Isolation

I am starting to feel a little isolated out here. It takes me a great deal of will power to get my self to go anywhere other than Gobo. I need to explore Wakayama City and Osaka more. I just need to drive around. I need to get out. I am trying to attend a party this Thursday night, Friday is a holiday. It is Foundation Day, I think that is when the new Constituition was ratified, written, or implemented. I am not quite sure though. I can go to this party, which is in Gobo and some bar/food place, but I won't be able to really drink. Not that I can't hold my liquor, it is just that I can't drink and drive in Japan, not at all. So I need a place to stay. I am still working on that. I guess a last ditch idea would to be to sleep in the car, but that is pretty far out there. The ALT's in and around Gobo are great people and are very nice, so I am sure that I can work out something.
Other than that I had to push the trip to see Saturn at the Kawabe Plantarium from Friday night to Saturday night. I am going to be going back to Kitayama-sensei's house for dinner and a few hours of planned GT4 playing. After dinner we are going to play pool in Kibi.
So most of my nights are kept busy. I try to keep busy for fear of having a melt-down or something. I am not crazy or sad, on the contrary I am happy being here right, I am not just saying that, but I can feel the inkling of a Melt-Down looming in the distance shadows. I don't know why, eventhing is going great. I am worrying about something, but I can't put a finger on it. So yeah, maybe I jsut need to get out. I should be fine after going to Tokyo next weekend.
Last night was spent at Miyoko's house having dinner with many other ALT's. Before I left for Gobo though, I went over to my neighbor's house to give him some pictures of last year's mochi maki. He was one of 3 people throwing the mochi and candy to the large crowd. His wife gave me some coffee and we talked in slow Japanese for about 45 minutes. It was really pleasant. Mrs. Kawai even took a couple photos of me. It was good practice for my Japanese too, which is still pretty shotty.
At Miyoko's I was pretty chill, most of the time I a little nervous around the other ALT's, becasue they intimidate me a bit with their sheer knowledge of Japan and Japanese, plus they are all generally all around pretty smart people that can actually tell great stories. So I usually sit and listen. I attempted receive some audio book files from Seth's MP3 player with my computer, but my computer wasn't reconzing his files, so that was a bummer. So I thanked him anyways. I even brought along some snails fro Ise-Shima that my Jichou gave me a month or so ago. I didn't know if I were to cook them or what, so I asked Miyoko and she said that they were cooked and ready to eat. The snails come in this pouch/bag with some brown liquid inside. They don't look so appetizing, I should have just given them to Miyoko.
I also made a big mistake on Monday night. I had thought that my Japanese tutor, Tesuji, who was on a translating trip in Wakayama-city, wouldn't be back until Tuesday. But in Fact he came back on Sunday, and was expecting to me to come by on Monday night. I just stayed at home the whole night. I should have called him. I feel really bad about it. I hope I can re-gain my worthiness with him and his family. They are really nice people. I just need to be more respectful of them.
So yeah, I got to bed real late last night and it is starting to take its toll. I have shouji tonight and have to eat dinner before hand or otherwise I can't hold the brush still or straight while I write Kanji. I should just go to Mi Mi's before hand and call it a meal. I eat so slow.
I am usually the last one out of the cafeteria at lunch everyday. I take my time. Plus the sticky rice can be a mouthful to swallow quickly.
Before I left to the BOE today I noticed all the elementry school kids outside in the school year holding hands in three big rings, each ring right next to the other one. I had no idea what they were doing. A teacher would then yell something and one ring one just break apart and all the kids would run to another ring. I didn't understand.
I am still thinking about buying a PS2 and GT4. PS3 will be out at the end of next year though. I don't think that it will be backwards compatible though. So it won't play PS1 or PS2 games as the current PS2 does.

Being chased by Oni's(ogres)

