Some of you may wonder what I did on Christmas this year. I suppose i shall lift the vail of secrecy and enlighten you all to what a traditional Japanese Christmas looks like.
It all begins at 6am, when the Santa's get-away sleigh can still be seen fish-tailing across the clouds. All through the house, not a creature was stirring, except the young gai-jin attempting to make a good impression on his boss and co-workers. Much like every other Tuesday morning, the day starts with coffee and a freezing cold walk to the Starbucks for more coffee. By the time the hardworking foreigner reaches his work place his caffeine high is already wearing off. As he reaches the office door, his heart beating exponentially faster than humanly necessary -part in anticipation for the possible shower of "merry Christmas"s and cake and also in reaction to the 32 liters of crushed Guatemalan coffee bean liquid surging through his blood- he peaks in to see no creatures stirring. Disappointment and self-doubt flood his mind as he questions whether or not he should have taken the day off. So he turns the lights on and trudges to his desk where his head and eyelids weigh tons. After a short, seated cat nap, the flood of "Good Morning"s began. And thus was Christmas morning. No presents and No joy.
The day got better though. At noon, a teacher, one student and myself set out on the epic 45 minute journey to Osaka for what was supposed to be an English seminar where English teachers, such as myself, would be giving presentations and sharing hints and tips to become better teachers. Being the hardworking foreigner that I am, I agreed to do this seminar because being in Osaka with other people and students is infinitely better than sitting at my desk alone playing sudoku and crossword puzzles.
To my surprise, I find out that this is not, in fact an English seminar, it is actually a sports and international conference for students. All of the seminar events and all of the group work would be held in Japanese. So for the first 5 hours of the seminar i played pool at the community center because I was not expected to sit through lectures in Japanese. I cannot complain too much because the day was more exciting than my day would have been sitting at my desk trying to look busy until 415pm. The night ended around 10:45pm when all of the students were shuffled off to bed. I was made aware of a small shindig for the teachers involving beer and snacks. As it is not my nature to turn down beer from my superiors, or ever, I attended this party which started around 11pm. So once all of the teachers had arrived the meeting began. "WHAT A MEETING!!!!!" I yell in my head. "You tricky bastards, bribe me with beer to come to a business meeting at 11pm will you? Diabolical." We sat around a 30 pack of beer discussing the timetable and the possibilities of shortening the lunch period by 15minutes for the next day. This went on for nearly a half hour. I was about ready to stand up and leave when the beer was finally passed out.
Much like my "Italian Cake" incident in Naples, I was given two beers to begin at the party, I think partly out of pity for having to sit through a full day of being talked at in a foreign language and partly because i was seething at the pure evil which had occurred in this room. But eventually, a second round was passed out and I still had not touched my second beer. Being Japanese as they are, I was given another beer. So now in front of me sit 2 unopened Japanese beers and 1 half full can. (all of you that have been following my stories on this blog should already know my hate for Japanese beer)
Needless-to-say, day 2 of the camp was unremarkable, aside from the fire dill in the middle of our seminar which wasted a good 20 minutes, the same 20 minutes we valiantly attempted to save from the meeting the night before. I left Osaka and came back to work. And so I sit, with 4 other Japanese teachers in a large teacher's office, counting the minutes until i can go get drunk. Japanese office culture is strange indeed. Now i know why people tell me that they drink everyday...they need to in order to stay sane.
Overall, it was a fun couple of days. I opened my presents from my family a couple of days ago and my new ipod came in handy while killing time at the seminar.
mike
Friday, December 26, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
The Japanese and their Pickled Fruits
So, in the past 6 or so months there has only been one food that I truely detest. I loath it down to my deepest recesses and I have nothing but vile, over-flowing, indescribable hate for this one pickled fruit, plumb (aka Umeboshi). I dont know what it is about this one particular pickled invention, but the second the sour purple skin touches my tongue, my whole body convulses. Every time this stuff makes its way into my food, which it often does, i feel like turning to the side and emptying my stomache of everything i have ever eaten in my entire meager existance. That is the extent of my hate for this Japanese delectable.
My reason for telling you this today is to bring up one of the odd daily traditions that i established for myself over the past few months. Seeing as I am, by nature, a lazy individual, i very, very, very rarely make lunch for myself in the morning before work. It is just too troublesome and it has become a force of habit or a ritual, if you will, to buy two onigiri (triangular rice ball with some sort of meat or vegetable in the center, all wrapped in dried seaweed) at the local convenient store on my way to work. My reason for this is two-fold; first, I dont trust convenient store sandwiches after my last devistating battle with my bathroom at the hands of an egg salad sandwich; and secondly, onigiri are usually delicious and two of them are just the right size for a light lunch.
Okay, I lied. I seriously doubt that any of you care about what my usual feasting routine has become, but the real reason that i am writing this is to vent. I vent my frustration here because everyone and their mother's mother loves umeboshi except me. I vent because it stops me from renting a flame thrower and torching the onigiri factory and my local convenient store. I am frustrated because for the last several days I have unknowingly purchased onigiri filled to the brim with umeboshi, purple goo oozing out the sides. I dont know what it is about this particular item that everyone goes looney over, but IT DOES NOT NEED TO GO IN EVERY GOD DAMN LUNCH SNACK! No matter how hard i try to avoid this disgusting conglomeration of mushy, mashed purple fruit i cannot escape its hold. It tortures me. It follows me. It rears its ugly head in every flavor of onigiri i eat. It seems like i need to start making my lunch to avoid having to trash my lunch everyday.
Needless to say, I am a bit pissed today about this most recent example of ume infiltration.
gio
My reason for telling you this today is to bring up one of the odd daily traditions that i established for myself over the past few months. Seeing as I am, by nature, a lazy individual, i very, very, very rarely make lunch for myself in the morning before work. It is just too troublesome and it has become a force of habit or a ritual, if you will, to buy two onigiri (triangular rice ball with some sort of meat or vegetable in the center, all wrapped in dried seaweed) at the local convenient store on my way to work. My reason for this is two-fold; first, I dont trust convenient store sandwiches after my last devistating battle with my bathroom at the hands of an egg salad sandwich; and secondly, onigiri are usually delicious and two of them are just the right size for a light lunch.
Okay, I lied. I seriously doubt that any of you care about what my usual feasting routine has become, but the real reason that i am writing this is to vent. I vent my frustration here because everyone and their mother's mother loves umeboshi except me. I vent because it stops me from renting a flame thrower and torching the onigiri factory and my local convenient store. I am frustrated because for the last several days I have unknowingly purchased onigiri filled to the brim with umeboshi, purple goo oozing out the sides. I dont know what it is about this particular item that everyone goes looney over, but IT DOES NOT NEED TO GO IN EVERY GOD DAMN LUNCH SNACK! No matter how hard i try to avoid this disgusting conglomeration of mushy, mashed purple fruit i cannot escape its hold. It tortures me. It follows me. It rears its ugly head in every flavor of onigiri i eat. It seems like i need to start making my lunch to avoid having to trash my lunch everyday.
Needless to say, I am a bit pissed today about this most recent example of ume infiltration.
gio
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Chillaxing
So I went to a Christmas party this afternoon at a friends house in the city. It was a fun day. There was an endless flow of candy, chocolate, whiskey and umeshu(plumb liqueur). My friend and his wife just had a baby last year so we got to enjoy the plentiful cute things that a 13 month old half japanese/half american girl does.
The event started off pretty sketchy when my buddy scared the little girl just by looking at her. Granted, he was wearing yakuza gear and giant earings, but the kid just broke down crying. It was the funniest thing i had seen all day. It was the peak of Japanese xenophobia epitomized in a 13 month old reality. Sometimes i feel that adult japanese people around town just want to burst into tears and scream when i walk by, but that for another discussion.
The day got more lively as the host's friend showed up with a 3 year old half japanese/half american boy. This kid was hilarious. When we finally changed the music from christmas carols to Dr. Dre, the young man started break-dancing like a professional. He had mad skills. The kid danced for about an hour, almost through the whole rap album.
I will tell you this, my japanese skills has been improving a lot lately, but in the room with 5 gai-jin, 2 japanese, and 2 infants I was only better than one of the infants at Japanese. I felt like a bit of a failure.
Soon after the infant dance party, Total Recall, the classic Arnold holiday movie, was put on the high definition blu-ray TV. I think im going to make watching Arnold movies a Christmas tradition.
My thoughts are a bit loose this evening seeing as I have been drinking all day and im now bored to tears in my room. I suppose i should go to bed.
The event started off pretty sketchy when my buddy scared the little girl just by looking at her. Granted, he was wearing yakuza gear and giant earings, but the kid just broke down crying. It was the funniest thing i had seen all day. It was the peak of Japanese xenophobia epitomized in a 13 month old reality. Sometimes i feel that adult japanese people around town just want to burst into tears and scream when i walk by, but that for another discussion.
The day got more lively as the host's friend showed up with a 3 year old half japanese/half american boy. This kid was hilarious. When we finally changed the music from christmas carols to Dr. Dre, the young man started break-dancing like a professional. He had mad skills. The kid danced for about an hour, almost through the whole rap album.
I will tell you this, my japanese skills has been improving a lot lately, but in the room with 5 gai-jin, 2 japanese, and 2 infants I was only better than one of the infants at Japanese. I felt like a bit of a failure.
Soon after the infant dance party, Total Recall, the classic Arnold holiday movie, was put on the high definition blu-ray TV. I think im going to make watching Arnold movies a Christmas tradition.
My thoughts are a bit loose this evening seeing as I have been drinking all day and im now bored to tears in my room. I suppose i should go to bed.
Monday, December 8, 2008
On Apathy and Japanese Parties
"the world is your oyster, and you're allergic to shellfish." - Paul Neilan, Apathy and Other Small Victories
I have to say, I have never read a book that I have immediately connected to and felt as if this book was written about my life... until today. As I was frantically reading this satirical novel all day, I felt as though I was a serial killer reading A Catcher in the Rye for the first time and realizing that I would forever be remembered for my actions and all three of my names. But of course, I am not a serial killer, and never will be. Yet, this book reached out to me. I feel as if this book was meant as a complete farcical judgement of the world around this main character, Shane; whose drifting and apathetic nature gets him into trouble.
I know that this is not a character with whom most people would not want to associate. I am not really sure how this George Castanza-esque character appeals to me, but I feel as though he was based off of the thoughts that constantly swarm my brain. My actions are not in line with this character's but I find myself wanting to say the things he says and do the things he does, or does not do--to be more accurate. I can only really articulate that this book was clearly written for insane people, by an insane person. Never once before have I felt the desire to reread an entire book the moment I finished it. I sat at my desk all day today and read this whole masterpiece.
For any of my friends who have ever asked me, "what are you thinking?" ...this book can sum it all up. It is funny, dark, sadistic, and brilliant. I have only praise for this book.
----------------------
As for more recent events in my life, I had the closing/end of the year party for the teachers at my visit school. I felt like being one of the team and I forked over 70 dollars to eat and drink as much as humanly possible with people I did not know. Nearly all of the teachers from the school were there and I was seated at a table with a bunch of drunks who did not speak English. This was okay with me. I tend to associate well with people show up to all you can drink drinking events already blitzed.
The night began as any other drinking party. Food and Japanese swill-water, being passed off as real beer, was circulating around the room. After about an hour of food and drink, the party games began. So, in this medium size banquet hall at the New Shim Miyako hotel in Kyoto Station, there were trivia games being played about certain facts about school life. All very uninteresting, from what I could understand. Every once and a while english teachers and teachers drunk enough to attempt english would wander by my table and pour me a thimble full of swill and tell me they want to teach me Japanese bamboo painting. I nod and smile, thinking to myself, "why the hell are the glasses so small?? It is going to be a long night if this is all I am going to get."
After the trivia there as a stop watch game where people had to stop the stopwatch closest to 20 seconds without going over. Also very uninteresting, but at least they let me participate this time. I failed. Miserably.
After that, bingo. Yes, grown-up Japanese people love bingo, especially when they are so drunk that standing up is one step from falling down, grabbing the cheesy shag carpet to keep from falling off the face of the earth. But there were prizes. Lots of prizes. I won a very masculine bento/lunch box and a handy carrying case. And as a going away present i received an emotially fickle plastic Santa Claus filled with extra large imitation M&Ms. They were quite disgusting.
Overall, it was fun watching my other teachers get so drunk they could not stand up. It was not so fun being the mascot for my table, but such is life. I got to make fun of my principal a little bit and practice my Japanese. What else could i ask for on a Friday night?
Gio
I have to say, I have never read a book that I have immediately connected to and felt as if this book was written about my life... until today. As I was frantically reading this satirical novel all day, I felt as though I was a serial killer reading A Catcher in the Rye for the first time and realizing that I would forever be remembered for my actions and all three of my names. But of course, I am not a serial killer, and never will be. Yet, this book reached out to me. I feel as if this book was meant as a complete farcical judgement of the world around this main character, Shane; whose drifting and apathetic nature gets him into trouble.
I know that this is not a character with whom most people would not want to associate. I am not really sure how this George Castanza-esque character appeals to me, but I feel as though he was based off of the thoughts that constantly swarm my brain. My actions are not in line with this character's but I find myself wanting to say the things he says and do the things he does, or does not do--to be more accurate. I can only really articulate that this book was clearly written for insane people, by an insane person. Never once before have I felt the desire to reread an entire book the moment I finished it. I sat at my desk all day today and read this whole masterpiece.
For any of my friends who have ever asked me, "what are you thinking?" ...this book can sum it all up. It is funny, dark, sadistic, and brilliant. I have only praise for this book.
----------------------
As for more recent events in my life, I had the closing/end of the year party for the teachers at my visit school. I felt like being one of the team and I forked over 70 dollars to eat and drink as much as humanly possible with people I did not know. Nearly all of the teachers from the school were there and I was seated at a table with a bunch of drunks who did not speak English. This was okay with me. I tend to associate well with people show up to all you can drink drinking events already blitzed.
The night began as any other drinking party. Food and Japanese swill-water, being passed off as real beer, was circulating around the room. After about an hour of food and drink, the party games began. So, in this medium size banquet hall at the New Shim Miyako hotel in Kyoto Station, there were trivia games being played about certain facts about school life. All very uninteresting, from what I could understand. Every once and a while english teachers and teachers drunk enough to attempt english would wander by my table and pour me a thimble full of swill and tell me they want to teach me Japanese bamboo painting. I nod and smile, thinking to myself, "why the hell are the glasses so small?? It is going to be a long night if this is all I am going to get."
After the trivia there as a stop watch game where people had to stop the stopwatch closest to 20 seconds without going over. Also very uninteresting, but at least they let me participate this time. I failed. Miserably.
After that, bingo. Yes, grown-up Japanese people love bingo, especially when they are so drunk that standing up is one step from falling down, grabbing the cheesy shag carpet to keep from falling off the face of the earth. But there were prizes. Lots of prizes. I won a very masculine bento/lunch box and a handy carrying case. And as a going away present i received an emotially fickle plastic Santa Claus filled with extra large imitation M&Ms. They were quite disgusting.
Overall, it was fun watching my other teachers get so drunk they could not stand up. It was not so fun being the mascot for my table, but such is life. I got to make fun of my principal a little bit and practice my Japanese. What else could i ask for on a Friday night?
Gio
Saturday, December 6, 2008
new pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29109046@N03/
Here is an update on my flickr site for some more pictures. there are some really good pictures on there of me and my students at a local temple.
tomorrow i will update the blog with some stories from the last week or so.
Here is an update on my flickr site for some more pictures. there are some really good pictures on there of me and my students at a local temple.
tomorrow i will update the blog with some stories from the last week or so.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sightseeing and other photos
Please see my Flickr site to see the new pictures, so copy and past this link into you address bar. for some reason, Blogger doesnt like posting hyperlinks.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29109046@N03/sets/72157609839283349
These pictures are from Kinkaku Temple and Arashiyama in Kyoto. there is also a picture from Halloween in Kyoto.
enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29109046@N03/sets/72157609839283349
These pictures are from Kinkaku Temple and Arashiyama in Kyoto. there is also a picture from Halloween in Kyoto.
enjoy!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Praise and Realizations
So today two teachers came up to me to talk about our future lesson plans. The first teacher came to me, beaming, and said, "I love your lesson plans. You always give me a new way to learn about my students. Last week you had them write about what they want to do in the future, and this week you are having them write about what they are thankful for. Thank you, you are doing great work" or something like that.
The next teacher came up to me to talk about the same lesson plan as the other teacher and she said, "I really like this lesson. You always find a way for the students to practice all four parts of English; writing, speaking, reading, and listening. Thank you for your hard work. Im looking forward to fridays lesson."
So the rest of the day i was pretty much floating. Until i stepped outside.
I knew the day was cold, but today was the coldest day i have ever experienced. It was around 45 degrees with a brisk wind. It would have been good cape weather, had i had a cape. They say it's going to be colder this week and next week, and will only get worse. I am a bit nervous about the cold. I think i might have to breakdown and get some long underwear. I havent worn those since i was 6 years old.
Life is good. I am excited for the 3 day weekend. I bought a folding 2-person couch-thing and im thinking of getting a rug for my apartment. my place looks so bare.
mike
The next teacher came up to me to talk about the same lesson plan as the other teacher and she said, "I really like this lesson. You always find a way for the students to practice all four parts of English; writing, speaking, reading, and listening. Thank you for your hard work. Im looking forward to fridays lesson."
