For nimble thought...

2007-07-16T19:51:00.000-05:00

How to turn your average American girl into a Japanese dancer:

1) Take straight, blonde hair and add black fluff balls. Brush said hair over fluff balls and cover with enough hairspray to make a small hole in the ozone. Continue ratting, rolling, scraping, and hairspraying for 30 minutes.

(Please note the hairdresser's huge mullet! This did not fill me with confidence; in fact, my feelings could best be described as nonplussed.)

2) With hair complete, move on to make up. First, thoroughly de-oil face, neck, and arms so make up has clean surface to stick to. Apply base foundation so these same body parts. Paint on white make up as well, making sure no hint of actual skin color shows throuogh. Add black eye liner, black eye brow pencil, and red eyeshadow to appropriate areas on the face. No mascara or lipstick yet though... that comes AFTER dressing, if you please!

3) Move on to dressing station. Catch a glimpse of a ghost in the mirror and almost scream until thinking, "Wait a sec, that's me! Eeeeek!" Stand still while two lovely old ladies wrap you with random towels, cloths, and various undergarments. Keep your confusion over this process to yourself ; however, as you cannot figure out how to say, "Why!? Why are you bundling me up so much that I can barely move let alone dance?!" in Japanese. Once the various layers of kimono are on and the obi tightened, quickly learn a new style of breathing as your ribs are now severely contricted. Wonder to yourself how people used to wear these things every day. Continue to ponder this notion for a while as there is now nothing to do except wait for make up to be finished.

The pic on the left is from dress rehearsal, thus the lack of make up. On the right you have scary, ghost-like moi! OOoooOOOoooOOOoooo!!!

4) Wait. Wait. Wait a bit more. Finally track down your teacher and ask about the rest of your make up. Wait a bit longer and finally get lipstick and mascara applied! Briefly feel relief that everything is put together until realizing that it's only 10:30 AM. You have been wearing this kimono for just over an hour already and you don't go on stage until 1:05 PM. Consider crying before rejecting the idea because it would ruin your make up. Try to look for the silver lining in this tight, hard to breath in cloud.... ah HA! My posture is great! Look at how straight I'm sitting! Nary a slouch in sight! Go me!

5) Try to use the time before you perform constructively... or at least keep busy so you don't focus on how tight the freaking obi is. Practice your dance a couple of times, gush over how cute your students are, take pictures as other gaijin transform into lovely Japanese dancers. Momentarily curse the obi when lunch time roles around and you realize eating is impossible but brighten up again after realizing lunch time means you only have to wear this for another hour. Yutta!!

6) La, la, la, la, la. Almost time now! Wait a minute. I'm supposed to be on stage in 1o minutes!? What about the hat!? There's a hat with this costume! Mass panic insues as Sakaguchi-sensei cannot be found and no one else seems to know how to put the damn hat on. All hope seems lost until, like magic, Sakaguchi-sensei appears. The hat is put on, along with various flower things, you rush out the door and BAM! Performance time!

7) Post-performance. Ahhhh, what a relief. Now let's take some pics before this all comes off. 3 1/2 hours of wearing this kimono is enough, thank you kindly!

On the left: my friend, Erin, and I dressed as lovely Japanese ladies.

On the right: my poor squished face. It looked better on stage! Luckily, this was only a dance... talking was impossible!

2007-05-21T19:34:00.000-05:00

The (Modernized) World of Suzie Wong!

(That's actually the title of a book, sans modernized, written about Hong Kong way back in the 1950s. I enjoyed it; however, it isn't what I'd call "P.C." There is some debate about how the book affected stereotypes surrounding East Asian women. It is an interesting read nevertheless, especially comparing the Hong Kong I experienced to the world it was over 50 years ago! Ok, onward and be warned: This is going to be one hell of a long entry. I'm sorry!)

My trip to Hong Kong was, in a word, spectacular. The sheer volume of the place was a bit overwhelming at first, especially coming from oh-so isolated Amakusa, as was the ever present sticky humidity, but Honk Kong has a presence that draws you in almost against your will. Maybe it's the history, maybe it's the unique blend of people residing in this compact, bustling place, maybe... who knows. It's definitely one of a kind and a place best experienced in person. Not even the power of the written word can do it justice. I invite you all to save up and make the journey yourselves, then you'll understand!

Our plane landed in the late afternoon on Saturday. The trip itself was amazing! Cathay Pacific has the best service of any airline I've even traveled with. On the 4 hour flight to HK, (with a layover in Taipei) we were given TWO, really tasty meals and, wait for it, FREE beer and wine. I almost didn't want to get off the plane, a definite first for me! The airport was vast and a bit intimidating, the customs personnel were even more brusque than usual, and a seemingly solid wall of smoldering humidity greeted us as we walked outside... yes, we were not in Japan anymore, Toto! Luckily, we quickly found the bus we were told to take to the hotel and (JOY!) it was a double-decker! Unfortunately, the bus driver seemed to believe that traveling at any speed over (what seemed to be) 40 miles an hour was completely out of the question. Thus it took us F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to get to the damn bus stop; however, on the bright side, it gave us ample opportunity to gawk and point and be 100% silly tourists. That was fun!

The first major dilemma we faced in our travels was finding the freaking hotel. I'd booked the place because it was cheap and seemed to be a pretty central location. (Aye to the former, nay to the latter, alas!) We'd written down directions and everything, so I thought we'd be ok. HA! Overly confident, that's what I was! The directions said something to the effect of "get off at the Saigo stop. Walk back 50 meters and take a right on such and such street. The Ajisan Guesthouse will be on your right." What we didn't know, and apparently the Ajisan didn't know either since they gave us the directions, was that our damn bus stopped at a DIFFERENT Saigo stop. After we'd walked for a good 100 meters we were starting to get a bit concerned... and annoyed because dragging luggage in a crazy busy city in 150% humidity is the opposite of fun! Luckily there was a big department store right on our path, so we slogged in and inquired at the help desk. (By the by, these help desk ladies were the ONLY friendly help desk people I came across in HK. I do mean only!) They consulted a few maps and were finally able to point us in the right direction. A few more minutes of searching and confusion followed, the hotel was in a residential building which made it more difficult, but we finally found the place and checked in.

A note on the hotel is absolutely essential. This place was hilarious and mildly ghetto. Our room was tiny, tiny, think NYCity apartment tiny! There were two bed with just over a foot of space dividing them. The air conditioner worked just fine but it was really, REALLY noisy! We couldn't have the thing on at night because it was so loud! Our bathroom was tiny and had a pair of rubber shoes in it. These were necessary because the bathroom WAS the shower as well. When either of us took a shower, (turning the water heater on 30 mins before, of course), everything got wet: the toilet, the tp if we forgot to put it up, the sink, everything! The real kicker came on the second or third day when we wanted to charge the batteries for our cameras. Sorry, folks, no can do! You see, our room didn't have any outlets! Sheesh, who's ever heard of a hotel room with no outlets?! I mean, wtf?! Well, at least it was cheap... and we do get what we pay for, don't we! :)

OK! Moving on! We were crazy busy every day we were in HK. We usually left the hotel at around 8:30-9 in the morning and didn't get back until after 8 every night. This was a bit of a problem when it came to breakfast since most places in HK, including Starbucks, didn't open until after 10. Thank goodness for small bakeries and 24-hr 7-11s, that's all I have to say! Our first night out and about, after we finally found the thrice-blasted hotel, we just wondered around and took everything in. There were so many lights everywhere that I seriously didn't realize the sun had gone down until we passed a side street and I noticed it was dark. That first night consisted of a lot of wondering and ogling at everything! We saw two really big shopping centers, (YIPPEE!) the World Trade Center and Times Square. Unfortunately, the East Asian obsession with labels runs rampant in HK as well, so I didn't even want to go into any of the stores for fear of soiling a $1,000 garment with my dirty, bourgeoisie hands! (Ok, I'm overstating it, but seriously, I'm scared to touch expensive things!) After a yummy dinner, where I first realized that there is a difference between Japanese and Chinese rice AND chopsticks, we called it a night. It had a been a long day and traveling is exhausting.

The next day, we got up early and set out. We'd decided to take the Peak Tram(http://www.thepeak.com.hk/full/en/peak_tram.php) up Victoria's Peak, the place where all the rich people lived back in the day. It was on this day that we first realized that nothing was open before 10. We passed a Starbucks at just before 9am and the doors were locked, it was a sad thing. After searching for what felt like hours, we finally found an open coffee shop just around the corner from the Peak Tram. It was delicious... partly because I was freaking starving and partly because I don't get to indulge in coffee shop food on Amakusa so I miss it. Then we headed to the Peak Tram. It was really cool! It goes up the mountain at a pretty good pace and, man!, that mountain is steep! I would hate to walk up that thing, my legs hurt even thinking about it! It took about 20 or so minutes to get to the top (don't worry, I took pics!) and then it took another 10-15 mins to get to the top of the building and look down. We persevered, made it to the top, and looked down upon the beautiful... fog. That's right, we couldn't see a gosh darn thing. It was windy and cold too. But, dammit, we made it and it was neat! We also walked all the way around the top of the mountain on this gorgeous walking path. I was struck by how many foreigners were around, walking the path for exercise because they live there or were crazy tourists like ourselves. (There just aren't that many gaijin on Amakusa, so I know every non-Japanese on the island!) After all that walking we were getting pretty hungry so we decided to head back down and find some reasonably priced food. The restaurants on the Peak looked yummy, but they were not priced for people traveling on a budget.

We took the tram back down, (it was even more fun going down! The buildings look sideways!) thanked our lucky stars that we got there early, (the line waiting to get on the tram was now HUGE) and headed out to get some dim sum. City Hall's Maxin Palace is a famous and popular dim sum restaurant, so we decided to eat there. The wait was a testament to it's popularity, we must've waited for a good 40 mins for a table, but it was well worth it. Dim sum, steamed buns filled with various things, is delicious! I couldn't believe how good the food was! The service was a bit iffy and, well, strange. These ladies walked around pushing carts of different kinds of dim sum. They stopped at tables and asked us if we wanted anything. We got a good variety from the first lady, two of three different kinds, but she wouldn't leave. She really wanted us to take some pork filled bums. I don't eat pork, Erin already had some, so we didn't want anymore. I said no a couple of times, she kept asking, I said no again, she then said "please" and tried to put it on our table! I had to physically stop her and say "NO NO NO NO!" It was a bit shocking! Aside from that, everything was wonderful!

After lunch we headed to find the world's longest outdoor escalator. It was created for the people who live on the mid-levels yet who work in the city. In the morning, the escalator goes down and in the afternoon it changes and goes up. Super cool, I loved it! We got off at Nathan Rd. to look at the various hip stores and antique shops that made the street famous. I got an awesome dragon bracelet too, yes! At the end of the street, after an hour or so of browsing, we found Man Mo Temple. It was filled to the brim with incense! Incense coils on the ceiling, huge sticks of it in pots beneath the coils, and hundreds more in front of the shrines to Man and Mo. It was so different from the shrines that I'm used to in Japan. This place was just ornate, with gold, green, and red from floor to ceiling! Absolutely beautiful! By this time, lunch was but a distant memory, so we headed out to find some food. We ended up in the Wan Chai district, a place of ill-repute in the olden days, because I'd read about Agave, a Mexican food restuarant, and I had to go. It was everything I could've hoped for! There was even a friendly waitress, which is an oddity and not the norm in HK... in my opinion anyway. We drank margaritas, munched on amazing nachos, (thus temporarily satisfying my Mexican food craving) and had an absolute blast! There was a British style pub across the street, so we hit that place up afterwards and took a taxi home in the wee hours of the morning. A great second day!

Monday dawned and we were a bit, ahem, sleepy but the humidity made it pretty difficult to sleep in! Thus we headed out to make the best of the day. We took the Star Ferry from HK island to Kowloon on the mainland. Kowloon is a whole different animal! Much more touristy and much less business-y. I've heard that a lot of locals avoid the place like the plague because of the sheer number of tourists! I thought it was really fun though. We went to The Peninsula, an old and fancy hotel, to have partake in it's famous afternoon tea. I'd read that dress was casual, and we were walking all day anyway, so we were just in jeans and shirts. After I saw the place; however, I realized that we might be a tad underdressed! This hotel was freaking gorgous. I mean, it had marble pillars and such! It even had designer stores on the first floor! Yikes! They still sat us and everything, but we were placed in a back corner where no one could see us. The tea and scones were to die for, but the service people, with one exception, completely ignored us. A classic example of people judging a book by it's cover. My money is just as good as anyone else's, is it not! I threw down a good chunk of change on that meal! Anyhoo, I left with my belly satisfied but my ego slightly bruised.

