Miyamian

Sick again

2007-10-04T19:27:00.000+09:00

I've been just being me since getting out of the hospital. But yesterday I started to feel shitty and became sick. It is has been awhile since Ive been sick. Ive had to take the two days off. And Ive been cooped up in this house.
But the past couple weekends have been a blast. First was a 5 day chilled trip to Seoul Korea where I visited the DMZ and eat some great kaibi and baby back ribs.
This past weekend I went and saw Nachi-san and the Nachi waterfall for the first time. It was great. I never expected to find all the temples and shrines at the top of the mountain. I always forget to bring my shrine/temple stamp book. I still only have the original stamp from when I bought it a Koya-san a couple of years ago.

World Trade Center

2007-09-10T19:39:00.000+09:00

Osaka's WTC is in the port area off of the wangan highway. It is some 60 story building with a Wooly Mammoth exhibit at the top. A real head of one on display for only 1200 yen. I passed on that and instead went to a toy show in one of the hall's in the adjacent trade show building. Afterwards I went outside and noticed that there was a cosplay event going on and everyone around was dressed up in anime get-ups. But pass that group and further down the boardwalk was an radio controlled car tournament underway. Each heat had about 12 cars in it with maybe 25 laps. It was pretty cooold to watch. I've never seen anything like it before. Occasionally a car would smack into the wall and bits of plastic would fly every where. One collision resulted with one of the RC cars flying over another and into a wall further up the track. With every crash would come a cheer from all the onlooking kids. Found a Subway on the way out and grabbed a sandwich for the drive home. I was pretty tired since having been up till 5am at a camping party in nearby Nakatsu. I think it might have been the first party Ive been to where everyone was Japanese which put my Japanese to the test. It was a pretty mixed group with people from the immediate area and with people from Osaka.

Shaken

2007-09-07T19:55:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I got my car back from having to 'shaken'. Shaken is the mandatory evaluation which every car must pass through every 2 years or so. Needed to replace the electronic harness in the steering wheel, but it seems everything else checked out ok. What I don't understand is why my shaken was only renewed for just one year and not two? Perhaps it has to do with my mileage which is over 120000k. I've put over 25000k on the car since I bought it last summer.

2006-09-18T15:44:00.000+09:00

Typhoon 13, Shan Shan, was suppose to spoil this 3 day weekend. Many people were ruling out doing anything, but alas the typhoon went straight north and only brought light rains to Wakayama ken. I suppose to go Go-Karting today, but we cancelled it and I stayed up late last night and my friend then mailed me in the morning and said let's go, but I wasn't ready to go at all. Plus the track is wet. Also, it is still raining on and off here in Miyama. The weathe can be completly different just 30 minutes away, because of all the mountains and that we live on a pennisula and all. The winds were strong last night though. I thought my 50 year old house was going to blow over.

2006-09-14T01:12:00.000+09:00

Past few days I've been just trying to get back into the groove of teaching. Summer break seemed so long. Teaching last year seems like a distant memory almost. But all in all it has been going smooth. I feel a lot more comfortable than I have while living here though. So comfortable infact that I it's so hard to get up in the morning.
Last Friday I went to cut/harvest rice crop with the 4th and 5th grade classes at Kawaharago ES. Good stuff. I knew that it was going to happen at one point or another. We only cleared out a small field. So it wasn't too hard to do.
Otherwise most schools are getting ready for their undoukais. I have been to a bunch in the past two years and am not really looking going to any this year, but it looks like I might be going to a few in the next few weeks.

2006-09-05T17:04:00.000+09:00

It was great to get kyuushoku again after the long month of eating from Lawson and random bentos. Yesterday we bibimba. It was good of course.

2006-09-05T16:59:00.000+09:00

Finished showing some of my students 'Ferris Beuller's Day Off' which I think is a great movie. And one of the teachers at one point told me that it was good because the Ss could connect with the school setting and wanting to ditch school. I also showed it because the movie was filmed mostly in the area that I am from, the North Shore of Chicago. Areas like Highland Park, Winnetka, Glencoe, Lake Forest, and Wilmette. So it was a way to show how things are in the US, because it was an every day sort of movie, nothing too crazy happened. Except that maybe you couldn't just sing a parade at anytime or toss a rare Ferrari out a window into a ravine.

2006-09-04T23:10:00.000+09:00

First day back at school after a long summer vacation. Went to Sougawa today, which is way further in the mountains. Bears roam the mountain sides in Sougawa. A few bears have been spotted this year alone. Japanese bears are small, but people take cuation. So much caution that all the school children have small bells attached to their backpacks to help ward off the bears. I have yet to see one the bears. But I've seen a lot of animals around in the past few months. Foxes, tanuki, wild boar, monkeys, deer, and some huge hawks, but no bear. Not sure that I want see one anyways.
Miyama chuu tomorrow. Should be a good day, but I will very tired by the end of the day.

2006-08-29T15:26:00.000+09:00

Rollin rollin, rollin down the Hidaka...

2006-08-29T12:50:00.000+09:00

On Wednesday, what was supposed to be just a quiet good-bye dinner to a fellow former JET turned out to be an all night event that involved going to a club up in Osaka in America mura. After eating some fine 'modern Japanese' cuisine at a modern Japanese restaurant we went for a round of karaoke. Eric an Rod had a go at many Japanese songs, but they were too hard for me. At 1am we decided to head up to Shinsaibashi and go to Azure. There was some dance competition going so the cover was 2500 w/drink. Danced until 5 or so and then headed back via the Wangan in order to be in the office by 8:30.

2006-08-13T15:08:00.000+09:00

Eating fries right now. Always good to toast them at the end to get them brown.
Been a dust bunny all weekend and stayed home except for the Thursday and Fridya night where I did a marathon of card playing at Pete's. Stayed at his place after seeing the Shirahama fireworks. Which BTW were the best fireworks I have ever seen. The display was far better than even the display that the City of Chicago puts on. Shirahama had a huge waterfall display hanging over their bay and they also had ships pulling displays over the water and shit firing from every direction.

2006-08-07T03:44:00.000+09:00

3:30am here. Woke up about an hour ago with my hand feeling like it was on fire. What the fuck? Before I got completly out of bed I saw my silent visitor squirm for cover under my pillow. A mukade that was about 3 inches long bit my finger while I was asleep. First I tried to squeeze as much venom as I could out of the bite, but still an hour later it still burns and stings. Then I went on a rampage and ended up having to dismantle my bed and frame and then move bookcases and shelves so as to pull back the rug covering the tatami my room. Using some kitchen cleaner as a weapon I sprayed it 4 or 5 times on top of stepping on it several times. None the less I lost. It scurred under the rug. Hopefully the kitchen cleaner will kick in and it won't come back. Unfortunatly mukade usually come in pairs. I hope this is the last mukade I see in my house. I don't think that I'll be able to sleep for awhile. Shit. Time for a beer and movie.

2006-07-31T15:25:00.000+09:00

It has also been hot. Hot enough to keep the air-con at 19 or 20 or so sometimes.
But not so in Niigata.......

After Nagoya Monday things were

2006-07-31T15:23:00.000+09:00

a bit slow and involved a few good-byes to people who are leaving. It can be difficult to say good-bye, but it is even more difficult to say good-bye and everything and then see them again a few days later. Seems like many people who are 'done' and moving out of their place are just hanging around at other places. That's cool though, I know Mark will be back and at Chris's party, Corri will be back again for a few days in August and maybe October, Lauren is travelling and will be in Shingu and Sam is staying at Pete's. I've only really seen off Erin and Hikaru.

2006-07-26T23:14:00.000+09:00

Can't stop scratching these bug bites. I have a ton all over my legs, looks like a rash almost. Spent a night on an island off of the shore in Minabe. It was a hard core party on that island. Only twenty or so people showed up, but we had plenty of beer and yaki-niku to go around. A pretty big little isalnd party.

2006-07-20T12:32:00.000+09:00

Summer is bitter sweet, no classes to teach(not that they are always hard to do) but I also have to spend each working day at a desk in the town office. The worse part of it is that I don't get kyuushoku everyday and so instead I either have to make lunch or buy it. Today marks the first day of my summer days in the office I have just bought a yakimeshi bento. But it is nice to come back to my home in the middle of the day and chill out for an hour. Last night I removed two fusuma dividing my bedroom from my 'living room' and thus opened up my house a lot. Sitting here now in my spacious room and listening to it rain outside is pretty nice.

2006-07-19T22:12:00.000+09:00

Bug Poker weekend. Never have I played so much poker than I have this past weekend. I played for like maybe 7 or 8 hours worth. Got my $10 back in one tournament but lost $5.50 in another. On Friday we said good bye to Lauren at her soubetsukai, which involved a great round of crazy karaoke. But the weekend ended with swimming at an incredible waterfall spot in Susami. A great weekend, but could have been better had I not hit the bottle so hard every night of the weekend. Not so bad on Friday though, just a couple bottles of sake.
Finally the heat wave has broken and with it has come rain, again. Enough of the rain. Tomorrow marks the end of the 1st tri-mester of the school year. Teachers are filling out grade cards. I had to give my students at Miyama chuu grades. I couldn't give anyone a bad mark so they were either good, very good, and great. The great kids were the ones that usually speak a lot in my classes.
Tomorrow is the last day of school. The last activity of the term is to clean the whole fucking school and wax the gym floor. I haven't yet decided if I am going to stick around for the 'big clean'.

2006-07-14T23:27:00.000+09:00

Oh and the taxi ride was like 7500 yen. He probably gained about 800 yen with his little 'out of the way' shinannigans.

2006-07-14T23:26:00.000+09:00

A taxi driver just ripped me off. Well I didin't actually pay, but he took some long routes back to my house rather than the short cuts. The fucker even to shortcuts to the 'out of the way' roads. I told him his mistake and asked for a discount. He just laughed at me. Well shit on that.

2006-07-14T23:21:00.000+09:00

U.S. missile interceptor to be deployed in Japan as early as August.
I hope that is soon enough.

Bought a bunch of clothes yesterday, but I had to settle for size "M", which is a bit big on me still. I hate those people who say the fucking clothes and shoes are too small in Japan. I have the opposite problem.

2006-07-13T21:06:00.000+09:00

Took a nice narrow mountain road to Gobo from Nakatsu today. Nakatsu JHS is sort of way out there and there are many narrow crazy roads all around. It is good to take a new route ever now and then and go exploring.

2006-07-13T07:52:00.000+09:00

Sumburned and crisp today. Put on suncreen before getting to the beach yesterday, but obiviously to no avail. And fucking salt water. How is it enjoyable to smim in piss warm salt water....eckekcekcekekfjhgjgfdjigjknsfgjndbggtt

2006-07-13T07:50:00.000+09:00

Going to Nakatsu today. Have two classes. Not sure what to do.
It's been so frikin hot lately, but the temp reading doesn't inlcue how humid is here. More humid than Chicago could ever get. gehghegheehgheheghgehgheh

2006-07-13T07:49:00.000+09:00

Blitzed. That is how Saturday night was and how I felt all of Sunday. Felt like the Fridge, number 72 from the Bears, had hit me. Saturday nigth was the Sayonara party. Between unlimited beer at the beer garden and unlimited mixed drinks at the bird bar I created a train wreck in my head and stomach. Spent the night at Tawnees with everyone else, but I don't know who I shared a taxi with to get there.
Sunday, went to Ryujin onsen and had some of the famous pizza also in Ryujin.

2006-07-13T07:44:00.000+09:00

Made a run to Osaka, on a school night no less. Last Thursday I had to go to a store where I have some stuff for sale. I haven't been there in forever and was worried I owed them money for like 5 months of rent and stuff. Turns out what the owed me, minus commision, was great than what I owed them. So it worked out and I updated my case. Played some video games, visited the Apple store, and ate some Wendy's, all usual if you live in the city. Namba is a good two hours from my house, one way.

2006-07-06T15:51:00.000+09:00

Napping while it is raining outside with the windows open is the best. I caught up on sleep after school yesterday and then went to my shodou class. Practiced gyousho, of the three styles ranging from block style to undeadable cursive, gyoshou falls in the middle. Not so bad I gambaremashita.

Then did some gambareing at Roman City playing Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2. Currently trying to make an unshaded card on a single palyer machine. It is my third attempt. Played about 15 different levels between 4 different cards. One play is 100 yen.

Showed my san-nen sei the first half of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. They seemed to have liked it. I enjoyed it, a nice summer kind of movie to show on a summer day. Also showed them my world tour using Google Earth. I used it to help give them movie a little placement before I showed it to them. I also showed them my house and schools in my area of Chicagoland, Glencoe and Winnetka.

2006-07-05T17:42:00.000+09:00

Stayed up late last night. Shouldn't have, I am dragging pretty hard right now. Thought I'd be a zombie after lunch, but am pulling through. Played in the 'Bichi Ba-re' dai-kai today after lunch on the sensei team. It was a little tournament set-up to celebrate the end of 1st-term finals. Not much to 'beach volley', just volleyball but with a big inflatable ball. My team advancced once but lost 12-14 against team E or something. I wanted to win, I really did, it is probably a feeling that carried over from the Ultimate tournament this past weekend. Next time.
   Went to sleep a 4am. Watched the shuttle Discovery launch live at 3:38am this morning. A nice flawless launch. The camera on the liquid fuel tank is pretty clutch. Seeing the different colored plasma around the shuttle was pretty cool.
   Watched a shuttle launch from Florida via CNN in Miyama on my mountain.
   Today is a great day to be sleeping. It's been raining all day. The nice part about it is that there is thunder and occasionally lightening. It is pretty rare to hear or see 'kaminari' in these parts. And then my umbrella just happen to breakapart into to pieces. $3 piece of shit.

2006-07-04T14:27:00.000+09:00

Here is a link to some more recent pictures that I have uploaded. I will make this a repository fro all my pictures soon.

http://toyarchive.com/Mac/Japan/

Bunkasai 2005

2006-07-04T14:26:00.000+09:00

Last years bunkasai at Hidaka High School. Each class and kumi does something for the festival.
A couple different kumis made these banners, which must have taken a long time.

The one on the left of Doraemon is made from Asahi beer cans. I'm not sure what the one of Vader is made of.

2006-07-04T12:59:00.000+09:00

Not feeling so patriotic right now. Not feeling the 4th for some reason. Maybe I'll fire off a few mortars tonight in the shougakko's undou-jo....

2006-07-04T12:56:00.000+09:00

Found the nuclear missle launch site in North Korea using Google Earth.

2006-07-04T12:54:00.000+09:00

1st term finals are being held today here at Miyama-chuu. No classes. A half-day. No fucking kyuu-shoku, so here I am eating some kitsune 'don-ba' udon. It's a half day and the kids are already gone and are probably out fishing or swimming in the river instead of studying for tomorrow's set of tests.

2006-07-04T12:49:00.000+09:00

I was a Shrivelled Ume over this past weekend. Wakayama ken sent two teams to compete in the Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Tajima, Hyogo-ken. The other team were the Juicy Mikans. We played hard and I left with some scraps. Brad, who was a Juicy Mikan left with a broken collar bone. We played at Tajima Dome's ginormous grassy field. A grassy field is pretty rare in Japan, especially one of that size. Other teams came from all over Japan, Tokyo, Osaka, Yamaguchi, Fukui, Ehime, and so on. Stayed at a campgroud and camped in my big old blue tent that I bought from Conan. It rained a throughout the whole weekend, but too hard when we had to play.
On the way I up to Hyogo I drove to Kouya-san to pick up David. Me, David and Eric decided to try to the Double Tamago sandwich at McDonalds and had a disasterous time ordering at the drive-thru. We also decided to take the scenic route there and took the Wangan in Osaka through to Kobe and almost all the over to Himeji before cataching the Sanya going norht and feeding into the Bantan. Instead of the going to the yaki-niku party at the lodge near the camp site, I headed up to Kinosaki with Hikaru not to eat kani, but to have some Tajima gyuu. Couldn't find a place that served that beef, so we ended up having so facy yaki-niku. That was after we had gone to one of the nicest onsens I have ever been to. This onsen even had a 'penguin sauna' where the tempreture was a mere 5 degrees celcius. Am still tired from the weekend and nursing my scraps and a burn on my finger from trying to launch 10 bottle rockets at once in the parking lot.
Yesterday was nice though. Shougakko Monday, went to Kasamatsu-shou and taught some English and went swimming with the students in the pool for an hour.

2006-07-04T08:43:00.000+09:00

Looking for the missle luach site in North Korea using Google Earth. Found an article in today's Yomiuri that says where the lauch site is. Needless to say, I cannot find it.

2006-06-29T15:46:00.000+09:00

Good to be the principal. A cute 26ish travel agent girl came in to offer some current trips and deals. Solicitors are always welcome at schools. The principal just went ahead and flirted with her for about 10 minutes. Good stuff.

2006-06-29T14:07:00.000+09:00

Ran my car's battery dry on Monday night. Left the friggin lights on while at someone's house. Some o-ba-chan came by to tell me so. Luckily I parked hood-to-hood with another car. It was an easy jump.

No classes at Nakatsu chuu today. Just sitting around. I made a vitual world tour on Google Earth today. A really cool program and detailed. Shit, I could even make out my father's car in one of the images.

2006-06-29T13:58:00.000+09:00

Fucking hot. I think the only reason I am compianing about the heat now is that because everyone every day is always saying, 'atsui desune?!?' Well shit, what do you want me to do about it. But on the flip side, people here try to conserve energy and aren't always running the air at home or the heat during the winter. No one has a dryer, everyone air dries their clothes which is nice. Good enviromentalists.

2006-06-29T11:48:00.000+09:00

Blogging through the Blogger widget on my Mac.

Back to posting

2006-06-28T12:17:00.000+09:00

I've negelected this blog, but I've been wanting to post for a long time. Should have done it a few months ago. But recently I've been achi-kochi and haven't posted. I;ll try and post some more pictures too. I have ton now. Plus I have recently aquired broadband internet. They finally brought it out to Miyama and then I got wired up. So I have no excuse to not post.

Recently it has been so hot. But also very humid. So humid that when I drive I usually have to have the air on to keep the windows from fogging up. And bugs are a problem too. Cockroaches everywhere. In the last two weeks I must have killed abotu 4 or 5, big suckers too. Need to clean my place though. Plus I need to clean the outside. The ouside of my house looks kind of sad with weeds, dirt, rocks, rusty metal and some dead flowers. A nice picture.
Schoolwise, classes are good and fun. I have been using SuperStep at my ele. schools and they like it. One great game is 'walking in the jungle' which i've turned into a race/tag game. Last week one kid got a bloody during the game. I had some good videos and photos but my camea's card just freaked out and I had to erase 800MB of photo's and videos, arrgg.
The past few weekends have been good. Nothing too exciting. A few weekends ago I did have a great weekend when I visited my old high school friend, Brian Lee. He is a Korean national and lives in Seoul. So I took Friday off and with my 3 day weekend I visited him in Seoul and stayed at his place. It was good hanging out time and eating around Seoul. A really relaxing time. Ate some raw ground beef with raw egg called yukke. Good stuff. Korean beer is alright, but the sochu is great and cheap. Like shochu, sochu is the Korean version and costs only $4 for a liter.
Right now I am at Miyama-chu gakkou. I don't have my classes today so I just sort of help out in some classes. Like today during the 3rd grader's Elective class A English class I helped them create English sentences for pictures of there class trip to Tokyo a couple months ago. So also hang out too. Just tried to explain what a 'roly-poly' or 'pill-bug' is to a 2nd grader. I learned the Japanese for the bug yesterday when Mae was trying to throw them up into the classroom on the 2nd floor, but I forgot the word.
Also, last night was Miyoko's again. Every Tuesday night. I pretty much have to go every Tuesday. I got chastized for not calling or showing several weeks ago. As usual we talked about culture differences and our schools and how to spend our free time. A couple travel options have arised since last night. One, to go to India in August, and Two, to go to Austraila at he beginning of January.
I want people to come and visit me so I don't want to blow all 20 days of my nenkyuu to quickly, so it is hard to make plans nowadays.