So the rest of the day i was pretty much floating. Until i stepped outside.
I knew the day was cold, but today was the coldest day i have ever experienced. It was around 45 degrees with a brisk wind. It would have been good cape weather, had i had a cape. They say it's going to be colder this week and next week, and will only get worse. I am a bit nervous about the cold. I think i might have to breakdown and get some long underwear. I havent worn those since i was 6 years old.
Life is good. I am excited for the 3 day weekend. I bought a folding 2-person couch-thing and im thinking of getting a rug for my apartment. my place looks so bare.
mike
Thursday, November 13, 2008
A quick update from work
So life is pretty good. I have been really busy and I like it. The weeks fly by when I am too busy to think. I've fallen into a rhythm which is quite doable.
Monday - wake up at 7, shower and dress, eat breakfast, make coffee, leave for work, stop at the conbini for riceballs, teach 3 classes, plan for tuesday lessons
Tuesday - wake up at 7, shower, dress, eat, make coffee, pack my ninja/martial arts equipment, leave for work, stop at conbini for riceballs, teach 2.5 classes, practice kobudo(weapons martial arts) and Bojuutsu with the other AET that comes to my school on Tuesdays, leave work at 415pm.
Wednesday - wake up at 6, shower-dress-make coffee at the same time, leave apartment at 635am to catch a train, switch trains at kyoto station, get to my visit school around 805am, teach 2 or 3 classes, have ESL club meeting at lunch, go home around 430pm.
Thursday - wake up at 7, shower and dress, eat breakfast, make coffee, leave for work, stop at the conbini for riceballs, maybe teach a class, go home at 415, meet up with friends for dinner/drinks around 7pm.
Friday - wake up at 6, shower-dress-make coffee at the same time, leave apartment at 635am to catch a train, switch trains at kyoto station, get to my visit school around 805am, teach 2 or 3 classes, meet up with friends to drink and mess around.
Saturday - Martial arts/bojuutsu practice in the afternoon, Japanese conversation practice or karaoke with other JETs until last train home.
Sunday - laundry and seinfeld or exploring.
Im pretty sure that im recontracting for another year in JET (about 88% sure).
Monday - wake up at 7, shower and dress, eat breakfast, make coffee, leave for work, stop at the conbini for riceballs, teach 3 classes, plan for tuesday lessons
Tuesday - wake up at 7, shower, dress, eat, make coffee, pack my ninja/martial arts equipment, leave for work, stop at conbini for riceballs, teach 2.5 classes, practice kobudo(weapons martial arts) and Bojuutsu with the other AET that comes to my school on Tuesdays, leave work at 415pm.
Wednesday - wake up at 6, shower-dress-make coffee at the same time, leave apartment at 635am to catch a train, switch trains at kyoto station, get to my visit school around 805am, teach 2 or 3 classes, have ESL club meeting at lunch, go home around 430pm.
Thursday - wake up at 7, shower and dress, eat breakfast, make coffee, leave for work, stop at the conbini for riceballs, maybe teach a class, go home at 415, meet up with friends for dinner/drinks around 7pm.
Friday - wake up at 6, shower-dress-make coffee at the same time, leave apartment at 635am to catch a train, switch trains at kyoto station, get to my visit school around 805am, teach 2 or 3 classes, meet up with friends to drink and mess around.
Saturday - Martial arts/bojuutsu practice in the afternoon, Japanese conversation practice or karaoke with other JETs until last train home.
Sunday - laundry and seinfeld or exploring.
Im pretty sure that im recontracting for another year in JET (about 88% sure).
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Screw the fountain of youth...
...Just shave your beard!
So Friday was Halloween. Me and a group of my friends here in Kyoto got together at a local Irish pub called McLoughlin's. They were having a huge costume party, or so the signs said.
So I get all excited about getting into a costume and scaring the bajebus out of Japanese people on the train and in town. I decide to go as Wolverine from the X-men movies and comics. I have a brown jacket that was pretty spot on and i decided to make the ultimate sacrifice for a halloween costume, I altered my beard. If you have never seen Huge Jackman as Wolverine, do a quick google image search. He has huge mutton chops that come all the way down to the corners of his mouth. so i shaved off my goatee area and just left two unconnected beard tentacles. It looked fantastic. I also made some claws out of wooden rulers, aluminum foil, and a pair of cheap gloves. The costume looked great, and i didnt get too many odd looks, i suppose thats because i have seen weirder fashion on normal afternoons in Japan.
So my friends were dressed up as a Jewish Russian immigrant, 2 chickens with helmets, the guy from the Nightmare before Christmas, and a man in a shower. The night started off pretty slow because when we got there, no one else was dressed up. I was a bit concerned when i noticed that the bar was full of Japanese people only there to share conversation and laugh at stupid foreigners in costumes. After I had enough liquid courage to begin talking to the natives, i found myself in a trap of 3 hungry Japanese cougars. I skillfully navigated my way out of that frightening pungi stick filled booby-trap and made my way to the bar to chat with the bartender when i was accosted by a pair of more attractive and more interesting Japanese girls with fantastic English. Eventually, more foreigners came. there was a Johnny Depp, a Tengu demon, lots of girls with kitty-cat ears. The night began to wind down for most of my friends, but not for showerman and myself. we escorted a few Japanese of the female persuasion to another bar. we eventually lost track of time and missed our trains home. Such is the sacrifice i make for good conversation and cultural exchange.
The next day i proceeded to shave the rest of my beard off except for my extraordinarily long sideburns, mostly to spite the old sideburns law at Brophy. I took a picture of myself and realized that i look about 5 years younger. I do prefer the beard, much more mysterious and individualistic. very few people have decent beards out here. As i have always said, "in the land of the patchy stubble, the man with the luscious beard is king."
So Friday was Halloween. Me and a group of my friends here in Kyoto got together at a local Irish pub called McLoughlin's. They were having a huge costume party, or so the signs said.
So I get all excited about getting into a costume and scaring the bajebus out of Japanese people on the train and in town. I decide to go as Wolverine from the X-men movies and comics. I have a brown jacket that was pretty spot on and i decided to make the ultimate sacrifice for a halloween costume, I altered my beard. If you have never seen Huge Jackman as Wolverine, do a quick google image search. He has huge mutton chops that come all the way down to the corners of his mouth. so i shaved off my goatee area and just left two unconnected beard tentacles. It looked fantastic. I also made some claws out of wooden rulers, aluminum foil, and a pair of cheap gloves. The costume looked great, and i didnt get too many odd looks, i suppose thats because i have seen weirder fashion on normal afternoons in Japan.
So my friends were dressed up as a Jewish Russian immigrant, 2 chickens with helmets, the guy from the Nightmare before Christmas, and a man in a shower. The night started off pretty slow because when we got there, no one else was dressed up. I was a bit concerned when i noticed that the bar was full of Japanese people only there to share conversation and laugh at stupid foreigners in costumes. After I had enough liquid courage to begin talking to the natives, i found myself in a trap of 3 hungry Japanese cougars. I skillfully navigated my way out of that frightening pungi stick filled booby-trap and made my way to the bar to chat with the bartender when i was accosted by a pair of more attractive and more interesting Japanese girls with fantastic English. Eventually, more foreigners came. there was a Johnny Depp, a Tengu demon, lots of girls with kitty-cat ears. The night began to wind down for most of my friends, but not for showerman and myself. we escorted a few Japanese of the female persuasion to another bar. we eventually lost track of time and missed our trains home. Such is the sacrifice i make for good conversation and cultural exchange.
The next day i proceeded to shave the rest of my beard off except for my extraordinarily long sideburns, mostly to spite the old sideburns law at Brophy. I took a picture of myself and realized that i look about 5 years younger. I do prefer the beard, much more mysterious and individualistic. very few people have decent beards out here. As i have always said, "in the land of the patchy stubble, the man with the luscious beard is king."
Thursday, October 30, 2008
A Simple Update
So it's Thursday and I am currently at my base school in my hometown. Thursdays are usually very free, and today there is no exception. I have no classes today. I also have no classes tomorrow at my visit school, they are having a mock examination. And Monday is a national holiday for something. So effectively, I have a 5 day weekend. I'm thinking of doing a bit of sightseeing this weekend. Maybe i will head down to Nara and see the deer and the giant Buddha statue. Who knows if I will have the energy for that. I find myself completely drained by 5pm, and because it is getting colder i find it getting more difficult to get out of bed. Coffee is a lifesaver, but I don't want to end up with ulcers so I have been limiting myself to a cup or two per day. I enjoy tea, but it is more difficult to find flavored tea in Japan than i thought. Green tea is very good, but sometimes a hot apple or peach tea is refreshing. Such is life, I suppose.
I found an interesting bar called McLoughlin's. I went there one night last week to see what it was all about. Although it was quite expensive, around $25 for dinner and a beer, I was surprized with how much I enjoyed experiencing a new place by myself. Usually, I hate eating in restaurants and bars alone, but that has become a growing necessity because i can no longer survive on Convenient store food and take-out bento. Cooking has been quite fun, but my kitchen is so small that making pasta and a pasta sauce is so troublesome. The growing pile of dishes and recycling are mounting worries in my nightly life, but my laziness surmounts my OCD compulsion for cleanliness. The fleating nature of the clean home makes me dread the inevitable moment when footprints can be seen in the centimeter thick dust on the hardwood floor, the ocean of dishes overflows the sink, and the laundry pile grows skyward topling over occasionally to envelope more valuable real estate. I find myself in bed by 8pm, not only because I'm inexplicably exhausted but also because my sorry excuse for furniture consists of a folding lawn chair with a cupholder and small table 12 inches from the ground, barely big enough for my laptop. My apartment still does not feel like home. My room is decorated like my predecessor left it, with all of the items my predecessor left me. The walls are blank and the floor space is hogged by stuff i dont use or need. Maybe it's time for a bit of fall cleaning and decorating. I dont think i'll make it through the winter without a bit of homeliness in my home.
I've been neglecting my Japanese study. Up until a few weeks ago, I was on a firm Japanese study plan i developed for myself. Since then, I havent even tried to get back on track. Now i have more studying to do since i started a self-study Japanese program through JET. The whole thing is a bit stressful. Procrastination and laziness have taken over. The weeks fly by and i find myself asking where the hell the week went. I'm 25% of the way through my first year in Japan and i feel as if i havent done anything yet. I'm a bit disappointed in myself. I need to sit down and make some goals.
Here are some of the good things that I have been doing lately. This is mostly for my own reflection, so if you dont read this i will understand.
-biweekly Kobudo practice: memorized the first kata for Bo, Nunchuck, and Sai.
-bimonthly DnD with other English speakers: I find myself looking forward to this everyweek.
-daily excersize of some sort: whether it be walking to school or kobudo.
-daily reading: I have read 4 large books in the Wheel of Time series since i arrived and i have many more on my reading list.
-made new friends
-travelled to Hiroshima and Kanazawa
-remained in contact over the internet and on skype with family and friends back home
-managed to avoid my usual "change of the seasons" sickness.
-have remained creative and energetic in my classes
-have made actual connections with some students who want to practice english.
-have doubled the size of my ESS club at my visit school.
To Do List:
-remain focused and energetic in my work
-continue practicing kobudo
-make an effort to go out more, whether by myself or with others
-meet some japanese people and practice speaking japanese
-get back into my study pattern
tomorrow is Halloween, hopefully the hours i spent working on my costume will pay off.
I found an interesting bar called McLoughlin's. I went there one night last week to see what it was all about. Although it was quite expensive, around $25 for dinner and a beer, I was surprized with how much I enjoyed experiencing a new place by myself. Usually, I hate eating in restaurants and bars alone, but that has become a growing necessity because i can no longer survive on Convenient store food and take-out bento. Cooking has been quite fun, but my kitchen is so small that making pasta and a pasta sauce is so troublesome. The growing pile of dishes and recycling are mounting worries in my nightly life, but my laziness surmounts my OCD compulsion for cleanliness. The fleating nature of the clean home makes me dread the inevitable moment when footprints can be seen in the centimeter thick dust on the hardwood floor, the ocean of dishes overflows the sink, and the laundry pile grows skyward topling over occasionally to envelope more valuable real estate. I find myself in bed by 8pm, not only because I'm inexplicably exhausted but also because my sorry excuse for furniture consists of a folding lawn chair with a cupholder and small table 12 inches from the ground, barely big enough for my laptop. My apartment still does not feel like home. My room is decorated like my predecessor left it, with all of the items my predecessor left me. The walls are blank and the floor space is hogged by stuff i dont use or need. Maybe it's time for a bit of fall cleaning and decorating. I dont think i'll make it through the winter without a bit of homeliness in my home.
I've been neglecting my Japanese study. Up until a few weeks ago, I was on a firm Japanese study plan i developed for myself. Since then, I havent even tried to get back on track. Now i have more studying to do since i started a self-study Japanese program through JET. The whole thing is a bit stressful. Procrastination and laziness have taken over. The weeks fly by and i find myself asking where the hell the week went. I'm 25% of the way through my first year in Japan and i feel as if i havent done anything yet. I'm a bit disappointed in myself. I need to sit down and make some goals.
Here are some of the good things that I have been doing lately. This is mostly for my own reflection, so if you dont read this i will understand.
-biweekly Kobudo practice: memorized the first kata for Bo, Nunchuck, and Sai.
-bimonthly DnD with other English speakers: I find myself looking forward to this everyweek.
-daily excersize of some sort: whether it be walking to school or kobudo.
-daily reading: I have read 4 large books in the Wheel of Time series since i arrived and i have many more on my reading list.
-made new friends
-travelled to Hiroshima and Kanazawa
-remained in contact over the internet and on skype with family and friends back home
-managed to avoid my usual "change of the seasons" sickness.
-have remained creative and energetic in my classes
-have made actual connections with some students who want to practice english.
-have doubled the size of my ESS club at my visit school.
To Do List:
-remain focused and energetic in my work
-continue practicing kobudo
-make an effort to go out more, whether by myself or with others
-meet some japanese people and practice speaking japanese
-get back into my study pattern
tomorrow is Halloween, hopefully the hours i spent working on my costume will pay off.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Hiroshima, Sake, and a Surprise Roommate
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29109046@N03/
A link to my Flickr site. on which i have posted some pictures from my Hiroshima trip.
It has been a while and I will attempt to catch you all up today. Two weekends ago, I went to Hiroshima and Miyajima Island. I had a fantastic time and it was one of the best trips of my life. Me and several JETs went to the Sake Festival outside Hiroshima. It is a huge event and there were over 200,000 people there throughout the weekend. We only stayed a few hours because we decided to take a 7hour bus ride instead of the Shinkansen (bullet train) because of the price difference. The bus ride was fun but really long.
When we arrived at the Sake Festival we ran into about 60-100 JETs from around the country. It was like a mini-Tokyo Orientation reunion. As i said earlier, we only stayed for a few hours, but that was plenty of time to get sufficiently brain-dead. There were over 900 different types of sake from 5 different regions in Japan. We ended up spending a lot of time in the Hokkaido section. And that is where the next phase of this story begins.
Camped out in front of the Hokkaido booth were two couples sharing a blanket and several glasses of sake. The noticed that the area was getting overrun with gaijin (foreigners) and pulled some of them down to talk. So we sat down with this man and his wife and began speaking drunk Japanese and drunk English. It is surprising how much better at Japanese I am after 20-30 shots of Sake.
The man tells us that he wants to practice his English on us because he wants to open a chain of sake stores in the United States. It did not sound like that, of course, but we were able to piece together his drunk Japanese and his wife's attempted translation into sober Japanese. It was quite the event. Eventually, we found out that he wanted us to go 50/50 with him in an American Sake chain of stores. We promptly turn him down. Sake is not terrible popular in the US. He then asked why we were all together in Japan. I tell him that we are all English teachers and High Schools. He was shocked. Somehow we got on the topic of history, which is not surprising because that is where most of my conversations tend to lead if I do not carefully monitor what I say. So I tell him that I enjoy learning about Buddhism and war in the Kamakura era and samurai in the Edo period. The man promptly asks if I know what a "fundoshi" is. I say, "yes, it's a traditional Japanese loincloth worn by samurai." He smiles and sticks his hand down the front of his paints. He asks, "do you want to see my fundoshi, I make them myself." I immediately tell him that it is okay and that I believe he is wearing one. He then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small utility knife and says, "I am samurai. this is my soul and this is my traditional fundoshi." He then closed the knife and pulled out the front flap of his loin cloth to show the "beautiful" flower embroidery. At this point is wife is stop sign red and starts to lean over to her friend to escape this embarassment. As she is leaning her husband winds up, cocks his arm back, swings and slaps his wife's ass. By now we are all kind of tired of sitting around this guy so we stand up and say our good byes.
----------
Miyajima Island:
Miyajima is a small island off the coast of Hiroshima city. It is famous for the giant orange tori gate out in the water. When we arrived by ferry, the tide was out and the gate was exposed. We walked right up to the 20 meter tall orange gate. By the time we left the sun was setting and the tide was in so the gate was out in the water again.