Post-tea, we wandered around Kowloon, did some shopping, and slowly meandered over to the relatively new HK Musuem of History. (I promised my mother that I wouldn't just shop the entire time I was in HK!) This was a really awesome museum! The first room was built up to look like HK back in the day before the day. I'm taking pre-dinosaurs here! Really cool. Each room progressed through the history of the little island to the present day. Awesome, awesome museum. I was shocked by one room; however, it was the one dealing with the Japanese occupation and subsequent atrocities committed over the next few years under their rule. It was shocking. What makes it even worse is the fact that this event, and others similar, are completely left out of Japanese history books. They just pretend it didn't happen. Erin said she had some Japanese exchange students in her Japanese history class while she was in school, (she's from Australia, btw) and they knew nothing about this period in their country's history. That's just mind-blowing. ( I could say a lot more about his particular subject, but I'll save that for another blog!) Unfortunately, we had to rush through the last part of the exhibit because we wanted to see the largest, daily light show in the world. Every night, 33 buildings on HK island on Kowloon become a part of what has to be the coolest, most awesome light show I've ever seen. Ever. It's just too great, I have to try to put a pic here to illustrate how marvelous it is!

Of course, this picture doesn't do it justice. I didn't have a tripod so I had to do the best I can! Anyway, it completely blew us away! After it was over, (it ran for about 20 mins) we wondered down along the Avenue of Stars (HK's version of Hollywood's stars) and took pictures with Bruce Lee's, Jet Li's and Jackie Chan's stars. I felt the kung fu force flowing through me! We also made it over to Knutsford Terrace, the haven of hip ,touristy restaurants and bars, and I endulged in my first real pizza in months. It was so tasty and delicious that it almost brought tears to my eyes! AND THERE WAS NO CORN!!! YES! NO CORN!!!! I was happy. :) It was a very pleasant way to end Monday.

Tuesday we left even earlier than usual because we were heading to Lantau island to see the world's largest ourdoor buddha. (Has anyone else noticed how often I've used world's largest!?) We took the subway out to the end of the line and followed the line of people headed to HK's newest attraction, the Ngong Ping cable car! It's really clever and fun. Basically you get on the cable car on the mainland and ride it out over the ocean until in lands you on Lantau! So fun! My pleasure was a bit spoiled; however, by the people who were put in the thing with us. Keep in mind, the cable car is not that big. Four people on either side, eight total, and the only windows that can be opened are tiny, little ones at the top of the car. We had the dismal luck to be placed with four very, very, very, VERY loud Chinese people. I mean LOUD. The other two people in the car, a British girl and a Japanese girl, were almost more annoyed than I was! The Japanese girl kept muttering about how this would never happen in Japan and how Japanese people need quiet. It was so funny! These loud-mouths were quite dense too, or just didn't care, because they didn't respond to any of the dirty looks we threw at them. My head was POUNDING by the time we got off, although I must say, the view from the ride was absolutely beautiful.

The cable car ride ended at the entrance of a fun, little faux-village. It was filled with tourist friendly resaturants and shops, complete with annoying sales people. (A note on sales people in HK. In my experience, he or she will latch onto you the minute you walk into the store and follow you around until you leave, trying to force you to try on or admire anything that you happen to glance at. Half the time I felt like they thought I was a shop-lifter or something. As a former sales associate, let me tell you that that is NOT the way to sell merchandise! All it does is make the customer want to leave asap!) After admiring the cute village and grabbing a quick bite at a coffee shop, we headed towards the buddha. Man, that thing was big! Please observe:

You will also kindly notice the massive amount of steps leading up to the buddha. On a hot, sunny day. With no breeze. Did I mention it was hot AND humid!? Luckily, I had my umbrella with me so I used it as a parasol... once I rememered I had it, that is. Half way up the freaking staircase. Sigh. Better late than never! MOVING ON! The buddha was really impressive. You can also walk under the statue and they have pictures from various stages of it's contruction. It was quite interesting and nice to get out of the sun as well! That long climb really burned off breakfast, so we started off to find lunch.

We'd purchased the optional vegetarian lunch offerend by the monastery on the island, (I'd read on-line that it was de-LISH) so off we went on a search for the restaurant... with stops at a shopping stall and temple along the way. Now, this restaurant has to be the absolute WORST managed place I've ever seen in my life. If I didn't know better, I would've sworn it was the first day the place had ever been open... and the first day the staff had worked at a restaurant... ever. We must've waited for at least an hour to get in and we couldn't go anywhere else because we'd already paid. Very frustrating. What made it even worse was the crowd of other people waiting to get it. They were so rude, it was unbelievable! I was sitting down and there were people almost standing on top of me, they crowded the podium where the host was and would not leave him alone. I could not believe it. (I don't want to sound rude or racist or anything, but the people in Hong Kong seem to be really, really ill-mannered!) When we were finally seated, the food was AMAZING. Definitely THE BEST food I had in HK, hands down. All vegetarian too, which made me quite happy! The huge crowd was still surrounding the door when we left, it was quite the experience! We were feeling quite full and tired after all that, so we headed back to the hotel (via a ferry. So fun!) and had a short rest before heading back out to Kowloon. I'd read about the Temple Street Night Market and we wanted to check it out. Did some shopping, some more shopping, a whole lot of bargaining, and left with many purchases made with purprisingly little pain to my wallet. Bargaining can be fun! However, it was now quite late so we decided to call it a night. There's something about being out in the hot, hot, hot sun all day AND climbing hundreds of stairs, that just tires a girl out, you know!

Wednesday dawned and we had big plans for our last day. Plans doomed to fail, alas, as the ferry ride to Macau was a bit pricier then we'd expected. We conferenced over sandwiches and decided to spend our last day wondering around the city and shopping til we dropped. Man, we walked our booties off that day! My feet, already sore and abused from the previous few days, were definitnely NOT happy with me after that! It was still a great day, though, we poked into small side streets, found and explored small antique shops, and tried to visit places we'd bypassed previously. It was a long, tiring day, so we chose to visit Victoria's Park, which was convienently close to our hotel, before heading out to dinner. We just wondered around the park, watched some guys playing with there remote control boats, found "laughing corner," (no laughter in any other area of the park, if you please!) and just relaxed. It was quite nice, definitely a needed break from the craziness that is the city! After we'd gotten our fill of pretty greenery and ornery cats, (I swear, this animal would NOT let me take his picture! He had some major 'tude!) we headed back to the hotel to get pretty. We'd already decided to get dressed up, head to a fun restaurant, and out to the many Lady's Nights that fell on Wednesday. It was such a fun night! We couldn't find any of the bars I'd written down, (I guess these places close pretty quickly.) so we headed back to Agave for some free margaritas!!! YUMMMMMYYY! I talked Erin into getting quesadillas as well, (side note: they apparently do not have quesadillas in Australia. I almost fell off my chair when Erin told me this. Can you imagine life without quesadillas!? Is that even living!?) We decided to stay there for a good long time, the music was good, the margaritas were free, there were funny people to watch, (e.g. accross the street from Agave was a strip club. A lot of the girls were standing outside looking bored because no one was inside. Any time a man walked by the lady who guarded the door literally jumped him, pulling on his arm and gesturing at the girls, it was hilarious! Inside the restaurant, I was also amused to see an older, maybe late 50's, gentleman meet up with a much, much younger woman who was almost wearing a shirt and really, really low cut jeans. I wonder what they have in common! AHEM!) and did I mention the free margaritas?! It was a wonderful way to end our time in Hong Kong!

Our last morning in Hong Kong, we'd promised ourselves that we'd go an eat Subway. (Never take Subway for granted! NEVER!!!) We checked out and headed back to the world's long elevator only to find... it was GOING THE WRONG WAY!!! It was still early enough for it to bring people down to work, not back up, so we were in a bit of a bind. Our desire for Subway was strong, stronger than our dislike of climbing stairs while lugging heavy suitcases, so we set off. That really sucked. There's no other way to say it. Sucked sucked sucked. Stupid humidity and stairs, grrr, I curse at you! However, we persevered and made it all the way to Subway! GO US! Poor Erin had a really big suitcase too, it was not the most fun we had on our trip but it was so worth it. Those Subway sandwiches were GOOOOOOOOD! After eating and feeling a bit rested, (our arms hurt. A lot. A lot a lot.) we bid adieu to Hong Kong and set off the airport and back to reality (if you can call my life in Japan "real") and the quiet beauty of Amakusa. Hong Kong was wonderful but I wasn't sad to leave. I think anything over 5 days might be a bit much, the city is just too overwhelming. Maybe that's why everyone who lives there seemed to be so rude, it was their reaction to the craziness that surrounds them. Who knows! All I know is, this in one city everyone should visit!

2007-05-07T01:52:00.000-05:00

Here's a better view of the main tower. I wish that you could get a feel for the size of this place! The picture just doesn't do it justice!

2007-05-07T01:44:00.000-05:00

<~Cherry trees lining the road to Jusanbutsu (13 Buddha) Park. Aren't they oh so lovely!

The cherry blossoms helped make Kumamoto Castle even more awe-inspiring! ~>

<~ The main tower of Kumamoto Castle. That place is HUGE and so, so very cool!! It's so different from anything I've seen in England or in the movies!

2007-05-07T01:25:00.000-05:00

My long absence explained... sorta.

Well, my goodness! I just realized that I haven't written a thing since March 16th and that blows my mind. In my defense, for a long time there was absolutely, positively nothing going on. I went to work, I went home, I exercised, I ate dinner, and then it was bedtime. WOO-HOO!!! My exciting life in Japan! Then, after a long period of stagnation and mind-numbing routine, things got so busy that I didn't have time to write. My 3rd year students all graduated at the end of March, (I still miss them! Sniff!!) Joe came to visit the first week in April, school started again the following week, (meaning there were various enkais to attend, new teachers to meet, new students to freak out with my non-Japaneseness, (yes, I did make up the word, but it works so well!) a dance festival to get my groove on in, (hmmm, my English is getting worse and worse over here!) AND a trip to Hong Kong to plan. All in all, I was one busy little gaijin!
I do promise to write about my various adventures as soon as possible. My Hong Kong trip will be quite a long entry, but I'll get it up as soon as possible. Until that time, I shall make amends by posting pretty pictures of cherry blossoms (sakura) and Kumamoto castle. Dozo! :)

2007-03-16T04:53:00.000-05:00

OOPS!!! I forgot!!!

There was a request a while ago for the MySpace name of the pyscho, small and annoying Philippino boy. Here it is in all it's glory; you can imagine my surprise when I first read it on that flight from hell! Enjoy! http://myspace.com/phukkinpissoff (Isn't that just charming!? Gah, what a creep!)
On a happier note, my days are looking up! This weekend I'm heading to Aso, (a town that has a volcano in it. Neat!) for the annual fire festival. The whole town gets into this festival! They write huge kanji characters, in fire, on the side of the volcano and than dance down a street swinging flaming bales of hay around their heads! Awesome! I can't wait!
Also, prepare to be jealous, I'm going to HONG KONG the first week in May!!! YAY YAY YAY!! I'm so excited, I don't know what to do with myself! We just finalized the hotel reservations today, so everything is taken care of! The shopping is INSANE in Hong Kong from what I've been able to see! It'll definitely be awesome for me... I haven't seen a decent mall since January! AHHHHH!!!
I hope to have wonderful, fire-filled pics up after this weekend; this event is supposed to be amazing! Well, anything beats sitting on my booty all weekend... let's get this fire party started!
Ja ne!

2007-03-06T18:49:00.000-06:00

Punxsutawney Phil's Prediction came true, if only for a day or two!

