM this afternoon. It was some sort of Member of the Day thing, and I got an image to go along with it. Anyway, I decided to put this in my blog, just for kicks. My thanks to Skateboarder 2 da max for this image: That's all. I might put up one of my written stuff in the next few days.