There is a tall mountain on this island called Mt. Mizen, I believe. At the top of the mountain, about 2 kilometers of stairs and pathways, there is an observatory and a small temple where the Tendai Buddhist monks lit the eternal flame 1100 years ago which still burns today. Seeing as there was no way in holy hell I was going to be able to make it to the top of this mountain by myself, we decided to take the ski-lift/Air-walk to one of the peaks and walk to the top from there. This saved us about 2 hours of walking. At the peak we encountered monkeys, deer, and more monkeys. From there it was only .5 kilometers to the summit. It was a painful trip up old stone stairways, made only more painful by the random encounter with other Americans who's asinine conversation about how President Bush is merely a scapegoat for the economic problems and was in no way to blame for any of America's problems made me want to grab the woman and jump off the mountain into the Sea of Japan. But I digress.
The trip to the top was painful and long, especially with my bad knee, but the reward of being at the top of the mountain looking down over Hiroshima and the Tori gate was quite fantastic.
We soon realized that the sun was setting and that if we wanted to catch a picture of the tori gate on the water at sunset we would have to hurry down the mountain. Thus, the running began. Admittedly running 2 kilometers down a mountain was a bad idea, but the pictures i was able to take were worth the rush and the danger.
-------
The Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum were quite powerful sites to see. Although, the images and the memory can be relatively depressing and painful, the memorial to the a-bombed city is a rich and important part of Japanese history. My experiences and emotions as an American were constantly in conflict with my inner historian. No matter how hard i tried to remain objective and historical, i could not shake the immence guilt and shame I feel as an American in that city. Granted the museum does a very good job remaining historical and neutral and does not point a lot of fingers at the USA or at Japan. One of the most depressing things in Japanese history is the Japanese post-war outlook which justified the bombing because they believed they deserved it. Luckily, that outlook has died off for the most part.
The museum is not for the faint of heart. It is difficult to look at the tattered clothing of middle school children and rusted, deformed tricycles. But all in all, I suggest it for everyone. It is an effective reminder of the pains of war and the frightful possibilities of the future of warfare.
----------
The Tragic Death of a Unwanted Roommate
Tuesday October 21, 3:31am -- (Insert Law & Order sound) Police were called to the scene of an apartment murder case. Renter, Jiorodaano Maikuru, made the call to police after the death of his apparent roommate at 3:30am. The death has been ruled self-defense and no charges have been filed against Jiorodaano. Apparently, Jiorodaano was surprised as his roommate appeared in the apartment at approximately 3am and shook Jiorodaano's hand while he was sleeping.
The following is an excerpt from Jiorodaano's official statement to the police:
"Well, it was about 3am and I was sound asleep. It wasn't a light sleep or anything like that, i was out like a light, deep REM cycle, dreaming about stuff... When i felt a slight squeeze on my right hand. I figured at the time that it was just a hair on my arm moving or something like that so just moved my arm a little without opening my eyes, i was not about to wake up for something as trivial as that. But then again, i felt a squeeze on my hand. It was then that i realized that I was not alone in the room. On my hand, in between my thumb and forefinger was the biggest, ugliest and bravest mother (expletive deleted)ing cockroach I had ever seen. In the split second that I had to analyze the situation before absolutely freaking out, it almost felt as if the beast was attempting to make first contact and introducing himself. Like, "hi, my name is gakiburi. Nice to finally meet you. We've been sharing this room for a while now but i thought it would be nice to finally introduce myself to you. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." I immediately shook him off and bounced out of my bed. Lights on and book in my hand my heart raced as i attemted protect myself. I knocked the invader off of my bed and onto the hard wood floor where his 2 inch body could be heard as loud as fireworks as he scurried. I pulled the bed away from the wall but his location was still masked. I came up with an ingenious idea. I turned the lights off and waited, hunting my prey...I mean praying that he wouldnt attack again. Standing on my bed in the dark i waited. Each minute felt an eternity. Waiting, waiting, hunting, waiting...click click click. He had made his move. With my extend-able umbrella and Japanese textbook in hand, I flipped on the lights and flushed him out. He was upside-down on the bottom of my bed frame laying his own trap for me, waiting for my head to peak under. Being of a superior species i coaxed him into the open and dispatched him. And that's when i called the police."
3:32am-- (Insert Law & Order sound)
The remains of John Doe Gakiburi have been removed from the scene and flushed. This case is closed.
"Any similarities to any people living or dead have been a complete coincidence, unless otherwise noted in the credits."
A link to my Flickr site. on which i have posted some pictures from my Hiroshima trip.
It has been a while and I will attempt to catch you all up today. Two weekends ago, I went to Hiroshima and Miyajima Island. I had a fantastic time and it was one of the best trips of my life. Me and several JETs went to the Sake Festival outside Hiroshima. It is a huge event and there were over 200,000 people there throughout the weekend. We only stayed a few hours because we decided to take a 7hour bus ride instead of the Shinkansen (bullet train) because of the price difference. The bus ride was fun but really long.
When we arrived at the Sake Festival we ran into about 60-100 JETs from around the country. It was like a mini-Tokyo Orientation reunion. As i said earlier, we only stayed for a few hours, but that was plenty of time to get sufficiently brain-dead. There were over 900 different types of sake from 5 different regions in Japan. We ended up spending a lot of time in the Hokkaido section. And that is where the next phase of this story begins.
Camped out in front of the Hokkaido booth were two couples sharing a blanket and several glasses of sake. The noticed that the area was getting overrun with gaijin (foreigners) and pulled some of them down to talk. So we sat down with this man and his wife and began speaking drunk Japanese and drunk English. It is surprising how much better at Japanese I am after 20-30 shots of Sake.
The man tells us that he wants to practice his English on us because he wants to open a chain of sake stores in the United States. It did not sound like that, of course, but we were able to piece together his drunk Japanese and his wife's attempted translation into sober Japanese. It was quite the event. Eventually, we found out that he wanted us to go 50/50 with him in an American Sake chain of stores. We promptly turn him down. Sake is not terrible popular in the US. He then asked why we were all together in Japan. I tell him that we are all English teachers and High Schools. He was shocked. Somehow we got on the topic of history, which is not surprising because that is where most of my conversations tend to lead if I do not carefully monitor what I say. So I tell him that I enjoy learning about Buddhism and war in the Kamakura era and samurai in the Edo period. The man promptly asks if I know what a "fundoshi" is. I say, "yes, it's a traditional Japanese loincloth worn by samurai." He smiles and sticks his hand down the front of his paints. He asks, "do you want to see my fundoshi, I make them myself." I immediately tell him that it is okay and that I believe he is wearing one. He then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small utility knife and says, "I am samurai. this is my soul and this is my traditional fundoshi." He then closed the knife and pulled out the front flap of his loin cloth to show the "beautiful" flower embroidery. At this point is wife is stop sign red and starts to lean over to her friend to escape this embarassment. As she is leaning her husband winds up, cocks his arm back, swings and slaps his wife's ass. By now we are all kind of tired of sitting around this guy so we stand up and say our good byes.
----------
Miyajima Island:
Miyajima is a small island off the coast of Hiroshima city. It is famous for the giant orange tori gate out in the water. When we arrived by ferry, the tide was out and the gate was exposed. We walked right up to the 20 meter tall orange gate. By the time we left the sun was setting and the tide was in so the gate was out in the water again.
There is a tall mountain on this island called Mt. Mizen, I believe. At the top of the mountain, about 2 kilometers of stairs and pathways, there is an observatory and a small temple where the Tendai Buddhist monks lit the eternal flame 1100 years ago which still burns today. Seeing as there was no way in holy hell I was going to be able to make it to the top of this mountain by myself, we decided to take the ski-lift/Air-walk to one of the peaks and walk to the top from there. This saved us about 2 hours of walking. At the peak we encountered monkeys, deer, and more monkeys. From there it was only .5 kilometers to the summit. It was a painful trip up old stone stairways, made only more painful by the random encounter with other Americans who's asinine conversation about how President Bush is merely a scapegoat for the economic problems and was in no way to blame for any of America's problems made me want to grab the woman and jump off the mountain into the Sea of Japan. But I digress.
The trip to the top was painful and long, especially with my bad knee, but the reward of being at the top of the mountain looking down over Hiroshima and the Tori gate was quite fantastic.
We soon realized that the sun was setting and that if we wanted to catch a picture of the tori gate on the water at sunset we would have to hurry down the mountain. Thus, the running began. Admittedly running 2 kilometers down a mountain was a bad idea, but the pictures i was able to take were worth the rush and the danger.
-------
The Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum were quite powerful sites to see. Although, the images and the memory can be relatively depressing and painful, the memorial to the a-bombed city is a rich and important part of Japanese history. My experiences and emotions as an American were constantly in conflict with my inner historian. No matter how hard i tried to remain objective and historical, i could not shake the immence guilt and shame I feel as an American in that city. Granted the museum does a very good job remaining historical and neutral and does not point a lot of fingers at the USA or at Japan. One of the most depressing things in Japanese history is the Japanese post-war outlook which justified the bombing because they believed they deserved it. Luckily, that outlook has died off for the most part.
The museum is not for the faint of heart. It is difficult to look at the tattered clothing of middle school children and rusted, deformed tricycles. But all in all, I suggest it for everyone. It is an effective reminder of the pains of war and the frightful possibilities of the future of warfare.
----------
The Tragic Death of a Unwanted Roommate
Tuesday October 21, 3:31am -- (Insert Law & Order sound) Police were called to the scene of an apartment murder case. Renter, Jiorodaano Maikuru, made the call to police after the death of his apparent roommate at 3:30am. The death has been ruled self-defense and no charges have been filed against Jiorodaano. Apparently, Jiorodaano was surprised as his roommate appeared in the apartment at approximately 3am and shook Jiorodaano's hand while he was sleeping.
The following is an excerpt from Jiorodaano's official statement to the police:
"Well, it was about 3am and I was sound asleep. It wasn't a light sleep or anything like that, i was out like a light, deep REM cycle, dreaming about stuff... When i felt a slight squeeze on my right hand. I figured at the time that it was just a hair on my arm moving or something like that so just moved my arm a little without opening my eyes, i was not about to wake up for something as trivial as that. But then again, i felt a squeeze on my hand. It was then that i realized that I was not alone in the room. On my hand, in between my thumb and forefinger was the biggest, ugliest and bravest mother (expletive deleted)ing cockroach I had ever seen. In the split second that I had to analyze the situation before absolutely freaking out, it almost felt as if the beast was attempting to make first contact and introducing himself. Like, "hi, my name is gakiburi. Nice to finally meet you. We've been sharing this room for a while now but i thought it would be nice to finally introduce myself to you. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." I immediately shook him off and bounced out of my bed. Lights on and book in my hand my heart raced as i attemted protect myself. I knocked the invader off of my bed and onto the hard wood floor where his 2 inch body could be heard as loud as fireworks as he scurried. I pulled the bed away from the wall but his location was still masked. I came up with an ingenious idea. I turned the lights off and waited, hunting my prey...I mean praying that he wouldnt attack again. Standing on my bed in the dark i waited. Each minute felt an eternity. Waiting, waiting, hunting, waiting...click click click. He had made his move. With my extend-able umbrella and Japanese textbook in hand, I flipped on the lights and flushed him out. He was upside-down on the bottom of my bed frame laying his own trap for me, waiting for my head to peak under. Being of a superior species i coaxed him into the open and dispatched him. And that's when i called the police."
3:32am-- (Insert Law & Order sound)
The remains of John Doe Gakiburi have been removed from the scene and flushed. This case is closed.
"Any similarities to any people living or dead have been a complete coincidence, unless otherwise noted in the credits."
Friday, October 10, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Enkai
The enkai is a sort of business party where all of the teachers get together, have dinner and drink copious amounts of alcohol. I was really excited about this event because i had heard some interesting stories about enkais from some of the other ALTs. One of the English teachers here at my base school organized the event and put a lot of effort into getting most of the other English teachers to come to my welcome enkai. The dinner was held at Biwako Hotel, it's a fancy hotel on the shore of Lake Biwako in Shiga Prefecture. Seeing as I live right on the boarder of Kyoto and Shiga, the lake is not very far from my town.
The night started pretty strangely. I was killing time in the Starbucks waiting for my ride to the hotel when i noticed 3 foreigners sipping lattes and chatting. As i was on my way out i decided to ask them if they were English teachers. They all were. One of them worked for Nova, JETs rival company which went bankrupt a few years ago. The other worked for Interact, another big English teacher contracting company, and the other guy worked for a private English organization. They were very nice and most of them had been in Japan for over 2 years. Knowing that I got a sweet placement in Yamashina and Kyoto city and knowing that i got into the JET program, probably the best paid and most reputable company, I like to brag a little. I know it's not usually my style but sometimes when you are laying claim to your territory playing a dirty is understandable.
So eventually I made my way to the hotel with four other teachers. The menu was already selected so food was waiting for us when we sat down. In total, there was 7 Japanese English teachers and myself. Now, as I just said, I'm not one to brag but I am capable of holding a few drinks. One of the teachers who spent some time in America in his college years, leans across the table and tells me, "Do you drink everyday? I heard that you enjoy drinking. I drink everyday at every train stop on the way home from work." This comment is problematic in the US and if we had been in the US i would have given him the phone number to the local Alcoholics Anonymous and offered to accompany him to his meetings and be his sponsor. That's how serious he was. He than said, "When I'm around westerners I have a tendency to drink to play catch up with you guys." Another concerning statement, had we been stateside. At around the same time, the other teachers all look at me and smile, then they do the kanpai(cheers) and drink. I take a sip of nasty, flat, watery beer called Yebisu(a beer praised by many to be the best beer in Japan) and everyone else chugs half of their pint. At this point I knew i was in for an interesting evening.
The food was rather plain, not much to report there. Sweet fish sashimi, mizo soup, white rice, the usual. There was one dish which was stranger than strange. I cannot remember what it was called in Japanese but it was a warm mushroom and egg pudding. Everyone loved it, so I had to love it, lest I be shunned and dishonored. It had the consistency of warm, runny jell-o pudding with chunks of mushroom and unagi, eel. It was not aweful but it was not good either. It was rather odd. As the meal went on, more and more bottles of sake came out. Which was fine, I enjoy sake and I have done my share of sake drinking in the past. Each sake was different and delicious in its own way. Some dry and pungent, others sweet and smooth like fruit liquor. This was by far the best experience of the evening. If only the Japanese enjoyed as much variety in flavors and styles in their beer as they do in their sake, this country would be an even better place.
I used to enjoy the different flavor that Sapporo and Kirin had back in the states when I was drinking heavy wheat and barley beers. But now that I am here and all they have is the same tasting light rice beer. There are four main companies that make beer here in Japan: Sapporo, Kirin, Suntory, and Yebisu. They are listed in that order according to my personal favorites, Sapporo being the best. In all honesty, I cannot even taste the difference between the latter three. If I were to make an analogy to american mainstream beer brewing, Sapporo would be the Samuel Adams while the other three would be Bud, Miller, and Coors(all clumped together because I am not even going to waste my time classifying the subtle differences between various flavors of urine). That being said, I would probably sacrifice an adorable little lamb to the beer gods if i could get my hands on a Double Bastard Ale in all its hoppy goodness. I really need to find a microbrewery soon, i might go crazy. But I digress.
All in all, the enkai was fun. Everyone was pretty drunk, except our driver. It was fun to see these people in another atmosphere than the classroom. The most memorable part was the adorable woman sitting to my left, she had probably twice as much alcohol as me,(she weighed probably less than half as much as me) and she was giggling and swaying as we walked to the car. Very fun to watch.
The night started pretty strangely. I was killing time in the Starbucks waiting for my ride to the hotel when i noticed 3 foreigners sipping lattes and chatting. As i was on my way out i decided to ask them if they were English teachers. They all were. One of them worked for Nova, JETs rival company which went bankrupt a few years ago. The other worked for Interact, another big English teacher contracting company, and the other guy worked for a private English organization. They were very nice and most of them had been in Japan for over 2 years. Knowing that I got a sweet placement in Yamashina and Kyoto city and knowing that i got into the JET program, probably the best paid and most reputable company, I like to brag a little. I know it's not usually my style but sometimes when you are laying claim to your territory playing a dirty is understandable.
So eventually I made my way to the hotel with four other teachers. The menu was already selected so food was waiting for us when we sat down. In total, there was 7 Japanese English teachers and myself. Now, as I just said, I'm not one to brag but I am capable of holding a few drinks. One of the teachers who spent some time in America in his college years, leans across the table and tells me, "Do you drink everyday? I heard that you enjoy drinking. I drink everyday at every train stop on the way home from work." This comment is problematic in the US and if we had been in the US i would have given him the phone number to the local Alcoholics Anonymous and offered to accompany him to his meetings and be his sponsor. That's how serious he was. He than said, "When I'm around westerners I have a tendency to drink to play catch up with you guys." Another concerning statement, had we been stateside. At around the same time, the other teachers all look at me and smile, then they do the kanpai(cheers) and drink. I take a sip of nasty, flat, watery beer called Yebisu(a beer praised by many to be the best beer in Japan) and everyone else chugs half of their pint. At this point I knew i was in for an interesting evening.
The food was rather plain, not much to report there. Sweet fish sashimi, mizo soup, white rice, the usual. There was one dish which was stranger than strange. I cannot remember what it was called in Japanese but it was a warm mushroom and egg pudding. Everyone loved it, so I had to love it, lest I be shunned and dishonored. It had the consistency of warm, runny jell-o pudding with chunks of mushroom and unagi, eel. It was not aweful but it was not good either. It was rather odd. As the meal went on, more and more bottles of sake came out. Which was fine, I enjoy sake and I have done my share of sake drinking in the past. Each sake was different and delicious in its own way. Some dry and pungent, others sweet and smooth like fruit liquor. This was by far the best experience of the evening. If only the Japanese enjoyed as much variety in flavors and styles in their beer as they do in their sake, this country would be an even better place.