This past weekend in Kumamoto was so beautiful that I cannot express it in mere words! Let me just say that I spent the weekend walking around outside in a t-shirt, (yes! A SHORT SLEEVED T-SHIRT!!!) jeans and sunglasses... and I was a little bit warm! When I happened to be inside, (a sin with weather like that!) I had all of the windows in my appato open to let in the warm spring breeze. Sigh, it was wonderful! If I was promised weather like that every day, man alive, I'd never leave Takahama! :) Of course, I did feel for all of my lovely MN friends and family... bogged down in a foot and a half of snow and such. I called Joe on Sunday, (so it was Sat night in MN) and had to call him back because he was shovelling. I really had to giggle! Not to be mean or anything, but the contrast was just so... well, you get what I'm trying to say!
Alas! My weekend of bliss was just that, a weekend. The rain came on Sunday night and chased the beautiful weather away! Sigh. Now I really, really can't wait for sping to arrive! Hooray for unseasonably warm winters! FYI, here's a bit of interesting info: this will be the first winter since they started keeping track of the weather that it hasn't snowed in Tokyo! They started recording the weather in like 1890 or something! Crazy! A case for global warming? I'll let y'all decide!
Mata ne, tomadachi!

2007-02-26T05:30:00.000-06:00

OMG!!! THE CRAZY BOY FOUND ME!!!

I signed into MySpace today to check my messages and such, (you know, typical MySpace stuff) and y'all will never guess who tracked me down. That annoying as ALL HELL little, Phillipino-college boy Antonio who REALLY irritated me on my flight to Japan!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! How the hell did he find me?!?! All he knew about me was my first name!!! It takes forever to search for people on MySpace with such little criteria! God, I'm so wigged out. How can he not realize that he is, in my opinion, quite possibly the MOST annoying person on this planet? I was downright rude to him on the plane, I RAN AWAY from him in the aiport... is he dense?!
My first reaction is to just ignore him. I won't deny that I'm a little bit tempted to send a message to aquaint him with my feelings, but I think that would just be mean. I'm really not a mean person and I don't really like the idea of making another person feel bad, even if said-person is annoying and obtuse. Sooo, is ignoring his message the best bet? Any ideas?! Is anyone else a freaked out as I am!? :-P
EEEK!

2007-02-25T05:23:00.000-06:00

<~~~ Beautiful Amakusa!

Well, I came back to Japan with a new digital camera and I'm still working through it's many quirks. I'll try to get more pics up once I start doing interesting things! :)

2007-02-09T07:11:00.000-06:00

Indian Summer in Japan!!! Hmmm... so what would one call it here... maybe burakumin summer? I dunno, they did suffer the same discrimination but in a different way, so I dunno. I'll leave it to y'all to decide!

So, the last time I wrote I had just experienced hail in Amakusa. A few days later, (the first Friday of February) there was SNOW in Takahama but thankfully if didn't accumulate. Honestly, if there was any, and I do mean ANY, snow on the ground I wouldn't have driven anywhere; I don't trust my car! Anyhoo, on that following Sunday our Indian summer began! I drove to Hondo on Saturday wearing my warmest boots, gloves, and a scarf with the heater on. On the way home on Sunday, my windows were rolled down and my sleeves were rolled up! Sheer HEAVEN, let me tell you! It was the first time I've felt really warm since I got back from America. That's sad, ne... I've been home for over a month!
More good news! I have a three day weekend, so no work for me on Monday! It's "Substitute holiday." I have NO idea what that is, but I think it's just the local Kumamoto government telling us when we can take our choseibi. You see, in Kumamoto we are not allowed to work over 20 days a month. Thus, in months like August where there are no holidays, we get 3 days off to do whatever we want and those days off are called "choseibi"! It is an awesome system, I highly approve. :-) I wanted to go somewhere for the long weekend but I decided to save money instead. You see, in March I'm planning on going to Osaka and Kyoto for an short vacation, and then in April/May I am going to either Hong Kong of Cambodia so I need to save my money! I'm really, really looking forward to these vacations because, as much as I enjoy my town, it's too small so I've already seen everything I can see. It's time to explore new places while I'm still here!
I promise to take many pictures to make everyone jealous as soon as I can. ;) Sorry that I haven't put new pics up for a while. The house party I was supposed to go to fell through, so I ended up doing other stuff and forgetting my camera. (FYI, karaoke in Japan is AWESOME and AMAZING! Who cares if you suck, as long as you sing in English, you are the epitome of cool! :)
<3 <3 <3 Mata ne, tomadachi!!!

2007-02-01T00:36:00.000-06:00

EXTRA EXTRA! HAIL SEEN IN TAKAHAMA! LOCAL ALT FREAKED OUT BECAUSE HER APPATO ISN'T INSULATED AND SHE'S ALREADY COLD ALL THE TIME! PLANS FOR EXERCIZING HAVE BEEN DUMPED IN FAVOR OF BLANKETS, HOT CHOCOLATE, AND MOVIES! ;)

OMG, I saw hail this morning! In Amakusa!! The weather here is similar to NOLA's and I sure as hec never saw hail there! (Well, I guess it did "snow" once, but I'm a Minnesotan. One inch of snow doesn't really do anything for me!) Wait!!! Speaking of snow, one of my teachers came in this afternoon and told me he saw SNOW in Fukuregi! That's only 25-30 mins from my appato! Eeeek! I don't want it to snow! It's just not right. It shouldn't be allowed to snow unless homes and apartment buildings are insulated... isn't that one of nature's rules of something? It should be! Anyhoo, I wish that I'd had my camera or keitai with me to take pics of the hail but, Alas!, I was in class. I'll keep my eyes open from now on!
Ok, that's all for now. I'm going to a house party this weekend, so I hope to get some new pics up soon! Ja ne!

2007-01-21T04:50:00.000-06:00

My terrible, awful, no good, very bad flight!

As most of you know, I was back in good ol' MN for my Winter break. It was wonderful! Two weeks of seeing friends and family, shopping in stores where clothes FIT, ordering at restaurants where I was understood, the list goes on. Needless to say, I enjoyed every minute of it and I didn't want to leave, but Japan called so back I went. Unfortunately, the trip back to my little appato turned out to be THE WORST traveling experience of my life thus far. Here is a summary of my own series of unfortunate events, enjoy! :P
I knew it was going to be a rough trip when I got to my gate over an hour early and it was already packed. No seats, nothing. I decided to go get some last minute American food, (Caribou cooler and Subway) before heading back, taking a seat on the floor and reading my book until it was time to get on the plane. This weird little guy came to sit down next to me about 10 mins later but I ignored him because I didn't want to talk to anybody. Alas! I was thwarted both because the line to get on the plane was so damn long and this guy really REALLY wanted to talk. A lot. Nonstop. He's from Manila in the Philippines, he was visiting his family here in the States, he's in college, he likes hockey, let's talk hockey, I should visit Manila, he'd show me around blah blah blah blah. Plus he had this weird not quite lisp, not quite accent that made him really hard to understand... especially when he was talking a mile a minute. I was hoping and praying that he would not be sitting anywhere near me on the plane and, luckily, I was saved that experience. He was on the same side of the plane but farther back, thank goodness. (For my sanity AND his life!)
When I got to my seat I was hoping that, by some miracle, no one would be sitting in the two middle seats but that didn't happen. This brother and sister sat in the middle seats, and the sister spread her big jacket and sweaters on top of her and taking up the arm rest and part of my seat. (The seats are small enough already without that annoyance!) Anyway, I still didn't want to talk to anybody so, after we took off, I plugged in my headphones, listened to some music and read my book. I passed the time that way quite happily for about the first 3-4 hours, but my ears were getting sore from the headphones so I decided to let them rest. That's when the brother of the girl sitting next to me decided it was ok to talk to me, even though I was obviously reading a book. At first I didn't realize he was walking to me because I was reading. (I heard someone say, "So, where are you headed?" but I assumed that question wasn't for me since I was bent over my book not looking around wanting to talk. BUUU! Wrong!) Where was I going, what was I doing in Japan, what was I going in America, blah blah blah. Nothing too bad until I asked why he was going to Korea. Apparently he's a member of the too-much-information crowd and promptly told me that his mother had died in a car accident in Korea so his family was flying there. Gee, thanks dude. What the hell am I supposed to say to that!? I said, "Oh. I'm so sorry." paused, and started talking rapidly about wanting to visit Korea at some point before making my escape to the ladies room. In my hurry, I didn't notice that the stupid, annoying, Manila boy, Antonio, was also there until it was too late. Luckily a stall was open, so I muttered hello and dove in.
I decided to just chill in there for a while in the hopes that he would leave. No such luck, he was actually waiting outside of the bathroom for me! GAH! I wanted to scream. I talked to him as briefly as I good, discovered that he was traveling by himself for the first time and didn't know what to do but kinda liked it, (A LIE! If he'd liked it he wouldn't be talking to everyone in sight and stalking me into the bathroom!) and thought that we should exchange email addresses so that we could chat and I could tell him when I was coming to the Philippines. (I never told him I was going; I mentioned every Asian country BUT that one, actually.) I finally made my escape, saying that I really wanted to get back to my book, gave a non-committal answer to the email question, ran back to my seat, thru on my headphones before the Korea guy could talk to me more, and buried my nose in the book.
The rest of the flight was uneventful, people wise. The food was awful, awful, AWFUl... so gross that I couldn't finish anything that they gave me. We kept running into turbulence and getting jostled every which way. The movies they played were TERRIBLE and I just wanted to get the hell off that plane. They thwarted me there, too, as we were forced to circle outside of Tokyo for 25-30 mins waiting to get clearance to land... usually I'm fine on planes but even I was feeling queasy! I was hoping that when we landed I'd be able to make a quick escape to avoid the chatty and oh-so annoying Antonio, but that was not to be. I'd just stood up to start getting my luggage and he was already there. I mean, he must have gotten up and raced up the aisle while we were still moving because people stand up really quickly on a flight once that seatbelt sign goes off. To make matters worse, he was then right next to me the entire time we were waiting to get off the plane, which takes forever on an International flight especially! He'd written down his email and wanted mine, so I lied and told him I didn't have an email. He then decided to also give me his myspace address, yammering all the while, and generally made those 5-10 mins some of the worst of my life. I was being downright rude, giving one word responses, ignoring him blatantly, etc but he didn't get the drift. (I could see the people around me pointing at him and rolling their eyes. Everyone but little Antonio could tell that I really DID NOT want to talk to him!) Finally we started moving, thank goodness, and I booked it off that plane.... with that f***ing Antonio at my heels. He followed my almost all the way to customs. I thought I was going to hit him, instead I just walked as fast as I could in an attempt to oupace him. (I am about 4 inches taller, but I was also hampered down by laptop and carry-on, so I wasn't very successful goddammit!) I raced through customs, grabbed my luggage, and ran as fast as I could to find the bus to Haneda... with visions of that freaking guy following me the entire time. It was terrible!
I found the bus to Haneda easily, almost cried when I found out it cost 3000 yen, cheered up when I found out there was an ATM only to be crash back down when I discovered it wouldn't accept any of my cards. I was starting to panic, because if either the hotel or the bus station didn't accept VISA I was going to be stranded in Fukuoka with no money. A scary thought because that's one BIG city, (1.2 million, I think) and people aren't as friendly there are they are in a small town. I crossed my fingers the entire way to Haneda airport, made it to my gate in plently of time, and braced myself to call the hotel and ask about credit cards. HALLELUJAH!!!! One thing went right on my trip, they took cards!!! My good feeling didn't last very long, however, as we soon discovered that we'd be taking off 20 mins late due to an earlier flights late arrival. Goddammit all! By this point I was struggling to even stay awake because I hadn't really slept on the plane. I dozed for about an hour or so, and that was it. The plane ride from Tokyo to Fukouka is a blur of sleepiness, all I remember is curling up in my chair and trying to stay awake. We arrived in good time, I got my luggage quickly, found a taxi quickly, made it to my hotel and didn't even bother to shower before climbing into bed and passing out at about midnight.
The next morning I woke up at 6-ish, for some reason, though I refused to get out of bed until 7:30. Everything was still kinda blurry for me, I had only slept for a total of about 6-8 hours for the past two days afterall, but I managed to get downstairs and quickly find a taxi to take me to the station. My train from Hakata to Kumamoto was easy easy and I had no problems except for being really really tired. The train from Kumamoto to Misumi, where my car was parked, was a different story. I got to Kumamoto at about 10am and thus just missed the train that left at 10. Luckily, there was another train at 11 so I only had to wait an hour outside. (Thank goodness because it was COOOLD!) Unfortunately, partly because of stupidity and partly because of tiredness, I managed to miss the 11am train even though I was standing right there. The problem was that the train looked different from the one I'd previously taken to and from Kumamoto. Also, the sign on the train didn't say Misumi, (I DO know how to read that in kanji!) and there were no station employees around to ask. So the train took off and I kept waiting for the 11 am train until 11:15 when I realized that I'd been an idiot. Thus I had to stand around outside, freezing, tired, and very annoyed until 12:19 when the next train came. Luckily I got that one ok, make it to Misumi. Found my car stilll there, (much to my relief!) loaded up and headed home.
At home I unpacked, took out my contacts, laid out my futon and watched the family movies that my Dad burned for me. Then I got ready for bed, watched Akeelah and the Bee, (AWESOME movie!) and passed out. It was a long, long, and not fun traveling experience!
This has definitely put me off International travel for a while... I need a few months to recover! Luckily I have only domestic travel plans for the next few months, so I'm at least saved the general aggravation caused by customs! :) Osaka and Kyoto, here I come!