gnome factories

2005-10-05T10:53:00.000+09:00

Over the last few days the mountains in the area have been covered by a mist. I sometimes think that there are like little gnome factories in the mountains in the trees that are giving off plumes of white smoke. Sounds crazy but it sort of looks like that if you can imagine that. I stare at the mountains every day. I am still not used to being around them or surrounded by them.
Well the last month has had some difficult times but also a ton of great times. Most recently was today about 15 minutes ago. I am right now at Nakatsu junior high school, which is really in the mountains. You don't heard cars going by because there are no major roads around for miles. It's a pretty tranquil area infact. Other than the PE teacher who is constantly making load snorting sounds, you can pretty much hear everything that is going on in the school. This school is my biggest school with 70 students. Well I was assigned to this school today, Wednesday. I usually come here on Thursdays though. So it is a little out of the ordinary and I am just sitting here at my desk talking to teachers, thinking about new lesson ideas, trying to remember kid's names, and reading the newspaper when all of a sudden the principal asks me to come for a ride in his silver FairladyZ and go to the post office. Shit ya. It was such a smooth ride. It is has like more than double the power of my Toyata Sprinter. But it also costs like twice as much as my car as it was when it was new. So the principal is pretty cool. He also invited me to go hang out with the students when they go to Osaka next Wednesday. I have to pick one of the six students groups to hang out with in Osaka during their Osaka 'Town Telling' meeting at the end of the day.
Yesterday I did something new too. I went fishing. I have gone fishing like a million years ago on Lake Michigan, but this was more formal in that I had a real rod with a lure and everything. I even had the fisherman's vest on. I went with the third graders from Miyama JHS to a small dammed up part of the river that is sort of near the school, about a 10 mintue bus drive. The principal from that school is also really kind and let me use one of his new rods, reels, and lures. He showed me how to work everything and cast. It was enjoyable for awhile until the kids got out of hand with throwing burrs at each other and me. Storm clouds rolled in it started to to thunder a bit, but provided a nice cool breeze. I was not disappointed that I didn't catch any fish. We were fishing for bass not ayu which is real popular in my area and that is some serious river fishing where people use uber long poles that are like 20 feet long and wade in the river.
Last night I also checked out the Gobo masturi for a little while after going to Miyoko's for a nice meal and chat with some other ALTs. The masturi took place in a blocked off secetion of a semi-major road. The road was line with little food stands and game stands. There were serverl mikoshi's with facepainted kids in them taikoing away in them. It took almost 20 men to keep one mikoshi moving around and from falling, it did tip a bunch though but I think that was to add to some drama to the display. So the week has been pleasant so far.
I am glad for that because the weekend was a little rough. I attened two undoukais, sports festivals. One was at Miyama JHS and the other at Sougawa ES, on Saturday and Sunday respectively. I scraped my knee during a big game of musical stools on Saturday. I also did some dancing and got pretty far in the quiz game. One question was if July 4th is America's independence day. After the question was read like 30 people looked at me and to where I was going to go, to the 'true' side or the 'false' side. The last questions was false, so I was already in the false section, so where most of the people. So I waited and waited int he 'false' side until the very last second and then dove into the 'true' side. I think I managed to eleminate about 20 poeple with that move.
Both of the evenings of Saturday and Sunday were nomikais. One was at a Japanese style hotel in Miyama, and the one on Sunday was in the ES gym. Saturday's one was weird. It was the JHS teachers and some of the students' parents, about 30 people in all. We ate and then drank, they loved that I could drink sake and shouchu and of course beer. So I did that, I have no problem with the taste, I don't think many foreigners have any problems with the taste, it is just a pre-notion that foreigns don't like Japanese alcohol I guess some Japanese think this way. The only problem is that the drink is more like a spirit so it takes awhile for it to catch up with up you, but when it does it's 'BAM.' So I managed the drinking on Saturday and was felt fine enough to do it on Sunday again, but not as hard. In both cases some benevolent teachers drive me home. There was some crazy cross-dressing going on on Saturday night. I was a nurse with tits and danced to O-Zone with some other ladies, they were real ladies, except one other. Later on that night one father got into a red dress with no pants on. His dance was awful, he would turn to the audience and slowly raise the back of the dress up so you could see his ass. A teacher sitting near me adverted his eyes and kept saying 'minai, minai'(don't look, don't look) I heeded his advice. At the other party I met a group of early 20-something guys who were asking me to translate sexual questions like what is the word in English for 'ana-kyodai,' I didn't know, am not sure if there is a word. Ana-kyodai is the relationship that two guys share after having had sex with the same girl, but that could have been accomplished over a long period of time but I guess if it happened in the same night that would count too. So two of the guys that I met were 'ana-kyodai' with a girl that was not there. They also asked me some personal questions too. The guy asking all the questions was married and has a kid with one on the way, his wife was there too. But they were coold guys and were happy to have me there and we drank during the party and some good laughs.
Oh and the weekend before I went to Osaka with Derek. We met up with Joe and did some shopping and went to Yodabashi Camera in Umeda.
Last Tuesday I attempted the driving course in Wakayama at the Wakayama DMV for the 3rd time, and passed finally. I was really fucking nervous, more nervous than I can ever remember. Since my permit had expired a few weeks before I was having to be driven to my far away schools and was told not to drive anywhere by my BOE. It was tough peroid. I hit a curb during my first attempt in one of the narrow winding parts of the course. The second time I made a sharp right turn and sort of turned into the on-coming traffic lanes on the course. It is a closed course with no one else on the course but you and maybe one other person being tested. So there was nothing to really remind you of the traffic is flowing and where to be looking. So you really have to pretend and over-act every in ever situation and glance. On my 3rd and fianl visit I ran into another Wakayama JET whom I know and he passed too. He came with his supervisor by car, I came by train and by myself. We were a happy bunch and Chris' supervisor took us out to lunch. We then hit up Tanake Electronics for some shopping. Chris' supervisor is so cool that he drove me all the way back to Miyama, which was probably a total of about 50 minuntes out of the way for him. So that was a great and wonderful Tuesday.
Austrailians came and visited Nakatsu last Thursday and Friday and I hung with them both those days. Their group was 10 ES students and 4 teachers. Thursday involved some sightseeing and welcoming while Friday was spent at the JHS here and there was a bunch of planned events. For lunch was ate somen, white noodles, but they way you had to eat them was you had to catch them in a stream of water while they floated down inside a cut-in-half peice of bamboo. It was cut lenght-wise and set-up like a mini-aqueduct. There were 4 these set-up outside to feed everyone. You also had a small bamboo cup with some sauce in it. So you grabbed, dunked, and then ate. It took awhile to fill myself up.

Typhoon 14 and bugs

2005-09-06T10:29:00.000+09:00

On Thursday of last week I ended up seeing Star Wars Episode 3 for the 5th time in the theater. I went with some other people who had not see it yet and on the 1st of every month in Japan movie's are specially priced at 1000yen. Which is like $8.75 or something, but normally the tickets are 1,800yen. So it was a deal. One thing to note is that they don't really gouge to severly on food and drink prices as they do in the States. We then had dinner at an awesome Italian restaurant in some ally in Wakayama city. It was a cool place with a realyl cool seating arragenment.
I did a little yaki-nikuing in a small warehouse in Yura-cho with a teacher friend of mine, Kitayama-sensei. I couldn't really shoot the shit them, but it was still fun. First time I ever eat entire pieces of garlic. Yura is a cool place too. It is a sort of weird, it is an average sized town, but happens to have a deep water port with several slips. So, more often then not, if you drive along the beach road, you'll just see normal Japan things like narrow twisty roads, tons of fishing boats, little islands a little bit off of shore, and then Bam, a huge ocean cargo ship that is like 8 stories tall and almost a kilometer long. It is a really cool site. It just seems sort of out of place in Yura.
After going to a Bunraku, Japanese doll play, instruction seminar with the BOE and a bunch of middle schools I then headed to Osaka and hung out with Joe and played some pool in Nanba. Bunraku was interesting. It takes 3 people to operate one doll. They also had a few students try playing the instruments, reading the narration, and moving the dolls.
So Typhoon 14 is coming right now, it is pretty far west though. It is still sunny here in Miyama, but a bit breezy, which doesn't really happen to much here in the mountians. But the last couple of days have been rainy and bugs love rain. So I encountered one of my worst fears in Japan, to find a mukade(large centipede) in your bed while you are in it. I was just sleeping, and then I shifted positions and my right hand touched something cool and wet. Yet it wasn't wet maybe slimy but not gooey or sticky. I immediatly woke up then, and was like WTF, I then saw a green mukade next to my pillow. I didn't freak out though, I was just pissed off. I grabbed a kleenex and then tossed it down the toilet. What was weird is that it was green with some black, and it wasn't very big, maybe about 3 inches long. Usually the nasty mukade are about 7 or 8 inches long and are black/goldish with red/orangy legs. So I am thankful it wasn't a nasty one, but I have see one of the nasties in my room earlier this year. Plus, last night I came back home to be greeted in my kitchen by a fucking cockroach. One of the 3 incher shits. This guy got 3 heavy doses of my bathroom cleaner before he escaped by crawling into a small crevase just underneath the grill part of stove. I can't get in there. I don't think it sruvived the bathroom cleaner, but just in case it did I turned on the grill on high for about 2 mintues to either see if I can get it to come out or just take of it. It never came out so I am going to have to take it apart or something and clean the bottom part. Pain in the ass.
This is my first week back at teaching. Yesterday's elementry school went great. Today the junior high has a test day so I don't have class today. I also forgot to punch in this morning, I jsut went straight to the junior high.

Shirahama to Wakayama, the short yet long road

2005-08-30T13:53:00.000+09:00

I started last weekend with a nap, a nap that delayed an absurd night in Wakayama. Just before leaving Ben's house in Gobo, we each drank a Gin and Tonic and then took the highway to the city, and made it to the Birdbar finally. There, Ben and I were ran into nearly all the new ALTs in Wakayama. Ben had a great time, I ran into Jeff at some point and did some crazy monkey dancing on the floor before the last tequialla shot finally hit me. At that point I had to the flew the coop. I found myself a nice plastic bench somewhere and with no thought or care for pretty much anything I laid on that bench like it was the last place on Earth. Luckily some ALTs reconized that it really wasn't a pethetic Japanese drunk bum on the bench which they were laughing at, but yet a poor and pethetic Mac. Like guardian angels, Mike and Mark were able to guide me back to the sanctuary of Jeff's apartment. It was a forgettable short night.
After some of Jeff's awesome pancake's, Ben, Jeff, Jeff H. and I made for Shirahama in my car. There was a WAJET gathering going on there. The highway to Shirahama from Wakayama should be a 4 lane highway, 2 lanes for each direction. Well it is for about 10 minutes, then at Kainan the 'highway' becomes a 2 lane road, with one land in each direction. The highway then ends at Minabe, which is still 20 minutes short of Shirahama. The stikin highway costs $15 to use one way anyways. It is not that bad though. But we got off at Kibi and went to my place in Miyama so I could grab some stuff. Form the it was Gobo and then Shirahama like an hour later. It took us about 3 hours to get to Shirahama. After which the group then went to Peter's place in Kamitonda. It was a big party with BBQing and mingling. There must have been about 40 people there at once, not big by most standards, but big for a Wakayama JET party. That same night was also a summer festival in Peter's town. Peter's place was about 100 meters from where nearly the whole town had come to celebrate summer. The festival was a great bonus because of the awesome fireworks show. It was great, awesome, as good as Chicago's 4th of July display, and this was a dinky Wakayama village. The display was a bout 30 minutes long too.
The party at Pete's went on and on too. Soem people never slept. I did, I found a nice spot on the 2nd floor. I took it easy at the party and only stuck to beer. I flet fine the next day and even drove some people back up to Wakayama, which was turned out to be brutle because we were heading North with the throngs of other people leaving Shirahama that Sunday. Some Mister Donut's coffee at Wakayama JR station put me in and even better mood. I spent some time at Palm City before going back to my abode in Miyama where I unwound from the weekend and got ready for a 9am meeting in Kawabe the next day.

Wakayama DMV

2005-08-25T09:54:00.000+09:00

Transfering my Illinois license to a Japanese one takes a lot of effort. The biggest effort is in proving that you've had your license for 90 since the issued date. I brought some old pay stubs and bills. Should be have been alright, but no they want my entire driving record. Shit I was just in the US and could have gotten it then. Such an ordeal. I should just pay them off and get a license to drive anything.
After killing some time in the afternoon I then met up with a fellow teacher and we busted through some levels of Wangan Midnight 2 until 12:00am.
What I really need to do is study some Japanese, but I get so easily distracted.

Dawn of Another Year

2005-08-24T09:44:00.000+09:00

I haven't even been here a year as of yet. But I am preparing myself for another year. Another year of teaching and everything else. At some points though teaching felt like a hobby and figuring out stuff to do and places to go was my full time job. Well that is why I haven't made a post in a long time. I don't have the internet at home, yet. Hopefully soon. And I usually spend my time somewhere outside of Miyama.
Over the last couple weeks I've gone to Hiroshima and made it back to Chicago. Hiroshima is a totally different city than Osaka and is more managable than the hugness that is Osaka. Chicago was just a big blur. What I ended up doing the most was just sitting and watching movies and flipping through channels. Of course with there was the ocassional party and nights of anarchy in the city.
Once back in Japan, I felt as if I were gone for months, almost a year. I still feel that way. Things are different though on the onset of another teaching year. For one thing a lot of ALTs have been replaced with new ones. I don't know the new people well yet, but I hope that there will be good times to be had in the future. Also, my town, Miyama, is now part of Hidakagawa-cho, which means I have to answer to a new and different Board of Education. They now want me to punch in every day before work and write journals everyday. Not really a big deal, but it doesn't help me in anyway. Oh and lastly, I have a new school for my one man travelling circus. It is the junior high in Nakatsu. I've been there once, but we'll see how that place really is starting next Thursday.
So that's the past and future. Recently I've visited my good friend Joe at his new place in Osaka. We hit he nightlife with his buddies on Saturday night and drank whisky till 1am. It was an early night. I guess because we are old now or something. Monday, after a quick private lesson I went to Gobo and had dinner at a small restaurant with Corri, Ben, and Lauren. Tuesday was another Miyoko's, a good one too, nothing exciting, just a bunch of yabbering and all. Good food too, except the gas, but that went away and made room for the apple slices. Hah ha. I saw the movie A Very Long Engagment yesterday during lunch. I wouldn't say it was sad, but it had sad moments. A good story too.
Today I have to go to the DMV in Wakayama to start the paperwork for my driver's license. It seems like it will be so painful. Today is just paperwork. In a couple weeks I have to go take a written and practical test. It will be nice to have a Japanese license once I get through the ordeal of having to get it.
There are a bunch of parties this weekend. I don't know if I am up for all of them, but I will try. Plus I am getting tired of the party scene. I also need to study Japanese. I have no confidence in my Japanese anymore, maybe an all time low.
Another year of teaching, well emphasizing English usage, I hope to see more of Japan and become friends with more Japanese people.

Late night Monopoly

2005-06-28T13:28:00.000+09:00

Friday was spent at Sougawa-Elementry school. That same day there were reports of a large snake on the loose in those parts of the mountains. Two weeks before that it was a bear on the loose. Nobody ever got hurt. People in that small town were just concerned. I was looking forward to playing Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2 in Wakayama that night. I went with Kitayama-sensei to have dinner and then then go to Wakayama on Friday night. I thought I had a goo enough car, but it really wasn't that great. I was able to win most of the time. A little disappointed.
Saturday was another trip to the theater in Japan. This time it was to see SW:EPIII ROTS. Saturday was a special showing of the movie throughout Japan. We went the first showing at 3pm. The theater we went to in Gobo was maybe a quarter full. I had a blast watching it, but I felt as if the other people really didn't know what was going on. Although I did see some Japanese people come out of the theater in a great mood. So some people knew what was going on. It is a movie that in a way is made for the fans. Well you jsut have to pay attention and remember what happened in the first 2 movies.
After the movie I drove about and hour and a half out to Hongu. There was suppose to be a Monopoly party or something, but it ended up just being 4 of us and we then played Monoply until 3:30am and then went for a cold swim in the river near-by. The sun was coming out by the time we made it to sleep.
The next was then a bit rough, and I had to go to Osaka. I had to check on my Toy Mall case that I have been renting at a store near Den-Den Town. I ended up in Osaka by about 3:30pm. Turns out I did sell a bunch of stuff out of that case. Good thing I went up there. I then also wanted to see what the 'pro' Wangan MMT2 players were like. I found several awesome players up in Umeda, Osaka. They were nuts and I felt like I had then been playing the game all wrong. I just watched them play and didn't even play myself.
As for today, the normal English teacher is sick here at the Junior High. So I just showed SW:ANH to two classes. I even set it to Japanese dialogue so the students could understand the movie better.

Hisashiburi

2005-06-23T16:06:00.000+09:00

It has been a long time since I have posted naything in awhile. I have done so much over the last few months. For starters my brother came and we went around Kobe, Osaka, and Tokyo. There was also a cool huge ALT conference in Kobe at the end of May. I gone to a few parties over past weekends. And I also went to Guam to see how it was and to catch the new Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith. ROTS is not being released here in Japan until July 9th. I went camping this past weekend and did so on a small island a couple weekends before that. I've done some bowling and more billards playing. I also went back to the Go-Kart track in May and beat my old time for a new time of 31:4 seconds. Last weekend I saw Batman Begins and thought that it was awesome. This weekend there is a sort of planned out trip to Fuji, but I don't think that it will be much fun if done in just one 2-day weekend. So I am going to see Star Wars again this weekend for the special one day showing. And then on Sunday I might go to Osaka.
Today I've got a haircut with a real stylist barber in Gobo. My neighbor has cut my hair twice before since I have been here. Each time she decides to use a razor to cut my hair and sort of scrapes the blade along my hair. So hopefully the barber in Gobo will do a great job. The guy told me to bring a picture. I don't know if he means of a haircut that I want from some magazine or a past picture of me. I was thinking of maybe the current Tom Cruise haircut. There are a lot of Japanese guys who spike there hair up a bit especially in the front. I don't know if I am that kind of guy, but maybe I'll give it a shot.
Also, on a side note I have been playing the shit of a game in the arcade called Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2. It is addicting because you get a card which records your data letting you build up your car. You can then compete it against other players and the computer at any location. Pretty cool game. Plus the game is so much fun. Playing it in manual mode is ultra fun.
So I hope to maintain this site a bit better. Yes. Ahahahaah

End of the BOE

2005-04-13T10:18:00.000+09:00

I tried to post last week but the computer at the frikin Junior High decided to wig out on me and thus I lost my post which was another long one.
Basically this is blog is an open journal for me. So I just ramble on about what I've been up to.
So to briefly cover my last attempte post, I spent most of my time in the BOE during the second week. Nothing special went on. The last weekend was intense though. Two Friday's ago I went to the Hidaka-Cho's ALT's house, Derrek, and met up with a bunch of other ALT's to eat up some okonomiyaki. Which is a favourite to this region of Japan. Basically it is mix of eggs and cabbage that is cooked like a pancake, and then you add whatever on top. The gathering lasted until about 2 am. I didn't drink because I had to drive. So on Saturday I had to wake up early to go to a special Shodou class at 9am. The teacher then invited us over for lunch, which was great, but I was so tired. So I went home and napped unitl about 5:30 so I had some energy to go out to Ryujin and see Aaron and his father put on a cool folk music concert at the community house out there. It was a great concert and they play some classics like 'Country Roads.' Aaron's father masic insturments back home in Virgina, and so they played using a couple crazy insturments. The concert was a hit and a ton of people showed up from all over. After which a 3 car caravan of us headed into Gobo for Gusto, and Denny's like place and the pack of us claimed 3 tables as we invaded the 'drink bar' which only costs a mere $2.00 for a wide varity of drinks.
Sunday was a blast too, I joined a few other ALT's and some local Japanese in Mihama-cho for a hike up the tallest mountain there. This village is set on the shore here in Wakayama, so the hike provided for some awesome views. At the top we had a picnic and I won a jar of jelly beans. Afterwards a few of us ended up back at Gusto's for some coffee before heading home.
The week from there dragged out without much ado. On Wednesday I went to a new mall in Wakayama-city with a couple of other ALT's. Our main object was the huge new grocery store, but we made a stop at the near-by Toys R Us to check it out.
On Friday, the Junior High had their entrance ceremony for the new 1st grade class. Nothing to special there. Another strict formality before the school year could start. But I was happy to be back at the school and getting the provided meal. For roughly $2.50 I get a nice hot meal for lunch everyday. It is not huge, but enough to get me through the day. Later that night I met up with Kitayama-sensei at the Space Tube to play pool with him and couple Hidaka-cho teachers. Kitayama also had bought an awesome new Alfa Romeo. It is a 156 model and in blue. It was real nice.
On Saturday, I met up with Aaron near the Miyama dam and we inflated a yellow raft that he has a did some paddling in the reservoir there. After which we changed and headed up to Wakayam-city for a pub quiz. Somehow our team managed to get 3rd, and we missed 1st by 4 points. We then went downstairs for some drinks, I had a half and half, I hadn't had one of those for a long time. Then, Aaron was driving my car, we went to the castle's gardens to look at the Sakura. There we tons of people there.
During the week I had made plans to meet up with the junior high's lunch lady to play bowling at Roman City at 2pm. I showed up late because I couldn't find my keys, but she seemed to not mind too much. She brought a friend and we played 2 games together. Okamoto, the lunch lady, has her own ball and glove, she did ok at 117, but I think she used to play really good, she is just out of practice. She has a nasty curve that she knows how to control. It is really cool. I was able to break a 100 each game with, 101 and 118 I think, if remember correctly. However her friend, Yumi, started out not so well, but ended up at like 110 the first game, but in the 2nd game she kicked ass at 158 or something. She had like 3 strikes in a row and 4 spares in the last game. She said it was a fluke, but I think that she had some real control. This ended at about 3:30. So I called Jane, who lives down south in Oto-mura, a bunch of people were at a park in Tanabe, so I met up with them. we then head to a cheap sushi place, where you pick what food you want from little conveyer belts running throughout the place. I then headed home and watched some TV on with help of my new subscription to Sky Perfect TV. Before bed I checked out 'American Morning' on CNN.
Monday, I was nervous a bit. I had to teach next door at Kawa-shou. I did fine, I basicall just re-introduced myself to the classes. Thew new 1st grade class of 7 students were pretty cute. They so scared of everything. One girl was eating her lunch as if she was in a prison or something. Constantly looking around and try to guard her tray with her arms. Other kids showed the new kids how to fold their milk boxes afterwards.
But my classes at the junior high yesterday were nice and I am now teaching with the English teacher there, but it is still my class. I now feel that I should team-teach. I have ignored all the TT stuff, becuase I wasn't doing that before. But we get along well and developed a nice lesson plan.
But the shocker of them all is that my Board of Education office, which has been here in Miyma for like forever, is now closing on May 1st. That is the day that my town, Miyama, and the next town, Nakatsu, join with Kawabe to form Hidakagawa-cho. So I guess that the main BOE will now be in what use to be the Kawabe area. I am not sure what is going to change for me right now. I am a little nervous, but I just think that I didn't what I was getting myself into just 8 months ago and I was ready for anything then, so why should I be worried about little political changes here. Yes I am very comfortable right now, with where I live, what I am doing and with the people around me, espcially the people here at the BOE. They have helped me out a lot, especially Endo-san. She is great and helps me out all the time with little stuff. She once drove me to the doctor's in Kawabe, which is a 30 minute drive. So yeah, there are some questions. I don't think much will change until after August, when Summer break is finished, and then things might change again once my contract is up next August. And as of now, I have to not passed on the idea of staying a 3rd year.