I used to enjoy the different flavor that Sapporo and Kirin had back in the states when I was drinking heavy wheat and barley beers. But now that I am here and all they have is the same tasting light rice beer. There are four main companies that make beer here in Japan: Sapporo, Kirin, Suntory, and Yebisu. They are listed in that order according to my personal favorites, Sapporo being the best. In all honesty, I cannot even taste the difference between the latter three. If I were to make an analogy to american mainstream beer brewing, Sapporo would be the Samuel Adams while the other three would be Bud, Miller, and Coors(all clumped together because I am not even going to waste my time classifying the subtle differences between various flavors of urine). That being said, I would probably sacrifice an adorable little lamb to the beer gods if i could get my hands on a Double Bastard Ale in all its hoppy goodness. I really need to find a microbrewery soon, i might go crazy. But I digress.
All in all, the enkai was fun. Everyone was pretty drunk, except our driver. It was fun to see these people in another atmosphere than the classroom. The most memorable part was the adorable woman sitting to my left, she had probably twice as much alcohol as me,(she weighed probably less than half as much as me) and she was giggling and swaying as we walked to the car. Very fun to watch.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Costco: A $10 Train Ride to America
Today, in celebration of my four day weekend, I decided to go to Costco in Osaka. For those of you who do not know Costco, (I'm resigned to the fact that there still may be a few people left on the planet that do not know this magnificent shopping experience) it's a large shopping warehouse that sells American goods at wholesale prices and in gigantic portions. Though economical in it's design, why anyone would need three 2-liter bottles of ketchup is beyond me.
Everyone i have talked to said that Costo Japan is the closest thing to an American shopping village like a Chinatown or Little Tokyo back stateside, but what I was not expecting was to step into a store 6000 miles away. Every detail about Costco USA has been duplicated in Japan without exception. It was almost as if i was transported to the Scottsdale Costco I know so well by some futuristic Japanese de-atomizer. But to my awkward surprise there were still a lot of Japanese people around. In the past two months I have grown accustom to miniature shopping carts, miniature parking spaces, and super compact shops. After the initial membership test--retinal scan, secret handshake, super-secret verbal password with voice recognition--they scanned my Costco membership card and I was welcomed by the familiar, no, identical store layout. On the right hand side, immediately after the entrance was the shady eye doctor and prescription center. Directly to the left and in the immediate path of all the foot traffic were the overpriced flat-screen and plasma televisions, outdated printers and computers, cheesy jewelry and random assorted "on sale" items. I am used to crowded places by now, but Japan + Costco = chaos. It was a bit surprising seeing Japanese people pushing these overloaded, extra-wide shopping carts while balancing two screaming children, two hot dogs and two cokes. It was far too unusual for my liking, but it made me feel surprisingly at home. The rest of the store was just as one might expect; clothing, dvd, music, chips and outdoor furniture in the middle. On the far left side of the store was all the food in bulk and on the right side of the store was all the non-consumables like kitchen knives and vacuum cleaners. Lastly, in the back was all the alcohol, fruits, meats and breads. It really felt like a bizarre-o version of America in the heart of Japan.
After spending the equivalent of $70 on only 6 items (huge tub of Skippy chunky peanut butter, Quaker Oats granola, Best Foods mayo, kirkland brand tuna, kirkland canned chicken, and Poppycock-nuts and popcorn and caramel) we made our way to the japanese version of Costco food. To my pleasant surprise, it was the same exact food offered at US Costco. I indulged myself on two large slices of pizza and a coke. It was pleasant to not have unusual things like corn and mayo on my pizza.
Overall, it was a successful trip. I bought just the perfect amount that would fit in my suitcase I brought, because like at American Costos there are no bags provided. It would have been a real pain in the butt to try and juggle all my things home on the train without my suitcase. One of the members of our group had to buy a bag to carry all of her things home. Prepare yourselves, this will sound a bit chauvinistic but it remains true... My hypothesis that women have no eye for spacial relations remains valid and unchallenged.
Everyone i have talked to said that Costo Japan is the closest thing to an American shopping village like a Chinatown or Little Tokyo back stateside, but what I was not expecting was to step into a store 6000 miles away. Every detail about Costco USA has been duplicated in Japan without exception. It was almost as if i was transported to the Scottsdale Costco I know so well by some futuristic Japanese de-atomizer. But to my awkward surprise there were still a lot of Japanese people around. In the past two months I have grown accustom to miniature shopping carts, miniature parking spaces, and super compact shops. After the initial membership test--retinal scan, secret handshake, super-secret verbal password with voice recognition--they scanned my Costco membership card and I was welcomed by the familiar, no, identical store layout. On the right hand side, immediately after the entrance was the shady eye doctor and prescription center. Directly to the left and in the immediate path of all the foot traffic were the overpriced flat-screen and plasma televisions, outdated printers and computers, cheesy jewelry and random assorted "on sale" items. I am used to crowded places by now, but Japan + Costco = chaos. It was a bit surprising seeing Japanese people pushing these overloaded, extra-wide shopping carts while balancing two screaming children, two hot dogs and two cokes. It was far too unusual for my liking, but it made me feel surprisingly at home. The rest of the store was just as one might expect; clothing, dvd, music, chips and outdoor furniture in the middle. On the far left side of the store was all the food in bulk and on the right side of the store was all the non-consumables like kitchen knives and vacuum cleaners. Lastly, in the back was all the alcohol, fruits, meats and breads. It really felt like a bizarre-o version of America in the heart of Japan.
After spending the equivalent of $70 on only 6 items (huge tub of Skippy chunky peanut butter, Quaker Oats granola, Best Foods mayo, kirkland brand tuna, kirkland canned chicken, and Poppycock-nuts and popcorn and caramel) we made our way to the japanese version of Costco food. To my pleasant surprise, it was the same exact food offered at US Costco. I indulged myself on two large slices of pizza and a coke. It was pleasant to not have unusual things like corn and mayo on my pizza.
Overall, it was a successful trip. I bought just the perfect amount that would fit in my suitcase I brought, because like at American Costos there are no bags provided. It would have been a real pain in the butt to try and juggle all my things home on the train without my suitcase. One of the members of our group had to buy a bag to carry all of her things home. Prepare yourselves, this will sound a bit chauvinistic but it remains true... My hypothesis that women have no eye for spacial relations remains valid and unchallenged.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
The Saga of the Single Toothed Barber
Of the nearly forty-seven barbers and hair salons in my neighborhood, i mistakenly went to the with the "Engrish" on the door.
I would like to take the time to preface this story with a bit of background history about me and my hair. My hair and I have a wonderful relationship. For the past eight or ten years I have done nothing to upset my short brown locks and vice-versa. My hair style has not changed in that time and the only care i usually do is a daily shampoo and a bi-quarterly cut at the local Supercuts. In the last decade, I have only ventured out of my hair comfort zone a handful of times; each and every one of those times I have been disappointed in the result of the hair removal.
This time was a bit different. I walked into this family owned barber shop knowing that i was going to feel violated upon the termination of this transaction. Though I attempted to prepare myself mentally and verbally for this confrontation, i knew i was not going to leave this place a happy camper. Now, I am not usually a stickler about my own personal appearance, my hair is the only thing i would ever demand a refund for upon a butchery. At home, at my local Supercuts, all i had to say was, "Number 2 on the sides, about an inch off the top." With that simple, incomplete sentence, I received years of perfect haircuts. Today's assassination, though expected, was not nearly as awful as it could have been, I am merely being dramatic as i feel it makes this blog more interesting to read.
The event began with the ritualistic mumble of the phrase, "welcome" in Japanese. At this point my brain was screaming, "run, throw a flash grenade or a smoke bomb, but just run away..." But i could not turn back, I already asked the price and nodded in reluctant agreement. Suddenly, I was ushered into the seat and bombarded with rapid Japanese. Only then did i realize that the old woman in the apron was still shorter than me even though i was sitting down and the old man was bald and had only one yellow tooth. I smiled. (i made mental notes of everything because i knew i would be writing about it here) I told the barber that i would like my hair cut short on the sides and leave the top long enough so i could style it to my own liking. Well, that's what it sounded like in my head, but in reality, it sounded like, "short...here...long...here..." in Japanese. Then i made a sound and a hand motion. It was the sound you would expect the Nike "swoosh" symbol to make if it moved passed your ear really quickly. I did this to symbolize the signature upward turn my hair has grown accustom to over the last decade. Then i showed the man a picture so he would know exactly how i style my hair. He nodded and prepared his scissors and combs.
It was at this point that i felt resigned to my fate. It was also at this time when decided that i would be going to the local department store to purchase a hat.
I give the man a lot of credit. He did his best. I was engrossed in the even cutting of every hair on my head. He even trimmed my beard. But i will admit that when the hot lather and the straight razor came out, i tensed a little. I not sure why, maybe it was the fact that he looked like he was a hundred and thirty-seven years old and his hands were permanently crooked as if he held a pair of scissors. After the shave, i felt more relaxed. I should have noticed that he was wrapping up the cutting session when the hot towels and the blow-dryer came out. It was then that i realized that he did not actually cut the top of my hair. He made it look like he did, but my hair is the same length now as it was when i went into his shop. I suppose im not upset, it was an interesting experience. It gives me the excuse to learn how to cut my own hair now, because i have to fix what this guy failed to cut. At the moment, my hair does not look awful, but it's not me.
-Gio
I would like to take the time to preface this story with a bit of background history about me and my hair. My hair and I have a wonderful relationship. For the past eight or ten years I have done nothing to upset my short brown locks and vice-versa. My hair style has not changed in that time and the only care i usually do is a daily shampoo and a bi-quarterly cut at the local Supercuts. In the last decade, I have only ventured out of my hair comfort zone a handful of times; each and every one of those times I have been disappointed in the result of the hair removal.
This time was a bit different. I walked into this family owned barber shop knowing that i was going to feel violated upon the termination of this transaction. Though I attempted to prepare myself mentally and verbally for this confrontation, i knew i was not going to leave this place a happy camper. Now, I am not usually a stickler about my own personal appearance, my hair is the only thing i would ever demand a refund for upon a butchery. At home, at my local Supercuts, all i had to say was, "Number 2 on the sides, about an inch off the top." With that simple, incomplete sentence, I received years of perfect haircuts. Today's assassination, though expected, was not nearly as awful as it could have been, I am merely being dramatic as i feel it makes this blog more interesting to read.
The event began with the ritualistic mumble of the phrase, "welcome" in Japanese. At this point my brain was screaming, "run, throw a flash grenade or a smoke bomb, but just run away..." But i could not turn back, I already asked the price and nodded in reluctant agreement. Suddenly, I was ushered into the seat and bombarded with rapid Japanese. Only then did i realize that the old woman in the apron was still shorter than me even though i was sitting down and the old man was bald and had only one yellow tooth. I smiled. (i made mental notes of everything because i knew i would be writing about it here) I told the barber that i would like my hair cut short on the sides and leave the top long enough so i could style it to my own liking. Well, that's what it sounded like in my head, but in reality, it sounded like, "short...here...long...here..." in Japanese. Then i made a sound and a hand motion. It was the sound you would expect the Nike "swoosh" symbol to make if it moved passed your ear really quickly. I did this to symbolize the signature upward turn my hair has grown accustom to over the last decade. Then i showed the man a picture so he would know exactly how i style my hair. He nodded and prepared his scissors and combs.
It was at this point that i felt resigned to my fate. It was also at this time when decided that i would be going to the local department store to purchase a hat.
I give the man a lot of credit. He did his best. I was engrossed in the even cutting of every hair on my head. He even trimmed my beard. But i will admit that when the hot lather and the straight razor came out, i tensed a little. I not sure why, maybe it was the fact that he looked like he was a hundred and thirty-seven years old and his hands were permanently crooked as if he held a pair of scissors. After the shave, i felt more relaxed. I should have noticed that he was wrapping up the cutting session when the hot towels and the blow-dryer came out. It was then that i realized that he did not actually cut the top of my hair. He made it look like he did, but my hair is the same length now as it was when i went into his shop. I suppose im not upset, it was an interesting experience. It gives me the excuse to learn how to cut my own hair now, because i have to fix what this guy failed to cut. At the moment, my hair does not look awful, but it's not me.
-Gio
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Bunkasai: Culture Festival
It was a spectacular few days at my base school. It is largely an excuse for all of the students and teachers to take their minds off of school for a few days and let their hair down, and boy do they.
The event at both of my schools was divided into three sections; first, was the first year students and their class banners (nothing terribly exciting there).
Second, is the second year students, they do a costume party and dance competition between their homeroom classes. (also, not terribly exciting, but more fun).
And the last section of the festival is the drama plays by the third year students. I only saw half of the plays at my base school, Rakutoh, but they were all very well done. The first play was about the Hiroshima atomic bomb and the days proceeding the event. It was about a family torn apart by the war when the father left only 2 weeks before the bomb, August 5. When he returned home, his home was destroyed and family vaporized. It was quite depressing. The acting was quite good and i was entertained.
After the play, there was a bit of a humming silence where no one wanted to talk but some whispered here and there. It was at this point, that for the first time in my life, I was ashamed to be an American. I slouched in my chair and sat, quietly waiting...praying for the next play to start before anyone noticed that there was an American in the room. To the playwrite's credit, there was very little mention of the Americans at all in the play. It was largely a historical perspective based on human emotions, not on a Japanese post-war perspective.
The other two plays were relatively boring. One was about sexually transmitted diseases and depression...i think. And the other one was about Japanese racism towards foreigners, in which a Korean student was killed. Very edgy i think. This is the final song of the play where everyone stood up and started singing.
Overall, the week was really fun and I am sad that i had to work yesterday and missed half of Third year plays. A large majority of my students were sad that i missed their play on wednesday, but i had lunch with them today...i think that made up for it. I also have some random pictures of students and of events that will be posted here. There were also several class bands that played on stage today. (video to come a bit later)
The event at both of my schools was divided into three sections; first, was the first year students and their class banners (nothing terribly exciting there).
Second, is the second year students, they do a costume party and dance competition between their homeroom classes. (also, not terribly exciting, but more fun).
And the last section of the festival is the drama plays by the third year students. I only saw half of the plays at my base school, Rakutoh, but they were all very well done. The first play was about the Hiroshima atomic bomb and the days proceeding the event. It was about a family torn apart by the war when the father left only 2 weeks before the bomb, August 5. When he returned home, his home was destroyed and family vaporized. It was quite depressing. The acting was quite good and i was entertained.
After the play, there was a bit of a humming silence where no one wanted to talk but some whispered here and there. It was at this point, that for the first time in my life, I was ashamed to be an American. I slouched in my chair and sat, quietly waiting...praying for the next play to start before anyone noticed that there was an American in the room. To the playwrite's credit, there was very little mention of the Americans at all in the play. It was largely a historical perspective based on human emotions, not on a Japanese post-war perspective.
The other two plays were relatively boring. One was about sexually transmitted diseases and depression...i think. And the other one was about Japanese racism towards foreigners, in which a Korean student was killed. Very edgy i think. This is the final song of the play where everyone stood up and started singing.
Overall, the week was really fun and I am sad that i had to work yesterday and missed half of Third year plays. A large majority of my students were sad that i missed their play on wednesday, but i had lunch with them today...i think that made up for it. I also have some random pictures of students and of events that will be posted here. There were also several class bands that played on stage today. (video to come a bit later)
Monday, September 8, 2008
Osaka: The City that Never Sleeps (now with pix)
Ah, there is so much to say and yet so little space on the internet. In all seriousness, I could spend the next 24hours detailing the moment by moment timeline of "Osaka Saturday" and still fall short of decent description of the day in total. Osaka is the only city i have been to where the party does not start until 4am and the first train does not leave until 5am.
The day began at 11am at Kyoto Station where I met up with a friend for breakfast before meeting with the rest of our group on the platform to Osaka. The initial plan was to meet up and head out to osaka on the noon train and head straight to the Osaka Dome and watch the Onix Buffaloes beat the Seibo Lions in a head on, life or death baseball battle. To our surprise we saw that there were three Americans on the Buffaloes, one of which was named, Tuffy Rhodes. Now Tuffy's nickname was, "Mr. Buffalo" and everytime he came up to bat as the designated hitter for the pitcher some random American rap song would play over the speakers. Now, Tuffy was a very large African American man. When i say large, I mean giantesque in comparison to his Japanese compadres. We had a very long lasting conversation about whether the use of different rap songs for Tuffy's batting cheers was Japanese racism or just the man's personal preference. I came to the conclusion that he is actually devout fan of classical music and that the rap music is just a stereo type he needs to fill because of Japanese perceptions of African Americans. Although, to our grave disappointment, the Onix Buffaloes failed to vanquish the Seibu Lions, 7-1. An utter slaughter. The Lions pounced on the Buffaloes like a ... lion pouncing on a buffalo. (Brilliant use of simile, I know)
Knowing that this night would be a painfully expensive evening, i decided to go to an ATM to take out some more money so that i would not run dry and not have the money necessary to get home. It felt like i went to every damn ATM in the district. I tried an AM PM, a Family Mart, a Sunkist(some random convenient store), and two bank ATMs. All of which rejected my private Kyoto bank cash card(debit card). So finally, after about 30minutes of searching i tried a Citi Bank. The rejected my Japanese bank card, but accepted my Wells Fargo card. To me this was shocking, but i was grateful to not have to borrow money from people around me. I learned my lesson though, never go to Osaka with less than ￥20,000($200) in my wallet.