2006-12-03T20:37:00.000-06:00

STOP... Sumo time!

Who knew that fat men wearing thong diapers and pushing each other could be so much fun! (And NO, I wasn't drunk!) A few weeks ago I headed up to Fukuoka, (the biggest city on Kyushu) to see my first ever LIVE sumo tournament! I've watched lots of sumo on TV since I arrived here, but it's a completely different experience to watch it live! Here's my sumo adventure:
The day started off at the ungodly hour of 6 AM, (this was after I didn't make it to bed until 3 in the morning. Stupid people having birthday parties before I have to go to sumo! Gah!) when I dragged myself out of bed to finish packing and getting ready for the weekend. It's a 6 hour drive to Fukuoka, so we had to leave early! I ended up driving with my friends Brian and Anna, (I didn't have to drive THANK GOODNESS!) and the 6 hours actually went by really fast! We were chatting, occasionally cursing at Adam (the guy whose car we were following) for forgetting that we were driving a kei-car and zooming around slow moving cars, leaving us in the dust. We made it to the city at around 12:30-1 and went straight to the arena where the fat men would be playing sumo. We had decided to pay for a box, so we were thinking that we'd have great seats, super close the arena with some chairs etc. Man were we wrong! The Japanese version of an expensive box seat is a little square, separated from the little squares next to it by a metal bar, and with 4 little cushions on the floor to sit on. At first I thought that I'd made a terrible mistake, sitting in that little space until 6pm?! You've got to be fuc*ing joking! However, once the wrestling started, it turned out to be so entertaining that I forgot about our little box! We were also able to get up a lot to go take pictures of the sumo guys, etc, so the movement helped a lot.
Now, I knew next to nothing about sumo when I got to the place, I really just went because it seemed like a good experience. It turns out that there's a lot of skill involved in sumo! It's not just fat men pushing each other, there's a lot of technique involved. For example, we saw this amazing match where one man looked like he had the other guy beat... except for the fact that he couldn't seem to get him out of the ring! The guy had his toes on the line, his body bent like a bow, and seemed to know something about the laws of physics that the rest of us didn't because he wasn't going A-N-Y-W-H-E-R-E! It was amazing! I thought that he'd stumble out of the ring at any moment, yet he turned it around and won! SUGOI! Amazing! I was shouting myself hoarse, and these were just the lower level guys. There are different levels of sumo players, the higher ones are awarded ranks and are super amazing. (To read more, check out this site http://www.scgroup.com/sumo/faq/index.html) Anyhoo, the type guys in sumo are given the liftetime title of Yokozuna... it cannot be taken away even if they lose. (If a yokozuna starts to lose a lot, he's expected to retire.) There's only one yokozuna currently, a Mongolian who name is Asashoryu. He's only 26 and he's freaking amazing! We saw him fight this HUGE Bulgarian sumo and he just schooled him, threw him down in less then 20 secs. S-u-g-o-i! We also got to see Asa perform the "Bow dance" because, after beating the Bulgarian, he'd won the Basho... no other guy could win enough matches to overtake him. We got to throw our cushions too, a custom that goes back a long way apparently, in celebration. It was so fun!!! SUMO ROCKS!
The rest of the day was a bit of an adeventure. My friend Wai had taken charge of finding us hotel rooms, only the 4 girls going needed them since the boys had girlfriends with family in the city, but she'd neglected to make reservations. The last time she'd been to Fukuoka, she'd found this great small hotel that was usually easy to get into. However, the fact that it was a 4 day holiday AND sumo tournament made it slightly more difficult. To make a long story short, we ended up eating dinner with Adam and Akiko and then taking a train back to Kumamoto City where we figured we'd quickly find a hotel for the night. Alas! It was not to be so easy! The first hotel we went to was FULL as well! We ended up having to stay in this seedy, creepy love hotel! (Note: Love Hotels are pretty popular over here. Basically there's no receptionist or anything. You push a button to choose a room, pay for the room like you would buy pop from a vending machine, and you're set. We saw a typical couple leaving the hotel as we were entering... the man must have been at least 60, the girl couldn't have been over 25 and her hair... well, you get the picture!) By creepy I mean CREEPY! We were freaking locked into the room! The next morning we had to punch buttons and make frantic phone calls because we couldn't open the door! Sheesh, that place was AWFUL! We did manage to make it out eventually, so we grabbed some food and got on the train to Misumi (the last train stop where Anna had parked her car). All in all, it was an awesome time! I do feel compelled to add a warning to whoever decides to visit Japan: please visit but avoid love hotels AT ALL COSTS! PLEASE! That place was just nasty! I'd also encourage everyone to see sumo if you ever have the chance, it's awesome and fun and I can promise that you'll have fun! :-) Remember: it's more then fat men in thong diapers but, honestly... isn't that enough!? ;-)

2006-11-17T06:19:00.000-06:00

The Nagasaki Adventure!
(warning: the following content is for adults/people who don't mind excessive drinking on occasion only. You've been warned! cough! *dad* cough!)

As most people know, I went to Nagasaki with a couple of friends of mine over the first weekend in November and HAD A BLAST!!! It was so nice to be in an actual city again! I try not to think about it too much when I'm home, makes living in the inaka all the more difficult. Anyway, we left on Thursday night and took the ferry from Tomioka Port (about 30 min drive for me) to Nagasaki prefecture. (It was another 15 taxi ride into the city: totally worth it!) We decided to start the party early because none of us had had anything even remotely resembling a vacation in quite some time. My friend Sara brought some umeshu and sake, I hooked us up with snacks, and all was good! We even made friends with a nice Japanese boy with a really nice car... unfortunately, I forget his name... but he was nice!
After the ferry arrived, it only takes about an hour, we took a taxi into the city, checked into our hotel, and headed out for the night. Oh, what a night! We went out for Indian food, (a luxury for me now! There are NO restaurants in my town. Nada! Nilch! Less then nothing!) and decided to indulge in a bottle of wine to go with our food. Afterwords, we wandered down to a chill karaoke bar where the owner hooked us up with all you can drink/sing for one hour at 1500 yen. (This included taking shots of some DE-lish Chinese liqour he thought we had to try!) When our hour was up, we headed down to a "reggae" bar to decide what to do next. As luck would have it, the bartender just happened to know the woman teaching Sara and me Japanese and, in my current, ahem, "happy" state that was all it took for us to become good buddies. After a drink there, the bartender lady took us to another bar/club where we finished off our evening. The place was empty when we got there, but I didn't really care because I had that much more room to dance! They were playing reggae music all night, and by midnight the place was packed! It was a blast! We didn't make it home until 4 am!
Unfortunately, this led to a very late and subdued start on Friday. I was still ready to go go go, (NOLA, you trained me well) but my partners in crime were defintely a little slower to get going. We managed to hit up Chinatown, SUCH GOOD FOOD, and do a little shopping before we had to head back to the hotel so they could nap. (I wondered over to Starbucks and looked around a little before I joined them. There was cable at the hotel! YIPPEE!) Later that evening, we met up with a college friend of Anna's who I almost immediately disliked. I felt really bad, but MAN that girl rubbed me the wrong way! We wandered around downtown Nagasaki for almost an hour looking for a place that SHE wanted to eat at, forget what the rest of us wanted! (Gah, I'll end with that. She was annonying.) We ended up eating at a yummy Italian restaurant and I took the opportunity to indulge in some good red wine, another rarity in the inaka, before heading back to the hotel with Sara for mimosas, ice cream, and sleep. Anna and friend headed out to a club with some Nagasaki JETs... I couldn't stand to be around the girl anymore so the hotel sounded good to me.
The next day was busy busy to make up for our lackluster performance on Friday. We took the street car, (only hyaku (100) yen!) to see the Peace Park, A-bomb hypocenter, and a-bomb musuem. The day got off to a rocky start because Anna's annoying friend joined us for the day. Sigh. There was an argument over the street car, it was stupid, moving on. The hypocenter was very bleak and there were pictures of what Nagasaki looked like after the bomb hit. Very very sad. The Peace Park was a nice reprieve because there were statues from cities and countries all over the world dedicated to peace. It was beautiful. Alas, we saved the A-bomb musuem for last and it was devastating. I made it through most of it but, at the very end, they had testimonials from survivors, (both on video and written) and I broke down. It was too sad. I ran out and spent some time in the giftshop and bought a keychain as a physical reminder of the emotions I went through that day.
After the musuem, we found a cute little place to eat. The owners spoke no English so there were a lot of gestures and pointing, but it all worked out. Feeling full and refreshed, we headed down to see Megane bridge, the oldest bridge in Nagasaki. Alas, on the way there was another clash between stupid girl and me, resulting in Sara and I getting off the street car early. (At the stop I wanted to get off at because the bridge was only a block and 1/2 away. Stupid girl wanted to wait another two stops because that's what her book told her to do. Gah, BAKA!) Anyhoo, the bridge was neat as were the HUGE koi swimming the river beneath it. I do mean HUGE! (see pictures for confirmation) We then took the street car to Glover Gardens, the site where most gaijin homes had been located back in the day. Mr. Glover's home was on top of this huge hill overlooking the harbor, and some other gaijin homes and been moved there to make the gardens. It was gorgeous! We ended the day there, eating many samples of DE-lish castella (like pound/cheese cake) and headed back to the hotel for a rest before our last night in Nagasaki!
Oh! Our last night in Nagasaki, what a BLAST!!! The night started out at an izikaiya where we met the JETs that Anna had hung out with the night before. Apparently they go to that place a lot, because they started messing around with the owner the minute they got there and it was hilarious! The food was wonderful, the drinks were plentiful, and we must have been there for well over 3 hours. Afterwards, Sara and I (along with Erin and Paul, another Amakusa JET and her boy that we'd run into that day) split off of the big group and headed back to the chill karaoke bar we'd visited our first night in Nagasaki. My goodness, we were there the rest of the night! Erin and Paul left somewhere around 2am and Sara and I stopped paying for our drinks about that time too. The owner became our good buddy and he decided to put me behind the bar to make some of my drinks. (This is a TINY place, btw, so it's not as bad as it sounds. There were only 2-4 people there aside from Sara and myself!) Anyway, one thing led to another and by the time we headed home the sun was already rising and they were serving breakfast at our hotel! SO MUCH FUN!
The next morning, (or that same morning, as it were!) was a bit sad because I knew that I had to head back to my little piece of nowhere. We headed down to Starbucks one last time before catching a taxi to our ferry. Erin and Paul turned out to be taking the same ferry, so we chilled and chatted on the way back. It was a nice way to end the trip. Very relaxed and such. We all parted ways and headed home, (where everyone promptly went to sleep is my guess)! All in all, a GREAT trip! I highly recommend Nagasaki to one and all! There is so much to do, cheap public transportation, good restaurants, and great bars... a wonderful city! PLEASE VISIT! (oh yes, and please check out my pics!)
Ok folks, that's all for now! Ja ne!

2006-11-08T03:23:00.000-06:00

My JTE and some of my students at the English Recitation Contest in Reihoku. (Aren't they cute!?!)

From left: Yasuda-sensei, 1st years Riho and Risa, 2nd years Fumi and Ayumi, 3rd years Eri and Satoki, and moi!

2006-11-02T00:17:00.000-06:00

If anyone ever says "Two hambugers and two colas, please" around me ever again, so help me, I can't be responsible for my actions!