I woke up late because my new alarm clock didn't go off, because I forgot to set it into the alarm mode, but thankfully my internal clock works great, so I woke up at 7:00am by myself, but wasn't able to drag my self out of my snug warm bed into the cold freezing shower until about 7:15. Those fifteen minutes almost costed me a lot. I walked in to the Teachers room at Sougawa at 8:13am, which is 2 minutes before the morning meeting. I drove like a bat outta hell getting to Sougawa. At one point I was going 100Kph in a 50KpH zone. I was able to shave about 5 minutes off of my drive by going fast. It is dangerous to go fast though. Even though 100KpH is only like 60MpH, the roads here are narrow and twisty. Plus there might be ice, but I was figuring there wasn't because the least few days were relatively warm. Anyways, all was good, I arrived just in time for the morning meeting at 8:15am and was able to drink my morning cup of green tea, which they give me at every school. If you come to one of my schools in the morning they'll give tea, in the afternoon they'll give you coffee on a little plate with a little packet of sugar and milk.
I get to Sougawa and do all my greetings as usual. "Ohiogazaimasu" or just "good morning," because I am an English teacher and they do know "good morning." The teacher I sit next to is Numa-san. So Japan loves baseball. So this teacher has the Kansas City Royals hate, you know the hat that is blue withe white lettered "KC." He again goes into that it stands for "Kansas City" and their team is the "Royals." We've had this discussion twice already, but I guess he likes that hat a lot. I've worn a Cubs hat here a few times and that has brought up some discussions about baseball.
So now it is 10:30am. I have just finished a class. I drove home phonics mostly in class today. I think "V" is the hardest letter for the Japanese to pronounce. Most of the older generation can't distinguish between "L" and "R", but most of the younger kids are able to. So now I have just been given my 3rd cup of coffee today. I am going to be wired all day I think. After lunch I will need another cup, or I might end up passing out at this desk.
Well, I didn't actually have another cup of coffee until I got back to the BOE.
So lunch rolled around and it was yummy as usual. For recess, yes I go to recess sometimes with the kids, actually mostly with these kids, the Sougawa kids that is. Instead of busting out a doube-header of dodgeball, we instead played tag. I wasn't too thrilled to play tag, but I played along with them. I needed the excerise anyways. We played in the gym so there wasn't much room to run around and no-where to stand to put something between the person who was "it" and you. The person that is "it" is the big difference in the game between the Eastern and Western versions. The "it" is an "Oni" or 'ogre,' and there is three of them, or more or less depending on how big the group is, usually there are multiple "Oni," in this case we had three. So basically if you get touched by an 'oni' you have to stop and sit down. You can join back in when a 'non-oni' person tags you. The game seems to go on until all the Oni 'freezes' everyone. I don't think the 'non-oni' can ever win. So I was chased by 'oni' for about 30 minutes. I was pretty tired afterwards, everyone was, even the little 1st grade buggers.
On other notes, I watched Resident Evil 2, or Biohazard 2 as it is in Japan(so are all the games too) on Friday night. I thought that it was pretty good for a movie, and great for a video game movie. It reminded me of Escape from New York with Kurt Russell. Also, on Friday night I ran into some people that I know at Roman City. I saw the Junior High's principle there buying supplies. I also ran into the Okumura's, Masayuki and Akane and their mother coming out of Way on the second floor. Almost everytime I go to Roman City I run into people I know from Miyama. I then headed to the 3rd floor, which has an AMF bowling facility, a 3 screen cinema, and a video arcade with a ton of crane games(UFO catchers). I like to check out the UFO catchers to see if there are any ease snags. I once got an easy snag on a big Pac-Man puppet, it is like a big yellow ball. One machine has these two stuffed Winnie the Pooh toys, but it is not ordinary Pooh, but rather a vampire and a mummy Pooh. They are cool, but not worth spending like $10 trying to get. After the run-in's and UFO catcher shopping I got hungry, so what did I do to feed myself? I bought a large double scoop of mint chocolate chip ice-cream from the 31 flavors on the first floor. I got it put into one of those big sugar cones too. The whole thing of ice-cream set me back about $6.00US. That is a lot of money, but I didn't think twice about, especially since the lady at the 31 flavors spoke near-perfect English and set my mind at ease. Sometimes, ordering food and things can be painful(I was looking to use 'argueous' but I don't know how to spell it), but this was pleasant and nice. For the record I did have some udon later at my house.

An expensive but delcious Ice Cream cone from 31 Flavors

Scary baby Pooh-san toys. The Vampire Pooh orginally came in a little black coffin box when they were first made available last Halloween.