The rest of the evening was a bit more exciting, although it is very difficult to remember the details from 1am - 4am, i will try. After a delicious dinner of Kimchi(fermented cabbage) and deeply fried chicken, myself and the group of Kyoto JETs met up with the Hyogo JETs for a night on the town. At about 830pm I had a very important, yet easy decision to make. To hangout and go shopping with some people until 11pm and catch the last train back to Kyoto station and home to Yamashina, or to party all night and catch the first train home at 5am. As i said, it was an easy decision for me, the only thing waiting for me at home was an ominously multiplying tower of dirty laundry and a painfully empty refrigerator. And thus the night began.
For ￥2500，roughly $25, we accepted the guidance of a bald man in a yellow shirt and wore a yellow wristband indicating that we were foreigners on a pub crawl. In the price of the event all of the cover charges to all of the bars and 1 free drink were included. (we would later come to the conclusion that the price was a terrible rip off and the only thing this event did was show us all of the good foreigner bars in Osaka) But, such is life. The first bar was a New Zealand bar with flags and nationalistic propaganda around the room with two Japanese bartenders. On the television was Austrailian rules football, that means that it's like American football but less rules, less armor and more broken faces. On the menu was linguini and french fries. By the time we left this bar and headed for the next, half of our group was drunk and heading home. Luckily, I have had lots of practice over the past 4 years and am a champion. We went to 6 different bars and clubs over the course of the night, each a bit more strange than the last. At one point in the evening we ended up at an Irish bar with authentic Irishmen tending the bar. There i ran into a huge Irish guy. I use the words "ran into" in a literal sense. I bumped into him and my head only came up to his armpits. I was a bit frightened but got to talking to him and found out that he spent some time in Tucson, Arizona.
Events like these are always a trip down fun-times avenue but when you lose a member of your group due to faulty leadership and unnecessary risks, the night begins to sour. At one point in the evening, we lost one of our friends because he got caught up helping an extremely intoxicated girl walk. Eventually, he showed up about 2 hours later at the last bar of the evening. At one of the clubs we helped populate there was a bit of a pole dancing show and a breakdancer. It was quite interesting.
Saturday night was the first time i have ever heard this said about any establishment, "Sorry that this club is a bit empty, it does not usually get busy until 5am." It was hard to believe that the place would fill up with locals at 5am, but when the night progressed the club filled with people around 430am. At which point, one of my friends was dragged to the dance floor by one of the locals. As she was dancing with this guy, he kept grabbing her shoulders and shaking her, then removing his hands and putting them in the air like he was sorry and felt guilty for touching her. This was the highlight of my evening and I still laugh when i think about this. The look on my friends face was priceless, filled with fear, shock, and awkwardness. It is a shame that i did not get this on video. After this club, we all left. Some people when on to the next club but the rest of the kyoto people went home. It was nearly 5am and the first train home called our names.
We wandered the streets of Osaka at 5am without a clue to where the subway station was that would take us to the main station. Eventually we found one, and noticed that we had walked about 2 stops south of where we were supposed to be. As a result, it took us much longer to go home than was likely if we had got to the other station. I finally got home at 8am. It made a full 24hours of being awake and on my feet. My uncomfortable bed felt amazing and I welcomed the springs of my hard mattress. I slept on and off for a large majority of Sunday. I am writing this from work today because i have nothing to do. All of the students are preparing for the school festival tomorrow and i have no classes to teach. I have been studying kanji all day and have memorized about 15 new characters.
The next entry will likely be the pictures and videos from both of my school's cultural festivals.
Gio
The day began at 11am at Kyoto Station where I met up with a friend for breakfast before meeting with the rest of our group on the platform to Osaka. The initial plan was to meet up and head out to osaka on the noon train and head straight to the Osaka Dome and watch the Onix Buffaloes beat the Seibo Lions in a head on, life or death baseball battle. To our surprise we saw that there were three Americans on the Buffaloes, one of which was named, Tuffy Rhodes. Now Tuffy's nickname was, "Mr. Buffalo" and everytime he came up to bat as the designated hitter for the pitcher some random American rap song would play over the speakers. Now, Tuffy was a very large African American man. When i say large, I mean giantesque in comparison to his Japanese compadres. We had a very long lasting conversation about whether the use of different rap songs for Tuffy's batting cheers was Japanese racism or just the man's personal preference. I came to the conclusion that he is actually devout fan of classical music and that the rap music is just a stereo type he needs to fill because of Japanese perceptions of African Americans. Although, to our grave disappointment, the Onix Buffaloes failed to vanquish the Seibu Lions, 7-1. An utter slaughter. The Lions pounced on the Buffaloes like a ... lion pouncing on a buffalo. (Brilliant use of simile, I know)
Knowing that this night would be a painfully expensive evening, i decided to go to an ATM to take out some more money so that i would not run dry and not have the money necessary to get home. It felt like i went to every damn ATM in the district. I tried an AM PM, a Family Mart, a Sunkist(some random convenient store), and two bank ATMs. All of which rejected my private Kyoto bank cash card(debit card). So finally, after about 30minutes of searching i tried a Citi Bank. The rejected my Japanese bank card, but accepted my Wells Fargo card. To me this was shocking, but i was grateful to not have to borrow money from people around me. I learned my lesson though, never go to Osaka with less than ￥20,000($200) in my wallet.
The rest of the evening was a bit more exciting, although it is very difficult to remember the details from 1am - 4am, i will try. After a delicious dinner of Kimchi(fermented cabbage) and deeply fried chicken, myself and the group of Kyoto JETs met up with the Hyogo JETs for a night on the town. At about 830pm I had a very important, yet easy decision to make. To hangout and go shopping with some people until 11pm and catch the last train back to Kyoto station and home to Yamashina, or to party all night and catch the first train home at 5am. As i said, it was an easy decision for me, the only thing waiting for me at home was an ominously multiplying tower of dirty laundry and a painfully empty refrigerator. And thus the night began.
For ￥2500，roughly $25, we accepted the guidance of a bald man in a yellow shirt and wore a yellow wristband indicating that we were foreigners on a pub crawl. In the price of the event all of the cover charges to all of the bars and 1 free drink were included. (we would later come to the conclusion that the price was a terrible rip off and the only thing this event did was show us all of the good foreigner bars in Osaka) But, such is life. The first bar was a New Zealand bar with flags and nationalistic propaganda around the room with two Japanese bartenders. On the television was Austrailian rules football, that means that it's like American football but less rules, less armor and more broken faces. On the menu was linguini and french fries. By the time we left this bar and headed for the next, half of our group was drunk and heading home. Luckily, I have had lots of practice over the past 4 years and am a champion. We went to 6 different bars and clubs over the course of the night, each a bit more strange than the last. At one point in the evening we ended up at an Irish bar with authentic Irishmen tending the bar. There i ran into a huge Irish guy. I use the words "ran into" in a literal sense. I bumped into him and my head only came up to his armpits. I was a bit frightened but got to talking to him and found out that he spent some time in Tucson, Arizona.
Events like these are always a trip down fun-times avenue but when you lose a member of your group due to faulty leadership and unnecessary risks, the night begins to sour. At one point in the evening, we lost one of our friends because he got caught up helping an extremely intoxicated girl walk. Eventually, he showed up about 2 hours later at the last bar of the evening. At one of the clubs we helped populate there was a bit of a pole dancing show and a breakdancer. It was quite interesting.
Saturday night was the first time i have ever heard this said about any establishment, "Sorry that this club is a bit empty, it does not usually get busy until 5am." It was hard to believe that the place would fill up with locals at 5am, but when the night progressed the club filled with people around 430am. At which point, one of my friends was dragged to the dance floor by one of the locals. As she was dancing with this guy, he kept grabbing her shoulders and shaking her, then removing his hands and putting them in the air like he was sorry and felt guilty for touching her. This was the highlight of my evening and I still laugh when i think about this. The look on my friends face was priceless, filled with fear, shock, and awkwardness. It is a shame that i did not get this on video. After this club, we all left. Some people when on to the next club but the rest of the kyoto people went home. It was nearly 5am and the first train home called our names.
We wandered the streets of Osaka at 5am without a clue to where the subway station was that would take us to the main station. Eventually we found one, and noticed that we had walked about 2 stops south of where we were supposed to be. As a result, it took us much longer to go home than was likely if we had got to the other station. I finally got home at 8am. It made a full 24hours of being awake and on my feet. My uncomfortable bed felt amazing and I welcomed the springs of my hard mattress. I slept on and off for a large majority of Sunday. I am writing this from work today because i have nothing to do. All of the students are preparing for the school festival tomorrow and i have no classes to teach. I have been studying kanji all day and have memorized about 15 new characters.
The next entry will likely be the pictures and videos from both of my school's cultural festivals.
Gio
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Trials and Triburations...trebulasionsu...Tribulations?
I suppose nothing has really been "suffering resulting from oppression or persecution" but there certainly have been some interesting experiences. I shall start from the good and move to the, not necessarily bad but interesting.
Osaka on Sunday was a blast and a half. The day consisted of train-hopping from station to station looking for the right connection here and there. I could never find my way back through that place if i ever had to go to Umeda station again. But while there, we ran into a snag when we could not find our 5th man. We were supposed to meet up with him at Umeda Station, but apparently there are 3 different Umeda stations within walking distance of each other in Osaka. So for about 30minutes we attempted to locate the straggler, but eventually we met up. We then proceeded to eat (my favorite activity). We found a little cafe which had decent prices and a big enough dinning room for 5 people. (big dinning rooms seem to be on the rare side in cafe style restaurants) One of our party, who shall remain nameless in order to protect the hungry, ordered two meals, not knowing that each meal came with a side of rice, lettuce salad, pickled vegetables and miso soup. As we all finish, our once starving companion is left starring at two half-finished dishes and healthy serving of curry. It was funny at the time. We then proceeded to the world famous Osaka aquarium, where two whale sharks are kept circling a comparatively small tank. Unfortunately, because i never came home on saturday night, i forgot to bring my camera. If i can figure out how to get pictures off of my cell phone i will post them in another addition of my daily/semi-daily blog-o-life. During this physically and monetarily taxing day, I had a bit of a philosophical/surreal thought. At the time, it felt just as likely as reality, but here goes. Have you ever wondered if fish have air-iums where they keep humans they find or capture in order to enjoy their antics while parading through a small water filled tubes packed like sardines? Only 2% of the ocean has been thoroughly mapped. I think it's possible.
Enough of that non-sense. Today was quite interesting. It started off pretty slow as i made the final touches to my lesson plan and prepared for an other self-deprecating show of "who's on first" but in Japanese with english mumbles. My Oral Communications 2 class only has 7 students. They are normally really excited to be there but today they were a bit un-genki(un-energetic), but they did alright. I know all their names now, so they were proud of me. I attempted to teach them a bit about american music and i played a Foo Fighters song, Best of You. They seemed to enjoy it, but it was apparently too fast for them to really understand. Next time i will need to choose an easier song.
I find myself attempting to spell in public, which has always been terribly difficult for me. If i did not have a word processing unit capable of correcting my horrible english on the go, then i probably never would have graduated high school. You think i kid, but i never kid. Meh, I will not worry about it until one of the students calls me on my horrible english spelling.
I had my first month goals and performance evaluation today. It consisted of the principle asking me if I was accustomed to Japanese life and my town and all that jazz. Then he asked me if I wanted to join the Judo club at school. He asked because i mentioned that i was interested in Judo while he and I were two bottles of sake down at my welcome party. Judo is the principle's sport so he also has a bit of pull around town, apparently. From what i can understand, he was a national champion of Judo some time in the past. But back to the topic of my evaluation. He asks if I am interested in the Judo club and i said yes. He nods, says something to the effect of "i'll be right back..." He reenters the room with his white gi, the uniform for Judo, and tells me to stand up and put it on. So right about now I am thinking that this is the strangest work performance interview i have ever been in. Then the principle, the vice-principle, and one of the english teachers are all putting this regalia on me as i stand there petrified from hilarity. I want to laugh but as all of this is happening, the principle is saying, in broken english, that he is taking my sizes so he can get me a Judo Gi of my own as a present. Laughing would have likely upset everyone. So by now a few moments have past and the vice-principle still has not emerged from behind me, where he was attempting to wrap the white obi(belt) around my waist. Everything else fit pretty well, but the belt was far to short. I guess im wider than the average Japanese.
After this, the other AET that works at my school on Tuesdays asked me if i wanted to go practice some karate weapons training. To which i replied, "Sure, that sounds like fun." But in my head I sounded a bit more enthusiastic, something like, "Holy crap, Hell Yes I want to play with weapons." So after my inner ninja turtle finished jumping for joy, we walked out to the gym and practiced with the staff and the nunchucks. I had the pleasure of using the padded nunchucks because if i attempted to begin with the wooden ones, i would likely have returned home to day with a variety of deepening black and blue marks on my head and arms. Overall, it was a fun day. I am thinking about finding a iaido dojo or something around here. Iaido is the art of drawing a japanese sword, attacking, and putting the sword back in its scabbard. I think that will be a good way to get out of the house.
Mike
Osaka on Sunday was a blast and a half. The day consisted of train-hopping from station to station looking for the right connection here and there. I could never find my way back through that place if i ever had to go to Umeda station again. But while there, we ran into a snag when we could not find our 5th man. We were supposed to meet up with him at Umeda Station, but apparently there are 3 different Umeda stations within walking distance of each other in Osaka. So for about 30minutes we attempted to locate the straggler, but eventually we met up. We then proceeded to eat (my favorite activity). We found a little cafe which had decent prices and a big enough dinning room for 5 people. (big dinning rooms seem to be on the rare side in cafe style restaurants) One of our party, who shall remain nameless in order to protect the hungry, ordered two meals, not knowing that each meal came with a side of rice, lettuce salad, pickled vegetables and miso soup. As we all finish, our once starving companion is left starring at two half-finished dishes and healthy serving of curry. It was funny at the time. We then proceeded to the world famous Osaka aquarium, where two whale sharks are kept circling a comparatively small tank. Unfortunately, because i never came home on saturday night, i forgot to bring my camera. If i can figure out how to get pictures off of my cell phone i will post them in another addition of my daily/semi-daily blog-o-life. During this physically and monetarily taxing day, I had a bit of a philosophical/surreal thought. At the time, it felt just as likely as reality, but here goes. Have you ever wondered if fish have air-iums where they keep humans they find or capture in order to enjoy their antics while parading through a small water filled tubes packed like sardines? Only 2% of the ocean has been thoroughly mapped. I think it's possible.
Enough of that non-sense. Today was quite interesting. It started off pretty slow as i made the final touches to my lesson plan and prepared for an other self-deprecating show of "who's on first" but in Japanese with english mumbles. My Oral Communications 2 class only has 7 students. They are normally really excited to be there but today they were a bit un-genki(un-energetic), but they did alright. I know all their names now, so they were proud of me. I attempted to teach them a bit about american music and i played a Foo Fighters song, Best of You. They seemed to enjoy it, but it was apparently too fast for them to really understand. Next time i will need to choose an easier song.
I find myself attempting to spell in public, which has always been terribly difficult for me. If i did not have a word processing unit capable of correcting my horrible english on the go, then i probably never would have graduated high school. You think i kid, but i never kid. Meh, I will not worry about it until one of the students calls me on my horrible english spelling.
I had my first month goals and performance evaluation today. It consisted of the principle asking me if I was accustomed to Japanese life and my town and all that jazz. Then he asked me if I wanted to join the Judo club at school. He asked because i mentioned that i was interested in Judo while he and I were two bottles of sake down at my welcome party. Judo is the principle's sport so he also has a bit of pull around town, apparently. From what i can understand, he was a national champion of Judo some time in the past. But back to the topic of my evaluation. He asks if I am interested in the Judo club and i said yes. He nods, says something to the effect of "i'll be right back..." He reenters the room with his white gi, the uniform for Judo, and tells me to stand up and put it on. So right about now I am thinking that this is the strangest work performance interview i have ever been in. Then the principle, the vice-principle, and one of the english teachers are all putting this regalia on me as i stand there petrified from hilarity. I want to laugh but as all of this is happening, the principle is saying, in broken english, that he is taking my sizes so he can get me a Judo Gi of my own as a present. Laughing would have likely upset everyone. So by now a few moments have past and the vice-principle still has not emerged from behind me, where he was attempting to wrap the white obi(belt) around my waist. Everything else fit pretty well, but the belt was far to short. I guess im wider than the average Japanese.
After this, the other AET that works at my school on Tuesdays asked me if i wanted to go practice some karate weapons training. To which i replied, "Sure, that sounds like fun." But in my head I sounded a bit more enthusiastic, something like, "Holy crap, Hell Yes I want to play with weapons." So after my inner ninja turtle finished jumping for joy, we walked out to the gym and practiced with the staff and the nunchucks. I had the pleasure of using the padded nunchucks because if i attempted to begin with the wooden ones, i would likely have returned home to day with a variety of deepening black and blue marks on my head and arms. Overall, it was a fun day. I am thinking about finding a iaido dojo or something around here. Iaido is the art of drawing a japanese sword, attacking, and putting the sword back in its scabbard. I think that will be a good way to get out of the house.