Sorry for the long hiatus from blogging but life in Japan has been pretty uneventful lately! I'm still crazy busy, but it's just everyday stuff. Almost everyday in October I stayed after school at my jhs to help some of my students prepare for an English recitation contest. It completely took over my life! I swear, I never left school before dark! (FYI, Japan doesn't participate in daylight saving time so it get dark here really, really, REALLY early!) Working with them was a struggle, it's amazing how many sounds we make that they simply can't seem to comprehend. I spent a whole month working on the word "worry" with one of my students and she STILL can't say it correctly! GAH! What are they paying me for?! Alas, I am a failure as a teacher. :-/ Anyhoo, we finally had the recitation contest on Oct 26th and it was one of the longest days in my life. Let me explain. JHS is made up of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students. There is a textbook for each year with various dialogues, etc in a vain attempt to get these kids to speak English. The students get to choose to memorize and recite one out of 3-4 dialogues. Unfortunately, this means that many students choose the same ones. Even more unfortunately, those of us attending the contest are forced to hear the same thing over and over again all... day... long. Oh! Did I mention the terrible accents and bad acting!? Actually, those two things kept me going. It was a struggle not laugh at some of these kids. I mean, they were making random gestures for every single word! (For example, the horrid hamburger/cola dialogue required them to ask "Large or small?" and "For here or to go?" Now, as native speakers we all know that these are relatively inane questions that require nothing more then a short, some could even say terse, response. Not with these kids! I've never seen so many hands flying all over the place! Who knew that one had to point in the appropriate direction for "For here or to go" and that more gestures had to be made to indicate the relative sizes of "Large or small?") What it boiled down to is that they were freaking hilarious and there was no way I could take them seriously. Even my JTE was holding back on laughing the entire time!
Now, I don't mean to disparage the kids because they were all doing their best. A lot of the trouble is that some JTEs really push their kids to gesture all the time in an attempt to distract from less then perfect pronunciation. In my mind, however, it made the faults stand out even more! Oh well. It was an interesting day, to say the least. My kids weren't even close to winning, (although I'm proud to say they all refused to act like soap opera stars!) but they worked really hard and I'm proud of them.
Aside from the English Contest, not much of interest happened until this past weekend. I helped out at a Halloween Party for another ALTs students and they were so, so, so, so, so cute! I could barely stand it! I threw together a random costume, (I had 3 days to find a costume since I just found out about the thing on the Wed before the party, and there aren't any Halloween costume-y things around my island at all!) and had a great time. We played games, had a costume contest, handed out treat, etc. It was really fun! I'll try to get my pics up soon... when I'm feeling a bit less lazy! ;-)
After a relatively uneventful October, November is going to be crazy busy! I'm busy every Thursday taking Japanese classes in Hondo, (about a 45 min drive one way) and every Saturday I'm taking traditional Japanese dance classes. They are really fun! It's basically a private lesson, FOR FREE, and she dresses me up in a kimono and everything! The only condition is that I have to perform in her dance thingy this Spring. (What a hardship! Y'all know that I just HATE performing and being in the spotlight!) It's a really sweet deal and I'm excited about it. Not to mention Reiko-sensei is really nice and speaks very little English, so it forces me to practice a little Japanese without being too embarrassed.
Now, those are just the regular activities. I am also going to Nagasaki the first weekend in November, (I leave TONIGHT!!!) because there is a holiday on Friday so we have a three day weekend. I'm going with a couple of friends and it should be a lot of fun. We're going to visit the A-bomb museum and do some cultural stuff, do some shopping, and, of course, explore what nightlife the city has to offer! I'll take a lot of pics, don't worry! The next weekend, (11th and 12th) I'm busy again. This time I have a school event on Sat, (a hella long walk from Ooe to Takahama that is supposed to last all day. How do I get myself into these things!?) and then I'm going to a performance of some of Reiko-sensei's students the following day. (She tried to talk me into joining as well, but I've only had two classes! I don't want to embarrass myself that much!) The following weekend I may be having a joint b-day party with my tantosha because his birthday is 3 days after mine. We're still working out the details though. It might be nice to be a hermit for at least one weekend. Ok, moving on! The next weekend, (24-26) I'll be heading to Fukuoka to see my first Sumo competition! I'm really excited. I'm going with a group of ALTs from Amakusa, including this guy Adam who LOVES Sumo so he can tell us when and what to yell. Plus, we rented out a box which means we should be given free sake and beer. Oh yes, life will be good. (No worries, I'll take pics of that too! I know y'all want to see fat men in diapers as much as I do!) :-P Now, to finish it all off, I'll be heading to Kumamoto city from Nov 30-Dec 2 for the Kumamoto ALT mid-year conference. (aka get all the ALTs in the prefecture together. Make them pretend to be interested in boring seminars, then socialize all night and promptly forget everything we pretended to learn! It's more fun then it sounds, I promise) Hmmm, I think that's all for November anyway... hope I didn't forget anything! ;-)
Sorry to dump all that on y'all at once but, as you can see, I'll be even busier than usual so posts might be even more infrequent then before. Gomen nasai! (I'm sorry!) I promise to get massive amounts of pictures on-line to make up for it!
Ok, I think that I've typed myself out! If anyone can think of a way to send me an already cooked Thanksgiving turkey, please do so, I'm going to miss Thanksgiving dinner because none of the ALTs have an oven! Sniff! Ok ok, mata ne!

2006-11-01T21:28:00.000-06:00

Nihon Quirks Part 2

Fear of the Sun: It appears that once women here get out of high school, they develop what seems to be a severe fear of the sun! Well, not fear exactly, but they are obsessed with NOT getting tan! (The women in my town, anyway) Even when it was so hot outside that merely walking outside made me break out in a sweat, these women were wearing long sleeve shirts AND PANTS!!! PANTS! They also have these weird sleeve-like things that they put on the handle bars of their bikes. It's difficult to explain, so I'll try to take a picture sometime, but they are like stiff sleeves that they use to protect their arms from the sun. It's very strange! They also have a helluva lot of skin whitening creams here. You can buy anything from sunscreen to regular lotion with additional Whitening Action! It's so strange. I wonder it it's just a country thing... I shall have to stake out the city soon and keep an eye out for bikes with sleeves!

Squatting: I've already introduced you to the wonders of the "squatty potty," right? Well, I think that they developed that strange contraption because most of the people here squat all the time. When they are cooking, (yakiniku anyway, aka bbq) playing, or simply waiting for their turn to do something, they almost immediately get into the squat! It's next to impossible for me to get into the same position because I'm just not flexible that way... and it's killer on the knees! (Here's the image: feet remain flat on the ground after you hunker down. It's really difficult, try it!) Anyway, this means that the squatties are easy for the natives to use... plus I think they get a good chuckle out of us silly gaijin making fools of ourselves in the powder room!

OK, that's all for now. I know that I had some more quirks but I'm incredibly tired and my brain isn't working. When I think of 'em, I'll add 'em!

2006-10-09T02:48:00.000-05:00

Ooop! An addition to the preceding post.

Hmm, I got so into my undokai stories that I completely forgot to write about the ipod! This is the best story ever! At Shimodakita shougakko, the teacher in charge of me is a girl my age, (she's 25 I believe) and we get along really well in spite of the language barrier. I was at Shimodakita a few weeks ago and had some time off between classes, so we were chatting about how the school's undokai had gone etc. She took out her digital camera to show me some pics and I just loved the camera! (It was small, with a huge screen, and it was red! Neat!) I'm thinking about getting a new camera while I'm here, so I was asking her where she bought it and talking about how much I want to buy some cool gadgets while I'm here. I said something to the effect of, "I really want to buy a new digital camera while I'm here, they're so cool! I want to get an ipod too, I've been wanting an ipod for a while" to which Tabuchi-sensei replied, "Oh? You want an ipod? I have one that I won and don't use, do you want it?" She absolutely insisted that I take this aweseom ipod nano off her hands because it'd been sitting in her desk drawer for several months and she just never used it. Can you believe it?! A free ipod nano, just like that! I almost fell out of my chair! I was so excited that I was literally bouncing around, so falling out of the chair was an actual concern! :-P The only small problem is that everything is in Japanese... but I can read some of the katakana, so I've uploaded my music and I use it everyday! This is one reason why I really like Japan, Amakusa-machi especially. The people are so nice and go giving, they will give you almost anything if they know it'll make you happy. What a great town! Now... if only it had a shopping mall. I'd kill for some retail therapy! ;-)

2006-10-09T02:05:00.000-05:00

...And so I got a free IPod and other adventures!

Many apologies for not updating more often, it's hard to find the time/energy at night. These kids are running me ragged! I've been keeping busy for the past few weekends too, it's leaving me no time to write! Ahhhhhh! So here's the lowdown:

Weekend of Sept 23-34: I was home long enough to eat breakfast and take a shower! This was my undokai (sports day) weekend! In Japan, every shougakko, chugakko, and preschool (and town!) have a undokai at some point during the year. I'm not sure why, no one has really been able to explain it to me. Anyway, at the shougakko the school is divided into two teams: the Red team and the White team. The colors were chosen because they are considered to be lucky/good fortune colors here in Japan. Kids are assigned to a team when the enter shougakko and stay on the team until they leave, so they are very competive. They don't assign teams at the preschool undokai, it wouldn't really work! The first undokai I went to was on Saturday, my JTE (Japanese teacher of English) invited me to his 1 year old son's preschool to watch and I had to go! The preschools here, btw, consist of newborns to 4/5 year olds! They are a bit like daycares, very strange! ANYWAY, this undokai was freakin' adorable! I wish that I had remembered my camera! The kids ran races, did some "dancing," ran obstacle courses, etc. The adults also participate... I found this out the hard way! It was still a really good time and I spent the rest of the day with my JTE's wife Kimi-sensei. We just chatted and had a good time, it was really fun!
The shougakko undokai are a lot more structed. It begins with the students marching around the track and lining up in their teams. They sing, do some group excersizes, and get ready to compete! Like the preschool, there is dancing, relays, obstacle courses, etc and it's really fun to watch! The kids have been practicing for WEEKS by the time the undokai rolls around, so they are fired up and ready to go! (I posted some pics from the Takahama shou undokai, check them out!) After the undokai is over, there is an afterparty for everyone who participated (adults!) to reward them for their hard work. I was invited as a guest so I didn't have to pay a dime, one of the perks to being a gaijin! It was was a really good time, the Japanese are freakin' hilarious once they get some alcohol in them! The kept getting up and performing the dances from the undokai! (I was pushed into joining each time, of course!) This night, they were also really into hugging me. It was really weird! Everytime I turned around, a random guy wanted me to hug him! Sigh, crazy drunken Japanese!

Weekend of Sept 30: The Kumomoto AJET Waterwheel Party! I was really excited for this, as all of 2nd & 3rd year JETS said this is THE party of the year. It was a lot of fun, but I don't think it lived up to the hype. The location was freaking gorgeous, (see pics) but a bit dangerous since the swimming area was rocky and not sandy making it scary getting in and out of the water. (I slipped and thought that I'd fractured my wrist, it hurt so bad!) There was a waterfall that people could jump off of, (I declined!) and we stayed in these AWESOME bungalows! After swimming, we headed back to the bungalows and the party began! It was a BYOE, (everything) which was kinda sad but everyone was quite willing to share food and alcohol. We partied into the wee hours of the morning... I think that I only made it until 2:30 though, I'd been out late the night before too so I was tired! The next day I headed home early for some much needed sleeping time. All in all, a good time!

Oct. 8: Takahama Undokaii!!! (The town, not the school!) About a month ago, a couple of ladies stopped by my aparto to invite me to join the town's undokai. I thought it sounded like fun, so I agreed. I was right, it was a lot of fun! Apparently Takahama is split up into different neighborhood groups and, at the undokai, they all compete against each other. I was in four events: the 60m dash, (I placed a close 2nd, some people thought that I won!) group jump rope, (there were 8 of us jumping at once) group tug-o-war, and the big relay at the end. It was really fun to see the entire town getting into the fun! Everyone from infants to grandparents participated, can't remember ever seeing anything like this back home! Anyhoo, my team ended up getting 2nd place... we lost to the 1st place team by two points. TWO POINTS!!! Sigh, very sad. After the undokai was, that's right, an enkai. (These people LOVE LOVE LOVE to drink! They use any excuse!) The party was at my groups community center and the women cooked all the food themselves, it was AMAZING! I ate way too much, but it's expected at these things! The best part of the evening was when all the men had indulged quite a bit of booze and decided it would be a great idea to dress up in the frog costumes that the kids had used for a dance earlier. OMG, I thought that I was going to die from laughing! Seeing grown men in these little frog costumes is a sight that I'll never forget! The pictures just don't do it justice.