Driving is fun

2005-04-05T13:43:00.000+09:00

It is fun here in Japan to drive around. The scenery is magificent, especially on beautiful days, like today. Today is wonderfully いい天気. And I am in a great mood becasue of it. It is spring and the 桜, cherry blossoms are blooming all over the place. They are showing up even in randoms spots on the mountains.
But back to driving, the streets here in the mountains are all so curvy crazy. I drove to Ryujin yesterday afternoon to hang out with Aaron over there. It is a good 35 minute drive or so. Ryujin has like 100 bridges and 50 tunnels for a population of like 5000 people. Ryujin has sweeping valleys and big mountains. Up north Ryujin has some huge mountains near the border of the prefecture next to Nara-ken. It also has a one lane bridge in the middle of town. Nearly all the roads in Japan are in great condition too, I reason that is because they don't dump tons of salt everywhere during the winter. Althought they should because the roads get really slippery. But it really doesn't snow too much here, in Wakayama.
After a few good rounds of Rummy and some macaroni and cheese we watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It's a visaully great movie, but the story just limped along. I just need to watch it again. My car was running on fumes on the way home. I was pretty nervous. The gas light came on a few times, when I did get home and shut off the car, the gas needle was so low that it even go now any further after I had turned the power off.
I have tried to update the photos in the photo pages, but new photos just won't display on some of the pages. I don't know what's up with that.
So I hope to go (花見)Hanami-ing in the next few days. Where you have a picnic under a cherry blossom tree. I have some people doing it in the last few days, I wonder if it just a family and old men thing though. Whatever, it looks like a good excuse to drink some 酒 outside.
On another note, I need to plan out some travelling. Where to go.....

Jelly Beans

2005-04-05T11:22:00.000+09:00

It has been too long since I've posted. I guess I don't usually because nothing much happens. But over the last week or so life's been good.
Last weekend was spent alone and was very uneventful. Infact I just turned my place into a cinema and watched like 5 movies all weekend. I did venture out to Tanabe to see what sights and sounds there are now there. Tanabe is the 2nd biggest city in this prefecture with about 60,000 people in it. I think there is just under a million people in all of Wakayama-Ken and about 400,000 of those people live in the Ken's capital, Wakayama-city. So Tanabe was alright I just drove around and figured out the layout. As for all of last week, I spent that in the BOE.
I would have gone and seen my Japanese tutor twice, but he got a job in Tokyo teaching English. He had to leave immediatly. He was a big help and took me around to a few places. He was a great guy to have around here, I'll miss him, but I'll be up in Tokyo at some time and I'll look him up.
So on Tuesday I did the Myoko dinner thing, which is never bad. But I always stay lat for some reason and on top of that I stayed up doing some reading and didn't go to be till 2am. So on Wednesday I was dead tired. I had to take a nap before my shodou lesson on Wednesday night. At Shodou I am working on this old Chinese poem that consists of about 7 characters, but I have to write them in small size. It is so terribly hard, but feels good once you know you got the kanji to look just right. Oh yeah, so at Myoko's I found out about this new mall in Wakayama city so I decided to head up there and check it out on Thursday night. I left really late though, at aboout 7pm, and it takes a good 50 minutes to an hour to get there. I left from Gobo so it was quicker, but the toll was higher than if I had left from Kibi, which is closer to my house. It wasn't much though. A huge bookstore and supermarket. I picked up a movie magazine, there are some really good movie magazines here. I also so one of my teachers there. I know he noticed me, but he didn't say anything to me. I saw him again a few minutes later, but I didn't have the courge to say anything. Plus I wasn't 100% sure if it was him, for I thought he lived in Ryujin which would be like and hour and half drive for him. But it turns out it was him, because I later found he lives in Wakayam city now. Oh well.
And that Wednesday was so sad. All the teachers that were appointed new positions somewhere else, all came into the BOE here and said good-bye. I mean I have only been here for about 7 months. I hardly know anyone, yet I felt sad and was sad to see everyone go. On the other hand there are still a lot teachers and people that are staying whom I get along with great. The new teachers seem just ok, but they could turn out to be cool. Too early to tell.
Friday night was interesting though. Derrek, the ALT in Hidaka, held an onomiyaki party at his house. About 12 peopel showed up and we chatted the night away. Most people drank, I had to hold off because I was driving. It lasted until about 2 am. The next morning, Saturday, was sort of like a test for me in the shodou. I had to write out the poem using special hand made ink, suzuri. I think my practice attempt turned out better than the final, but it gets so hard. My arm was actually a bit sore after that. I am just really really out of shape. Well I don't think that I have ever been in shape to be out of it though. I should start. Following the shodou we had lunch outside at her house. We ate yaki-soba, which is soba noodles and other stuff thrown into table top cooker, and just pick what you want as you go. I was pretty tired though. I had to go home and nap. I napped until about 5ish. I suppose to go to Ryujin and meet up with some folks before Aaron's folk concert with his father. Well I made it out there, but the other people decided to eat somewhere else. Well, ok, so hunted down the community center, which was a massive white building set up on this cliff. The concert was awesome and they played a bunch of old tunes, even some classic Japanese ones like Sakura. There were a ton of ALTs there. Afterwards we went and invaded the Gusto in Gobo. This place is like a Denny's. They have one really cool service too, the drink bar. All you can drink coffee, soda, tea, and soup. Though the soup is sort of not up to par. Plus they have a good burger and classic fries which they actually serve with ketchup. Wow. Our gaijin group disbanded after that. It was my first time at Gusto, and nice place.
Sunday was a nice day too. It was really warm out and somewhat sunny, but as the day wore on it became cloudy and sullen and little cold. My plan for the day was to hike up a mountain, not a big one, in Mihama-chou, which is on the ocean here on the Kii peninsula. I thought that it was going to be like 4 ALT's, pleasantly it was like 10 ALT's and like 15 Japanese folk. The Japanese folk were all friends of Corri who is the ALT in Mihama. She seems to be very popular there and had a ton of friends. She organized this great hike too. Also on a side note, Mihama and my place Miyama always get mixed up with people too. Corri's one good Japanese friend who really helped here out had read an article about me as the Miyama ALT back in Novemeber. She's the first person that I've met outside of Miyama that I've met who has read that article. Some of the Japanese people where some of Corri's junior High kids and other's were friends of her friend. Some of them were some nurses that lived in Mihama that worked at the hospital in Gobo.
So anyways, we all hiked up this mountain. Candice, from Gobo, kept seeing snakes and freaking out. I only saw the tail of one snake that almost gave her a heart attack. I saw a few little lizard guys, but that was about it. It took about an out to hike to the top, some places were pretty steep. Two little pre-schools made the walk too, so it wasn't too much of a hike. At the top we hand and awesome view of Gobo and the HIdaka river flowing in to the ocean. We also had an awesome picnic and played some games. I won the jelly bean contest. I guessed 773 when the count was 883. Just before we were about to leave a storm front rolled it. It rained for about 15 minutes, but let up just in time for us to make a scary walk down. It was scary because the paved path, everything is paved in Japan, was pretty slippery. Everyone almost wiped out. Right when we made it to the bottom the skies opened up again and it poured. One of the nurse girls was nice of enough to hold her umbrella over me as the group said farewell to each other. This storm actually had thunder and lightning in it. A rarity here. Only the second time I have witnessed it here. With the rain came a cold front and it went from like 70 degrees to 50 in 5 minutes. Later we congregated in Corri's abode for some chill time. Most people left, but 3 of us, Corri, Candice, and I went over to Gusto to take advantage of the bottomless coffee at their drink bar.
All in all and very pleasant weekend. I am feeling more comfortamble about my area and going out too. I don't feel like I am in bubble any more. The area is starting to feel like a new home. I understand the geography of the area pretty well now too.
I still got a huge jar of jelly beans to work on now.

America Village and Bright Eyes

2005-03-30T16:09:00.000+09:00

This all happened last weekend. Not this past one. I just haven't gone into this blog lately. I need a new name for this blog too I don't like the current one, but I don't know a good name.
Well anyways, that weekend was a great one. Except for that Saturday. Saturday was spent recovering from a bad hang over from the night before. That Friday night I had gone to the nearby city of Gobo with the Kawa-Shou staff and we had or end of the year party. The food was mostly sushi and meat this time. Actually it was steak. Very good steak too. The other teachers are good people, I just don't know them that well. Plus none of them really speak English, so it was just me, my pethetic Japanese, and my dictionary that had to battle it out the whole night. The trouble came not very far into the meal. I didn't have trouble with anyone, it is just the alochol started to flow hard and one teacher, Tamaki sensei was just pounding the beer. Then they brought outthe sake and I took care of that. Then the lights pretty much went out for me. All have are a bunch of pictures of us going to a Karaoke place and singing and having what looked like a good time. The next thing I remember was waking up in my bed the next morning in my clothes. It's that sake. It doesn't gradually make you drunk like beer. It holds out and waits and then hits you hard when you least expect it. So Saturday I just lingered around home trying to pull myself together while watching some movies and reading newspapers. In one paper I noticed that Bright Eyes, an American band, that has a sort of folky-rock sound to them were playing in Osaka, when, the next night. I had no idea where 'Club Quattro' really was, but I thought that I'd try and figure it out.
So on Sunday I bounced out to Gobo in my car and took the usual express train up to Osaka. As fast as the train is at times, it still takes like and hour and half to get up there. I drive from Miyama to the center of Osaka in that amount of time, but alas if I did there would be no where to park. I had a rough idea where the club was at. The band started early, at 6pm. I got up there at about 1:30ish. It was a glorious day, sunny and rather warm. So I floundered my way to the Parco building and up to the 8th floor where the club was at. The $60 tickets didn't go on sale until 4:30pm. So I wondered around Shinsaibashi for a few hours. Shinsaibashi has a lot of upscale clothing stores and other random stores. I returned to the club and bought my ticket. Hungry, I went back to the station and ditched my bag in a locker and bought some food at a bakery in the station. I still had an hour to kill before the doors opened so I went to an arcade and watched some people kick each other's asses in digital glory in Tekken 5. Tekken 5 is all about the combos and mashing the buttons in the correct order so as to pull off some insane 50 hit combo. One guy just kept juggling his opponent.
So I walked into Club Quattro, being that it is a simi-famous American band, there were a lot of other foreigners there, but there were also a lot of Japanese too. The ticket included one beer, nice. So I picked up that beer and seeked out a spot on the open floor. I found a nice spot on the left side almost in front of the speaker, but not quite. I wasn't sure if there was an opener or what was going to happen. I nursed that beer for 45 mintues and the band came one stage, no opener, just straight to the meat of it. And they started playing. They are a rather large band with may components and few guys that can play like everything. They a trumpet dude. The songs were great and I really enjoyed it. A good decsion.
The concert went on for about and hour and a half, it seemed shorter than that, but it was still early. Throughout the day I had been conversing with another JET via C-mail on my phone. Her name is Christa and I knew her from College. Here and some friends were in the city from Iwate-Ken for a few days. So at about 8:30 I met up with them at Namba station. I had a big problem though. I really wanted to hang out with them, but the last train was leaving for home at 9:00. I said fuck it and just decided to hang out and go with the flow here. After about and hour of hunting we made it to a Mexican restaurant that I had noticed earlier in the day. There we got me a reservation at the hotel they were staying at, so I was relieved. Also at the restaurant I ran into my neighboring ALT, Seth, and his girlfriend. They were just finishing up as we walked in. It was just weird to run into him in such a big area. I never run into anyone really around here, but to run into my neighbor in Osaka was crazy. We just said 'hi' to each other and they took off. We started our meal off with a few shots of Jose before we dug into or chicken fajitas. I am not a big Mexican food fan, not do I miss eating Mexican food, but this Japanese Mexican food was great and a real treat.
From there the night wound on. THe group of us were looking to go to a club, but some of us just wanted to go bar hopping, and few just desperatly wanted to find some cigarettes. So we ended up going to every Family Mart and Lawson in American Village, which is just south of Shinsaibashi. We gave up on that and went to a bar where they had cigarettes. Then another bar and another. The last one was cool. They were playing techno and dance music the whole time only a few people were dancing, but it was a great atmosphere. One Japanese guy that I talked to was from Hawaii and had lived in Japan for the last 8 years. He seemed pretty cool. From there we went to the hotel by taxi. I crashed at like 5:30. Sad thing was check out was at 10am. But I didn't know until 10am when the phone rang. I took a shower and jetted out of there. A few more JETS met up with our gang and we took the train back to Namba to have some good old Subway. The Subway people messed up everyone else's sandwiches, but mine, the manager who knew some english helped me. Afterwards they caught a 12:00 Shinkansen for home. I then wandered around Umeda and to a few stores. Sunday was a glorious day to. The best was having some Starbucks outside and just sitting there. I called a friend form home while I chilled out.
Going back home, I ran into Joe and his friend from Chicago at the Tennoji station. That was also a crazy run-in. I scared the heck out of him too. heh heh. We took a croweded ass Kuroshio back to Gobo together.
So that was an awesome weekend.
Oh and that Monday was a holiday of course. Day in Lieu this calendar says.
The week was slow too. On Wednesday I attended the 6th grade graduation ceremony at Kasamatsu elementry school. 5 kids were graduating, but one was sick. How sad. It was a nice little ceremony followed by a little lunch with teachers and parents. Thursday I spent at the Junior High. It was cleaning day there. We waxed all the floors, even the gym and cleaned everything up for the new year.
Last Friday marked the beginning of Spring Break here and the end of the school year. So now I have been going to the BOE everyday from 8:30-4:30.
So yeah, there are good times and fast times, but those don't come without the slow times and boring times, like I am in now. I have been rolling in stuff to do and have been busy for the last few months straight. But this past weekend was spent by myself catching up on some movies that I haven't watched.
Go see 'The United States of Leeland' that is one good movie that will keep you thinking for a few days afterwards. As for now I am in the middle of 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.' So I am now gonna go finish that and go to my Shoudo class.

Inoshishi- wild boar

2005-03-17T15:02:00.000+09:00

It has been awhile since my last post as usual. Let me see, Oh yes, Last Friday I was sick, pretty sick. No yacking though. I think I sick from drinking out of some kid's canteen the day before when I went on that school trip. On friday at Kasamatsu Elementry school I was just dizzy and tired. I did actually go to bed right when I got home from school. I woke up at 3 am and watched a part of a movie until I feel asleep again at 4am. I woke up at 10am. The plan for the day was to have a picnic in Tanabe with some other ALT's. So I met up with Aaron in Ryugin at about 1pm and we headed to the grocery store were bought some mini pizzas and food. When we got the park though it was really windy and cold. Infact a cold front was moving in, so the nice warm weather was getting replaced with and artic blast. So we headed over to Alec's house for the afternoon and chatted it up while eating. Alec bought a 50cc motorcycle and has been learning how to ride it. I am thinking of seriuosly doing the same thing. I do want to learn how to ride a motorcycle at some point, and the roads out here in the mountians are perfect for motorcycle riding. Also, another ALT, Pete came over to Alec's house and brought his new Japanese girlfirend. She didn't say much, but it was funny to watch Pete speak slow English to everyone so his girlfriend could understand a bit. Pete's an interesting guy. His school position is pretty relaxed too. He teaches like one day a week or something and can take vacation when ever he wants to. He has too much free time. I would be too bored. So then after Alec's I went back to Aaron's where we played some Rummy and listened to a histerycial comedian named Mitch something.
On Sunday I to work at the Miyama Marathon. This is a huge event, and I had to help out. I was still pretty sick, but nonetheless I was there at 7am in the freezing cold. It must have been like 35 degrees out. It snowed off and on throughout the day. I put on this bright green jacket and hat and headed off to man a table, giving out the competitor's registration bags. We had bento for lunch oustide. Afterwards we had to hand cups of water to the runner's as they finished and get these tracking chips from them. It was a long and cold day. I went home and took a long hot shower and then slept, hard.
Monday was more of the same old. I had to go out to Sogawa that day. There like 5 kids sick from that school. So there was then like 9 kids there. It was a slow day. At recess the kids like to stuff each other in this big cardboard box and close it up and then roll the box around. That is how thrilling it can be in Sogawa. That night I headed to Gobo for my Japanese lesson. I think my Japanese is the worst it has ever been and I am getting now where with it. It sucks. I really want to learn it.
However on Tuesday, school was all good at he junior high. Nothing too exciting there though. I taught to classes and studied Japanese. Afterwards I then headed out to Ryujin again. I usually go to the dinner at Miyoko's in Gobo, but this time Aaron was organizing a thing in Tanabe. So I went there, and met his girlfiend Melenie, who was visiting for a couple of weeks. The 3 of us took the twisty ass route 29 to Tanabe and meet a couple of other ALTs at a mall and then had Yaki Niki for dinner. The were variuos meats. We everything from intenstine to liver. There was also tongue. It was all good though. Afterwards went went to the mall for some vidoe game action and then to a karoke joint where I sang my throat sore. I was still sick. I couldn't sing. Driving back in the rain and fog ws horrible on those twisty dark mountian roads, but I made it.
Wednesday, Wednesday was food day. I ate so much. For lunch, I went to Kasamatsu for their Viking lunch buffett. I don't know why they just don't say buffett, but they use Viking instead. Well that is cooler anyways. So yeah I actually went back for seconds too. Then in the afternoon I had to go to Aaron's again were I we met and went to a teacher's house. Sugimoto's house. I know Mr. Sugimoto, he is the principal at Sogawa Elementry school. His wife works at the junior high with Aaron. She can speak English well. So we got there and checked out his huge as goldfish that live in the pond at their house. Their house is cool and is set near the mountains in Ryujin. The main course was inoshishi or wild boar. It was slightly shewy but still pretty good. I also tried the Shika Sashimi, or raw deer meat. I had a few slices, which wasn't bad, but I don't know about eating raw meat. She then cooked it and then I ate the rest. It was really salty though. I was drinking sake the whole time too. There was so much food. We mostly talked about how much of a hunter he is. He sometimes shoots the wild monkeys in the area, but he doesn't eat them. The inoshishi went down great. I thought that was good. I can still taste the shika sashimi though. That and the cooked version. The cooked version was so salty. The sake wasn't that bad at all either. But sometimes the cheap stuff can hit you hard the next day. But I think that I drank a lot of water last night so today I am all good. I don't feel like I drank yesterday at all.
At some point though Mr. Sugimoto thought that I drink every night and was asking me about that. He was asking me how can I go to work with a hangover everyday. I was like what? I don't. He then started apologizing, but I didn't really care too much about the misunderstanding. He got pretty drunk though. I don't know why. He later busted out his home-made spear that he uses to kill the animals that he catches. He says he feels bad every time he has to use it. One weird thing was, that after he was done showing me the bamboo spear, he carefully put the cap back on, and then opened the sliding door behind me and then just threw it outside. He is a nice guy though. He kept saying 'Kawaii' though. I don't know why he did that. Supposedly his bedtime is like 8pm so he went to bed at about 9pm and I talked to Mrs. Sugimoto for a little awhile about the ALT that was in Ryujin before. He stayed for 3 years and could play Taiko very well. I forgot his name though. Their daughter also talked to me a little, her name is Maki. She asked me a couple of really good questions too, normal questions, instead of the stupid Gaigin questions like: do you cook? do you eat sushi... She asked me what I was going to do when I was done here in Japan and had to go back to the US. And then she asked me how America's economy was holding up these days. I couldn't answer the first question. And apparently she works at a hotel or ryokan somewhere in Ryugin washing dishes and cleaning in the kitchen. So then I talke to Mrs. Sugimoto a bit more and then hit the hay. She made up a super comfy futon with a heated blanket on it. That blanket was so money. I feel asleep with it on though, on medium, and woke up in the middle of the night sweating like a pig, or an inoshishi. I busted out of there at about 6:45 in the am and showered back at my place before going to my chugakou. They wanted me to stay for a quick rice breakfast, but I was really pressed for time. I felt bad for not staying. Infact I got back quicker than I thought and figured that I really should have stayed for a quick bite. I would like to go back sometime. He invited me to go hunting with him when he goes again at sometime.
It has been getting warm this week, but today it has been raining.