Mike
Saturday, August 30, 2008
One Week Down, Many More to Go
Tommy Lee Jones does all the advertising for the Boss coffee company. It is pretty strange seeing his unsmiling face on every train next to every other window. Speaking of the train, I have had the pleasure of standing next to the strangest people this week. On wednesdays and fridays I have to commute down to Uji city to teach at my visit school, and everyday so far i have been kept entertained by strangest Japanese transvestite i have ever seen. Her/his antics for getting people to give up their seats on a full train are unprecedented and quite comical. She/he starts by staring at the person who is occupying the seat, then she/he moves and stands right in front of that person and stares. In a matter of minutes, the person gets so uncomfortable that they get up and move. Quite entertaining.
On he train ride home, there is a whole new type of strange. There is a young man, probably about 22 or so, that rides the same train from Nara to Kyoto station. I assume that he does this as a nervous tick of some sort but he is a special guy. He spends the entire time while the train is in motion walking up and down between the cars of the train. He paces back and forth and in and out until the train stops. He then proceeds to get off the train in order to throw away torn out pages of magazine, which he properly recycles. Then just before the train doors close he jumps back on the train and continues his giggling and pacing. He does all of this while staring at his cell phone. Not talking, not texting, not watching tv or listening to music, just staring. One time he lifted the seat cushions off of a vacant train seat like he was looking for something. Yesterday, this person get off the train, recycle his magazine page, and leave the station, the train doors closed and we left. Three stops later, in kyoto station, i saw him getting on the train that i just got off of. This blew my mind.
Back to education and teaching and such. I like my job. I teach 4 classes per week at my base school and about 5-6 per week at my visit school. I have 10 different classes of first year students. That means that i can make 1 lesson and have it last nearly 3 weeks at that school, whereas at my base school i have to make 2 lessons per week at least.
This weekend i'm going to Osaka to do a bit of shopping at Costco and toursity things. Pictures to come. I should really find out how i'm supposed to pay my rent...
~Gio
On he train ride home, there is a whole new type of strange. There is a young man, probably about 22 or so, that rides the same train from Nara to Kyoto station. I assume that he does this as a nervous tick of some sort but he is a special guy. He spends the entire time while the train is in motion walking up and down between the cars of the train. He paces back and forth and in and out until the train stops. He then proceeds to get off the train in order to throw away torn out pages of magazine, which he properly recycles. Then just before the train doors close he jumps back on the train and continues his giggling and pacing. He does all of this while staring at his cell phone. Not talking, not texting, not watching tv or listening to music, just staring. One time he lifted the seat cushions off of a vacant train seat like he was looking for something. Yesterday, this person get off the train, recycle his magazine page, and leave the station, the train doors closed and we left. Three stops later, in kyoto station, i saw him getting on the train that i just got off of. This blew my mind.
Back to education and teaching and such. I like my job. I teach 4 classes per week at my base school and about 5-6 per week at my visit school. I have 10 different classes of first year students. That means that i can make 1 lesson and have it last nearly 3 weeks at that school, whereas at my base school i have to make 2 lessons per week at least.
This weekend i'm going to Osaka to do a bit of shopping at Costco and toursity things. Pictures to come. I should really find out how i'm supposed to pay my rent...
~Gio
Monday, August 25, 2008
So I'm Officially an Educator
My first official day of class was today. I walked into work a bit nervous and a bit frightened but that was quelled 5 minutes before my first class when my co-teacher came to tell me that class was starting a period earlier than it normally would be cause the school was making up time for the students to prepare for the school festival.
as a result, i walked into class completely mentally prepared to spend the next 50-110minutes with these students only to realize that i forgot to photocopy the activity sheets for all of the students. Granted i am not entirely at fault seeing as this particular teacher told me that he would do all the photocopying for the class as long as i gave him the activities and sheets 1 period in advance. I mean it's not like he had the lesson plan on his desk for an entire week or anything...oh wait, he did. Such is life. Everyone was busy and nervous. Everyone except the students. They walk around campus like they own the joint. In fact, they do own the place. They can and will do whatever they want in class, including but not limited to; eating, drinking, sitting on their desks, talking while teachers or other students are talking, showing up late, not showing up at all, and not dressing in dress code (which i think needs to be enforced, because --and i never thought i would say this in my life--but some skirts are too short). Wow, listen to me. I sound like an old priest from Catholic school.
All that being said, the class was an overall success. I think most of the students were genuinely interested, despite the blank stares and whispered wakaranai's (i dont understand). The second class period was a bit more painful. It was directly after lunch and everyone in the room shamefully wore the food-coma droopy eyes. It did not help that the activity that my Japanese Teacher of English decided to do was quite boring and left them talking in pairs for nearly 25 minutes. Eventually, the class was concluded and I departed to my desk in the teachers office to work on the next lesson plan for the next week. Luckily, I am able to reuse lesson plans for different classes at both of my schools.
So far I enjoy being a teacher. We shall see what tomorrow brings. I cannot say for sure that I would want to do this job for the rest of my life, but who knows.
~Gio
as a result, i walked into class completely mentally prepared to spend the next 50-110minutes with these students only to realize that i forgot to photocopy the activity sheets for all of the students. Granted i am not entirely at fault seeing as this particular teacher told me that he would do all the photocopying for the class as long as i gave him the activities and sheets 1 period in advance. I mean it's not like he had the lesson plan on his desk for an entire week or anything...oh wait, he did. Such is life. Everyone was busy and nervous. Everyone except the students. They walk around campus like they own the joint. In fact, they do own the place. They can and will do whatever they want in class, including but not limited to; eating, drinking, sitting on their desks, talking while teachers or other students are talking, showing up late, not showing up at all, and not dressing in dress code (which i think needs to be enforced, because --and i never thought i would say this in my life--but some skirts are too short). Wow, listen to me. I sound like an old priest from Catholic school.
All that being said, the class was an overall success. I think most of the students were genuinely interested, despite the blank stares and whispered wakaranai's (i dont understand). The second class period was a bit more painful. It was directly after lunch and everyone in the room shamefully wore the food-coma droopy eyes. It did not help that the activity that my Japanese Teacher of English decided to do was quite boring and left them talking in pairs for nearly 25 minutes. Eventually, the class was concluded and I departed to my desk in the teachers office to work on the next lesson plan for the next week. Luckily, I am able to reuse lesson plans for different classes at both of my schools.
So far I enjoy being a teacher. We shall see what tomorrow brings. I cannot say for sure that I would want to do this job for the rest of my life, but who knows.
~Gio
Sunday, August 24, 2008
The First Lesson
Yesterday, Saturday, I was asked to come into work at my base school to help teach an english class to 12 prespective 1st year students. Here in Japan, students have a legal right to attend High school and as such they are able to choose which public high school they want to go to, based on their test scores. As a result, three English teachers and myself were asked to present what a normal English class or Oral Communication class would look like.
The class started about 10 minutes late because no one could find the classroom in which we were holding the class. The room is a well hidden one indeed. The Computer Audio Language Lab room was filled with computers, projectors, headphones and microphones. Luckily, the teachers and I had a practice lesson the day before so that we could learn how to use all of the equipment and such.
Eventually, all of the students arrived, 11 girls and 1 boy. I felt so bad for the little guy, he kept starring at the door hoping for another boy to enter. I began the class with a short self-introduction, which was returned by many blank stares. I was speaking very slowly and repeating myself a lot. I also showed some pictures of my family and friends, as well as of Arizona. I do not really know if they understood me or not, but I will be working with high school level students for the most part.
We then proceeded with the games: Catch the Criminal, Who Am I?, and Human Bingo.
Catch the Criminal is a game where the native English speaker (me) reads out the description of a person and the students have to find that person on the computer screen and write the number that corresponds to that person. Who am I is similar. The English speaker (me again) reads three sentences that describe a person, character or thing and the students have to write down who I am describing. Human Bingo was a bit more complicated but the English speaker (me) reads all of the instructions about the game, and then joins the game so the students can ask him questions too. The object of the game is to get 4 correct answers to the given questions in a row. This game was particularly difficult to explain but eventually everyone understood how to play. This was where I felt really bad for the lone boy in the class. Much like in the USA, young boys and girls in elementary and jr. high school have almost no interaction with the opposite sex. So much so, that doing pair working in classes can be very difficult if you do not have an even number of boys and girls.
Overall, I think the class was a success. I have 1 class on Monday with Oral Communications I. I hope my lesson plan will go over well. Wish me luck.
~Gio
The class started about 10 minutes late because no one could find the classroom in which we were holding the class. The room is a well hidden one indeed. The Computer Audio Language Lab room was filled with computers, projectors, headphones and microphones. Luckily, the teachers and I had a practice lesson the day before so that we could learn how to use all of the equipment and such.
Eventually, all of the students arrived, 11 girls and 1 boy. I felt so bad for the little guy, he kept starring at the door hoping for another boy to enter. I began the class with a short self-introduction, which was returned by many blank stares. I was speaking very slowly and repeating myself a lot. I also showed some pictures of my family and friends, as well as of Arizona. I do not really know if they understood me or not, but I will be working with high school level students for the most part.
We then proceeded with the games: Catch the Criminal, Who Am I?, and Human Bingo.
Catch the Criminal is a game where the native English speaker (me) reads out the description of a person and the students have to find that person on the computer screen and write the number that corresponds to that person. Who am I is similar. The English speaker (me again) reads three sentences that describe a person, character or thing and the students have to write down who I am describing. Human Bingo was a bit more complicated but the English speaker (me) reads all of the instructions about the game, and then joins the game so the students can ask him questions too. The object of the game is to get 4 correct answers to the given questions in a row. This game was particularly difficult to explain but eventually everyone understood how to play. This was where I felt really bad for the lone boy in the class. Much like in the USA, young boys and girls in elementary and jr. high school have almost no interaction with the opposite sex. So much so, that doing pair working in classes can be very difficult if you do not have an even number of boys and girls.
Overall, I think the class was a success. I have 1 class on Monday with Oral Communications I. I hope my lesson plan will go over well. Wish me luck.
~Gio
Friday, August 22, 2008
The Cell Phone Fiasco
As the title so aptly suggests, there was a fiasco at the cell phone store yesterday. In an attempt to be proactive and non-dependent on my Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) I walked to the Softbank (one of the 3 big cellphone companies here in Japan) and, with prepared questions, intended to inquire about the proceedure and materials I would need to get a cell phone. I thought the store was empty and i felt the likely hood of making a fool out of myself would be really high if there were other people in the store. I trotted in and asked the bored-looking clerk if he spoke English. He mumbbled, a little and said "yes, but very little." So i said, "Yoshu, I speak very little japanese." I proceeded to sit down and go through my questions, props and hand gestures that i had prepared for this moment. Only then did i notice a Japanese woman and an American man peeking over the next stall. The Japanese woman offered to translate for me while she waited for her tech-savvy husband to pick out the features and settings for his new Iphone. But i digress.
I asked the clerk if i would be able to successfully purchase a phone with the materials i had, a temporary alien registration card, a hanko(name stamp), an electric bill with the date and my address, medical insurance card, and my bank account number and book. The man said yes, you will be able to get the phone with all of that. So i got comfortable and proceeded to pick out a phone, a plan, all the accessories and programs. We then start the paper work and pick a phone number. The clerk gets the phone out and is programming it, he puts the sd chip in with all the information, he even changes the language on the phone to english for me. This is when everything went to hell. He looks at his computer and says in english, you cant buy the phone, sorry. So naturally my curiosity takes over and I ask why. He says, "because you are a foreigner, you cannot purchase softbank phone, if you have a credit card you can." So I take out my Wells Fargo bank card and hand it over. He has to now put in all of the information again. so i need to take all of my paperwork again. Another 20 minutes go by and he says, "because you are a foreigner you cannot buy softbank unless you purchase the phone in cash, instead of paying over time." Well at this point im quite pissed, but composed on the outside. So i tell the man that i dont have the 60,000yen($600) on me. Still curious, I ask, "Why would you let me go through all of this if I wasnt able to purchase the phoneplan from the start?" The woman translating for me looked shocked and was helping me as much as she could. Eventually we found out that Softbank fears foreigners will get their phones for little to no cost and leave the country with a free phone. The clerk then says that he is sorry for the discrimination but there is nothing he do.
All in all, 1.5 hours were spent there for nothing. The woman and her husband left the store with me and did not know what to say other than that they were sorry they could not help. We exchanged info and went our separate ways.
Now today was my first work day at Todo High School in Uji City. I just barely made it to school and time and met with my supervisor. I told him the story of the softbank disaster and told him of my plans to try a different company after work. He suggested that we kill time by going into Uji city and getting a cellphone before lunch. I was excited to hear all of that. So i researched what i wanted from Au (the other cell phone company) and was prepared to kick ass and take names. We get there and spend the next hour and a half filling out paperwork, copying files and choosing plans for my new phone. After everthing was finished, the woman at the desk told us that they would need an hour to process the paperwork and to submit everything. My JTE and I did not have enough time to wait around because we had a teachers meeting in the near future. So as we speak/as i write to you and you read, my new cellphone is sitting on a desk where i cannot access it. I will go to the store and hopefully pick it up without any issues. we shall see though, we shall see. I trust no one.
wish me luck.
Gio
I asked the clerk if i would be able to successfully purchase a phone with the materials i had, a temporary alien registration card, a hanko(name stamp), an electric bill with the date and my address, medical insurance card, and my bank account number and book. The man said yes, you will be able to get the phone with all of that. So i got comfortable and proceeded to pick out a phone, a plan, all the accessories and programs. We then start the paper work and pick a phone number. The clerk gets the phone out and is programming it, he puts the sd chip in with all the information, he even changes the language on the phone to english for me. This is when everything went to hell. He looks at his computer and says in english, you cant buy the phone, sorry. So naturally my curiosity takes over and I ask why. He says, "because you are a foreigner, you cannot purchase softbank phone, if you have a credit card you can." So I take out my Wells Fargo bank card and hand it over. He has to now put in all of the information again. so i need to take all of my paperwork again. Another 20 minutes go by and he says, "because you are a foreigner you cannot buy softbank unless you purchase the phone in cash, instead of paying over time." Well at this point im quite pissed, but composed on the outside. So i tell the man that i dont have the 60,000yen($600) on me. Still curious, I ask, "Why would you let me go through all of this if I wasnt able to purchase the phoneplan from the start?" The woman translating for me looked shocked and was helping me as much as she could. Eventually we found out that Softbank fears foreigners will get their phones for little to no cost and leave the country with a free phone. The clerk then says that he is sorry for the discrimination but there is nothing he do.
All in all, 1.5 hours were spent there for nothing. The woman and her husband left the store with me and did not know what to say other than that they were sorry they could not help. We exchanged info and went our separate ways.
Now today was my first work day at Todo High School in Uji City. I just barely made it to school and time and met with my supervisor. I told him the story of the softbank disaster and told him of my plans to try a different company after work. He suggested that we kill time by going into Uji city and getting a cellphone before lunch. I was excited to hear all of that. So i researched what i wanted from Au (the other cell phone company) and was prepared to kick ass and take names. We get there and spend the next hour and a half filling out paperwork, copying files and choosing plans for my new phone. After everthing was finished, the woman at the desk told us that they would need an hour to process the paperwork and to submit everything. My JTE and I did not have enough time to wait around because we had a teachers meeting in the near future. So as we speak/as i write to you and you read, my new cellphone is sitting on a desk where i cannot access it. I will go to the store and hopefully pick it up without any issues. we shall see though, we shall see. I trust no one.
wish me luck.
Gio
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Past Week Has Been...
So the past week has been very busy. It is hard to remember everything that I have done but it has been quite the tornado of events.
This week I had seminar in Kyoto city to present my self-introduction lesson to the other Assistant English Teachers, returners and newbies. This seminar was the most useful orientation that i have had yet. There was a wealth of information and many different types of lessons ripe for pilfering. I planned a 45-50 minute lesson for this seminar and for my first class on Monday, August 25th. I was able to get good advice from many different people so I am confident that my lesson will not explode in my face. I plan on doing a 10minute introduction with pictures, props...poorly drawn flags, and lots of awkward faces. Then follow up with an interview/multiple choice quiz about my introduction. Then i plan on doing a question and answer ranken (rock paper scissors) game.
after i presented this lesson to my Oral Communication II teacher she said it was great and should work out well, but you have this class for another 50minute period immediately after the first period. you should probably make a lesson for that class period too. So i ran back to my computer and popped out a beautiful idea for me to get to know the students. I plan on putting 4 signs up around the room (I like, I do not like, I love, I hate) and making the students walk to which ever corner best represents how they feel about a particular activity; such as, swimming, eating sushi, bugs, etc. Then i plan on asking some students why they feel the way they do. Hopefully this will help open the students up as well as get them moving in the class room. I only have about 8 students in this class so i intend to also play 2 truths and a lie to get the class talking and listening. my main aim is to learn all of their names and 1 fact about them by the end of the first class. we shall see.
on a social note, TJ, my buddy from LMU, came down to Kyoto with two of his AET friends from Kanazawa. We had a fun time but it was unfortunately a busy week for me so i was unable to hang out as much as i would have liked. Last nights nomihodai(all you can drink) karaoke was a good way to close out his visit.