So that's what I've been up to for the past few weeks. I'm also going to chugakko almost every night to help some students get ready for a speech contest at the end of October. They need the help, let me tell you! Some of these kids have the thickest Japanese accents, it's hilarious! I'm going my best, but it's hard to keep a straight face sometimes. They can just mangle certain words beyond all recognition! It doesn't help that, in Japanese, 'r' and 'l' sound the same. So, to them, flesh and fresh sound like the same word. It can make for fun conversations! Welllll, that's all for now. I need to get a paper ready for a JET conference I'm attending next week. Gah, stupid papers. I'm not in college anymore, wtf mate! Jaa mata!

2006-09-22T05:33:00.000-05:00

Let's get down to the nitty gritty.

OK. I've been in Japan for about two months now, and I've been teaching for 1/2 of that. My entire schedule will be changing come October, but I still want to give y'all a little peak into my day-to-day life since school began. It's much less boring than August, thank goodness!

I have 5 shougakko and 1 chugakko, so I teach every day. Currently, I'm at my shougako Tue, Wed, Fri, and my chugakko Mon, Fri. Next month I'll be at JHS M, Th, Fri, because the powers that be have decided that I need to be at my chugakko more often. Personally, I think that it's kinda sad as it means that I'll only get to visit each shougakko maybe twice a month. The kids won't learn as much and they are missing out on valuable learning for fun time. Once they enter JHS, learning gets all serious and Eigo is just one more thing that they have to study. It's sad, really. Not many people can enjoy learning a language in those kind of conditions. ANYWAY! I digress, here's some info about my schools:

Fukuregi shougakko: Has somewhere around 25 kids (total, in the whole school) and is about 25 mins from my home. One teacher there, Ideo-sensei, speaks some Eigo so I talk to him a lot. I've also made friends with Miyazaki-sensei, a woman who thinks I'm so cute and wants to talk to me all the time. Her brother owns a bar down the street from my aparto so I get awesome discounts when I go. I teach combined grades here: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6. My favorites by far are 1-2 and 5-6. I just don't get along all that well with 3-4 teacher and the kids aren't all that genki.

Shimoda-kita shougakko: Definitely a contender for my favorite shougakko. There are around 30 kids and it's about 15 mins from my aparto. I teach combined grades here too, but I love all the kids equally. The teachers are really nice and a couple of them speak a little bit of Eigo. The kids are super genki and love to talk at me in incredibly fast Nihon-go. I have little chance of understanding them... picture me talking fast, but in a foreign language. Now you understand my dilemma. The school is awesome, the kids are awesome, the teachers are awesome: I really enjoy going here!

Shimoda-minami: The smallest school I've ever seen in my life. I don't think that I had classes in college that were this small! There are a total, (TOTAL!!!) of 15 students. (That's correct, 15) I teach two classes here, 1-2-3, and 5-6, because they don't have any 4 nen sen students. 1-2-3 still only has a total of 5 kids, and 10 in 5-6. 3 nen sen only has 2 kids. TWO!!! Ye-gads, it's crazy! I like the school ok. The teachers are generally nice, (the 1-2 teacher is my favorite by far because she really gets involved) the kids are ok once you get them going, but the school is just so damn small. It leaves too much free time. That will be changing in October though, so I might like it more. (On a side note, my kocho-sensei at this school also speak some Spanish from when he spent a year in Costa Rica. Val! Come visit me and talk to him in Spanish! He'd love it!)

Takahama shougakko: Possibly my favorite shougakko, I'm not sure. It's bigger, 60 some odd students, and only 2 mins from my apart. I actually teach separate grades here, (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and always teach 4 lessons before lunch. It's hard work, but the kids are amazing! The teachers are super cool too. Onaka-sensei and Hama-sensei both speak some Eigo and another teacher is the cutest girl. I just love her! She's 25, so really fun to hang out with. The kids are amazing and really remember a lot of Eigo, it makes it difficult for me to challenge them! I just love everything about this school... I'm thinking about getting involved in after school activites or something, in the hope that it'll help my Japanese. We shall see!

Ooe shougakko: The biggest of my shougakko, (70-ish students) and definitely the one that I have the most love-hate issues with. The kids and teachers are generally awesome, but they never send me my schedule on time and that really pisses me off. It's kind off impossible to prepare for my classes when I don't know who I'll be teaching! They apologize, but I still think that it's really rude. It isn't really all that difficult to fax a single sheet of paper saying: "you'll be teaching these classes and these times" easy easy. Sheesh.

Amakusa chugakko: Ahhhh, my JHS! I love this place, it's just that 10-14 yr olds just aren't as cute as 5-8 year olds, ya know! :-P Really, though, I love my chugakko. It's just a completely different world than the shougakko. We have a textbook that we have to get thru so that the kids can take their exams, etc. It makes learning more of a chore. I love all the students and all the teachers, (my JTE, Yasuda-sensei is AWESOME and speaks AMAZING Eigo! I'm so lucky!) and I really enjoy going to work. It is difficult to change my mindset from shougakko to chugakko, though... I tend to want to play games all the time and act silly because that's what works with elementary students. Overall, this is one of my favorite places, it's just more work because I have an actual text that I have to follow and go thru. It makes things easier and more difficult at the same time... complicated but true!

At the shougakko, I tend to be in charge. Excepting two cases, (teachers who speak good Eigo, plan the lesson, and I just follow along) I'm the head teacher and the other sensei are my support, keeping kids in line, etc. There are a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, A LOT of games! Elementary kids seem to learn well with games, songs, and lots of movement. That's what's missing in chugakko, I think. They just sit there and repeat. I'm trying to think of age appropriate games, but it's more difficult. (Any suggestions of games to help teach the plural? There is no plural in Nihon-go and I have to teach it to my ichi nen sen on Monday! Eek!)

In my chugakko, it's a true team-teaching thing going on with Yasuda-sensei. I can't believe how lucky I am, to get him as my JTE. He's nice, speaks almost perfect Eigo, and is willing to listen and include any workable ideas that I have. It's so awesome! The man is amazing, (plus he has the CUTEST little boy! I've raved about him before. I'll try to get pics up soon!)

Hmm... in general, I teach 3-4 lessons a day, and it is hard work. It's really fun most of the time, sometimes the lessons just don't work though. Then I just shake it off and go back to square one. The kids always forgive you! They are so great! Anyone who can visit me, I beg you, please try! I'll take you to visit my kids and you'll understand how great they really are! Look for pics of my shougakko kids soon, we have sports day this weekend and I'm going to Ooe and Takahama. Then you'll get a small idea of how cute and awesome they are!

Okie, I hope that gives you a small idea of what I'm dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Any questions or comments? Send me an email! I'll try my best to explain the ins and outs of the Japanese school system to anyone who's curious! :-)

2006-09-16T03:31:00.000-05:00

Why on-line translators might not be the first place to turn when writing in a foreign language!

This is just too good, I have to share it with the world! Here's the background: before I visit a shougakko, the teachers are supposed to send me a form showing which classes I'll be teaching, who I'll eat lunch with, etc. There is some extra space at the bottom for any additional info. I received the following "other info" from my smallest school, Shimodaminami, where none of the teachers speak Eigo (the kocho-sensei speaks some Spanish though!). I have not edited or altered it in any way. Enjoy!

"If a class is over when you may return, I think that it may be returned. It please be visited by the boss. Thank you. We have a dummy run of an athletic meet on 20th. Therefore, to the first lesson, I want all classes's best cord to teach it. Rely on unreasonableness, and do not breath it,: but thanking you in advance."

HAHAHAHA! I couldn't make stuff like that up! It was a bit less funny when I realized that that's probably how I sound when I try to speak in Nihon-go... a sobering thought. How do they keep a straight face!?

2006-09-14T07:24:00.000-05:00

Hey y'all! I added some more pics! They are all landscapes and such, but no repeats from before I swear! It's difficult to get pics of me... I live by myself and I usually head out by myself to take pics. I'll try to get a few of me in there sometime soon!
Enjoy! (Don't be TOO jealous!) ;-)

2006-09-12T06:04:00.000-05:00

The Hazards of Walking Out Your Door!

Well, not hazards really, but the strangest things can happen at anytime! For example, the other day I decided to go walk around my town. I've been doing that alot, just to get out and moving. Teaching has me on my feet all day, but it's not really a workout... unless you count running around with crazy elementary school students... but that's another story! ANYWAY, moving on!
I decided to go walk around by the port because I like looking at the boats and admiring the coast, I really hope that I never get used to how beautiful the ocean is! While I was wandering around I saw the cutest puppy walking by the boats. Being who I am, I naturally went "Oh! Puppy!" and went over to pet him. (He really was the cutest little dog!) While I swooning over the cute puppy, his owner came up and started talking to me. He was an older fisherman guy, I think he said he was 54 or something, and spoke absolutely no English. Our conversation consisted mostly of hand gestures, confused looks, and slow slow talking in an effort to be understood. It was especially difficult because my jisho (dictionary) was back in my aparto; I'd been taking a walk, remember, I hadn't really planned on talking to anyone! He kept making gestures for me to follow him, so we walked over to his boat and I met his brother. Again more talking that I couldn't understand, but it became clear eventually that his brother was married to a teacher at one of my shougakko.
They also took me down to the boat and showed me a bunch of lobster that they had brought in. After a lot more gesturing, both at the lobster and at me, I finally understood that they were inviting me to dinner! I was hesitant but they were very insistent, and so I found myself loaded into the fisherman's brother's car and heading off to a lobster dinner! (dressed in my work out clothes, of course. I was stylin'!) It actually turned out to be a fun, if confusing, night as it turned out that I hadn't actually met the woman who worked at my school yet. They were all really nice though, and Kimiko-san (my teacher) ended up calling Onaka-sensei (another teacher who speaks a bit of eigo) to come over for dinner too and be my translator. She didn't get there for an hour and a half or so, and in the meantime they gave me with beers out the wah-zoo! Now, I like a beer now and then, but I'll always be a wine drinker. Beer is just too filling! Dinner was absolutely DELICIOUS! The lobster were kinda small, so I had 3, (they insisted) plus there was fish, shashimi, pickles, and other things that I didn't recognize but tasted like heaven! I didn't get back until after 9, I'd gone out for my walk at 4:30. It was definitely unexpected, but also a really fun night. (How much would a meal like that have cost back home? $60? More?!)
Can you imagine anything like that happening back in States? Maybe in some small towns, I guess, but it'd be really weird! I'm excited to see what happens next time I step out my door! :o)

2006-09-10T06:23:00.000-05:00

So sorry!

I've been meaning to write but I've just been exhausted! School started officially for me this past week, so I've been running around like a crazy person. Also, let me just take a momemt to say that gakusei (elementary students) are freaking insane! Where do they get all their energy!? I mean, they're super cute but after class I just want to sleep for hours! I have a newfound respect for teachers, let me tell you!
Speaking of exhausted, I am falling asleep at my computer. Will write more soon, here's a pic to tide you over! Jaa mata, ne!

Takahama!!!

2006-08-28T05:38:00.000-05:00

Beach Party Weekend!

This past weekend we had the Welcome Party for all the Amakusa JETs and it was on my beach! It was an absolute blast! We drank, we ate, we swam and got stung by some little jellyfish or something, and many people just slept on the beach. It was so much fun! The next day, we all went to Hondo, (the closest big city to me) for hyaku en sushi! (100 yen, approx. $1) How cheap is that, ne!? In the States I would've had to pay upwards of $3-4 dollars per serving. Man, if you like seafood as much as I do, Japan is the place to go!
In other news, I HAVE A CAR! Yay! It's a very funny looking, kinda smallish car, but I love it. I shall her either Snubby or Stumpy... the jury is still out. It's really funny, actually, because my car is really tall when compared to how long it is... it's kind of almost boxy. The reason why it's so tall is because my tantosha and other people in my office were worried that I wouldn't fit into a smaller car! They thought I'd hit my head on the ceiling! I'm so amused! Anyway, I don't yet have a picture of Snubby/Stumpy since I keep forgetting my camera when I drive anywhere, but I promise to get one on-line asap. Then everone can be incredibly amused by my awesome car!