Port Europa

2005-03-10T16:15:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was graduation at my junior high school and it was a very serious ceremony. There was no smiling or any memorial speeches. Infact everyone's speech seemed to have said the same thing. I saw people dozing off. It was like no-one cared. The tempo changed near the end when the one girl from the graduating class went up on stage to read some good-bye stuff from some people and she started to cry. Ohhh, awwww. Everyone sort of lost it there. I only have known the graduating kids for some 6 months, plus I don't know all there names, I only half of the class' names. So I didn't really feel anything. Then they played some songs. No 'Pomp and Cicumstance' though. Instead they decided it felt like New Years or something, and so they played that 'Auld Lang Syne' song and sang to in Japanese. You know the song, 'may auld the quaintence be forgot......'. It was sort of like any old graduation would be, but it just was a little different than what I was used to. Then afterwards they had all the kids circle up on this ball thing hanging from the ceiling in the gym and a couple of teachers opened it by rope and then confetii and some small balloons fell onto the graduating class of 15 students. It was all nice and everything. Afterwards we headed to the cafeteria for a 'tea luncheon' with the parents. It was just the graduating class, their parents, and the teachers. My principal bought be one of the Bento lunches that everyone ate. It was a little too formal and every had sit at certain tables. For some reason, and I didn't notice I sat at the girl's table, with the mothers of the students and a couple of female co-workers. There were some female teachers over at the male teachers/fathers table. I thought that it would be one of those standing room 'meet and greet' things like most graduations have afterwards. So yeah, the crying stopped and the year book signing began.
After graduation I sat in the BOE for a few hours then headed home in my 'cool suit'. There I changed out of my monkey clothes and took short walk around because it was a pretty pleasant late afternoon, where you didn't have to wear a jacket or anything and my little town is a beautiful place. The name of my town translated into English does mean 'Beautiful Mountain Village' afterall. Then for some reason I ended up at my neighbor's house. They are an older couple and are really cool. So they made me a small dinner and drank some sake together. It was pretty cool. And next Wednesday I have to go over there again to help him with his bottle of Scottish Whiskey. Crazy huh?
Today was crazy too, and absolutly exhirlating. I went on a school field trip, and ensoku, with my neighboring elementry school. I rode in one of the two buses with the kids up to Wakayama-City which was about and hour and a half away. To pacify the kids the bus driver played Shrek in Japanese on the two TVs that were in the Bus. I also got to shoot the shit with some of the kids. So this place we went to is called Port Europa. I went there back in January, but today I had the 'Passport' braclet, that was given to me by one of the teachers. So instead of paying each time you want to ride a ride you instead just waved your neon green braclet at them. So I was able to hit up some of the rides numureous times. Tjis place was a mini-theme park. It had a cool little roller-caoster where the cars spun in circles. Another ride was one of those boat diving rides where ride in this boat and it takes you up a ramp and then later sends you down a steep incline and you make a big splash. It was the best ride there. They also had a hydroluic seat movie thing, you know where the seats move in sync with the movie's motion so it feels like you are in a vehicle. In this case of Seafari, you where a whale like submarine following a dolphin that spoke Japanese. It wasn't too thrilling, but enjoyable. There were also a bunch of smaller rides. And the whole 'Europa' thing, all the buildings were built in an Italian style as to give you the filling that you were Europe. It really is sort of like a mini-Italian with some large old looking buildings and twisty small brick-lined roads with stores here and there. It was nice, but I was really ready to go after about and hour and a half. But were were there for about four hours so I did a bunch of rides several times. The kids were so excitied about everything. It was funny to see the little 1st grades get turned away by the larger rides, but by then end of the day they loved them and were riding them multiple times in a rode. A popular ride was the power dive ride, or the Twin Dragons. You know the ride where the vehicle swings between 2 'A-frames' and you go back and forth higher and higher. Unlike Great America in Gurnee where their Power Dive ride goes 360, this one only went half way and not upside down at all. But it still gave your belly a jolt. The day wore the kids out too. I am little tired myslef and I have to head to Gobo soon to study some Japanese, not that I don't really study all the time.
Anyhow, the day was a refreshing blast and really revitalized me from the events of this past weekend. I spoke of what happened before, and the past weekend was all-in-all great fun, just being here in Japan has been a blast, but some things have happened that have jolted me and at times gets me depressed a bit. But I have only been here now for 6 months and there many things that I have overcome, but just when overcome them, something new out-of-nowhere hits me.
Right now I have been listening to music that I have stored on my computer. While I do that I have also been reading 'The DaVinci Code' which is an alright book. I read 'Angles and Demons' about a year ago, which was an awesome book. Dan Brown seem to just keep using this same formula he has in all his stories, so the story is sort of predictable. He also tries too hard to write in a style to seem that it were a movie. Which makes for a fast read but seems I don't know how to say it, but dumbed now in a way. You know how when movies have to stop with the story for a moment and explain things. It is like being spoon fed all the time.
Also, in a way I am trying to up my tolerence a bit. So I have been meeting Miffy for some sake every night. Who is Miffy. Just a rabbit chracter that is on my coffee mug which come with my house. I actually have two Miffy mugs. I just more the sake in and place the cup in the microwave and then nuke the sake so it's all nice a hot. And why am trying to become more tolerent, well everyone has been inviting my out to drink, or whenever I end up doing something outside of work with other people; drinking always seems to come into play. And being able to hold your liquor is cool, well that is how it was back in college, but I have noticed that in Japan, if you can drink people under the table, at least in my little town, you socially more accepted. Especially if you can down a few small bottles of sake. Case in point, this past weekend after I finshed a couple bottles of sake with my teachers from　one of my Elementry schools, the principal then invited me over to dinner someday. This princpal never has really ever noticed me when I am at his school, but after downing a few bottles of sake, he then noticed me. So yeah, that's that. And I hope that the whole tolerence thing doesn't back fire, becasue I sort of kept thinking about drinking that damn cheap 'Maru' sake during the graduation ceremony the other day. Ahhh, Maru sake.....

Term Change

2005-03-08T15:17:00.000+09:00

The terms here are different than the US. Gruadtion happens this week and most school go on Spring break next week and that will end the term. After Spring break all the classes are new and teachers get changed around. I am hoping that not too many of my teachers get changed around.
I have been really bad at posting recently but I have just got to say that I have been having a blast in the past few weeks. The week days go by pretty well, and I have nothing to really complain about. Except when I have to teach a class alone. I am just that, no other teachers in the room except me. Last Tuesday my 2nd graders at my junior high almost got out of control because it was just me in the room. What am suppose to do? What really got to me was when a couple of kids handed me a note written in English, it read "what color is your pubic hair?" I was like WTF and just kind of got mad at them as you would to a dog that won't sit down. I can't just start yelling at them in Japanese. But I tried, because when I tried English they just acted like they didn't know what was going on. It was ok anyways. But last weekend, not this past one was a blast too. On Friday night I hung out in Tanabe, another nearby city, karaoked with a bunch of other people. On Saturday, me and another ALT took the train up to Osaka and hung out all day. We saw a showing of LOTR Return of the King Special Edition. The film had an intermission too. So the whole thing clocked in at just over 4 hours. That was the longest movie I have ever seen in a theater and probably the longest movie I have seen in one sitting. I didn't fall asleep at all, but the lady next to me passed out about 1 and a half into the flick. I got by not on coffee but rather 2 kinds of beer. I started a Guiness about and hour into the movie and finished the film with a nice Sam Adams. Being true import beer each beer costed about $3 each. But it was so good. The movie did sell beer too, but I opted for my more tasty beer. What was weird about the movie theater is that it sold tickets by the seat. Each set was assigned. Your set number was on your ticket. But was really odd, is not that there were assigned seats or that the theater filled all of its 300 seats for a foreign 4 hour movie at $15 a head, but the entire audience remained in their seats as the credits rolled. No one budged or got ready to leave, nor did the house lights come on. Everyone just sat and watched the credits roll as me and me friend and his friend left the room. So that was fun, but Sunday was also cool. I met up with Aaron from neighboring Ryujin and some of his friends and we headed up to the mountians in his area for some good old fashioned sledding. We had two plastic sleds with us. One was the Usagi(rabbit) sled that was loaned to us by some local pizza place owners. They had gone sledding the day before and later on Monday their sleeding picture with the Usagi sled made the local newspaper. So we sleeded until we were hurting. You know it was a good day because we broke both plastic sleds, even the donated Usagi sled. We ripped it open right down the sides. What really did it to the sleds was the jump we had built up just at the bottom of the long hill. Half way through we were like 'this jump is kinda of weak' so we packed it up with some more snow. It gave us more air time but sore asses. Afterwards we went swimming in the local river for like only 15 seconds because the water was friking cold. The air temprature must have been like 45 degrees, but it was sunny. After a hot shower we then ate a nice pasta meal while watching Bourne Supremecy on Aaron's awesome computer.
However that was last weekend. This past weekend was also a blast. On Friday night I hung out with the one cool teacher from one of my elementry schools, Kitayama-sensei. This guy is awesome. He took me to his house again for dinner and little GT4 battling. For was Tako-yaki, or Octopus surprise. It is just a breaded ball with a bit of octopus inside. He had kept asking me if Takoyaki was ok. I have no problem with it. We cooked in this little grill and with this little spike thing you have to flip them and move them around, which was a bit tricky. I sort of got the hang of it, but I let a few cook too long. After dinner we hit up the billard tables at Roman city. My gave started to impove right before we moved on to bowling next door. I haven't been bowling in about a year or so and so I just was out to give it my best. I got a 99 which I was ok with. I think my highest ever was something like 135 or something. That was a blast, so was beating Kitayama in OutRun 2 in the arcaded battle mode. We made it through the entire game and in the last minute I pulled right ahead of him and into the goal. At one point I was way behind, but I caught up quickly with my stylish power slidding abilities. Moving onto Saturday. Saturday was slow, I woke up late and watched some of the Lost In Translation before making plans with Joe to play some Halo 2 online at his house. So I up and went to Inami where played with his buddy who was online in Chicago, where it was roughly 2am on Saturday morning. I got my ass-kicked but I had a few kills. For dinner we met up with Mark Bush and some of his friends in Minabe. There we hit the sake hard and ate like kings. The night withered away quickly from there. I remember that there was karaoke involved and some drinking back at his place, but man sake holds back its punch for a about an hour then smacks you hard. The sake that night KO'd me. I was hurting all Sunday. I have no idea what time I passed out at, but I had to be at an end-of-the-year ceremony at Sougawa Elementry School by 11 am on Sunday. I felt way out of it on the drive home. I made it just in time to Sougawa. There was not graduation at this school because it doesn't have a 6th grade, so it was more a year-in-review ceremony. At point I was in the slide show and they mentioned that I came from Chicago and that I didn't know any Japanese but I could use chopsticks. I also had to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with bells with rest of the other teachers. We also had to do part of Beethoven's 8th. So yeah, parts of this ceremony dragged on, but after wards the whole staff was off to Kinosaki Onsen just north of Kyoto. This was a very expensive trip too. So I was really hoping that it would be fun. $350 worth of fun. And it was too. What was really expensive about the trip was that we charted a private bus for the entire time. The bus driver even hung out with us most of the time, except for the the dinner and karaoke. So yeah, after the ceremony thing I went home changed and met the lot of them in front of the city hall where we climbed abord and made ready for a 3 1/2 hour journey Northward into the mountians. This is a famous onsen place and it also famous for its Kani, or crab. So about 4 hours later I was sitting at a table with a full crab in front of me. We went to dinner right when we got there. It was a lot of effort to pry all of that meat out of that thing. I finally made it through the whole the whole thing and then proceeded to drink with the rest of the gang. And boy did we drink, but unlike the night before, I had a whole meal in my belly and drank everything. I think I might have actually out drank everyone, and I remember the whole night too. I remember that right before I went to bed that 2 other people out of our party of 8 had passed out already. What really did it was the karaoking. We had a blast there. It was a small place near to the hotel. Each karaoke booth was a actually a tiny building. I sang Wanted Dead or Alive and YMCA, because everyone was much older than I except for the 25 year-old nurse girl. After the karaoking we made it back to the hotel where we talked before hittin the hay. I was awoken earlier and only got to spend about 2 mintutes in the osen before I had to go. We had to go sight-seeing. It was a cool little town area. We even took a power-boat ride across the little lake to the other side. On the way the seagulls followed you and you could feed them out-of your hand as they followed. At the other end we bummed through some Omiyage gift stores before riding a cable car to to the top for the beautiful view. At the top there were a couple weird things. One is that supposedly the view is cooler if you stand on this mini bench and take in the view with your head between your legs. So I did that. Then there was this ring off away from the ledge into which you are suppose to throw some clay discs. Out of 3 chances I got one through the ring. Then I just started to through snowballs through it. And then another weird thing was that another bunch of tourists that were up there seemed to be a bunch of tall women from far away, but were actually guys. But guys trying to look like girls. They looked kinda of weird as women, but what really gave their secret away was their voices were all off. I don't know what was going on there. Plus I really didn't have a hangover, but instead just sort of felt out-of-it. We hit up lunch then and then back home were we rolled in at 3:30pm yesterday. I was pretty tired and went to bed at about 9:30 after having a good ramen dinner in Gobo with another ALT.
Now today, was jsut spent here at the junior high were they were preparing for their graduation ceremony tomorrow. Which will be the first here at this school, because last year there were 3 junior highs in Miyama, they merged into one last April. So I sat through the practice and it brought back some of my graudation memories. It seemed like a nice ceremony, but something seemed to be lacking. Plus the graduation from 9th grade is more of a big deal in Japan than in the US. Getting into High School can be very hard, and it really is a big step for a lot of people. What is really nice is that the weather here has really been nice the last couple of days. It has been sunny and pretty warm, but still freezing inside the buildings.
As a little graduation present I have been CDs for everyone in the 3rd grade class. I hope they like them.

Tokyo Weekend

2005-03-01T14:06:00.000+09:00

Last Saturday I made it to Tokyo via the Shinkansen or the bullet train. I took the Nozomi 700 which is a very fast train. So two and a half hours later we were there. I was suppose to meet my friend at the silver bell meeting spot which is supposedly a very famous meeting spot at the fucking huge asss Tokyo station. This place is huge. It has like 3 malls inside of it too. I promtly got lost, and then called my friend on his cellphone. It turns out that I was like 20 feet from it the darn bell the whole time. So off we went, grabbed some grub and went back to his place before going out in the city for the night. His place is small, but so are most places in Tokyo. We did it up a really big mall, building, well it was sort of like a big store arcade place. There were a bunch of toy stores in the building but I really didn't buy anything. Just a few items, most things were really expensive. So I just kind of looked around. We ate dinner at the Wendy's just outside and boy was it packed, packed with a bunch of 20-soemthing year olds, most of which were women. I was tired so we went back and went to sleep early. The next day, Sunday, there was a large toy show at the big convention center near the shore so we headed over there. My friend can drive really well and we got there quickly and got an awesome parking spot. We spent most of the day at the show. But it was fun. I bought a few things but nothing really too crazy. Just a few Macross things mostly. After dinner we headed over to Ginza for some traditional Japanese food. A bunch of their friends came over and joined us it was a blast. Afterwards we went to an Italian place called Pronto. There was drank some whisky and shot the breeze.
I took Monday off so I didn't have to rush or anything. SO we ate at some fast food place that is only in Japan and it was cheap an good after that we headed out for Akihabara and did some more toy shopping. I thought that there would be some more cool electronics stores and video game stores but I guess that I was looking in the wrong spot, but I don't know what I was really looking for anyways. So after that we did some sightseeing and went to a famous large temple near Ueno. After that we made it to Tokyo tower. We walked there. I thought that it was a clear day and it seemed like it but it wasn't becasue you couldn' see Mt. Fuji even from the 2nd observatory, which was at 250 meters. It seemed like the highest point in all of Tokyo but it really wasn't, appearently there was a building that was taller on the horizon out in the distance. I was pretty disappointed that I couldn7t see Mt. Fuji from the tower of the darn tower. So my last chance to see the cool looking moutain was from the Shinkansen which was leaving at 3:50. On a quick taxi ride we wipped by the Diet building and then made it to the station just time. I said my good-bye and headed for the train. This time I took a Nozomi 500 and not the 700, both of which are really cool anyways. Both times I had a window seat, but this time it was still on the East side I was not able to see Fuji-san out my window. It was clear enough about 50 minutes into the train ride that I could catch a glimse of it out the East side windows and was able to catch a quick photo from across the car.
6 hours later I was back in Gobo. It took a long time to get home. I think that flying would have taken the same amount of time though. The second train that I took was a local express. It is called the Ocean Arrow. It seemed so frikin slow compared to the Shinkansen. But all in all it was a fun trip and didn't get much sleep until this past weekend.

So much, so little time

2005-02-25T16:13:00.000+09:00

Where to begin. I don't know. My world here has really been flipped upside-down in the past week, and mainly becasue of a few little things. Some people have noticed that in my last few posts I might have not been the normal me, but I don't really know that hte normal me is anyways. So yes after last Thursday I have been busy straight and doing everything.
Well I'll start from my last post and see how far I get, if I can make it all the way up to today. Well, last Thursday night I had my shoudo class, which is Japanese calligraphy. I enjoy it, it is fucking hard and I don't really know enough Japanese to do it, but I try and it does feel good when you get a chracter just right, and you know when it looks good. So maybe in about 20 years or so I might be able to do. Right now I take the class with the a bunch of elementry school kids and am writing out Kanji that frikin 1st and 2nd graders use and maybe some that 3rd graders use. But hey, give me a break. I know that people think that I may never be able to do it, but I might prove them wrong someday. Someday.
Ok, so still on Thrusday, but on another note, my junior high is small, maybe what 11 teachers in all, not including me. So out of the 11, all of which are cool, there area two girls my age, that is 25 and 26. Both single, I think, but I know they aren't married, so if they have any boyfriends I'll just bust that shit up. So this one girl has grown on me, she's been here since October last year, but I really haven't started to talk to her until now. She is cool and so I asked her, via phone email(which EVERYONE uses in Japan), if she wanted go eat somewhere on Friday. So I did it was cool. On Friday I had to go to Kasamatsu elementry school and do my thing. Which was actually a great bunch of fun. Those kids are always great and for some reason I was all jazzed up and excited through-out the whole day. It was a ton of fun and learned to play this card slapping game with the teachers. So then I went home, and met up with that girl. We drove to Gobo(35 minutes away) and ate Uniagi(fresh water eel). It was damn good. She busted out more English than I thought she knew. Afterwards we decided to go back to Miyama and had some tea at my place. I was tired and had to leave at 6:00am the next morning so she took off early and I hit the hay.
I woke up at 5:30, did the 3 S's and left. Left in time to make it to Gobo and catch the 3 necessary trains to get to Tokyo. It took 6 hours in all to get all the way up there. So I was there at 12:30 and already tired. I still have yet to recover a week later. The trains were awesome. Well the Shinkansen or bullet trains were the shit. I took the Nozomi 700 up there. Let me tell that these trains are like no othere anywhere. They are so fast that it feels like you are floating. Sometimes the train made some sort of howling sound too. And if there was a dip in the tracks, the train took it like an airplane going through tublulance and you could feel your stomach jump a bit. Plus the seats were pimping and you can drink beer and whatever. So it took only 2 and half hours to get from shin-Osaka to Tokyo.