Theater day at the Kasamatsu Elementry school

Yesterday, Sunday, I woke up late again, I sleep in for too long, and the read a bit before I was off to Kasamatsu Elementry school for their theater day. I didn't really know what to expect, but what actually happened wasn't too crazy. There area really only 4 grades at this school. They combine the 3rd and 4th into one grade and also the 5th and 6th grades into one grade, some activities they do seperately. But anyway, so there is really like 4 grades, each grade performed a short musical number and then the teachers did their number. For their number they did the sampo or marching music theme for the imensely popular animation "My neighbor Totoro," you can't escape this movie's infleunce. It has found its way into everything. So they have this huge paper mache life size Totoro that the principle wears. He is to dance around, or bob around, in this big suit while the music plays. But it also jsut so happens that they had a small cloth Totoro suit, and guess who they picked to wear this suit, me. So put this thing on, and after the crowd chanted for Totoro twice, out we came. I followed behind the principle in his 'big suit' as he lumbered along. I on the other hand was the 'small Totoro' so I was to be quick and do circles and stuff around the big guy. I did just that and ran around through the crowd and around the 'big Totoro.' Half wasy through I remembered that in the introduction part of the movie, when the music was played, that the characters did a march, so then I started marching and really got into character. The kids really enjoyed it and I was glad to be apart of the show yesterday.
I went to the gym to see them practice a bit the day before. Remember how I said that there were stoves all over the school. Here is what they look like.

When I was in the gym the other day this made a buzzing sound started shooting out smoke everywhere.

After the Totoro musical gig, each grade performed a small skit or play. The 2nd was by far the best. The teacher I think thought that her little production was a failure, but for me, who couldn't really understand any of the plays, I thought the costumes in the 2nd grade's play about a Soho's white horse were incredible for a little play/skit. All 12 of the little 2nd graders were decked out in medival gear. Some were horses while others were warriors. One boy was dressed up as some princess, which I didn't understand because it is not like there is 5 girls in the grade.
The fifth grade did a Japanese version the Wizard of Oz, which they call the magic of Ozu. It was nice, almost too cute though. I couldn't reconize any of the songs that they song, but I may have heard 'Somewhere of the Rainbow' at some point.

After the festivities in the gym. I hung out with the teachers in the Kyoikushitsu, teacher's room. We talked a bit and then Kitayama Sensei asked if I wanted to come over for dinner. This is the really cool teacher who has invited me over for dinner before and has a cool family, and most of all they have a PS2 with Gran Turismo 4. I felt a little weird about it because I asked him first what he was doing for dinner and he said he was eating with his family and then asked what I was doing for dinner, and I said I didn't know yet, maybe udon. I wasn't trying to invite myself over or anything, infact I was wondering if he wanted to join me for dinner at a restaurant or something. I was thinking of going back to that unagi(eel) place in Gobo. But before I knew he was asking me over to his house. I said sure, or course. He lives sort of far from this school, well it is not like Kasamatsu is close to anything, the school is wedged in the mountains in one of the least populated prefectures in Japan. So tailed him all the way to Yuru. He said he was a safety driver. Everyone seems to say that here. I am 'Safety Driver.' They say it in English too. But I had my doubts about Kitayama-sensei, sure enough, as soon as we reached the main road he floored and I had to also so as not to lose him. He then took me on all these short-cuts that went North. It was tough remembering what roads I was taking so I could get back, but I managed just fine on my return trip and didn't get lost at all. Once at his house I was greeted by his family and I played some GT4 against his 2nd grader son, Shinsui. He beat me both times. Then we all sat down at the kotatsu(heated table) and had hamburger for dinner. It was real hamburger too, and good to boot. She, Kitayama's wife, put onion bits in the patty and it was nice. I was really happy and full. We watched some anime that was on TV while we ate. We watched an episode of some show that has been onthe air for about 30 years, and you thought the Simpsons is an old show. So then I played some more GT4, once against the sensei, I lost to him but one against his son the second time, but his son wasn't feeling well at all and had fever, poor guy. Shinsui, the son, also showed me his die-cast car collection. Now I am used to seeing people's toy collections as being a toy collector and all, but this kid's did impress me. He had a ton of cars. Boxs and boxs full there must have been like a thousand cars. Most were small, but some were big, all were loose, none were in the original packaging. We also talked about cars a bit too. I tried to impress them a bit by saying that I had seen the GT-40(well it was only a prototype) at the Chicago auto show last year, and that I also have seen a touched the Ferrari Enzo and seen Ferraris and stuff, because Sean(Sean Smith, LFC graduate) worked for Lake Forest Sport Cars one summer and took me around and showed me some cars and told me some cool stories about driving some of Michael Jordon's cars to his house and everything. I didn't really go into detail with Kitayama-sensei because I didn't want to be a show-off or smart ass. So I kept it cool and we joked about what cars we will be buying in the next few years. I said the GT-40 would be in my garage someday.
Oh here is a picture of the small metal top that is so hard to wind.