P.S. School starts this Friday. I have to give a little speech for my ENTIRE Chugakko! I be freaking yo! Plus I have to start being an official sensei the following week. Eeek! I'm so nervous!

2006-08-25T04:13:00.000-05:00

The more things change, the more they... well, change!

Yes, change is good right? Well, it turns out that my ENTIRE school schedule is going to be changing because the powers that be think I'm not getting enough Chugakko (Junior hs) time! The best part is that I got a call today, just a few minutes after I'd stepped out of the shower, that my main boss man wanted me in the BoE asap to discuss my schedule. Today was a day off for me*, so I'd gone to the beach, etc and really wasn't expecting to be called into the office. Naturally I threw on some clothes and rushed over, thoroughly confused because, as far as I knew, my schedule had already been made. Alas, it was not so easy! You see folks, earlier this year a bunch of small towns (mine included) combined together to form Amakusa-machi. This means that my BoE now answers to the big ol' BoE in Hondo. Times, they are achangin'!
The best part is that absolutely no one in my town knew the big boss was coming down! My Takahama tantosha had no clue, and my JTE (Japanese teacher of English) Yasuda-sensei was really shocked to see us all parade into the teacher's area at the Chugakko. Oh what fun! I just hope they don't all blame me for this mess... it's not my fault Yasuda-sensei and kocho-sensei! I didn't even know they were coming!

*In Kumamoto they have a wonderful, wonderful law that says nobody is allowed to work more than 20 days a month. These days off are called choseibi. Now the FAH-bulous month of August has 23 working days, so you know what that means. Oh yes, trips to the beach and road trips along the far west coast of Japan! Kumamoto people, you rock my world! (Expect for the higher up at the Hondo BoE. Grrr, why are y'all raining on my parade?!)

2006-08-24T00:16:00.000-05:00

Life in the BoE... yeah, baby, yeah!

I'm sure that all of you are just dying to know what my day-to-day life is like in the itty-bitty town of Takahama. (Come on, admit it! You're curiousity is killing you!!) I hope that I don't spoil any dreams or ideas you may have come up with when I say that I do a whole heckuva lot of nothing! School doesn't start until Sept 1, unlike the US, however, teachers have to be at work everyday during the break unless they take time off. Seriously! Even some students are expected to attend school during their holiday! Any students that are in a club or sport have to go to practice every single day, it's insane! Plus, if (Godforbid) they didn't finish all their homework duing the semester they have to go to school everyday to finish it! The Japanese school system is just crazy!
Anyhoo, my Life! I have to be at the BoE (Board of Education) everyday from 8:30-4:15. We get an hour for lunch, but I'm expected to be at my desk the entire day. The first couple days I was in Takahama were insane because they were driving me to all my schools, introducing me to teachers, and trying to get me all settled in my aparto. After that things slowed down considerably. Oh yes, and did I mention that I DON'T HAVE A COMPUTER OR ACCESS TO THE INTERNET AT WORK!!?! I was slightly annoyed, to put it mildly, because I have no way to relieve my boredom! So my day at work consists of me studying Japanese as best I can, reading the books that were left in my aparto, staring blankly into space, and occasionally trying to talk to various people in my office. Can you believe that they are paying me for this?!
I am really lucky, however, because almost everyone in my building is really friendly and tries to talk to me. It makes the time pass more quickly! I say "my building" because the BoE is located in a central government kind-of building with other city workers. Constsruction, social welfare, more general stuff, is all in the same building. Actually, there are only 3 people in my BoE! A tiny BoE for a tiny town, I guess!
So far I've made one pretty good friend, her name is Miwako and she works in the welfare section. She's really nice, speaks pretty good Eigo, and have the most adorable little boy named Yuuta. (He calls me big sister, it's so cute!) Having her as a friend has been so helpful and so nice, not only because she speaks Eigo but also because she invites me out and introduces me to the other young people in the town. (Believe it or not, there are actually some people under the age of 65 in Takahama!) We have yukiniku/drinking parties with other people from work all between the ages of 23-33. It's nice to hang out with a younger crowd! I'll try to get some pics of Miwako and Yuuta up as soon as I can! (I have to take them first!)
Ok, back to my life. After I get off at 4:15, I usually head back to my aparto and either do pilates or go for a walk to explore the town. I've also been watching a bit of Japanese TV in the hopes that it will help me to learn. Meh, it's work a shot right!
And that's it! My basic, day-t0-day life! Weekends are either more of the same or hanging out with other JETs. Once school starts everything will change, but until then, I'm basically getting paid to sit on my bum all day and read. Thank you. :-)

2006-08-22T07:20:00.000-05:00

Nihon Quirks: Part I

*If you sneeze, don't expect anyone to say "Bless you!" or "Gezuntite!" They just don't do it here! Also be prepared to either be ignored or given strange looks if you give in to habit and say something when someone else sneezes. You know, if I didn't know better I'd say they thought I was strange!

*When you step into a bathroom in Japan, chances are you may encounter the wonderful-ness that is the "squatty potty" That's right folks, the western style toilet may reign supreme in Japan, but head out into the inaka and be prepared for a surprise! (fyi, try googling "squatty potty" and see what pops up! It's a hoot!) Ok, picture that you walk into the powder room, open the stall door, and look down... down... down... at what appears to be a urinal set into the floor. That, my friends is the Japanese style toilet. I would say it's undignified at best... nothing like walking into one wearing a nice skirt and heels. Oh my, you won't be vain anymore! One thing I will say for it, it works those thigh muscles really well! ;-)

*The art of the "little white lie" is a way of life for the Japanese. They will call you beautiful, compliment you all the time, invite you over to their houses, etc and not mean a word of it. It's a generalization, of course, but it's more prevalent than one might think! They just want to be polite and keep the social harmony... I think. Anyway, the moral: don't believe everything that you hear while in Japan!

Ok, that's all more now. Look for more quirks in the future!

2006-08-22T07:17:00.000-05:00

Party in Hondo!

My first weekend in Amakusa, all of us ALTs gathered in Hondo for a festival. (I forget what it's called, alas!) Basically, there were tons and tons of people gathered to watch these groups dance. The costumes were beautiful and I was excited because a 3rd year ALT, Wai, was in one of the groups. It's really neat to know someone who is participating in a Japanese festival! During this time, I was also introduced to the wonderful-ness that is the Hyaku En shop (the 1oo yen shop). Picture the Dollar Store only a million times better! Once I get a car and insurance, I'm hitting up that place for an entire day one of these weekends!
But I digress!

I think that the best part of the festival was seeing all these little kids dressed up and dancing. They were having a blast but they really didn't know what they were doing. For the most part, they just looked darn cute! It was also really cool, and very strange, to be one of only 6 gaijin (foreigners) attending this festival! Well, we were the only ones I saw anyway! It made me feel like I being allowed a sneak peak into a secret festival... like they were allowing me to see something that was special to the city that... like I was being let into the group! I don't know, maybe I'm silly, but I felt like I was a part of it. For those of you from MN, it's like when you go to the Renaissance or the MN State Fair. You become part of something bigger than yourself and it sweeps you along, embracing you and giving you a special connection with those around you. It was really neat. I hope that I never stop feeling awed and special by being allowed entrance to these kinds of gatherings. They are special and unique every time... they should never be taken for granted.
My but I am waxing poetical, aren't I! Sorry about that, maybe Japan is brining out the inner philosophist! Who knows! All I know is that it was something special. I had a great time!

2006-08-15T04:44:00.000-05:00

Overwhelmed in Amakusa!

My first few days in Amakusa were understandly overwhelming! I slept in different places each night, was left alone with no English speakers for the first time, and the heat and humidity was almost suffocating! Consequently, my memories may be a bit garbled... I apologize ahead of time!
Getting off the plane in Kumamoto city was one of the scariest times in my life! For the first time, it really hit me that I was here to stay, with no realy English speakers, and knowing no one. It was a scary thought. These thoughts made me reluctant to head through the doors to the Welcoming Committee that had gathered outside of baggage claim. Alas! For the first time during my admittedly terrible travels thus far, my bag was almost the first one one off the plane! (Literally, the 3rd or 4th! I guess the baggage claim gods were trying to make up for Tokyo!) I said goodbye to non-Amakusa folk and headed into the throng. Another ALT (Wai) and my main supervisor (Keishi Idenaga) were there to meet me and the others heading out to the islands, and I was thankful to not have to deal without an English speaker quite yet!
They took us out to dinner (sushi, etc. DE-licious!) before heading to the Hondo Board of Education (BoE) and sending us off to our respective locales. The drive to Amakusa-machi with Yoshida-san is a blur, (I was sooo tired and completely overwhelmed) but I do remember him telling me I head to learn Nihon-go! "Study!" he commanded me! I meekly agreed, I was too tired to suggest that he learn English! :-P ANYHOO, we got to the home of Keiko-san (my first homestay) where I was to spend the night and I met the head of BoE in Amakusa-machi, Shiiki-san. Keep in mind, none of these people spoke English! Still, they were very kind to poor shell-shocked me, (I'd literally thought I was going to die at points on the road. The roads here are incredibly narrow, barely room for A car sometimes, much less two!) offered me tea and a couch, and informed me (thru charades and broken Eigo) that we'd be dining at Shiiki-san's house. Luckily, a woman named Onaka-sensei also came and (hallelujah!) she spoke some Eigo! Apparently she was to be my tutor for the evening! Yay!
Dinner at Shiiki-san's house was freakin' amazing. The man's house is HUGE and we ate in a dining room the like of which you'd see on TV. All tatami matts, long low table, cushions to kneel on, more food than I could eat in a week, and the shashimi! Heaven! I was offered use of his spa, (yes SPA) before dinner but I was starving so we just ate. DE-licious Skiiki Keiko (his wife) is the best cook EVER! Shiiki-san said that I was like his daughter and that he would look out for me in Japan... I simply adore the man! :) We got back late and I went to bed asap... travelling is tiring! The next day was incredibly busy. I went to my BoE, gave a little self-intro (in JAPANESE! EEK!) and was promptly shuttled off the all of my 6 schools to give the same self-intro to the teachers and meet the principals. It was insane. I was never even allowed to finish my tea! That night (Thursday, now) I stayed at Yoshida-san's house and they had another little dinner/drink party for me. This time, Yasuda-sensei and his wife (Kimmi) were there, (with their ADORABLE little boy) and they both speak amazing English! He spent some time in London, she in Australia. Kikai-san and his 3 kids were there too, and his Eigo is nothing to be sneezed at! We had a mini-yukinori and more shashimi, (I love the food!) and I was again complemented on my use of chopsticks! (I guess they assume all gaijin only use forks!) At Yoshida-san's, I also made my first HUGE feux-pax! They were filling the tub and telling me to wash, so I took and bath and drained the tub. AHHH! WRONG! In Japan, you wash yourself in the shower first and then, THEN soak in the tub. Plus you never, NEVER drain the tub unless you are SURE you are the last one to use it. Once I realized, I was so embarrassed... still am. How bad am I!? sigh.
Anyway, no use dwelling on spilt milk! The next night I was going to stay at my own aparto (finally!) This meant that most of Friday was spent trying to get it ready for me. My aparto was cleaned, scrubbed really, 3 times and never my me! Whenever I tried to help, I was told to relax! That night I went to Miwako's house (my first friend here) for a yukinori. She had invited me on my first day at the BoE... she really wants to learn Eigo, but she's already pretty good. Yet I digress! That night was a blast because everone there was relatively young, (23-33) so we just drank and had a good time. Miwako's little son, Yuuta (3) was nearly out of his mind with excitement... he loves his yukinori! Plus everyone loved him! He also introduced me to the coolest (and I mean you must find him cool or Yuuta will shun you!) anime superhere called Anpanman. (try to Google him for pics, the guys hilarious looking) The night was so fun! One guy decided that I should marry him but I assured him that would be a bad idea. "I love you!" he declared. "No you don't" I said. "Heartbroken" he cried! "No you aren't" I replied! All in all, a really good time. I was falling asleep in my chair by 11:30, though, (stupid jet lag) so Minudo (Miwako's husband) and the heartbroken young man walked me home. I left with promises to go to Hondo with them for fireworks on Sunday. I passed out pretty soon after getting home, I've never been so tired! Yet I still woke up at 5am... have I mentioned how much I hate jet lag? This meant that I was more than awake enough for the festival in Hondo on Saturday but that's a story for another post! I'll close now, congrats to everyone who made it through all of this rambling. I hope that my posts get shorter in the future!
Love and miss!