The break of Winter and Being and ALT

2005-02-16T08:56:00.000+09:00

Today Old Man Winter has broke down. I think the problem is that he is having some trouble fighting global warming. Today is mostly cloudy with a chance of showers, and in Fahrenheit, it is like 60 degrees. All of this at 8 in the morning too, so it could very well get warmer by early afternoon. I was starting to to get tired by the cold.
For the last two days I have come home and just fallen alseep. I have the wall heater on timer in my room. So my room is always nice and cozy when I come back home. I do think that living here is stressing me out a bit. I am a person that does worry a lot, even about the stupidest things. So I need at least 8 hours of sleep every night or I'll be hurting by early afternoon. Plus I have been told I don't eat right. Gwen use to tell me that too, now my Japanese tutor tells me that. I usually have a slice of bread for breakfast and then at lunch time a full lunch at the school. Dinner is usually off and on, I rarely ever cook. Every Tuesday night I do head to Gobo for the ALT dinner at Miyokos, but the other 6 nights are divided between udon(just add hot water) and maybe nights at a restaurant. If I am lucky, like I was last week, I will be invited over to a person's house to have dinner, which I always look forward too. I never invite myself over, but I thinking of starting to try a bit. I think most people here think that I am really busy all the time and don't have time for them. So I usually say something like "hey let's do dinner sometimes, where would you like to go?" Knowing full well that they have a family and almost always eat with them, so they reply by saying you should come over and dinner with their family. They are always happy to invite me, and I am happy to meet their family. I not have a deep love for food, so I am not in it for the free meal, but for the company. So I have tried this tatic twice. The first time was when I actually was interested in having a dinner with just the teacher and hoping to go to some cool restaurant, but he invited me over to eat with his family. We went to a restaurant anyways. The second time, which was this past Monday, I asked another teacher, who speaks very good English, she said that she'll look into when would be a good time to come over and have dinner with her family. She is really fun to talk too to.
Last night was an 'ok' Miyoko dinner. The food was good, as usual, but not as good as it has been before. This time there highlight was some sort of beef that looked and sort of tasted like beef jerky, but wasn't. I also enjoyed the edamame(peas in the pod), which is real sweet. There is always a dessert too, never like ice cream or cake, but sweets and okashi. The last few times we have had these huge strawberries as a dessert. They are huge, like 4 to 5 times normal size, and they are so good. They usually get gobbled up pretty quick. In the past the mikan has been the staple dessert.
Most of the other ALTs are great people. I am usually quiet and listen to stories most the time I almost never contribute anything to any discussion. Some of the ALTs I don't think I would ever be friends with if we all didn't share the same factor as being an ALT. I don't know what the JET Programme's criteria was for an ALT, but most people I have met are pretty smart and pretty activity. Nearly all the ALTs I know are looking at attending a graduate school as soon as they are done with their time here. The JET Programme states, please don't make being here into a way of putting off your future or any other future plans. Sometimes I wonder if I fall into that category. I have defenitly thought of graduate school, but never too seriously and still have yet too. I came here to grow as a person and to overcome obsticles as means of confidence building, which I greatly lack. I think the JET Programme was looking for people that can handle living on their own in a foreign culture, but also adapt to actually living in the foreign culture rather than trying to live in two cultures at the same time and spiltting yourself. There are many types of ALTs and several ways you can divide them up, but one good way to truley see the adaptablity of an ALT is by diving the ALTs among those who have completed college and have worked somewhere full time for a lengthy duration, and then there are the other ALTs who have just completed college, earning their degree in May and left for Japan in July. Those ALTs still have the mind set of a student, some have the idea that their ALT experience will be like that of when they were a study abroad student, and then others who, more painfully, have a loved one that they are leaving behind, which will make being an ALT altogether an enduring experience.
I think that some ALTs see their stay here as a study abroad program and never really detach themselves from their mother country and dive into the culture here. There is always that feeling of going 'back home' some day. Instead of thinking that your 'home is where you are right now.' As for myself, I think that I have almost bridged that gap, but I still need more time. I have only been here for a little over 5 months, and that includes the 2 and 1/2 weeks when I went back home during Winter vacation. I needed to do that because I left so suddenly back in September. As for the difference in and exchange program and being here as an ALT. Well both provide you with housing, a school, classes, and expectations or responsibilties. Housing, ok, in both cases you pay for it. As for the school, instead of being a student at just one school, your a actually given anywhere between one and 15 or so schools. As for classes, instead of sitting in them as an exchange student, you actually have to run it and provide the energy for that class. I never did a study abroad program, I actually have never lived more than a 20 minute drive from parents for my entire life before I came here. As a study aboad student you are given friends, or at least you can find a few readily in the student body, and usually with other foreign students, and they are close by, most of the time and you can see them everyday. As an ALT, you can become good friends with other ALTs, but you usually don't see them everyday and they don't live close by. You also have the whole experience of teaching as a common factor to talk about with other ALTs when you run into them. One girl once said she vowed never to talk about teaching anymore with people as that is what ALTs usually only do. Talking about teaching, the Japanese language, or the Japanese culture and customs, usually are the meat of most conversations I have had out here with other ALTs. But talking about work is usually what working people talk about. As that is what your life is outside of being a student. It is hard at times not to hang out with co-workers and in doing so not to talk about work. As for study abroad students, they'll talk about classes or the foreign culture too.
As for the differences, I think being an ALT has much more responsibility. You can't just sit in class and wear what ever you want to when ever or go to class when ever you feel like it. Plus as an ALT it can be more lonely. ALT's are spread out. It takes a lot of effort to see one another. I feel that the periods of loneliness and the responsibility to perform as teacher at the level that your school expects you too, can lead to a lot stress that a study abroad student won't usually experience. Yes a student has homework to perform, but you can only let yourself down if you fail. Here your whole class could go bad and your co-teachers may look apon you differently, and sometimes the community you live if you are not performing as an ALT should. But both situations share the stress of figuring out a foreign culture, that is the language barrier and the cultural barrier.
Well to continue on with this rant after a short break and a quick talk about a little Miyama get-together that I missed out on, I think the biggest difference between the two situations is that as an ALT one is expected to fit into their community and contriubute something. You should show up to events and take interest in the locals. However as a student at a university you can just blend in with the rest of the foreign students and be as removed from events or people as much as you want.
So in conclusion to this meandering rant, for one to take advantage of the ALT situation, one has to try to fit into the cummunity and culture to overcome the obsticles of being lonesome and being away from a comfortble culture. If an ALT does not wish to try and bridge the gap of being a study abroad student versus being an ALT, then he or she will not be taking advantage of the extensive oppurtunities that awaits them and in turn will never become comfortable being and ALT.

Ok, I have no idea why I wrote that or where it came from. Perhaps I am just tired of talking to myself and spilled my thoughts here. Plus what I just wrote probably won't make and sense to anyone, and if I were to re-read it, it probably wouldn't make and sense to me either.

Happy Chocolate Eating Day

2005-02-14T16:10:00.000+09:00

I received a few chocolate items today, but nothing crazy. It was one crazy weekend though. I am still tired from it. That party on Thursday night ended up well I showed up late because of a Japanese lesson, but I was able to pound a few back and karaoke for 2 hours. I crashed at Joe's place in Inami. He has a pimpin place. It is even more pimpin because he has the internet and an X-box. Which means he can play X-box live and games like Halo 2 online. I miss the Star Wars Battlefront game already.
Joe's party was jsut right, not a ton of people, but enough to have a good time. Only 4 ALT's orginally, Derrick showed up later for an hour or so at the karaoke place.
After waking up with a headache at Joe's the next more I went to return some movies to Way in Gobo and ran into Devon, who was with the night before but did not go karaoking. He showed me a gorcery store with super cheap food. It was a nice little find. A box of 'Sugar Flakes' (Frosted Flakes) for 89 cents. Sounds tasty, eh?　
　　　　I did have to head back early so as to meet Kitayama sensei who was picking me up at my house to go play pool at 4:00pm. While I waited I watched Buckaroo Banzai. I use to love that movie as a kid, but now it is some weird beast of a movie. Still fun to watch, but I don't about its quality anymore. So Kitayama showed up and brought his two kids too, Shinsui who is 8 and Akane who is 4. They came into my place and started looking around. I didn't know how to entertain them. They kind of just snooped all around. The found some chocolate I had and just started eating it. So I finally busted out Mario Tennis and it was a hit. Shinsui wasn't sow great but it was his first time. We then left and went to Roman City to play some arcade games, namely Outrun 2 which has a cool power sliding feature, before we headed back to the house for some grub. No grub there, and I was starving. We chilled in the house a bit and got a few games of GT4 in before me and the fam left for a nearby Okonomiyaki place and eat this stuff you cook at your table on the grill. It was darn good stuff. We then went to play pool. I think I am getting worse though. At one point this old lady came up to our table, which was all the way in the back of the room, and watched me hit the ball and then said 'good job' and left. That was bizarre.
Saturday was suppose to be spent at the Planetarium. I did go with the the Kyotosensei from my Junior high. It was cloudy so there was no star watching that night, but I did see one of those star shows inside the domed room with the 'ant' looking machine in the middle. It talked about Orion and some constellations, but then it was so nice a dark in there that I started to drift off into a lite sleep. Afterwards I went to his for dinner. THe planterium is actually apart of a park, Cosmo park. Also in the park ais a squirrel zoo. It is small, but there it is, a large cage outside with a bunch of squirrels in it. I think that they were Chinese squirrels too. So next month I will be able to see Saturn from the park.
On Sunday I made an exscursion. I drove all the way to Wakayama-city, which isn't really a big deal, but it was far. My destination was Palm City. It is one of those Okuwa type of large malls. This one had a TRU. TRU in Japan sells much better toys than the US ones. I tried to buy the PS2/GT4 racing pack but my card didn't work for some reason. I nearly lost my phone there under an arcade game and I dropped my camera again, which is almsot dead now, but is still fine. I have only had it since October, and it was expensive. I made it back to Gobo to have dinner with an ALT that is sick. He is going back to America for a little while. So that was the long weekend. Next week will be longer for Tokyo will have to handle the Big Mac.

Isolation

2005-02-09T11:17:00.000+09:00

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)

2005-02-07T16:20:00.000+09:00

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

2005-02-07T15:30:00.000+09:00

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.

Orinji Ranji

2005-02-04T17:17:00.000+09:00

For those of you not in Japan, there is this song that is sweeping this nation. It is by Orinji Ranji, but is really Orange Range. The song is called "Hana," or 'Flower.' All my kids sing it all the time. It is uber popular. It is weird because the band is really a punk band, but has a few 'pop' songs on their new CD. Hana is a mixture of punk and pop. I think the song is good, but not spectacular. Maybe I just need to listen to it more. A teacher at my Junior High gave the lyrics and I am suppose to memorize them and sing the song next week. That is a tall order, because A: I can't sing B: It is a little punkish and I can't sing that fast; and then C: It is all in Japanese. I know a few words, but I would just be memorizing mostly sounds. So I dunno.
I am so tired today. I get really tired every Friday. For my classes today at Kasamatsu Elementry School I was scraping the bottom of my energy barrel. I got a headache after singing "Five Little Monkeys Jumping On a Bed" just before lunch. I told a teacher that my head was "Itai" and he gave me some medicine. Ok good. So half way through lunch I started to feel really dizzy and drowsy, it fell on my like a ton of bricks. One moment I was asking a kid to teach me some Japanese slang, the next I felt like I was going to fall of my chair. I figured the medicine was the cause of it. So a cup of coffee later took care of everything and got a second wind and performed "Twist and Shout" for my last class. I then spent the rest of the afternoon trying to wind a small Japanese metal top. You are suppose to wind this little thing with a piece of sting and then fling it on to the ground. It is pretty cool. I can sort of do the flinging, but the winding of the top takes some skill. I tried to for like and hour and a half until my hand was aching. So then I went to the Board of Education, as I am suppose to everyday before I return to abode. I have to do this in case they have something to say to me or give me. Sometimes I have mail too. I get nearly everything sent to the office. So yeah, exciting.
Lunch was nice today. The provided school lunch, or Kyuushoukuji, is my staple diet. I can't really cook, I hate going out of my to eat at times. Plus the lunch is cheap and good. Today was a beef soup/stew, rice(which they eat the nearly every meal, even breakfast), Milk(every lunch), and some sort of pickled onion something salad. Salad thing wasn't so great, but I ate it. I clean my plate everytime. Except a few times when I am suppose to eat the fried fish's head or something. After lunch everyone has to fold their milk box a certian way and then put it in a special garbage can. However, Kasamatsu Elementry school makes you tear the box open, wash it, and then toss it. I dunno, the last few times there I forget they are the exception out of my 4 schools and sometimes fold my milk box instead of tearing it open. Like I did today, but I remembered before anyone said anything to me.
Yesterday, I went to the junior high. I taught two classes instead of my usual one because I didn't teach on Tuesday so I made up for it with the 1st grade(7th grade in the US) yesterday. After school I followed a fellow teacher to Gobo(a 40 minute drive) where he helped me purchase my train tickets to Tokyo. The tickets cost me $304 instead of the estimates $360 so that was a bonus. Afterwards we ate at a nearby tea house and talked about cars, or tried to in broken Englisha nd Japanese. He owns a BMW 328i. It is 6 years old. He got a ticket once for going 200KPH on the highway, which I think is about 120 MpH, correct me is I am wrong I just don't remember. His ticket was only $230 for going that fast, or maybe that was a ticket for something else. Anywho I am thinking of buying a PS2 here so I can play Gran Turismo 4.

So yes, have a good weekend

Living low tech in a high tech world

2005-02-02T15:32:00.000+09:00

To my 3 readers, this blog would be more frequent and full of pictures if I was able to get a DSL connection in my home. Oh well, such is life in the mountains. On the brightside I have a lot of pictures that I am going to upload soon. I will try an provide a picture or two with every update and also keep them in the archives.
So I am planning to go to Wonderfest in Tokyo in a few weeks, on the 20th. I am going to take the Shinkansen, which will set me back about $360, that is for both ways. The teachers at my junior high were nice enough to help me figure out the times of the trains I will be taking, but they couldn't help me make an online reservation. The internet here is not like it is in the US. It is slow coming, and there are not many internet savvy people here. The teachers cringed at the thought of trying to figure out how to reserve the tickets online. I'll just have to go to the station in Gobo tomorrow or someday soon.
Yesterday was a chill day. I taught no classes at the junior high because the students I was to teach had to take tests all day. It's like every other week these poor kids are having to take all-day tests. The 3rd grade has been away for the last couple of days. I guess off somewhere taking more tests.
I awoke yesterday morning to a thin layer of snow convering everything. Snow isn't a big deal in genereal, but in Miyama it is. So we got a lot, like a half an inch. People were freaking out all day as the wind cranking in and blowing in even more snow. Everyone was talking about snow tires and such. All the talk got me worried about driving to Gobo to go to Miyoko's ALT dinner, which is every Tuesday. However, after a short phone call with Seth, my neighboring ALT, I was informed that the roads were actually fine and that there wasn't really anything to worry about. The worry is that in Japan they don't salt the roads. So ice just form as usual and is sometimes black. Sougawa got a nice heap of snow though. I don't have to go out there until Monday. Hopefully it will be warm.
Last night's ALT at Miyoko's was a feast as usual. I was on time this time. I arrived at 7:00 pm as opposed to 7:30. Everyone seemed a bit out of it. I figure the cold weather is making everyone tired and quiet. Yesterday and today has been windy and cold, about minus 1 celcius, which I guess is about 20-25 degrees Fahrenheit. So not too cold, but it sucks, especially when your house doesn't stay warm and may as well go outside to piss when you go into the bathroom. I shouldn't say that because some people actually have there bathrooms outside. Anyways the food was great and so was the talk. Seth hooked me up with a Carbon( ha his name is Seth Carbon) Monoxide detector, so I won't pass out from the fumes emitted from kerosene heater. I need to get mroe karosene.
I have been at the Board of Education all day. As I do every Wednesday. I always expect to get something done, but I never do. I just screw around on my computer most of the day and study Japanese. I don't have internet at home, but I still fell bad that I never seem to get anything done. My lessons are good, but they could be better. I have ideas for several games and activities but I never seem to find time to create them and make the props or materials.
Last night I went to Roman City to pick up pictures that I get developed at SNAPS!. A cool place with digital developing. They are also more cool because they give you free little photo binders. I had to take money out of the ATM at Roman City to pay for the photos. That all went well. But this morning at the BOE, I got a call telling me I was stupid becasue I forgot my ATM card at Roman City. I remember taking it from the machine, but I guess I must have dropped. Anyways. Japanese people are so nice an cool. The bank called and comfirmed that I was missing and said that they will bring it to me tomorrow. There are bring it to me. They are so nice a cool. I still can't believe I did that. I am also so careful.
Today I did receive some more books to help me study Japanese. One was a workbook to accompany my Japanese for Bust People textbook. The other book was a new text book that is suppose to be great, it is just called, Japanese for College Students. It looks great and uses a ton of Hiragana and Kanji, but seems to be written for use in a classroom enviroment and not for independent study. Plus I already know nearly everything in that new book. I might give it a crack for a good review. I almost done with volume One of Japanese for Busy People. I am on Lesson 27 out of 30 Lessons in the book. I would say the book could be covered in college at somewhat fast pace in two semesters. When I was using the book in college we went at a slow pace and took about a chapter a week. It would have taken us about 2 years or 4 semesters to finsh the book. I am still studying at a slow pace, but I think I am retaining a lot, but my speaking is still horrible, but getting gradually better. Someday. I can't wait to get to book Two of Japanese for Busy People. I like the series, and I think I will stick with it. Book Two goes at a lot faster pace and contains kanji. Kanji won't be new to me, because I gone ahead and put kanji in book One where it should be, that is I have looked up and memorized the kanji for most of the nouns and verbs that are introduced in book One. Japanese is a fun langauge too. Kanji is very interesting and helps you to memorize words better. I just wish I had a better electronic dictionary.
I need to send out some packages to people in the states, but I am just too lazy I guess. I need to do it though.

Mos Burger

2005-01-31T16:42:00.000+09:00

Well, last week was pretty solid. Friday was intense. After teaching two lessons and playing dodgeball twice with the kids at Shougawa Elementry school on a glarious warm and sunny day I drove 20 minutes back to the BOE office to find out that there was going to be a mochi maki in Sougawa in 30 minutes. Of course I wanted to go, so I drove all the way back to Sougawa. Not a bad drive either, it is a very scenic drive. Driving along the river with the late afternoon sun breaking breaking over the tops of the moutains. Plus it was warm. So I got back and was picked up by the kyoto sensai. She drove me and the lunch lady down into Sougawa a bit further and then we hiked up the side of this small mountain on a path that was really narrow. Passing through a mini-Torii gate only reveled more of the same steep path, but soon I was at the top and privy to a beautiful view of Sougawa. There was this really small opening with a metal stand with a small shrine near it. The kids formt he school were up there too. Most people were older folk. We waited a bit and then they candy and ramen. It was a feeding frenzy. People diving everywhere. You had to be careful to fall off the edge too. Then they threw tons of mochi. Occasionally they threw a huge mochi, which if you caught, you would get a prize. I had a decent haul and later some of the kids gave me some candy and chips. As I was drving away later, I gave some mochi to an older guy who speaks some English. On my way back I stopped at Kasamatsu Elementry school and shared some of the spoils with the teachers there. It was about 4:30 so all the kids at that school were gone already.
I saw a monkey running across the street and up a mountain when driving back home from Sougawa each time. I tried to take a picture but he was too fast.
Later that night I was suppose to meet up a play Halo 2 with another ALT, but when I got home I just fell asleep.
On Saturday I did meet up with four ALTs at Mister Donut infront of Roman City. Right as I met up with them, the two girls that are about my age that work at the Junior High drove by and said 'hello' to me from their car. From there we walked to the nearby hostpital and practiced some Tai-Chi with a Chinese teacher. The teacher is a great guy, and always laughs one of those hardy laughs. He knows Chinese and Japanese and a little English. We spent about 3 hours there and then some of went and saw Oceans 12 at Roman City. Which was a fantastic movie. I'd say it was worth the $17 I had spend for the ticket. I will probably be able to buy it for that price when it comes out on DVD. From there me and another ALT took a try at a place called Mos Burger.
This place is a healthy burger place, supposedly, with fresh meat and they cook it right there for you.
On Sunday I just hung around a lot and the met up with Tetsuji to have some Unagi at an all Unagi restaurant. It was awesome Unagi. I will definatly go back there again sometime.
And so, today's visit to Kawa-Shou was a good. Most kids enjoyed what I did, and I have took a crack at hiragana in the 5ht grade's Shoudou class.
I missed out on a fire festival down south in some town on Saturday. It is suppose to be a good festival. Hopefully I can get there another time.

Meeting new ALTs

2005-01-24T17:23:00.000+09:00

Over the last few days I have hung out with a few different ALTs. It's been fun. On Thursday night I hiked up to Yuasa and meet up with 5 other ALTs, 3 of whom I'd never met before. We had a great time at this little tiny restaurant run by this lady. There were some other guys in the place that kept talking to us foreigners and asking us questions, which fine. They even said that another guy looked like Tom Cruise, and this girl looked like Jodie Foster and that I looked like Micheal J. Fox. I have heard that before, even from some Japanese people since I have been here. I didn't drink at all, well a half a class of beer, and just one sip of sake. We were there for about 2 and half hours so I was totally fine to drive afterwards. The trip didn't take as long as I had thought.
Friday went well too, except for one incendent. That is a hurt a little 1st grader while playing on the playground. Another little kid tripped me by accident I end up pushing another kid's face into the ground(which was like a gravel sand mixture). I felt horrible and still bothers me now. He's perfectly fine though, but I worry about those things, about if he is ok and if maybe I traumatized him or anything. Anywho after going to Kawa-Shou for the day and singing '5 Little Monkies Jumping on a Bed' like 10 times that I went with my Board of Education co-workers to a bon-enkai at a little place near-by. They were calling it a BBQ. But it really was just a couple of a gas burners at the table we sat at with which we cooked the raw meat that we were served. It was great food. They had great suaces for the meat and it was oh so yummy. Plus they made sure I had my filling of sake, which is like 3 bottles, plus a lot of beer. Before I knew I was singing Japanese songs in the karaoke section. I am sure I sucked. I remember the food weel. Nice good meat, along with some cow tongue and stomach, which wasn't so bad.
On Saturday I wore off the hangover and just went for a simple drive in the afternoon and watched a few　movies at home. It was a gorgious warm and sunny day. At one point in the day some kids came by house and started calling my name. Maku-san. So I came out and they just wanted say 'hi.' They go to the elemenetry school that I live next to.
On Sunday afternoon I headed of to Ryujin. Ryujin is a well-known village just next to mine, but more to the East. So if you look at the map you can see that it is more in the mountains. It is a bigger viallge too, in size and population. It has this really famous Onsen(hot spring bath-house), which like 1000 years old. It must have been really good a 1000 years ago for people to come all the way into the mountains to go to it. Anywho, I was in Ryujin to visit my neighboring ALT, Aaron, who is from Virgina. We shot the shit and tried to drive up to this scenic road and spot in the Northern part of his village, but the snow was too much and my car was starting to slid everywhere and I didn't feel like putting on my chains jsut yet. Instead we went pack and watched some English programs on his satelitte TV and had a spagetti dinner and then played some gin-rummy. All in all a great afternoon.
Today has been going well too. I visited Kasamatsu shougakou, which is the best place. It is has some great teachers and they are great to talk with. Plus the kids are great and fun. The kyotosensei was playing the accordian after lunch. I freaked the kids out also, by biting into a mikan and eating the outer skin as well. I have a Japanese lesson in Gobo tonight with Tetsuji. He went to Korea last week. He is always going some place.
So, that ends this edition. Thank You.