Life is starting to get busier by the day. I am glad that i am being asked to plan lessons and be active during the day, i was starting to get pretty bored at the office. I also learned that i will only plan 9 lessons this whole semester for my OCI class here at Rakuto. I am heading out to Todo high school tomorrow for the first time on my own, so I will be writing about that experience probably tomorrow. I heard that i will likely have to teach 3 periods per day. Hopefully i can get away with doing my introduction lesson for like all of september.
-Gio
This week I had seminar in Kyoto city to present my self-introduction lesson to the other Assistant English Teachers, returners and newbies. This seminar was the most useful orientation that i have had yet. There was a wealth of information and many different types of lessons ripe for pilfering. I planned a 45-50 minute lesson for this seminar and for my first class on Monday, August 25th. I was able to get good advice from many different people so I am confident that my lesson will not explode in my face. I plan on doing a 10minute introduction with pictures, props...poorly drawn flags, and lots of awkward faces. Then follow up with an interview/multiple choice quiz about my introduction. Then i plan on doing a question and answer ranken (rock paper scissors) game.
after i presented this lesson to my Oral Communication II teacher she said it was great and should work out well, but you have this class for another 50minute period immediately after the first period. you should probably make a lesson for that class period too. So i ran back to my computer and popped out a beautiful idea for me to get to know the students. I plan on putting 4 signs up around the room (I like, I do not like, I love, I hate) and making the students walk to which ever corner best represents how they feel about a particular activity; such as, swimming, eating sushi, bugs, etc. Then i plan on asking some students why they feel the way they do. Hopefully this will help open the students up as well as get them moving in the class room. I only have about 8 students in this class so i intend to also play 2 truths and a lie to get the class talking and listening. my main aim is to learn all of their names and 1 fact about them by the end of the first class. we shall see.
on a social note, TJ, my buddy from LMU, came down to Kyoto with two of his AET friends from Kanazawa. We had a fun time but it was unfortunately a busy week for me so i was unable to hang out as much as i would have liked. Last nights nomihodai(all you can drink) karaoke was a good way to close out his visit.
Life is starting to get busier by the day. I am glad that i am being asked to plan lessons and be active during the day, i was starting to get pretty bored at the office. I also learned that i will only plan 9 lessons this whole semester for my OCI class here at Rakuto. I am heading out to Todo high school tomorrow for the first time on my own, so I will be writing about that experience probably tomorrow. I heard that i will likely have to teach 3 periods per day. Hopefully i can get away with doing my introduction lesson for like all of september.
-Gio
Saturday, August 16, 2008
A Prophecy Through the World of Dreams
As not much has happened to me in the past several days, I would like to share a dream that vexed me. First, let me preface this story with a bit of clarification. I rarely dream, no I know what the books and professionals say, "everyone dreams, but not every dream is remembered." I would like to contend that I am an oddity, those of you that know me might not disagree. But I rarely dream, largely because my sleep is constantly interrupted by physical factors in reality. Whether it be because the springs of this mattress lay merely a fraction of an inch below the surface or because only one of my nostrils works at any given time, none of that really matters. The important part of this story is that I actually had a dream.
This dream started out as the usual ethereal floating blob of awareness that, through some REM magic, sparked into a reality, lifelike in all its details. I, or what I assumed was me as I do not think I had a body in all of this, was in the back of a charter bus bound for some city. I cannot tell you what city because the name was represented by kanji characters on a scrolling LED banner. I figured I was in Japan because it just felt like Japan, if that makes sense...well it does not have to, this was my dream. The bus was filled with fellow JETs that I have meet over the passed few weeks as well as several friends from back home and from LMU.
Now this is where the dream gets slightly strange, as I believe all dreams do. The bus and all of its passengers unanimously decided that lunch would be at In and Out Burger. I seriously doubted the existence of an In and Out on the island but it was a dream so who cares. The trip would have taken an eternity in dream world and I was hungry. At that moment, a Mexican food restaurant appeared in the middle of this bombed town (yes i know, I associate Japan and bombings...I am a historian even in my dreams). The bus stops and we all get out to see that there is a Hobby Bench-esque plane protruding from the front of the building above the name, Bob's Burritos. This is were things begin to get hazy as I believe my consciousness started to realize that I was dreaming (who knows if that is really possible), but we entered the shack, all 60 some of us. Most of the people with me were just hazy figures by now, I suppose I did not have enough processing power to materialize everyone's face. The owner of the shack, I can only assume his name was Bob, came down a twisting staircase and pointed to table that was not there a moment earlier and grunted. The hippie with the huge beard then returned to his room. The table contained an endless supply of burrito material and a stack of tortillas taller than the universe, maybe. The eating commenced, it was dreamy. (is it odd that I am dreaming about mexican food?) After a second helping, I woke up...drooling and starving at 3am.
I entitled this entry as "A Prophecy Through the World of Dreams" because I received an email yesterday saying that if the festival is rained-out tonight, we will be going to a Mexican restaurant. We shall see what comes to pass in our realm where we are merely figments of the gods dreams.
~Gio
This dream started out as the usual ethereal floating blob of awareness that, through some REM magic, sparked into a reality, lifelike in all its details. I, or what I assumed was me as I do not think I had a body in all of this, was in the back of a charter bus bound for some city. I cannot tell you what city because the name was represented by kanji characters on a scrolling LED banner. I figured I was in Japan because it just felt like Japan, if that makes sense...well it does not have to, this was my dream. The bus was filled with fellow JETs that I have meet over the passed few weeks as well as several friends from back home and from LMU.
Now this is where the dream gets slightly strange, as I believe all dreams do. The bus and all of its passengers unanimously decided that lunch would be at In and Out Burger. I seriously doubted the existence of an In and Out on the island but it was a dream so who cares. The trip would have taken an eternity in dream world and I was hungry. At that moment, a Mexican food restaurant appeared in the middle of this bombed town (yes i know, I associate Japan and bombings...I am a historian even in my dreams). The bus stops and we all get out to see that there is a Hobby Bench-esque plane protruding from the front of the building above the name, Bob's Burritos. This is were things begin to get hazy as I believe my consciousness started to realize that I was dreaming (who knows if that is really possible), but we entered the shack, all 60 some of us. Most of the people with me were just hazy figures by now, I suppose I did not have enough processing power to materialize everyone's face. The owner of the shack, I can only assume his name was Bob, came down a twisting staircase and pointed to table that was not there a moment earlier and grunted. The hippie with the huge beard then returned to his room. The table contained an endless supply of burrito material and a stack of tortillas taller than the universe, maybe. The eating commenced, it was dreamy. (is it odd that I am dreaming about mexican food?) After a second helping, I woke up...drooling and starving at 3am.
I entitled this entry as "A Prophecy Through the World of Dreams" because I received an email yesterday saying that if the festival is rained-out tonight, we will be going to a Mexican restaurant. We shall see what comes to pass in our realm where we are merely figments of the gods dreams.
~Gio
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Break the Boredom Cycle
The past few days I have done nothing but lounge around, watch movies, cook noodles without any spices, I felt that I needed to do something exploratory today. My initial intention was to go all the way out to Kinkaku-ji Temple in the Northwest corner of Kyoto city, but once I left my apartment I realized that I forgot my map and "explore Kyoto" travel guide at my desk at school. I certainly did not want to show up on my vacation and break into the school to free my map and such, that would not have set a good precedent for the next year. As a result, I decided that a little subway cruisin' was in order.
Luckily enough, Sanjo Keihan is only 4 stops from Yamashina. Sanjo is a famous tourist location and has a huge shopping district with lots of local and foreign goods. When I say shopping district many of you will assume an indoor mall or something of the like; your assumption would be incorrect. This area is like a large swap-meet style street with tako-like tentacles (tako=octopus...they are delicious by the way). I was a bit taken back while I walked down the street. There were thousands of shops, as far as the street stretched. Fearing the unknown and the strange, as well as the prospect that I might get myself lost, I trudged the massive collection of alleyway and side streets in a robotic left-turn only pattern. Once I found my bearings and the main street everything was much easier to navigate. The surprising part was the amazing amount of similar items from store to store. Aside from the countless "engrish" t-shirt stores, where english words grouped into nonsensical phrases are emblazoned on the fronts of individual tees; such as, "Give Free Now" and any other imaginable combination of nouns, adjectives, and verbs one could conjure. But there were countless omiyagi(souvenirs) places, 100yen shops, hat stores (selling the same exact hats), chopstick vendors and jewelery alleys. One of the more fancy places was this lovely establishment:
Apparently, everything was on sale in an attempt to help the "world without strangers" organization. It sounded pretty fishy to me.
There is one more thing to mention about the Sanjo shopping district. It is that the entire area is built around several shrines, temples and cemeteries. I went into one of the temples but there were people inside praying so i did not think it was appropriate to take pictures like a silly foreigner. It was a pretty unique experience taking one step through the gate into the Buddhist shrine from the shopping mall. It was strangely serene considering the holy ground was surrounded by a movie theater and hat store and a cemetery. Here is a picture of one of the smaller shrines. This area was not swimming with people. An interesting shopping experience, nonetheless.
Needless to say, I got turned around. I knew where I was, but i was ridiculously far from the subway station that I knew would take me home. I decided to be adventurous and take a long way around. I found another subway about half a mile West of where I wanted to go so i attempted, but failed, to find another train home. The result was the walk of shame up a beautiful river to my destination. The Sanjo-dori bridge, as i believe it is called, is fairly popular amongst young people and on weekend and evenings the riverside is filled with people playing music and drinking.
After the long walk back to the station, I jumped on a train, the wrong train, and took a trip in the right direction but on the wrong connecting line. Such is the adventures of life. But our story does not end there, in the train station I purchased some confectionery and baked delectables (yes, i made it a noun, sue me) for lunch. The first was a croissant with a thin layer of chocolate and the second was a pale green, puffy bun with what i assumed was delicious red-bean paste injected into the center. My mouth watered with every torturous step home. I would have eaten on the train, as i was already ravenous at this time, but eating in public is a no-no in Japanese society. Stomach growling, I quickened my pace as I reached my neighborhood, found here:
I fumble my keys at the door to my apartment, my Jager lanyard catches the door, I slip my sneakers off at the walkway-they go sailing, I empty my pockets onto the table as I turn on my fan with my right foot and air conditioner with my left hand, I kneel on the floor and quickly, yet delicately, open the pink plastic baker's bag only to find another bag, which I destroy immediately. The gorgeous green pastry likely filled with delicious, sweet red-bean paste speeds toward my nearly drooling mouth. Contact. Success my brain screams only to realize the unfamiliar taste and texture of orange pudding surrounded by puffy pastry. And alas, the sultry red-bean paste has eluded me again. The memory of my trip to Sanjo-dori is a gooey and citrusy one.
~Gio
Luckily enough, Sanjo Keihan is only 4 stops from Yamashina. Sanjo is a famous tourist location and has a huge shopping district with lots of local and foreign goods. When I say shopping district many of you will assume an indoor mall or something of the like; your assumption would be incorrect. This area is like a large swap-meet style street with tako-like tentacles (tako=octopus...they are delicious by the way). I was a bit taken back while I walked down the street. There were thousands of shops, as far as the street stretched. Fearing the unknown and the strange, as well as the prospect that I might get myself lost, I trudged the massive collection of alleyway and side streets in a robotic left-turn only pattern. Once I found my bearings and the main street everything was much easier to navigate. The surprising part was the amazing amount of similar items from store to store. Aside from the countless "engrish" t-shirt stores, where english words grouped into nonsensical phrases are emblazoned on the fronts of individual tees; such as, "Give Free Now" and any other imaginable combination of nouns, adjectives, and verbs one could conjure. But there were countless omiyagi(souvenirs) places, 100yen shops, hat stores (selling the same exact hats), chopstick vendors and jewelery alleys. One of the more fancy places was this lovely establishment:
Apparently, everything was on sale in an attempt to help the "world without strangers" organization. It sounded pretty fishy to me.
There is one more thing to mention about the Sanjo shopping district. It is that the entire area is built around several shrines, temples and cemeteries. I went into one of the temples but there were people inside praying so i did not think it was appropriate to take pictures like a silly foreigner. It was a pretty unique experience taking one step through the gate into the Buddhist shrine from the shopping mall. It was strangely serene considering the holy ground was surrounded by a movie theater and hat store and a cemetery. Here is a picture of one of the smaller shrines. This area was not swimming with people. An interesting shopping experience, nonetheless.
Needless to say, I got turned around. I knew where I was, but i was ridiculously far from the subway station that I knew would take me home. I decided to be adventurous and take a long way around. I found another subway about half a mile West of where I wanted to go so i attempted, but failed, to find another train home. The result was the walk of shame up a beautiful river to my destination. The Sanjo-dori bridge, as i believe it is called, is fairly popular amongst young people and on weekend and evenings the riverside is filled with people playing music and drinking.
After the long walk back to the station, I jumped on a train, the wrong train, and took a trip in the right direction but on the wrong connecting line. Such is the adventures of life. But our story does not end there, in the train station I purchased some confectionery and baked delectables (yes, i made it a noun, sue me) for lunch. The first was a croissant with a thin layer of chocolate and the second was a pale green, puffy bun with what i assumed was delicious red-bean paste injected into the center. My mouth watered with every torturous step home. I would have eaten on the train, as i was already ravenous at this time, but eating in public is a no-no in Japanese society. Stomach growling, I quickened my pace as I reached my neighborhood, found here:
I fumble my keys at the door to my apartment, my Jager lanyard catches the door, I slip my sneakers off at the walkway-they go sailing, I empty my pockets onto the table as I turn on my fan with my right foot and air conditioner with my left hand, I kneel on the floor and quickly, yet delicately, open the pink plastic baker's bag only to find another bag, which I destroy immediately. The gorgeous green pastry likely filled with delicious, sweet red-bean paste speeds toward my nearly drooling mouth. Contact. Success my brain screams only to realize the unfamiliar taste and texture of orange pudding surrounded by puffy pastry. And alas, the sultry red-bean paste has eluded me again. The memory of my trip to Sanjo-dori is a gooey and citrusy one.
~Gio
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Orientation and New Friends
As this entry is not likely to be as enthralling or death-defying as the previous account of my infamous trip on the train to Obaku, I intend to supplement my story with visual stimulants.
Our story begins on Wednesday, with my trip to the Rubino Hotel in Kyoto City for yet another orientation. The excitement I felt for my first "business trip" into Kyoto by myself was dulled by my anal retentive attention to detail and my obsessive compulsive fear of tardiness. Both relatively harmless traits in my personality when observed separately, but together...a perfect storm of neurotic behavior. Luckily enough, these are two traits that the Japanese value very highly. In fact, most Japanese people that I have met, make me look like a relatively sane person when it comes to details and timeliness. This orientation as been in the plans since i arrived in Kyoto. Everyday since i stepped off the train i have been reminded of this meeting. Luckily, this meeting was also highlighted on every to-do list and itinerary for me since the dawn of time. That is one of the many things I enjoy about Japan. Maybe it is just because I am the new foreigner, but everything is detailed for me on a list. Even though the list is in Japanese, I spend at least an hour everyday going over that list in translation.
Back to the business trip. As I am packing my things up in my office after an unusually hot and sweaty day, the office secretary comes shuffling into the room in her rubber slippers. I have met this woman several times and always greets me with a smile. Today she greets me with two envelops full of money, one for the hotel expenses and the other for travel and food. Seeing as my travel to Kyoto would cost me less than 300yen, the remaining 6800yen(about 70dollars) would be allocated to booze and karaoke. I knew that, you knew that, the whole office knew that. At this point it is nearly 2pm and I had to be at the hotel by 4pm. I am not too worried but i needed to stop for sustenance along the way. This was my first experience riding the subway by myself so i was already nervous, add that to the fact that i had to walk down to the subway station with my bag of clothes in business attire in the sweltering swamp that seems to be Kyoto in August. Needless to say, I was already drenched before i had to attempt to figure out the Japanese map printed for my by the school. When i arrived at my final station, after having to change subway lines and almost getting on the wrong train that would have taken me south of nowhere, i realized that i now had a 20 minute walk West into the setting sun. Had this been a cheesy western movie, I would have been slumped over the saddle riding defeated into the sunset. But it being reality, I walked into the McDonald's on the corner and ordered a teriyaki burger with fries and a coke. There is something horrifyingly comforting about McDonald's fries and a coke. It tastes of childhood and America, even if the burger accompanying the heavenly fried potatoes is on the strange side. All that being said, I eventually made it to the orientation in time for check-in and briefing. The briefing consisted of rereading the itinerary that i had already received six different times before...To myself I screamed, "Was this really necessary!"
The next day was entirely formal and boring. All of the prefectural JETs had to stand in order and gracefully introduce ourselves to the Board of Education head honchos in Japanese. It was not terribly difficult but all too formal for my taste. The only worthwhile event was the formal appointment ceremony. I was asked by the Board of Education to formally accept the position of Assistant English Teacher on behalf of all the JETs present. My job was to look pretty and bow to several different people in a particular order. Of course the presenter threw in a handshake which i was not prepared for but i was able to adapt and recover from the shock of a broken ceremonial moment. The rest of the orientation was an utter waste of time. I believe the main purpose was to get all of the JETs in the area together so they could meet, talk, and exchange information. These people are likely to be my local lifelines to sanity for the next year.