2006-08-14T06:32:00.000-05:00

Ok, my friends, cross your fingers! I think that I may have done it... my pics might be yours to see! There is a heading AmakusaPics under my links section, click it and it should (SHOULD!) connect you to the pics I've taken of my town so far. I really hope it work! Let me know if it doesn't!
Oh yes! I'll be writing about Amakusa soon too, don't you worry! :-)

2006-08-13T06:03:00.000-05:00

A few images of Tokyo... just to keep y'all satisfied while I try to attach a link to more pics! Email/Comment if you want me to just send you the link personally! :-)

Mmmmm, that was on yummy feast! Look close and try to find the DE-licious baby soft shell crabs. Damn but they were TASTY!!!

2006-08-12T07:18:00.000-05:00

A Tokyo Experience!

Ok all, I'm finally getting down to the nitty gritty about my time in Japan thus far. Sorry for the delay! Not having internet makes it hard to keep this blog updated! Oh yes, I'm also going to attempt to attach a link to my Chicago/Tokyo pics. Let me know if it works, I'm still trying to figure everything out!
Ok, I'll send a link to the stupid freakin' pics, then, until I figure out this stupid freakin' blog thing. Damme!
(Don't miss the adventures of Army Bear!)

Where to start, where to start. Tokyo is such an intense experience... nearly impossible to explain in words or show in pictures. It's a place y'all have to visit yourselves! Keep in mind that I barely even scratched the service, IF THAT! They kept us busy, busy, busy with workshops and the like. Nevertheless, I had a blast and would HIGHLY suggest that everyone who is can pay a visit to this amazing city!
Anyhoo! The first day really went by in a blur as most of it was spent in various airports (see previous post, A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Vanessa Chronicles!) Needless to say, I stumbled into the hotel, briefly thought, "Whoa! This place is nice!", collected everything that needed collecting, and promptly went to bed. Boring, dull, but definitely needed!
The next day I discovered the meaning of Jet Lag when I woke up first at 3 (am!) and again at 5 (AM!)... WITHOUT AN ALARM CLOCK! I was displeased but, HEY!, I'm in Tokyo! I really shouldn't complain! They had a really nice breakfast laid out for us and then the orientation began! All the JETs in Group A (the first to arrive! Oh yes, we are the best!) gathered in this huge ballroom and sat according to our Prefectures. It was really cool to talk to everyone who I was going to be in semi-close contact with for the next year! We were talked at for several hours by very important people, (various ministers and the like) who were actually quite hilarious. I never thought that I'd laugh at a joke told by a government official... and a Japanese one at that! I thought they were supposed to be all solemn! Who knew! :-)
The following days followed the same pattern. Up for breakfast by 7:30, workshops and such the rest of the day, (with a break for lunch, of course!) and we were free to do whatever we liked after 6pm! Now, I'll admit to being boring and dull again on Sunday night because I don't think I've ever been so tired in my life! (I think that I got an average of 3-4 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night in Tokyo, yucky!) I made up for it the next night, however, when I went out with my roommate NgocUyen, another Kumamoto guy Paul, a couple of his friends from Tokyo, (see pictures! They were so cute!)and some other Kumamoto people whose names I have unfortanately forgotten! Anyway! The JET Programme threw us a huge dinner/drink party on Monday night that was extrememly fun. They really pulled out all the stops for us... and man was there a ton of beer! And the food! Heaven! Afterwards, we (the group mentioned above) went to this awesome restaurant (we had to take our shoes off to get inside! Sugoi!) and the girl ordered us a bunch of foods they loved. Everything was DE-LI-CIOUS! Especially these mini-soft shell crabs... god, those things were tasty... but I digress! We ordered a bunch of drinks, the guys got a bottle of sake (which I also indulged in to a, ahem, certain extent. Hey, they insisted, I swear!) and we went to town! It was so much fun and MAN was I feeling good when I got back that night. It almost made up for the 3 hours of sleep I got before the waking up at 5 am. Stupid jet lag.
On Tuesday we met with our Prefectural Advisors and other assorted people who gave us the details for when we were leaving the next day. They also threw us a all you can eat/drink party at the restaurant I'd been to the night before! It was, in a word, awesome. We did the kempai and kept drinking until it was time to leave! (Sorry Dad, but Japan has a very alcohol focused culture. These people drink like it's going out of style! I'm just trying to adapt to a new culture!) If you look at the pictures you'll notice that I often had 3 drinks in front of me at once! (Again, sorry Daddio!) So I was in a pretty happy place when we left the restaurant... a very happy place actually! Then we went out AGAIN to a dance club and man, I had such a good time! It gets a little blurry about that time, but it was still awesome! The problem arose when a group of us decided to head back... I'd definitely had enough! :-/ We got vague directions from the 2nd year ALT who'd led us there and we headed out. Well, an hour later, (and after bothering several nice police officers for directions) we finally made it back to Keio Plaza. Success! (All you the Japanese you need: Sumimasen! (Name of hotel) No nihon-go, sumimasen! Totally works!) ;-P We made it back and that's what's important at the end of the day!
Waking up the next morning was a bit rough, but I was downstairs and ready for breaky by 7:15... go me! It was a bit sad, saying goodbye to everyone that was going to different Prefectures, but I'm hoping that I can visit them during the year! (Get to visit a new place and NOT pay for a hotel! Awesome!) Anyhoo, a couple hours later we were at the airport and, at first, I feared a repeat of the O'Hare fiasco because we were in an awfully long line! Luckily this airport was far, far superior and handled us beautifully. Oh, did I mention there was a Starbucks! Probably the last one I'll see for a year unless I make it to a big city! I got my chai with a tear in my eye... that's amore! (Kidding! Sorry, it's late here. I'm giddy!)
Our plane took off at something like 11-11:30 and we were off to Kumamoto City! OH! Before I forget! The plane had the coolest feature: it had cameras on the front and bottom of the plane so that we could see the outside and the ground on the TV monitor! So neat! (BTW, the Japanese on the plane looked at us like we were crazy because of how excited we got over this. But, I mean, how neat! They'd never do that in the good ol' US of A!) But I digress yet again! Umm, yes! We got on the plane and said goodbye to Tokyo!
I don't know if I'll see Tokyo again while I'm here. There are so many places to see... Kyoto, Hokkaido, Okinawa, Seoul, Hong Kong, Thailand, Shanghai, etc. The list goes on. Nevertheless, I must say that Tokyo is an awesome and amazing place. The night life goes on and on, the food is to die for, and there are so many people! It's intense to say the least, but definitely worth it. ANYWAY, that was the end of my Tokyo Adventure. Next stop: Kumamoto City and on to Amakusa-machi!

2006-08-11T08:15:00.000-05:00

CONNECTED TO THE WORLD ONCE AGAIN!!!

Yay!!! I have internet!!! The past two weeks have been very isolating... no internet, no keitai (cell), no phonecard to use the phone (call without a phonecard?! Cha-right! Are YOU going to foot that bill!?). Yet I have not waited in vain: the Internet God has visited me and all is well in the world! :-) I'll start posting pics and comments about my time in Japan thus far tomorrow. Tonight, I am sleepy, (it IS Friday night here, my friends) and I have been at a wild enkai (drinking party with coworkers) most of the night. My thoughts are not coherent, nor should they be. It would be a waste of a perfectly good enkai if I could think clearly now! Miss everyone in the States! I haven't forgotten you, I swear! :)

2006-07-31T03:43:00.000-05:00

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Vanessa Chronicles

The good news is that I'm in Japan, (finally!) the bad news is that the trip was a friggin' nightmare! I should have known how things would go when my flight to Chicago on Friday was delayed an hour because we didn't have a pilot (yes, they apparently misplaced the guy who's supposed to fly the plane. Terrific!). Consequently, instead of getting into Midway at 11:30 we arrived at 12:30; my day was off to a great start! Things went from bad to worse when I realized that my hotel was on the other side of the city, a 45 min cab ride away. What fun! I just barely made it to my Chicago orientation on time and promptly cursed myself by thinking that it couldn't get any worse. Was I ever wrong!
Orientation was fine, if a bit dull, the problem was that the hotel wasn't letting any JETs check in. Apparently the night before a bunch of flights out of O'Hare were cancelled because of the weather. Turns out all the people summarily checked into our hotel for the night and they hadn't started cleaning all the rooms for us JETs. This led to a huge long line of people stretching through the main lobby of the Holiday Inn Express waiting for a room to be cleaned so we could be assigned somewhere to sleep. Oh, joy! :) Still, I thought that it couldn't get worse. A delayed flight and 45 min wait for a room, how could anything surpass such a day!?
I shall tell you how. We had to bring our luggage down early, before breakfast, so that they could load it onto trucks and bring it to the airport. This meant that we had to stand outside the airport (my group arrived at 8) in hot, humid weather waiting for our stuff to be unloaded. The lucky people found their bags quickly and went on inside; however, with well over 100 people bringing bags in to check the people at the airport were quickly overwhelmed. I waited in line, without moving, for over an hour. By the time I finally checked by baggage, my flight was supposed to be leaving in 10mins. I booked it through security and the airport, got on the plane and... proceeded to wait for over an hour... again. Sigh.
We still made it in plenty of time for our flight to Narita/Tokyo airport out of Detroit, so I had some hope that things would stop going wrong. Indeed, the flight to Japan wasn't bad at all. We watched 4 movies and got pretty ok airplane food, the only thing that sucked was that I couldn't sleep a wink. Anyhoo, we got there, went slowly but surely through customs, and went down to baggage claim to wait for our bags. Ah yes, my luggage. The JET people told us that we would only be able to bring one bag and a carry on to the hotel, so I packed everything I needed for Tokyo in one suitcase. Naturally, only two of my suitcases arrived and neither of them were the one packed for Tokyo. That's right, goddamn stupid NWA lost my luggage. I'm one of the lucky ones, I still have most of my stuff. Some people didn't get any of their bags; nothing, nilch, less than nada. It was a freaking disaster. Our plane arrrived at 4:20, we got through customs by 5, and we were still waiting for out bags at 7. Way, way, way too much time in the airport. By the time I got to the hotel it was after 9 Sunday evening (still Sat for all you MN folks) and all I wanted to do was sleep. Alas! I could not! I had to go find contact solution and other necessities. I didn't even have my make up! Uber sigh. Lucking I had a pair of khakis,a button up shirt, and a jacket but nothing else I needed for Tokyo. To make matters even worse, I couldn't even sleep through the night. I woke up at 2 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Instead I was in one of those weird not awake but not asleep states... it's really no fun at all!
I'm hoping that such a bad beginning means that things can only get better but I'm scared to jinx myself! The good news is that everyone is very nice and understanding so I'm trying to think positive thoughts. I hope to post pics on here pretty soon... once I figure out how to go about doing that! Aside from that, I'll try to post updates on a semi-regular basis. We'll have to see how my internet situation turns out. Whatever anyone does, DO NOT THINK THAT IT CAN'T GET WORSE!!!! I don't want to tempt fate! Sayonara!

2006-07-27T10:20:00.000-05:00

Ahhhhh! So cute! ;-)

2006-07-25T18:59:00.000-05:00

Well, the countdown has officially begun! I'm off to Japan in just a few days and I'm frantically trying to get everything done. Buying omiyage, seeing all my friends, packing a box of winter clothes to ship over (I don't think I'll be needing THOSE for a few months! The weather in Japan is about 95 and humid as hell!), packing clothes to bring with me, trying to figure out how to write a lesson plan, the list goes on and on! Needless to say, I'm pretty close to losing my mind at this point, so I apologize to everyone I haven't seen or talked to. I'll keep up For nimble thought so everyone can follow my daily successes and follies... hopefully it will be exciting! Calling it an adventure is definitely an understatement!