Chains

2005-01-19T16:02:00.000+09:00

I am so tired right now. I didn't come back from Miyoko's dinner last night until about 2am. I had to wake up at 7 this morning. And if there is one thing that I need more than anything while I am here, it is sleep. There is too much stress here. It is just 24x7 stress. Back in the States I only stressed out every now and then, but not here. I need my stupid sleep. I almost fell asleep here today, at this desk in front of everyone. I couldn't think nor focus on any thing. I would look down at what I was writing after I snapped out of my daze, and it was just scribbles on the paper.
But last night was good. Shooting the shit with other ALTs is always great, especially since I don't hang out with them all too often. I like to know how they are doing and what things they are up to and what they teach their kids. Plus the food is great. At last weeks dinner we had two cakes, one for me and one for Aussie Mark. I took my cake home and still have some of infact. But last night was US Mark's birthday, well it is on Friday. So we had another awesome cake. I need to start running or something. Or maybe just stick just fish and rice. I love the sweets here. The chocalte is so good, not that waxy Hershey crap. This stuff starts to melt as soon as you look at it.
So the dinner was great. One of the conversations about the ice on the roads. They don't use salt here. Well they do, but they don't dump it all over the place and turn the streets white before a single snowflake falls. So the roads are icy when it gets really cold. It has only happened once since I have been here. Luckily I didn't have to drive anywhere that day. But I have heard too many stories of cars bumping off of guard rails and sliding into rice patties. In hopes to avoid this I have order a set of chains for me front tires(front wheel drive). I hope they are easy to put on and off. It's just I have been warned so many times since I have been back that I am worried. I have every right to be too seeing as how the roads are all twisty and narrow. Plus there are inclines and declines everywhere. There is a 45 degree down-grade going into the parking at Sougawa elementry school. I just hope the cold weather passes soon. It has been warm the last couple days, but I know that will not last long.
Oh and last night, this is one of those you had to be there stories, when I was driving back home at 1 in the morning I was stopped at a light in the middle of Gobo. No one around of course, except the car that I was behind at the light. Then a stray dog strolls, this dog strolled, in front of us and in the cross walk from one side to the other. It was as if he had pushed the button and waited for the light to turn red and then proceeded. Plus it was 1am and he was alone. There are stray cats everywhere too, so I guess there could be stray dogs too.

Grand Turismo 4 - 1/17/05

2005-01-19T15:56:00.000+09:00

Well it is still cold here. However with my assortment of heating units in my house I am managing to freeze my ass off. This house, if you will, has paper thin walls which allows to not only hear the wind outside but feel it a bit. Plus the heat from my army of heaters gets sucked right out of this place. I have a heating table(kotatsu), a kerosene burner(yeah I thought people stopped using kerosene back in the 19th century but all the schools are heated the same way), I also have the wall heater that doubles as the air conditioner when the summer rolls around, and I have a heating fan. It's not a fan, but it is shaped like a fan. Instead of blades there is just a metal reflective shield that radiates heat from the middle. I only chose to heat half the house, beacuse I don't really cook and and therefore don't live in the kitchen nor the bathroom, hallway or entryway. The bathroom is the coldest place in my house. It is the same tempreture as it is outside. So I am looking into buying one of those heated toilet seats that also sprays warm water on to your butt. I am still lucky, because there are still many houses that have their bathroom's outside. I don't know why.
But back to the warming of a house. Every house is freezing during the winter and only certain rooms are warmed. But there is always just one room where everyone hangs out. That is the room with the kotatsu(heated table). This object becomes the center of the universe during the winter. Tons of Japanese will sit there at the table or lay down next to it with their legs still under it. The tables are knee high because you are suppose to sit on the floor and warm your legs under them. So everyone will do their work, eat, and whatever around these tables during the winter.
As for my weekend it was eventful. The billiard night went downhill as I got sicker and sicker with some shitty cold. I went with 3 other teachers from some of my elementry schools. One teacher, who is also a shinto priest, dominated. He said he was only that good once in a 100 years. But the fact that he got frustrated everytime AFTER he got a ball in the pocket because the cue ball didn't stop where he wanted it to so as to set him for the next shot, made me doubt his amateurness. The one girl with us was a complete novice as it was her first time. The other teacher was a little better me, which isn't saying much, but at least I was able to enjoy a couple games with him before I coughed up a lung.
They were kind enough to pick me and drop me off. It was a good time. The one teacher who is also a Shinto priest had me over for dinner. So I got to meet his family and try out Gran Tourismo 4 for PS2, which is unbelievable.
After dinner he asked if I wanted to see a real kantana, a Japanese samurai long sword. Well of course I said yes. So I thought that he would take me to his room and pull out a wrapped up sheathed sword from his closet or something. The complete opposite. He lead me down a long corridor in his big house next which was next to his shrine. He then slid the door open revealing a dimly lit room with a small table in the middle of the room with 4 swords on it, one of them being the kantana. That's not all. Who better to explain the swords to me than his father, a one-armed blind man. Sitting on the floor at the table with the swords I listed to how old the swords were and what their Japanese names were. The dailogue was in Japanese and broken English. He said the katana was over 500 years old, and so were the other swords. They didn't look so old, but I am no expert. The old man the fumbled over the swords and grabbed the katana and started to unsheathe it. The teacher I was with and I both then leaned backwards and pulled ourselves away from the table for fear of the blind man accidently stabbing us. A samurai katana is light and strong and of course extremely sharp. It was sharp, all the blades were. He even had a tanto, which was the dagger like small sword. After looking over all the swords we left the room and thanked the generous old man.
So then on Saturday I went to my Shuuji lesson at 10am, and had lunch with the teacher and her family, which consisted of her, her mother, and her husband. We had yakisoba, which is where you have a heated pot in the middle of the kotatsu and just dump vegetables, noodles and meat in it and then it eat it as it is ready. But before you put in your mouth your to let is soak a bit in a bowl of raw egg, which seemed weird at first but I got use to it. It was a good meal, I thanked them and then headed back home. I was sick enough that I was exhausted and feel asleep, but woke up in time to meet another teacher for dinner. It ended up as four of us at a sushi place in Gobo. The other 3 were ladies. One was a teacher from one of my schools the others were from near by town's schools. So we chatted and gossiped a bit. It was interesting to hear about all the little things around town and how they felt about the ALTs before me.
Sunday morning was the big ekiden, or relay race in town. Most of kids were there when I got there and they were happy to see me. It was sort of cold and tons of people were in this relay race. Each person had to run about 4 kilometers. I don't know what that is in miles. But the whole thing last for like 4 and half hours. Most of the participants were kids. I don't know if they had(the school may have made them run) to run, but there they were. So then they handed out awards and I went back home and slept off my cold. Ack.
Sougawa Shougakou went well today. My lessons went well and I had fun with the kids and was able to maintain control of my classes. The teachers were all happy that I had sent them New Years cards. Before I left I impressed the old class with my Shouji skills and wrote out some pretty good kanji. This school now has 14 students instead of 12. The two new kids moved there over Winter break as part of a divorce, and their mother lives in Sougawa. Sougawa is small, so the school is small. It is a section of my village that is well nested up in the mountains and has had snow while the rest of the area hasn't seen any snow.
On a cold night like tonight you can whistle and hear it echo through the mountains and then make the dogs start barking. Woof Woof, or in Japanese, Wan Wan, Wan Wan.

Gobo City

2005-01-14T16:20:00.000+09:00

Gobo city is the only place to really go around here and it is a good 30 to 35 mintue drive away. I find myself going there all the time. Sometimes it is just to get out of my small town. I go there every Tuesday and Thursday though. On Tuesday I have dinner with the other local ALTs. On Thursday I go to Gobo to see Tetsuji, my Japanese tutor.
Well I went on Tuesday to Miyoko's for the dinner and because my birthday was last Friday she had an awesome cake made for me and another ALT(Mark) whose birthday was on the 10th. The cake was pure bliss filled with strawberries and chocolate. I could hardly finish it so I have it chillin in my fridge right now and am thinking of pigging out on the rest of it at some time.
On Wednesday I must have been warned about the ice on the roads around here about 15 times that day. It was freezing in the morning and there was ice on the sidewalks and roads. They don't dump tons of salt on the roads here. A couple of the junior high kids slipped on some ice while riding their bicycles, but they were ok. I spent the day in the office thinking about what I have to do. I then spent two hours that night practicing Japanese caligraphy at a lady's house.
I have been giving out postcards of Chicago to people and have been feeling bad about it. That I couldn't give them something better. My bag that I checked on to the plane weighed 69 pounds and that was after I took out 10 pounds and put in my backpack. I was full and only had room for small things really. I brought a bunch of winter clothes and other clothes back to Japan.
Thursday was a cool day spent at the Junior high. The teachers there are really cool and I am really getting to the students. I even helped some of the students clean after lunch. At lunch we ate curry, which isn't a favorite, and then before I knew it I was taking home the left over curry in a pot they gave me. I don't cook really ever so I thought 'well ok' and took it. It isn't that spicy so it was ok.
Oh I watched Shrek 2 the other night with 3 heaters going to warm my freezing ass, uninsulated house. 　 It was an all right movie. I don't see what all the hype was over. Terminal was a great movie though.
Tonight I am going to play some pool with a teacher from the elementry school that I was at today. Kasamtsu is an awesome school. The kids are great and the teachers are funny and fun. Today I talked about my Chicago trip a lot and what the kids did over their break. The 6th went on a ski trip to Niigata just after Christmas during break. I probably would have gone if I were here. I have never been skiing and Japan is a good place to start since most of the country is mountainous afterall.
ta ta

A long time ago

2005-01-11T13:48:00.000+09:00

A long time ago is when I last posted. For all of my three readers I am sorry. But has been a crazy last few weeks.
My fun started the weekend before I came back to the States. I went on a trip with teachers from Junior HIgh. We went to Kobe and Himeji Castle. The trip was a blast. Of all the grand castles to see in Japan the one in Himeji is the best. It is huge and was not rebuilt like many of the other castles that are around in Japan today. It was fun to see some of the other teachers let loose and drink a bit and have fun.
As a memorial to the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, the city set up a series of holiday lights in the heart of the city. The lights are arranged on wire frames that stretch down a street and in to a courtyard. At night it looks like a long corridor in a cathredal. THe facade is arranged like an Itlian cathedral and the play church like music as you walk through the spectical. It is somewhat impressive. Impressive enough to the Japanese though, so much that they turn out in the thousands every evening during the holidays and jam the streets downtown and wait for an hour and half to get a look at these lights. It was nuts, just a sea of people shoulder to shoulder clogging the streets. The event is called Luminati and is uber famous.
The following Tuesday I was headed back to Chicago. I was so looking forward to it. But after having a great time in Kobe over the weekend I was feeling like exploring Japan more, but I had already bought a ticket for home, so awa I went. Before I left though, on Monday I had to dress as Santa Claus at Sougawa Elementry school and had on presents to the 11 students there. They had a cool fun little Christmas party. I won the bingo game and got some sort of cardboard baseball pitching aid thing. It has drawn on it a batter and 'X' marking the strike zone.
Before I left on Tuesday I had to teach a couple classes at the junior high. Some of the kids said goodbye to me before I left for break, which was cool.
So then I took a few trains to Kansai airport. The airport that is a man-made island that is slowly sinking a few milimeters a year in Osaka bay. It is a cool airport though. Fifeteen hours later I was home. Well back at my apartment in Winnetka, IL with my roomate. It took about a week to adjust to the new time zone, and it was hard to do. The whole break was a one big blurr of fun. I spent a ton of time playing Star Wars Battlefront for X-Box. Playing online against other people was so addictive. Pegging Clonetroopers with a shieled-up Droideka was a blast. I also got out hung out with friends and went to cool New Year's party downtown where I hung out with a ton of old college friends. We all lit sparklers at the stroke of mid-night. Going into the city during a snowstorm was a blast too. I didn't indulge myself on American food though. I did whatever though. The night before I left, and the day before my birthday we ate a Japanese restaurant downtown called Sai. I had the usual, Unagi-don(fresh-water eel over rice). I still haven't had a great Unagi-don here in Japan.
Then I came back here. It almost felt like I never left. After another 13 hour flight I didn't give myself time to adjust to the jet-lag. The next day back I headed into Osaka for some shopping and bought a new hoody/jacket. On the following day, Monday(yesterday), I headed to Wakayama's Marina City with my Japanese friend Tetsuji. He had a couple of free tickets to this European themed theme park. The place was designed like a city in Italy and they had many rides and a bunch of restaurants. One ride was ridiculous for this time of year. It was a water ride where in ride this big boat down a huge ramp into the water with a big splash. It was freezing out and people were riding it. We opted for a roller-coaster with spinning cars and similated movie ride. Not a bad little place.
On the way there though I saw several optimist sailboats out on the water. I was pretty excited to see them out there. Optimists are small sailboats for children to learn to sail in or race. I taught kids how to sail in thise boats for 3 years and to see a bunch of Japanese kids out racing in them in strong winds was a cool. I was able to get a closer look. I will go back at somet point and see if I can find out yacht club or whomever is doing the dinghy(small sailboat) sailing and perhaps I can get out on a sailboat or participate somehow.

Santa-san

2004-12-13T17:11:00.000+09:00

I love how Santa Claus is Santa-san in Japan. Even though most people know him as Santa Claus. I am planning to have a bunch of Christmas themmed classes throught the week.
I sort of just want to show every one a Christmas time movie like Home Alone and call it a class. But can never really half-ass a class even though I want to sometimes.
I am so looking forward to this weekend. I am going to Kobe and Himeji Castle this weekend with the teachers from the junior high. It should be a good time.
I have been reading again my predecessor's blog lately. She was a pretty active person. Her car died in the middle of town once and everyone seemed to have laughed at here. Seemed like a nightmare. My car is different than the one she had, and I think it is a better car.
I am so sad. I finishe watching all the Season 3 West Wing episodes last night. Arggh I want season 4 now. I still think Season 2 is the best one so far out of the 3, even though 3 had a few good episodes.
I need to go to Gobo again. So see ya.

Hangovers, wrong number, and Badboy

2004-12-12T15:44:00.000+09:00

Parties, or enkais, well work related parties, not ragers or anything, always involve a ton of drinking. After teaching just 1 class on Friday. The class was at Sougawa and I had to teach every student at the school in one class period. Good thing there is only 11 kids at the school. So we went over the alphabet, because even the 5th grader isn't so good at the alphabet. So of the kids even make up their own letter when they write words down. Afterwords when went over animals. So after the class I drove back home and got ready for the Board of Education party in a nearby large city, Shirihama.
I rode in the car with my supervisor and he drove like a bat out of hell, and some points I cringed thinking we where going to fly off the road. Well we made it to the hotel and made it to the dining room. All the food was laid out on the table it looked good. On a closer look I could tell that I would have to do a bit of work. The raw lobster stared at me as I ate his insides while dodging his feelers with my chopsticks. There was a plate with some water and a candle under in which we were to boil some food. My supervisor place is raw lobster in is bowl and the lobster started to twitch a bit. Normally this kind of stuff would have bothered me, but I am in Japan and willing to try stuff, plus the triple handling of 3 drinks(sake, beer, and shochu) helped me over come and care about what I ate. After eating a variety of fresh fish we made it to a kareoke room where didn't care about embarressing my self and sang a few songs and even a couple in Japanese. I woke up the next day with a raging hangover.
We stopped at a large fishmart on the way home and I saw them take live tuna and start slicing it up right there and selling its parts for about $25 a slice. Toro is expensive. But it is so good. I did't buy anything because I couldn't look at alchol at this point nor was I hungry for fear of yaking.
I just kicked it last night by watching some West Wing and hanging out at my home. It was a weird time at one point. I found a funny as Simpon's episode where they go to Japan and have to go on to a game show to get back home. It is a classic episode. Then I got a wrong number phone call from some teenager living in Wakayama-city. I knew where he was from because I talked to him a bit in my broken Japanese. It was pretty cool. He was talking to me a bit even though he dailed the wrong number. He fiinally said that his mom was calling and had to go.
Today, Sunday has been slow, but alright. In the playground next to me a neighbor's kid was practicing is motocycle skills on a little motorcycle. His dad invited me over to his house and we had coffee and talked about motorcycles. He has a Harley Davidson from 2000 and cool big dirt bike. He used to me a sem-professsional motorcycle racer. His wife has a motorcycle too. He knew cool terms like 'dropping a knee' and 'ape hanger.' That Harley must have costed a fortnue. I think it cost him a years salary he said. I think here Harley's are double what they are in the states. I think he said his Harley model was 'Bad Boy' the same model as seen in Terminator 2 he said. Pretty cool neighbors. There seems to be legions of bikers in this area, because driving in the mountians here is suppose to be great.

Kyoto

2004-12-08T10:23:00.000+09:00

Over the weekend I went to Kyoto. Kyoto was magnificent. Saturday wasn't though, it rained all day. The weekend started off well. I went to Kasamatsu on Friday which is always a great elementry school to go to. I helped them clean and wax the floors a bit. The schools I go to are too small to have normal janitors so they just have all the kids clean and fix things.
Anyways, I have been hooked on West Wing lately. I've been watching the DVDs of season 3. Season 3 is not bad at all, I think that series tanks in the fourth season. Well, whenever it is when Sam leaves and Aaron stops writing for the show.
Kyoto was a blast. It felt like Flornce in a way. Mediveal and warm in a way. A complete opposite from Osaka which is hectect and crazy. Plus there is nothing to really see in Osaka, it is just a business and shopping place. Osaka does have a huge Ferris wheel though.
Kyoto is full of shrines and temples. Temples are for Buddhism, and you can typically walk into a temple, and shrines are Shintoism and you can typically not walk in them. Shrines are also usually marked with at least one Torii gate.
Pheonix Hall I thought was the best place I visited. It is just south of Kyoto in Uji. It is a Jodo Buddhist hall built in the 12th century I think. It is famous for the reincarnating bird, the phoenix. Two large bronze pheonixes watch over the hall from both ends of the roof. The hall is on the back of the 5 yen coin, and the image of the pheonix can be found on the 10000 yen bill.
Other places that I went to include Nanzen-ji. Nanzen-ji is famous for its huge gate. On the gate's second floor you can get a great view of Kyoto. Another place I visited was Heian-jingu just to the East of Kyoto's downtown area. It has a wide open courtyard and huge Torii. I also the Silver Pavillion which has beautiful gardens. Another amazing shrine was built in honor of the fox spirit, kitsune. The Fukushima Inari shrine is devoted to kintsune and has hundreds of torii's that line the walkways to the many shrines at the site. Inari was amazing.
Shrines and temples make up only half of the awe that is Kyoto. The rest can be found by visiting old tea chops and walking down many old streets line with tons of stores. I passed up maybe 10 tea shops before we sat down had macha at what seemed to be a classic and old tea chop. Later in the day we looked in a guide book of Kyoto and saw the tea chop that we were at. The shop was about 150 years old. Everything in Kyoto is old. However in the business district there are many modern conviences like the typical Lawson ore Family Mart.
One modern restaurant I visited didn't have waiters that served you the food, but instead had their food on small conveyer belts that ran throughout the restaurant. So all you have to do is sit down and look at the food pass by. Once you see what you want, you just grab the plate and eat. The downfall to this unique endeavour, that I noticed, is that some sick people might cough on the food as it passes by in front of them.
I am defintaly going back to Kyoto. What made this visit even better was that Fall leaves were in effect and all of Kyoto was highlighted by this great natural effect.
I'll post pictures soon.

a long weekend

2004-12-01T16:42:00.000+09:00

Well it was really that long. On Saturday I slept in and then ventured outside and played some badmietten, or however you spell it and then saw my Japanese tutor. On Sunday my tutor and I visited some nearby towns here in the mountains. Ryujin-mura is right next door to me. It is ryu is dragon. So it is sort of the dragon village. It was a big place and is popular for its onsens, or hot spas. I have yet to go get naked with a bunch of other people in a tub of hot mountain water. I sure it will happen someday. I saw one sad site in Miyama. We crossed this cool cable suspension bridge to this hill that has this park. Well the park has been neglected and is full of weeds and is falling apart. Landslides have taken out parts of the walkway going down the back side of the park. In the park there is a big outdoow clock that is suppose to have flowers all around it and grass in the middle. In its current state the clock is broken and is covered in weeds.
On Monday I ventured into the prefecture(state) capitol for a ALT/JET meeting. All the ALTs in Wakayama had to congregate at the Big Ai building in Wakayama City for Monday and Tuesday to go to a few workshops. Only one of the workshops was somewhat helpful. I did get to meet a few other ALTs in the area and from other places. I didn't really talk to too many people though. Everyone seemed pretty friendly though. Lots of people went out for dinner and drinking afterwards in the city. I instead went back home and watched some West Wing and studied a bit. I would have hung out, but I had driven and having a car is nice, but it is hard to dump it in the city. Plus I had no money with me. Not enough to buy dinner, so I opted to go home.
These ALTs are from all over the world. Most ALTs are American, but I'd say that would be about 50 or 55% of them. The rest are from Ireland, Britian, Jamiaca, Australia, New Zeland, and of course Canada. Japanese English Teachers attended the conference too. I saw one Japanese English Teacher who was speaking English with a slight Aussie accent. It was cool.
On Tuesday, me and a girl who lives in the near-by city of Gobo, ditched out half-way through the last workshop to drive over to the prefecture immigration office to get our Re-Entry stamps placed in our passports. With out these little stamps you can't back into the country, even if you still have a valid visa. So it was an important visit. We the drove back home. Candice got sick half way home and tried to puke out of my car while on the highway. She left some brachalli on the window. After dropping here off I went to Miyoko's for the big dinner. Only a few ALTs showed up. It was a pleasant meal. I nearly forgot I drove and started to drink too much wine. Someone stopped me in time and I was fine.
So tomorrow I go to the junior high school. I saw the JH English teacher in the lunch room at the conference on Tuesday. She was there for a different conference on teaching. It was surprising to see here and a few other teachers from Miyama there.

up in the hills

2004-11-26T13:14:00.000+09:00

Right now I am up in the hills and mountains in Sougawa. It is a great place and the 11 kids that populate the entire elementry school are great too. However the 1st and 2nd graders were outta of hand today. That is only 4 kids too. Two boy were just pounding and scratching each other during class so I broke out the coloring activity and then they quieted down. Ryota and Yasahiro. For lunch today were had some sort of vegetable tempura and on the side some small tiny fish. These guys are tiny. After lunch I could feel a small piece of food in my mouth that I couldn't chew too well. I knew what it was before I plucked it out of my teeth. It was the head of one of those little fish guys. One of its eyes had already popped out. Yummy, ne?
One other crazy thing. Head lights. In the US many cars are equipped with Day Time Running Headlights, right? They run all day. No big deal to see a car with its headlights on, no? Well here, it's a no-no. I have been flashed, gestured, and beeped at by other drivers because I had my lights on when it was still light out. Most of the time I just forget to turn them off after coming out of a tunnel. There are a lot of tunnels in the mountains here. One time a guy came out in the middle of the road to stop my car, and then motioned me to roll down my window like he was going to say something. All he did was just point to my headlights. So unless it is completly dark out, you shouldn't have your headlights on. Unless you want to be noticed.
Last night I met a calligrapher teacher. She seemed nice but kind of strict. Maybe I need that. She told me how to take my shoes off and how to arrange them next to the mat at the door. Well Shuji, calligraphy pays attention to small details, and for to be a shuji master, I guess she notices every little thing about everything.