As a result, many of us went out for drinks and karaoke to get to know each other better. This was my first ever karaoke experience so i found it fitting that it was in Japan. It is hard to describe karaoke to someone who has never gone before. In the States, karaoke is usually in a huge room with a bunch of loud annoying drunk people all singing off-key to their favorite song. In Japan, karaoke is a more private matter. Usually the group rents a small room with all of the karaoke equipment and goes to town. But some places offer "nomihodai" or "all you can drink" for a set price and time frame. Needless to say, we chose the nomihodai option. It usually takes a few drinks to get everyone singing but we had a fun group and started the night off good with some spicegirls, journey, metalica, eagles. But the night came to a screeching halt when we discovered that Rick Astley was available for our sign-along pleasure. If you do not remember Rick Astley I suggest you type his name into Youtube right now and reacquaint yourself with his melodious genius. refer to this video for immediate entertainment. This is two short video clips that i recorded on this fateful night.
Needless to say, It was a fun trip, regardless of the nonsensical and repetitive orientation.
On Friday, many new and old JETs from the Kyoto area got together to see the fireworks display over Lake Biwako. The fireworks commemorate the beginning of Obon week, I believe. Obon is the week where one's ancestors come back from the spirit world and haunt/wander the earth because their relatives have not provided them with the necessities for the afterworld this year. It is the week when most Japanese people visit and clean the graves of their ancestors and usually leave some food for their hungry ghosts. The week is concluded by the Daimonji bonfire festival where 5 different mountains around Kyoto are illuminated by huge bonfires in the shape of Japanese kanji letters. This festival is very famous and symbolizes the end of Obon and helps guide the wandering ancestors home to the spirit world. The fireworks at Lake Biwako were magnificent. Though they started very slowly, the show was over an hour long and filled with oooh's and ahhhh's. Here is a short video i compiled of the good parts of the show.
Overall, I had a very fun week. I have all next week off for Obon so i will be exploring Kyoto city and taking pictures. Sorry for the long read again, but i do not have much to do in my apartment at night so i tend to ramble.
~Gio
Our story begins on Wednesday, with my trip to the Rubino Hotel in Kyoto City for yet another orientation. The excitement I felt for my first "business trip" into Kyoto by myself was dulled by my anal retentive attention to detail and my obsessive compulsive fear of tardiness. Both relatively harmless traits in my personality when observed separately, but together...a perfect storm of neurotic behavior. Luckily enough, these are two traits that the Japanese value very highly. In fact, most Japanese people that I have met, make me look like a relatively sane person when it comes to details and timeliness. This orientation as been in the plans since i arrived in Kyoto. Everyday since i stepped off the train i have been reminded of this meeting. Luckily, this meeting was also highlighted on every to-do list and itinerary for me since the dawn of time. That is one of the many things I enjoy about Japan. Maybe it is just because I am the new foreigner, but everything is detailed for me on a list. Even though the list is in Japanese, I spend at least an hour everyday going over that list in translation.
Back to the business trip. As I am packing my things up in my office after an unusually hot and sweaty day, the office secretary comes shuffling into the room in her rubber slippers. I have met this woman several times and always greets me with a smile. Today she greets me with two envelops full of money, one for the hotel expenses and the other for travel and food. Seeing as my travel to Kyoto would cost me less than 300yen, the remaining 6800yen(about 70dollars) would be allocated to booze and karaoke. I knew that, you knew that, the whole office knew that. At this point it is nearly 2pm and I had to be at the hotel by 4pm. I am not too worried but i needed to stop for sustenance along the way. This was my first experience riding the subway by myself so i was already nervous, add that to the fact that i had to walk down to the subway station with my bag of clothes in business attire in the sweltering swamp that seems to be Kyoto in August. Needless to say, I was already drenched before i had to attempt to figure out the Japanese map printed for my by the school. When i arrived at my final station, after having to change subway lines and almost getting on the wrong train that would have taken me south of nowhere, i realized that i now had a 20 minute walk West into the setting sun. Had this been a cheesy western movie, I would have been slumped over the saddle riding defeated into the sunset. But it being reality, I walked into the McDonald's on the corner and ordered a teriyaki burger with fries and a coke. There is something horrifyingly comforting about McDonald's fries and a coke. It tastes of childhood and America, even if the burger accompanying the heavenly fried potatoes is on the strange side. All that being said, I eventually made it to the orientation in time for check-in and briefing. The briefing consisted of rereading the itinerary that i had already received six different times before...To myself I screamed, "Was this really necessary!"
The next day was entirely formal and boring. All of the prefectural JETs had to stand in order and gracefully introduce ourselves to the Board of Education head honchos in Japanese. It was not terribly difficult but all too formal for my taste. The only worthwhile event was the formal appointment ceremony. I was asked by the Board of Education to formally accept the position of Assistant English Teacher on behalf of all the JETs present. My job was to look pretty and bow to several different people in a particular order. Of course the presenter threw in a handshake which i was not prepared for but i was able to adapt and recover from the shock of a broken ceremonial moment. The rest of the orientation was an utter waste of time. I believe the main purpose was to get all of the JETs in the area together so they could meet, talk, and exchange information. These people are likely to be my local lifelines to sanity for the next year.
As a result, many of us went out for drinks and karaoke to get to know each other better. This was my first ever karaoke experience so i found it fitting that it was in Japan. It is hard to describe karaoke to someone who has never gone before. In the States, karaoke is usually in a huge room with a bunch of loud annoying drunk people all singing off-key to their favorite song. In Japan, karaoke is a more private matter. Usually the group rents a small room with all of the karaoke equipment and goes to town. But some places offer "nomihodai" or "all you can drink" for a set price and time frame. Needless to say, we chose the nomihodai option. It usually takes a few drinks to get everyone singing but we had a fun group and started the night off good with some spicegirls, journey, metalica, eagles. But the night came to a screeching halt when we discovered that Rick Astley was available for our sign-along pleasure. If you do not remember Rick Astley I suggest you type his name into Youtube right now and reacquaint yourself with his melodious genius. refer to this video for immediate entertainment. This is two short video clips that i recorded on this fateful night.
Needless to say, It was a fun trip, regardless of the nonsensical and repetitive orientation.
On Friday, many new and old JETs from the Kyoto area got together to see the fireworks display over Lake Biwako. The fireworks commemorate the beginning of Obon week, I believe. Obon is the week where one's ancestors come back from the spirit world and haunt/wander the earth because their relatives have not provided them with the necessities for the afterworld this year. It is the week when most Japanese people visit and clean the graves of their ancestors and usually leave some food for their hungry ghosts. The week is concluded by the Daimonji bonfire festival where 5 different mountains around Kyoto are illuminated by huge bonfires in the shape of Japanese kanji letters. This festival is very famous and symbolizes the end of Obon and helps guide the wandering ancestors home to the spirit world. The fireworks at Lake Biwako were magnificent. Though they started very slowly, the show was over an hour long and filled with oooh's and ahhhh's. Here is a short video i compiled of the good parts of the show.
Overall, I had a very fun week. I have all next week off for Obon so i will be exploring Kyoto city and taking pictures. Sorry for the long read again, but i do not have much to do in my apartment at night so i tend to ramble.
~Gio
Monday, August 4, 2008
Everything is Daijyobu (wall of text alert)
So Sunday I decided to take a bit of an exercise/exploration walk to down town Yamashina. After about an hour of walking, I gave up and turned around. I think i found the place but there are no signs in english saying "Welcome to downtown Yamashina" so i guess i made it there... There was a sketchy/beautiful-looking path that led west following the Yamashina River into the mountains. I almost grew the courage to go down it and explore, but i forgot my camera at home, so the memories would have been wasted. I returned home and promptly destroyed my external harddrive, which contained my proposed entertainment for the next year. 400gigabites of movies, tv shows, and all of my music (which i stupidly did not back up onto my computer harddrive.) But such is life i suppose. Maybe it's a a sign from the gods that i should be out exploring the town and learning Japanese.
Monday was an exciting day. I arrived at work and met a new teacher, T-sensei...as compared with T-san, the office manager(names omitted to protect the innocent). We exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes and then gathered our things for the long trip to Todo, a small village outside of Uji City to the south west of Yamashina. The initial trip was met with exhaustion and slight boredom as T-sensei and myself traversed the sea of people at the Yamashina train station. We arrived at Kyoto station just a few minutes later, as the trip is only 1 stop, and attempted to navigate the ocean of suits, kimonos, and backpackers...darn backpackers. We eventually made it to the next train from Kyoto station to Obaku station, 7 train stops and about a 35 minute trip. More human swimming occurred as we de-trained (my homage to George Carlin) rushing to attempt to make the last bus to Todo High School...Yes, you read correctly. I have to now take a bus 10 minutes up a mountain to the school. Of course, we missed the bus.
Our courses of action are now limited to: A) take a taxi up the hill, or B) take a 20 minute hike up the mountain in the 90% humidity that has made Kyoto so famously sweaty. We both opted for option A. The taxi rides here in Japan are always a trip down awkward lane. The doors open for you and only one of the two backseat doors will open. But whatever you do in the taxi, do not, i repeat, do not touch the doors to open or close them. This action will ignite the international incident that will destroy American and Japanese relations for all eternity. Sixty years of relative peace, destroyed because of a damn taxi door. But I digress.
This being a business trip and this being Japan, I was not allowed to pay for the taxi, but unfortunately, T-sensei only had an Ichi-man bill($100). As a result, he attempted to use his mastercard, which the taxi did not accept. Then he attempted to use his visa, which the taxi did not accept. Then he tried to use a variety of other bank and transport cards, all of which were not accepted by this particular taxi. Then what followed was one of the most comical, Abbot&Costello-Three Stooges combination of please's, thank you's, im sorry's and physical/accidental comedy i have ever seen inside a taxi cab. Sensei handed the man the bill and the man returned with the change, only to accidentally release the coins prematurely onto the taxi floor. Naturally, both men apologized and then both said "it's okay" as they both leaned to pick up the change. T-Sensei hit his head on the back of the chair in front of him and the taxi driver struggled to reach the coins but because of the position of the chairs he could only tilt his head and worm his arm around making the most anguish filled face i have ever seen on a human being. After about 30 seconds and 15 or so "sumimasen's" and "gomen's" we eventually wiggled out of the backseat of this taxi.
At the Todo High School we did the obligatory remove shoe, put in cabinet, remove guest shoe, close cabinet ritual. As has become painfully obvious to me over the past few days here in Japan, my feet are easily 2 inches longer than the average indoor-guest shoe. We are greeted at the door by the receptionist who shows us the way to the principle's office. For me the 10 foot walk was a pained 10 foot shuffle as I attempted to cover the distance without tripping over or kicking the small rubber-esque shoe across the room. Eventually, when i arrived at the principle's door i noticed more shoes...this time they were the indoor-indoor shoes. By now my feet have already stretched the rubber shoe to its limit and caused it to form around. As a result, i cant slip the slipper off. My face reddens as the receptionist looks more puzzled by the second. Each horrifying moment that passes feels like an eternity of judgment. To my excitement, the shoe is dislodged and the receptionist breathed a sigh of relief. It seems the obligatory question, "do you need help," was about to be uttered by everyone, because they were all staring at me by now. I barely escaped having to commit seppuku there in front of my superiors for my failure at shoe technology. The rest of the meeting and tour of the school went off without a hitch.
The trip home was not without it's own story filled to the brim with excitement, action, comedy and Japanese custom destruction. We decided to walk from Todo high school to the train station. I was okay with this because it was cloudy, drizzly, and downhill. Which meant the usual 2 gallons of sweat that I leak while walking in Kyoto was reduced to 1.5 gallons. We eventually make it back to Kyoto Station where we decide that lunch was to be in our future. In what i think was an attempt to kill time before we had to go back to work, T-Sensei took me all over Kyoto station looking for a place that would satiate our hunger. He says we are going to an "all you can eat Japanese style Buffet." To which i replied in my head, "holy mother of god, that's heaven." To which i replied in reality, "Hai, sounds oishii." (oishii means delicious in Japanese). I was unaware that all you can eat in Japanese culture means that you should go back to the food at least 1 more time. I was very hungry, but not hungry enough to make a second trip. T-Sensei saw that i had finished while he was still mid-second plate and said, "was the food not to your liking." To which i replied, "no, no. It was delicious, i am just full." His face went from curious to upset. This was the first time in my life i have ever upset someone because i ate too little..."ate too little" never used to be in my vocabulary. So after a long, awkward walk back to Rakuto school from the train station, I settled down for the last two hours of an already painful day.
After all that was over...i still had to walk 1.2miles back to my apartment.
~gio
Monday was an exciting day. I arrived at work and met a new teacher, T-sensei...as compared with T-san, the office manager(names omitted to protect the innocent). We exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes and then gathered our things for the long trip to Todo, a small village outside of Uji City to the south west of Yamashina. The initial trip was met with exhaustion and slight boredom as T-sensei and myself traversed the sea of people at the Yamashina train station. We arrived at Kyoto station just a few minutes later, as the trip is only 1 stop, and attempted to navigate the ocean of suits, kimonos, and backpackers...darn backpackers. We eventually made it to the next train from Kyoto station to Obaku station, 7 train stops and about a 35 minute trip. More human swimming occurred as we de-trained (my homage to George Carlin) rushing to attempt to make the last bus to Todo High School...Yes, you read correctly. I have to now take a bus 10 minutes up a mountain to the school. Of course, we missed the bus.
Our courses of action are now limited to: A) take a taxi up the hill, or B) take a 20 minute hike up the mountain in the 90% humidity that has made Kyoto so famously sweaty. We both opted for option A. The taxi rides here in Japan are always a trip down awkward lane. The doors open for you and only one of the two backseat doors will open. But whatever you do in the taxi, do not, i repeat, do not touch the doors to open or close them. This action will ignite the international incident that will destroy American and Japanese relations for all eternity. Sixty years of relative peace, destroyed because of a damn taxi door. But I digress.
This being a business trip and this being Japan, I was not allowed to pay for the taxi, but unfortunately, T-sensei only had an Ichi-man bill($100). As a result, he attempted to use his mastercard, which the taxi did not accept. Then he attempted to use his visa, which the taxi did not accept. Then he tried to use a variety of other bank and transport cards, all of which were not accepted by this particular taxi. Then what followed was one of the most comical, Abbot&Costello-Three Stooges combination of please's, thank you's, im sorry's and physical/accidental comedy i have ever seen inside a taxi cab. Sensei handed the man the bill and the man returned with the change, only to accidentally release the coins prematurely onto the taxi floor. Naturally, both men apologized and then both said "it's okay" as they both leaned to pick up the change. T-Sensei hit his head on the back of the chair in front of him and the taxi driver struggled to reach the coins but because of the position of the chairs he could only tilt his head and worm his arm around making the most anguish filled face i have ever seen on a human being. After about 30 seconds and 15 or so "sumimasen's" and "gomen's" we eventually wiggled out of the backseat of this taxi.
At the Todo High School we did the obligatory remove shoe, put in cabinet, remove guest shoe, close cabinet ritual. As has become painfully obvious to me over the past few days here in Japan, my feet are easily 2 inches longer than the average indoor-guest shoe. We are greeted at the door by the receptionist who shows us the way to the principle's office. For me the 10 foot walk was a pained 10 foot shuffle as I attempted to cover the distance without tripping over or kicking the small rubber-esque shoe across the room. Eventually, when i arrived at the principle's door i noticed more shoes...this time they were the indoor-indoor shoes. By now my feet have already stretched the rubber shoe to its limit and caused it to form around. As a result, i cant slip the slipper off. My face reddens as the receptionist looks more puzzled by the second. Each horrifying moment that passes feels like an eternity of judgment. To my excitement, the shoe is dislodged and the receptionist breathed a sigh of relief. It seems the obligatory question, "do you need help," was about to be uttered by everyone, because they were all staring at me by now. I barely escaped having to commit seppuku there in front of my superiors for my failure at shoe technology. The rest of the meeting and tour of the school went off without a hitch.
The trip home was not without it's own story filled to the brim with excitement, action, comedy and Japanese custom destruction. We decided to walk from Todo high school to the train station. I was okay with this because it was cloudy, drizzly, and downhill. Which meant the usual 2 gallons of sweat that I leak while walking in Kyoto was reduced to 1.5 gallons. We eventually make it back to Kyoto Station where we decide that lunch was to be in our future. In what i think was an attempt to kill time before we had to go back to work, T-Sensei took me all over Kyoto station looking for a place that would satiate our hunger. He says we are going to an "all you can eat Japanese style Buffet." To which i replied in my head, "holy mother of god, that's heaven." To which i replied in reality, "Hai, sounds oishii." (oishii means delicious in Japanese). I was unaware that all you can eat in Japanese culture means that you should go back to the food at least 1 more time. I was very hungry, but not hungry enough to make a second trip. T-Sensei saw that i had finished while he was still mid-second plate and said, "was the food not to your liking." To which i replied, "no, no. It was delicious, i am just full." His face went from curious to upset. This was the first time in my life i have ever upset someone because i ate too little..."ate too little" never used to be in my vocabulary. So after a long, awkward walk back to Rakuto school from the train station, I settled down for the last two hours of an already painful day.
After all that was over...i still had to walk 1.2miles back to my apartment.
~gio
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