Back in Miyama

2004-11-24T10:38:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was a holiday. So on Monday night I caught a train to Osaka and met up with a Japanese friend of my brother. He is from Tokyo and was in Osaka for a toy show. I also met up with his buddy from Kyoto. Together they showed me around town it was a great time. We stayed in Osaka at a cyber-cafe-hostel place. It was a really cool place underground where you rent out a cubical for a certain number of hours. In the normal cubical you get a computer with broadband access and a comfy chair. The larger cubical is for 3 people and has a small floor with two computers, a tv, and a playstation 2. These weren't seperate rooms, but rather cubicals. So if you stood up you could see arcoss the room and above all the cubicals, however you can't see inside the cubicals. You get free drinks, movies, magazines and manga. One long night in the large cubical was about $35.
Later in the day one of the guys took me to Kobe and showed me around. It is a cool place, but still felt like we were in Osaka. The Kobe/Osaka area is just one gigantic metroplois. However, from what I saw, a part of Kobe was set in the mountain side and reminded me of Monte Carlo or San Francisco.
We went back to Osaka and ate at some Asian/French restaurant.
I never realized how long it takes to get home from Osaka. It took me almost 3 hours to get from Shin-Osaka to my house last night. It always seemed shorter than that. I am hoping to now go to Kyoto one of these weekends.

Touche Pussycat

2004-11-21T13:34:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I went to Osaka again and spent a ton of money on an electronic dictionary, some memory for my computer, and a region free DVD player. Region free? Well to further divide the world, the world is divided into 6 regions for DVDs. Japan is region 2 and the USA is Region 1. Australia is region 4 and so on. So I have DVDs that region 2 from Japan and some DVDs that I brought with me so I had to find a player that could play both. I found such a player in Den Den Town. I found a nice Pioneer region free player. A tough find at a good price.
So yeah. And then also bought a Tom and Jerry DVD. You know the one where they are in France and there is that little grey mouse that says 'touche, pussycat.'
The language barrier isn't so bad. Actually at times it is good. Usually I don't have much to say in English, I guess so I am at times kind of dull. There are times that I don't really want to talk to people or don't have anything to say to people here. So at times it is good to have the language barrier and people here understand that I am quiet because I can't speak Japanese too well and they can't speak English too well.
I am here at Kasamatsu elementry school on a Sunday. They had a big relay race in which all the students ran this morning. So today is sort of a school day. The school is close and it is a Sunday so I thought I'd stop by and give my support.

End of a long week

2004-11-19T17:14:00.000+09:00

I usually have to go to the BOE on Wednesdays and kind of kick it there for the whole day, but this week I went to 3 elementry schools and spent 2 days at the junior high. A full week. On top of that I have had this killer pain in my left shoulder and part of my neck. It be from sleeping wrong. I have woken up the last 3 mornings in a ton of pain, it is unusual and seems to linger. I'll shake it off eventually.
Today I spent the day at the Kasamatsu Elementry school. A great place. In the morning people asked me how I like their school. I said that I loved it, but maybe not the second grade so much. I don't hat them, they are great kids. It is that there is 12 of them and they can be insane at times, especially the one ADHD kid. He just gets up and walks around in the middle of class and does whatever. He is cool though. I just tell to sit and he does. However the 2nd grade teacher, who doesn't speak English well wrote me a note in English and handed it to me just before class saying, about, "Do me a favor. We, the second grade class, try hard to study English. Please don't hate the 2nd grade." I felt really bad. She seemed mad at me. I didn't mean this. I guess this one outcome when you try speaking a language and don't care to make mistakes. I had to have another teacher translate my real feelings, which just that the class can be difficult at times, but doesn't mean that I hate them. I like them all. Ahh difficult, muzukashi, ne?
I have been just invited to go with my BOE staff to a education reception in a city about an hour away on December 10th. $95 gets me food, hotel, drinks, and travel there. Should be interesting I said that I'd go.
Tomorrow I am thinking of going to Osaka. I say this every weekend. It has been three weeks since I have been there. I should buy an electronic dictionary. The only place that has a suitable electronic dictionary is in Den Den Town in Osaka. There are so many other places to other than Osaka though. Kyoto is just about another hour on the train north of Osaka. Nara is about a 30 minute train ride East of Osaka. Both Nara and Kyoto have been capitols of Japan at one point and thus contain numerous historical sites. I have been to Nara once and saw the biggest attraction, the Todaiji, which contains that largest bronze statue ever housed in the largest wooden structure in the world. The statue is of Buddha. At the Todaiji I crawled through a hole in one of the pillars which is supposedly the same size as the Buddha's nostrail. Anywho I have not been to Kyoto. I also want to go to Ise which is about 3 hours North East of here. In between here and Ise there is also a town where Ninjitsu was born, that is the art of the ninja. So that must be a cool place too. Then west of here there is the longest spanning bridge in the world that connects Honshu to Shikoku. Beyond that there is Hemeji Castle, which is suppose to be the best castle in all of Japan. So there are many places to go in my region. Osaka is the closest. During the war it was bombed back to the stone age so there aren't really any historical sites there anymore. There really was any there to begin with since it has always been a commercial and industrial hub since the Meiji Restoration started in 1868. Kyoto and Nara are the cultural centers. Kyoto is number one. I need someone to travel with too. So come and visit me and we'll go. Ikuzo. Ikimashou.

Oh the laughs

2004-11-18T14:25:00.000+09:00

The teachers here at the junior high have a good working relationship. They are always laughing and amusing themselves about what the students do. It is a pretty warm atmoshpere. Too bad I can understand much of anything, except a few words. Someday I will, someday.
Today it is rainy and cold. Seems like Chicago, except when you look out the window and see the mist rising off the near-by mountains surrounding me. I keep forgetting that I am in a far-away land, on a huge island in the Pacific. The Pacific. So far from Chicago. I spent a good hour last night looking through old school, sailing, and party photos on my computer. Photos of good times long ago. I am glad that I am taking a lot of pictures everything while I am here. Everyday here is like the language lab I had to go to once a week back in College when I was taking Level 1 Japanese. Except for being for only 45 minutes it has turned into 24x7, everyone, everything, everyplace. Except when I dream, everything is still in English. Except for one dream where I said something in Japanese at one point. And now when I think to my self sometimes I will think I a few japanese words. For example, 'someday' had now become 'tabun,' and 'alright' has become 'daijoubu.' And today I tried reading some French words; I took French for almost 4 years in high school. I read nearly every word with a Japanese accent.
Tuesday, I was a routine day. I did my two classes at the junior high and hung out there until about 3:00 when I headed to the BOE. There I hung until about 5:00 or so and then went home and made some spagetti, because I didn't want the rest of the sauce to go bad. After dinner I made a card/picture on my computer of the faces and names of my 1st graders from the elementry school that is next door to me. A teacher did this for me at the another elementry school for all the grades there. I now almost have every students first name now, well at least the cool kids.
Wesnesday was spent at Kawaharago Shou. My neck was killing me. I had slept in the wrong position or something and so I was cranky, but by lunch I was making the kids laugh with my half-asses Japanese and having a good time. Before going back to the BOE I went to the Junior High where it happened to be picture day and so I was included in the teacher's picture. Cool. I wonder if this school has a yearbook or anything like that. Then I went back to the BOE where I bought a plane ticket home. Afterwards I went home and made some udon and watched 'The Birdcage.' Ok.
Yes I will be back in Chicago for New Years. So if anyone that is reading this wants to hang out when I get back, please e-mail me or give me a call.

Beautiful village

2004-11-15T16:21:00.000+09:00

I must admit that Miyama Village is truly a great place. Right now all the leaves are changing color and so some mountains look as if they are on fire. It is breathtaking when the afternoon sun peers through the mountains into the town. It is a far cry from Chicago. Sometimes I wonder how I got here and why me? How lucky I am.
Friday was great. The kyoto-sensei from the junior high took me to the cosmo-park in Kawabe. It is just that, a simple park with a giant dome housing a really big and expensive telescope. Back in the great finacial days of the early 1990's when it seemed that the Japanese were going to buy everything on the planet they government gave many small communities millions of extra dollars to beautify their towns and villages. Kawabe decided that a good investment would to be to build a giant telescope and star gazing park. Today it is losing money, but it is a darn cool place. I was able to discover for myself a few new costellations and look through the giant telescope. I saw a double ringed nebula, it was cool.
Anywho, Kasamatsu had a two day carnival/flea market/fair and called it a Matsuri. A bunch of cool events and little stands selling food. They had the toddlers do a tricycle race, I think I might have seen some betting going on. The second cullminated in another mochi maki and tossed hundreds of mochi on to an eager crowd. Again people were covered in flour and dirt.
I finally had some real sushi at an authentic sushi restaurant in Gobo. Suppesdly there is not really any great sushi places in Gobo, but I thought this place was great anywho. It costed a ton, but was great. The sea urchin didn't taste so bad either even though it looks like snot.
As for today I helped burn brush at Sougawa Elementry school. It is illegal in Japan to burn brush and just about anything because Japan is so polluted, but the old folk in the mountains and rural areas don't care and do it anyways. I guess they figure that since they've always done it then it is ok. Anyways, we had two piles burning and burned a ton of brush and leaves. I still have some smoke in my lungs. Afterwards we placed in the smoldering fires sweet potatos wrapped in tin foil so they wouldn't burn up. These were sweet potatos that they school had grown themselves too. Then we just sat around and ate some of them. It was really relaxing and great.

Return to the Community House

2004-11-12T16:30:00.000+09:00

I ended up at the Shukaisho once again. This time it was to hang out with the older folk from my town again. We ate sushi and other delicious goodies while sipping osake. My intentions were to stay for a little bit, but the sake made time dissapear. THe old guys were getting crazy to. All of use were sitting on tatami mats at the low table. At one point some drunk guy came to my side of the table a sat behind me and the pulled me closer so his legs were almost me. WTF. I pushed him away he came right back at me. He finally stayed away but it was an akward moment. I hung out with this one guy, whom I have forgotten his name. He worlks at city hall. He walked me home and i invited him and we drank and talked and watched The Empire Strikes Back because he was a Star Wars fan too.
That was Wednesday night on Thursday I tackled my one class at the junior high with a hangover. Everything went smooth. I again also helped out the regulalr English teacher and I think that I am starting to get along with some of the junior high students. Today was a great. I went to the Elementry school that is next door to my house. I don't really feel as welcomed at this school as I do at others. Oh well. I haven't been to this school in a few weeks and have forgotten that the kids are great too. Although I think that I like Kasamatsu Elementry school the best.
In Kasamtsu there is a big matsuri tomorrow. Should be a good time. I checked it out today and there was some biometric reader machine there that prints out stats about you. You jsut stand on this stand and the machine sends currents through you and detects if you are healthy or not. There was this older guy there. He only speaks fast Japanese to me and then laughs. Ok, later I walked by, he was sitting down, and he told me to stand up and started to pat the seat next to him. I looked at him funny and then just started telling him to sit down in Japanese, even though he was sitting down. He was just annoying me I guess. I hope he's not mad at me.
Tonight I am to go with the kyoto sensei to the cosmo park in Kawabe-cho. It is a smart guy and takes really cool pictures of things with his kick ass SLR Canon digital camera and likes science. It is suppose to be a cool park.

Mochi Maki

2004-11-10T16:52:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I finally got to help out with English in other areas other than just what I taught in my class. The English teacher asked me to help grade some papers, which was a change. After school I also helped out a few students with speaking English for an exam that they will take on the weekend. The exam is a profeciency test for getting in to a good high school.
Oh an for lunch today was spagetti. I couldn't believe my eyes. On top of that it was your average school caferteria lunch stock spagetti but delicious tasty quality spagetti. 大石でした。　Sooo goood.
Also yesterday I made mochi with a bunch of the older folk from my neck of the woods. Mochi is made by making rice then bashing it into a mash. Take the mash a twist off little balls of it and roll them. Then let them sit and you will then have mochi. We made like 5000 mochi balls. Mochi is just rice cake in english. There isn't much flavor to it either. Or it just might be aquired. It was cool to see them make it and help out, but after having old people laugh at me for a half hour about what ever. I know it involved something about girlfriends and ther wives. It got out of hand when some little old lady came up behind me when I was sitting on the ground covered my eyes with her hands and started giggling. Giggling like that scary old lady giggle. heee heee heee heee. She did like 3 or 4 times for some reason I can't even fathom. I towered over this little old laday too... But I learned how to make mochi. I didn't know why so many though.
Well I found out today as I climbed a mountain with a bunch of my kids and other village folk to clearing half way up. There I found my neighbor, kawai-san and two other guys standing on top of a wooden tower surrounded by boxes. Evenone opened the bags they brought and started cheering. There was a crowd of like 100 people. Then came the hail of mochi. mochi hitting me in the head and back. Following this was flying ramen and crackers and then more mochi....

Crazy

2004-11-09T17:18:00.000+09:00

Oh I forgot to mention that I watched a MLB All-Star team beat the all Nippon Baseball Team in the first of a series game last week. I thought that it was only one game but it turns out that it is a best of 7 series. So actually now the MLB is ahead 3-0 in the series. In the game I saw Roger Clemens pitched. I think that that was the last time Roger Clemens will have pitched in a major league game. The MLB team inlcuded David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. I don't know when the next game is on. Cabrera is also on the team.
Some people here must think that I am crazy. On my way back from Gobo I saw what looked like lightning in the near distance over the moutains as I drove towards them and away from Gobo. Ok big deal, lightning. Well there was not a cloud in the sky and there hasn't been a drop of rain for days. On top of that it was one of the clearest nights I have ever seen. I could see so many stars. A ton, so much that Orion was almost drowned out by the glow of other stars. But as I drove I could see flashes. A flash about every minute at first then maybe every two minutes. BUT the first few flashes were PINK. Pinkish red and bright. They covered a large part of the sky too. I remember one flash was a vivid pink with horizontal bright white streaks through. After awhile the pink color just became a regular bright flash and then slowly the flashes became smaller. I went to bed at about 11:30 and there were still flashes in the sky outside my house. So I was witness to these flashes for about 45 minutes. Fortunatly one other teacher, and the one that teaches English, actually saw these flashes too. She said they were a bright beautiful pink and that some people saw a simliar thing before the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe.........

Parent week

2004-11-08T16:55:00.000+09:00

So this week is parent's week. At any school in Wakayama Prefecture a parent can go visit his/her son or daughter. I usually don't get nervous when teaching, but I did a little when one parent was sitting in on a class today, and the class was nuts. It was 12 crazy 2nd graders. They ahve so much energy. When were doing opposites vocab, like short and long and slow and fast. So I did a paring memory game and then the final activity was for each team to place the word with the picture. I don't see how it would be fun, I thought that it would be something different, but the kids went nuts. They were punching, slapping, pushing, and head-butting me. They were trying to play they just wanted me to notice their answers. And the worse part is I don't know if they learned anything, well maybe a couple of students did. The learning activity became just an activty after awhile and they were trying to pair 'slow' but up-side down with a train going 'fast.' WTF. More than once did a kid try and put 'slow' up-side-down on the board. How does 'slow' up-side-down look right? More work to do. I saw the parent playing a bit too, so perhaps the game wasn't so bad.
And lunch was different. This time it was those little white fish that stare back at you mixed in with pinkish/reddish rice. The main course was a tempura piece of fish. A fish with many small bones that you had to chew to find and then spit out. Nothing tasted weird, it was just eating it was weird. I finished nearly everything except a piece of the fish because I got tired of spitting out tiny bones.
An older sister of one of the 6th graders also visted. She is in high school and didn't really speak English, or was too shy to, but she asked in Japanese for an English newspaper. She said she wanted to read it. Okay.....

Matsuri

2004-11-07T14:54:00.000+09:00

This post was suppose to happen a few days ago but I don't think that it ever went up and on to the server so here it is with more stuff. Sorry for the length.
A matsuri is just really a festival. A shinto festival. It was held at the shrine. Shintoism has shrines, with buildings that are small and you don't walk inside of. Buddhism have temples, with buildings you can walk inside of. That is just one way to remember the difference between a temple and shrine. Most places have shrines. Many shrines, anything can be a shinto site, a rock, a tree, a river, a pond... the tree, the rock, everywhere. Yes.., even between the land and the ship.
Anywho, this matsuri turned out great. I had been to two practices, but the real thing was on Wednesday and started at the main shrine and they carried a portable shrine to another site with a torii. There they performed a dance and then returned to the main shrine for another play/dance. Present were many shinto priests wearing this cool outfit and a cool huge circle hat that is slightly titled when you wear it. The main priest, priestess in this case, wore a big billowing white outfit with big black clob wooden shoes that you could hear a mile away. The priests performed a ceremony inside the small shrine building while the play/dance went on outside. Two boys taiko-ed(drummed) the whole time. One had blisters on his fingers by the time he was done. The younger children and some adults played a traditional tune bamboo flutes the entire time. The portable taiko set and the flute players followed the portable shrine all through the village on the way to other site.
Now Sougawa is a really cool town. It is completly different than Chicago. It is set in the moutians, and houses, buildings and fields are set into the sides of mountains. Standing in the middle of town you can hear the babbling of the several rivers that flow down out of the mountains and pass through the village. It is kind of like Rivendel from Lord of The Rings, well I sort of think so, well it reminds me of it, but there are no elves, just Japanese people running around.
The day of the matsuri was great. It was warm in the sun, which there was plenty of, except when you were in the shadow of the mountains. I met a lot of people that day, which was Wesnesday. I am starting to notice that a bunch of people are all related somehow or in someway. I don't think that there is imbedding or anything. It is just a small town and some families are big and have been there for like 10 generations or something crazy.
Afterwards were all rendezvoused at the community house and ate sushi from platters and drank sake. I was able to drink sake because a person whom I had met at a previous matsuri practice offered to drive me home. I said ok. I made sure not to get wasted though, which is easy to do on sake. So I busted out some Japanese and had a good time. The nice guy, Okumura-san, then invited me to have dinner at his house. Which was great. I met the family and we watched some of the election on Japanese TV where they gave the Democrates blue and the Republicans red. I already knew a couple of Okumura's kids from the different schools I teach at so they were excited to have me over. It was a good time. He then drove me home and karoked to a band called 'X', who I am now investigating. Apperently 'X' is an old early '90's rock/heavy metal band that had ballads and the lot like our big hair 80s bands. 'X' is/was mega popular.
The next day I taught the junior high kids that 'Yesterday' by the Beatles is a sad song about love. What are most songs about anyways. Well they figured out some of it. Afterwards I went to the nearby city, Gobo for my Japanese lesson with Tetsuji. It was a good lesson, but we also talked about many other things like dreams. And how in dreams where you can't talk or move slowly means that you are stressed out. All of my dreams thus far in Japan have actually taken place in America. I haven't dreamt about Japan since I have been here. I guess subconsiusly I miss home, but not consciously. I don't space out in the middle of the day and start feeling homesick. I actually don't feel home sick. Just lonely at times. I wish had someone to explore Japan with. But I hey I do what I want when I want. So if I want to go fishing tomorrow ok, or go eat a gallon of ice cream while watching Star Wars for 7 hours, ok. I haven't done either. I usually go to Osaka, which costs $70 round trip on the train.
Tomorrow I think I might get a hair cut. I took some pictures of my hair just after a hair cut before I left, so it should be ok. The barber is my next door neighbor who doesn't know any English.
Today the Star Wars Episode III trailer came out. I am not able to download it so if someone wants to send me a copy that would be great. Please do. I have the poster though. The poster is alright. I think that AOTC teaser poster was better, IMHO.
Today I went to the wrong elementry school in the morning. They laughed at me. I was like whatever. I then drove out to the Sougawa elementry school. I taught my lessons. They kids couldn't tell 'Z' from 'F' so I have a lot of work to do with them. I almost started to bang my head against the blackboard. Then they wanted me to run a couple kilometers on the narrow ass roads with trucks driving by. Well the kids did it, I didn't I just supported them. Clapping and yelling Ganbare.
Oh and another dog story. So yesterday as I was being driven back to my car in Sougawa we first stopped at this construction site. Typhoon 6 in June had created a flood the blew apart part of this road. So they were digging it out and going to fill it up with concrete. The Japanese really know how to fix things. Anywho, we turned onto this narrow bridge, narrow one-lane. In the middle of the bridge was a dog. I wondered what the driver was going to do. Well he jsut kept driving. I was like ok.... And the dog then started to run away from us, of course... but not quick enough. He was running ahead of us and kept looking back at us. No we didn't hit it, but almost, what really happened is that the dog almost jumped off the bridge. He jumped to the side and nearly lost balance and would have fallen but didn't. Everyone laughed. The dog almost shit a brick though. A minute later there was another dog in the middle of the road, not on a bridge. He cleared us, and was carrying a dead baby monkey in his mouth. A baby monkey in a dog's mouth. You don't see that in Chicago everyday. It might have been a wild dog too.
In the news there is a sad sad story. It is in the papers and TV everyday. A big story. Remember last week there was that major earthquake way up north? Well there was a car on a mountain road that got pummeled by a rock slide. In the car was a mother and her two children, a 3 year old girl and a 2 year old boy, Yota. Three days after the earthquake rescue workers found the car. Three days. In the car the found the daughter and boy still alive. The mother had passed away already. It took awhile, but they were able to save the boy. He had been in the car for four days by the time he was saved. A two year old survived for four days between a rock and twisted metal from the car. Incredible. It has been a heroic story. They were unable to save the girl though. Yota, the boy, is fine and has been quoted as even saying 'we have to fix the car, it is broken.' When they show images on TV of Yota's rescue and him in the hospital they play really sad dramatic music. It almost makes you cry, almost. They sometimes play it in slow motion too. They play dramatic music during a lot of stories on the news that really gets to you.
Oh there they go again. This guy gave a whole bunch of hand made backbacks to some elementry school childern that had most of their stuff destroyed in Typhoon 23. They showed him giving the backpacks to the children and they were all smiling and happy and they were playing really sad piano music.
And I have been told by three different people, that if I really want to learn Japanese, that I need to get a Japanese girlfriend. Looks like that it's true too. I have met two other JET people who have Japanese girlfriends and can speak Japanese very well.
Chicago, I have seen Chicago printed on many shirts and sweatshirts all over the place. When it is on someone that I sort of know I am like "hey hey, Chicago, nice." They look all puzzled and I point at their shirt and they are like 'oh' I say 'Chicago-de.' They just see it has part of English gibberish that is splattered all over shirts and stuff to make them cooler looking. Even though Chicago is really shikagu, Algoquian for smelly river, and not English.
The bells to signal the end or beginning of a period are not bells. They are actually just a scale of a xylophone, well I think that is what it is, I am no maestro. Bing, bong, bong, bong. So when the kids at the elementry schools try and tell me that there is no time, because my class always goes over, they imitate the sounds by saying, 'king, kang, kong' or something like that. It cracks me up. Well I guess you just have to be here to experience it. At Sougawa elementry school they play this really cool Harry Potter jingle. I swear it is from Harry Potter. It's pretty cool.

Happy Cultural Day

2004-11-02T18:21:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow is another holiday and I get to sleep in and I am not sure why it is a holiday. They love holidays here there is one almost every two weeks. So many I'll pop in Mario Tennis and play that for a bit. A bit addicting it is.
I read the craziest story today, apprantly Elephants are on the rampage in India. They are getting drunk and destroying villages and killing people. It is actually a serious on going event. People in India are brewing rice wine or soemthing right now and the Elephants break in an drink it and then go on a drunken rampage. So the Indians have gone killed about 200 elephants.
And what is with the kids at school and their games? There's one game where the little kids, 1st and 2nd graders go and poke you in the butt. Well actually they have dead on aim and get a direct hit every time. It is so freakin annoying that I almost tore of a kid's arm. But they are just as stupid when they are leaning backwards on their chairs. I will at least see kid a day slip backwards and fall. They crack me up.
Finally there is this one guy in the town who when he sees me always goes, "Hey Mac, Chikago Cubs, Yeah." I just yell "yeah, Chicago Cubs" back at him.

More pictures

2004-11-02T16:57:00.000+09:00

I forgot to mention that yesteday I played dodgeball too. I played dodgeball and it was a load of fun even though it was only with 8 other kids and we had one ball. It was unfair too. The teacher was a strong guy and wipped the ball at his kids and pegged with with a slap and each time leaving a nice red mark. Some kids even cried. I didn't thow the ball that hard. The teacher and I were on one team with 3 other kids. We were against 5 other kids. I just followed the teacher into the gym during my free peroid and asked what was going on today, dodgeball? He said no. But later when was explaining everything to the kids he said they would play dodgeball at the end and everyone cheered. Apparently though if you catch the ball the other person doesn't get out. Still fun.
Tonight I am going to Miyoko's. She is a nice Japanese lady that lives in the nearby city, Gobo. She cooks up an increadible buffett of food for all the ALTs(JET people) in the immediate area. She has been doing this for like 10 years. I think the JET Program was started in 1986. Anywho, at most I met about 10 other ALTs and we talk about classes and stuff. Most people don't have a car so they either take the train or ride their bikes. The bikes that everyone rides are crappy looking girl bikes with baskets. The seats have springs underneath them. Anywho, the dinner is usually a good time. I usually stop and get ice cream at the 31 Flavors at Roman City when I go to Gobo.
I posted more pictures. I added links to new galleries and added photos to existing ones! check it out!
. You can click on the different galleries at the top of my .mac homepage.

Madison dame

2004-11-01T17:00:00.000+09:00

Ahh the marathon never happened it got rained out so I went back to bed, not that I was going to ever run, but just say hi to the Miyamaians. That's the people the live in my town, Miyama-mura. Beautiful mountain village. Aaaah. Which is in Wakayama prefecture. Wakayama= peaceful signing mountains. Anywho I benkioed Japanese for awhile and played some Mario Tennis.
Oh I Friday. Which was cool. I went to this festival practice at night at Sougawa. They play the taiko drums and did some cool rythmic dancing to the beat using the crazy oni looking heads. All the while the children played a tune ont he traditional Japanese flute. I tried these flute. I was able to follow along for a bit, but I have to try again. It was a great night. I got to shot the shit in Japanese and broken English with the older, parents and old folk, and got to see the kids oustide of school. They were really excited to see me. The play/dance that they are practicing is suppose to be 200 years old and Suogawa is suppose to famous for it.
Yesterday, Sunday, I made a trip to Osaka. I visited America Village which had some cool t-shirts and then Den Den town which had every new and cool electronic item. I was planning to go to the Star Wars exhibit because it was Halloween, but I didn't. They had a thing where if you dressed up you got in for free.
Today I wowed my 4th grade class with hang man. I didn't even plan it. I thought that it would be boring and old to them, on the contrary. And I played Hokey Pokey with another class and inlcuded things like, tongue, ear, elbow and butt.
So Happy Halloween and Happy Election Day. My the best man win...

Madison

2004-10-29T16:27:00.000+09:00

Madison. I think of President Madison, or Madison Wiscosin. Infact 'madison' can also mean marathon. Tomorrow is my village's marathon. 26miles in the mountains? No, try 5 km, some marathon. I can't run worth shit, at least not for a long time. I don't think I will enter even though everyone is doing it. It is a big deal here. I'll see come 9:30 in the morning.
How about them Red Sox. Shit, they did it. I know that it was because of that kid who lost some teeth after getting smacked by a foul ball. The kid lives in the same house that Babe Ruth used to live in when he played for the Yankees. I can't believe they did it. They now have like 6 world series titles, but the last was one obtained in 1918. Now if only the Cubs...
I have been teaching about Halloween recently. It hasn't caught here, well it is sort of a Christian holiday and the Japanese practice mostly Shintoism and Buddhism when there is a need to. Well all the holidays ahve pretty much lost their meaning in America anyways. Halloween is a great commercialstic holiday so it could catch on here someday. I mean candy, free candy. Free Pocky.

Yesterday seemed so far away

2004-10-28T16:06:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was sent rotting in the BOE. The BOE is a bad place and the people are great. I just almost fell asleep many times. I think at one point I did and no one said anything. I walked by the elementry school's gym last night. Volleyball was going on so I joined in a slammed the ball against the little kids a bit. We should have played dodgeball at some point. I wish.
Tomorrow I will try and attempt to ride a unicycle at 笠松

Shinkansen

2004-10-26T14:55:00.000+09:00

When there is a big earthquake, like there just was in northern Japan, many houses and buildings clapse leaving scores of people homeless. Some rural towns became isolated becuase landslides and cave-in's destroyed all the out going roads. So the Japanese Self-Defense Force, SDF, used helicopters to evacuate the small villages. And tons of rice was flown in to feed the earthquake victims. Rice. Lots of rice. Rice is everywhere. Rice patties-everywhere. Where ever there is airable land there is rice growing, even in the middle of a city.
The SDF. Japan is not allowed to have a standing army. That is why it is only a 'defense' force. Why? Becuase MacArthur wrote it into their consitition after the war. Also in there are clauses letting the US have huge bases in Japan. The US now wants to add another base to Japan so the US can defend the Asian Sphere better. What is the Asian Sphere? The US said it was India, China, Japan, Korea, and the Pacific islands and such. Now the US is saying that it includes the Middle East. Hmmm.
Anywho, the Earthquake was a decent sized one. It managed to derail a Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet train. The JR Shinkansen has been operating flawlessly since 1964(Tokyo Olympics) without any derialments or fatalities. So it was a big story. No one was hurt.
Last night was interesting. I ended up being late to meet my Japanese tutor, who is a 30 year old Japanese guy, because I was stuck behind a slow truck most of the way to Gobo. I arrived 10 minutes late to Mister Donut, where I was suppose to meet him. He was standing at the curb outside. Mr. Donut is right next to Roman City which is a small 3 story mall. Near him was a lady with her dog. I didn't pay too much attention to the lady because I was running late. I noticed she had a small dog, like the kind of dog that that dog was in Toy Story. So I met this guy outside and said hi. I kind of noticed that the lady just let her dog run around and do what ever in a busy parking lot. The next thing I hear is a loud 'Crunch' 'Crunch' like a bunch of bubble wrap being popped at the same time. I knew exactly what it was and felt a chill go through me. Following the 'Crunch' was loud screaming and crying. I hadn't even looked yet, I couldn't. I was shocked, but the guy I met thought nothing of it. We kept walking, I turned around finally and saw the lady walking from the street towards the sidewalk; and in her arms was her limp dog. As I drove out of the parking lot I saw the driver and some other people comforting the lady. It was a very sad moment.
My tutor seems nice. We really just talked about things. His English is really good. He even let me borrow some movies, bonus.

Gurnee Mills in Osaka

2004-10-25T16:52:00.000+09:00

This weekend was full of stuff. First off on Friday I finally found where the Orion constellation is in the sky. He is slightly tilted and brighter. I can see many more stars here. You can clearly see his hilt, bow, head, and more. The night sky is glorious when there is no moon.
First off I left for Osaka late on Saturday. I have to drive 35 minutes into the local city, Gobo and the park my car and walk 30 minutes to the station. From there I bought a $35 ticket, one way, to Tennoji Osaka. This ride took about an hour. I hopped on the subway and headed for Cosomo square.
What is at Cosmo square? Something follows me everywhere, the Art of Star Wars exhibit. I think this was my 3rd or 4th time seeing the exhibit. Some of the items I have seen at least 5 or 6 times from all the Star Wars shows I have gone too. This was a great exhibit though. Arriving late I only had a little over an hour. No photos allowed, but I managed to take a quick pic of the inside of Anakin's Airspeeder, because it was the only thing I could get away taking a picture of. It was great to see all of the Star Wars stuff again. I love the huge Star Destroyer model. I think that they are having a halloween costume party on the 31st. I should go.
After words I caught the cloudy sunset on the Osaka bay and then headed to Nanba, electronic city, and tons of shopping. I didn't buy anything, just looked at the coolness big Japanese city.
I never figure out my way home before I head out of the Train station. Last time was great. I got the quick train and was home. This time all the schedules changed and I didn't know where the fucking super train was so I got stuck riding the local train that stopped at every stop from Osaka to Gobo, which is like 50 stops. So two hours and some change later I made it back to Gobo. However the local train was half the price as the super train.
Both times I came back on the train there has been some lady trying to help me. The first time, there was announcement the at Yuasa you can transfer to a train to Gobo. But the next stop after Yuasa, on the train I was already on, was Gobo. So this lady, trying to be helpful, told me to get off at this stop as we were stopping at Yuasa. Mind you I have been riding next tor for about an hour now without even looking at each other. She must have sen my ticket that said Gobo on it. She told e to get off and helped me with my bag at to the door. I was thinking that this wasn't right, but I wasn't going to contridct a native who knew better than I. The next thing I know I was standing on the Yuasa platform staring at the sign that said 'Yuasa.' There was no transfers or anything on the way to Osaka from Gobo on the same train line, so way would there be on the way back? Before I finished my though I felt a tuggin on my arm. I turned and it was the same lady, and now she was pulling back into the train and saying 'sumimasen and gomenasai.' She pulled me all the way back to my seat. I was like 'OK.' Sure enough the next stop was Gobo.
This time on the way back I was in the station. The area where I bought my Super train ticket last time was closed. This train stops like 5 times. I didn't know what to do. I go take a local train and stop like 50 times and hope that I get home. So I went to the machine to see what it would say. I pressed the 'English' button and it started blaring some English woman's voice with a british accent. I hesitated for a second and some lady next to me was trying to ask me in Japanese if I needed help. I kind of just started grunting or something and said Gobo. She knew Gobo. I had seen on the schedule that a local train was leaving in 5 minutes. I found the price on the train chart, 1680 yen. I put in the money and got the ticket. The lady was gone. I was like ok. Everyone was walking through turnstyles with a sign above it that said 'white backed tickets.' I looked at my ticket and it had a black back. I looked now and I saw the lady on the other side montioning me to come through. Sure enough the 'black backed ticket' worked. She grabbed my and we started running. Down the stairs and into a packed train. PACKED. I could barely fit in said. Ok safe, whew, right? No. After listening to the announcements on the train I found out that train was going to split in about 5 stops and the first 3 cars(1-3) were going to Kansai International airport. The rear 3 were going to Wakayama City, which is where I needed to go. I looked aorund and saw a signt hat said '6.' So I thought that I was in the last car, but there was a car behind us. Confused I kept listening, then the train made a stop and then I saw the same lady standing on the platform motioning to come out of the train. She showed me a littl drawing she made. Six cars. The first 3 going to Kansai and the last 3 going to Wakayama. There was an X in the first car. She pushed me into the second car and told me make my way back. It took two more stops but I made it to the '4th' car. Then home.
On Sunday I drove to Rinku Town for some shopping. I wanted to shoes to leave at my elementry school. I heard there was a mall and a Diesel store. I did not expect to see an outdoor mall that looked excatly like somehting I would see in Iowa or something. It reminded me of Gurnee Mills because most of the stores were outlet stores. The mall had a total America design to it and many of the signs were in English. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. I saw a few white people there too.

What the fuck do they say in those public announcements?

2004-10-22T17:00:00.000+09:00

Everyday, well weekday. At precisely 7am and 5pm the oustide speakers around town go on with a 'do, ra, mi, fa, so!' chime. Then it's kyouwa....bla bla bla. I think the 7am one says, 'get the fuck out of bed and get to work!'
Oh and on Monday when I was corrected by the assitant teacher when I wrote 'earaser' one the board. As opposed to 'eraser' as 'things you find a classroom.' Oh well, every student had to erase, ha, their notes and rewrite the word.
Today I taught at Kawaharago Elementry school which is my neighbor, literally the gate to the school is next to where I park my car. Everyday I hear the kids walk in front of my house. When I do get out early they all smile until I say "Good morning" and the say "good morning" back. They walk to school in packs to with their uniformed jackets and boxy looking backpacks. In the first grade I gave them a connect the dots sheet with letters instead of numbers. The picture was of 'Pooh-san' Winnie the Pooh, one kid when you was finished decided that Pooh-san was lacking something, a darker side. He put fangs, sharp teeth, evil eyes, and razor sharp claws on Pooh while ever other kid color him correctly. It is good not everyone sees the samething the same way, right?
Today I made the paper, the paper for like 3 or 4 towns around here. They took a photo of me and wrote a descent article. Everyone knows my name, and I don't know anyone's name. Same as it was back in the States.
I found some one to help me with my Japanese. I am going to meet with on Monday. I am excited, which is rare. I am going to meet him at Mister Donut. Not Dunkin Donuts, Matt.
Tomorrow I am thinking of going to Rinku Town. There are supposedly a bunch of American stores there and a Diessseellllll store.
Yes I have a dryer. Yes that is an AC/Heating unit. And no, there is no girl. No one really worth mentioning either. But who needs a girl to ruin such a good time?

The Mighty Red Sox

2004-10-21T13:26:00.000+09:00

The Red Sox are amazing. "I'm not sure I can think of any scenario more enjoyable than making 55,000 people from New York shut up." said Curt Schilling. What a great quote.
Today is turning out to be a nice day. The sun is back and everyone is happy. Right now the students are cleaning the Junior High building. They normally do this after lunch everyday, but there is an event right after lunch so they are cleaning beforehand. The schools have no janitors so they employ child labor. How responsible the students can be....
After my class today some of the students asked if I knew Dragonball Z. One student had drawn a picture of Super Seian Goku. I said Goku and they were impressed.
Ring ring ring. I love how they announce lunch by ringing a large cow bell down the hall at aexactly 12:35 everyday. I still eat to slow and am usually the last sensei to leave the table. Itatakimasu...!
Last night I watched some of Return of the Jedi while listening to the commentary. George's commentary is almost boring. Listening to Irvin Kershner on the Empire Strikes Back was great. "Preperation for the battle is important. It gets you excited for the actual battle." George: "These were rubber were creatures. Twenty years ago I couldn't do want what I wanted. Now I can do everything and it is easy with computers. So I fixed it here." Why fix it if it wasn't broken to begin with. Episode III trailer will start showing November 5th!!!

I also posted a photo gallery of my 'hood. You can see it in the PHOTO section. Here is my home.

The roof leaks a bit, but hey, I don't really pay any rent so I can not complain. I do have a dryer too. No one has a dryer.

Coffee kudasai

2004-10-20T16:19:00.000+09:00

That was just my first post and it was a test. Typhoon 23 is getting stronger. It must be blowin about 60mph outside right. It isn't raining anymore. None of the schools were in session today. Channel 1 has been cycling video of the typhoon's destruction thus far. I was watching the TV during lunch with my boss(who doesn't know ANY English). We were watching people struggling through the streets with broken umbrellas when it showed some lady slip and fall into a puddle in the middle of the street as it was pouring out. My boss started cracking up. It was pretty funny I guess. I was also laughing at how my boss, Kubo-san, could just start laughing at something like that. After that I switched to a live feed of the Boston/Yankees game. Boston won! The feed was uncut with no commercials. Some fans threw trash out on the field and you could here the fans yelling 'bullshit' 'bullshit'.. I was eating a bento(box) for lunch because there wasn't the usual lunch at the school.
Today I sat in the Board of Education office all day and so I started this blog. I should be studying my Ninhongo or making lesson plans but I have been just tooling around. Tomorrow I teach the 3rd graders(9th grade) at the Junior High. Just one class, yah. It is my favorite because the actaully listen to me and try, or pretend, to follow along with my lesson. I am thinking about talking about the election and showing them what a ballot book looks like and the punch card and give em some vocab words.
I have a headache, and I don't know why.
The secretary aske if I wanted coffee. I said yes, but still yet no coffee.... It is like in Empire of the Sun, when Jim was offered "Hey you want a Hershey's?" he said "Yes, sir, please" and the guy said "So would I kid." WTF poor Jim. Christian Bale had to gain 60 pounds in a month for his screen test for Batman. He just ate Ice-cream and pizza. The pizza here comes with corn on it.
When will the worms stop coming out of the toliet?

My bones are aching. Storm sa comin Ani.

2004-10-20T06:42:00.000+09:00

Typhoon, or Taifuun, 23 is about to tackle my poor little village. I hope my poor little Yoda-hut like house is steardy enough to withstand this typhoon which is the biggest of the 3 that I have been through since I got here. Right now they have opened up the damn for the second time today to keep the river from overflowing.
Some wind has blown open the doors to the office.