Last Day in Bangkok

Today was our last day in Bangkok, at least for a while. We made the decision to hit the weekend market in Chatpatchuck. Colin and Yusuke had gone the day before, but it wasn't as big on Friday as it gets on the weekend. Hence the name. We headed there with a big group from the hotel, but the only ones who stayed with us in the market were Sarah, an Irishwoman who always seemed a bit manic but fun nonetheless, and Dave, an Aussie finishing up a round-the-world tour who seemed to know an inordinate amount about sewing, stitching, and buying clothes.

We meandered that market, which had everything from rattan furniture to pets to fruit shakes. It was giant, too. We saw but a small fraction of it. By that time, we were exhausted and dripping with sweat from walking through the tiny, stuffy pathways. We had to be in Khao Sarn Road for the 8pm bus, so we headed back early. We stopped at a great restaurant that was completely deserted, manned by a confused older woman, with several Thai staff pretty much standing around. We had a girl specifically to pour more beer and cola for us. The interior was beautiful, marble flooring and columns, furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and five tourists in ratty clothes, sweaty and grimy from walking the streets. Talk about incongruous. The atmosphere of the restaurant made us think of a high quality place that had lost its importance.

We got back to our hostel, showered, said our goodbyes, then Colin, Yusuke and I set out to catch the night bus to Koh Tao.

"It Buddhist holiday. (insert attraction here) closed today. You go see Big Buddha, then visit tailor shop."

We ogt off to a late start today, everyone was disorganized and we were trying to figure out what to do. I headed out with Boukje and Matt to see the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Along the way, people kept stopping us and trying an old scam. They'd ask us where we were headed, then say that that place was closed, or the hours were different. But if we wanted, he could hail a tuktuk nearby to take us to some OTHER attractions that were open. All that was required was for us to visit a tailor's afterwards and have a look around. We got burned on that yesterday, so I was determined not to let it happen again.

After running the gauntlet, we made it to the Grand Palace, miraculously still open. The grounds of the palace and Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) were quite impressive. The spires and brightly colored statues were quite amazing. The Emerald Buddha itself, to be honest, wasn't. IT was very small, set far away from view, and packed with tourists and worshippers. Although the inside was covered in beautiful paintings, it didn't feel worth the trouble of wading through the crowds.

Afterwards, I bade my two companions farewell and met up with Colin and Yusuke to find a ticket to Koh Tao tomorrow night.

Making Friends in Bangkok

I met up with the Dutch girl (still don't know how to spell her name) in the morning. She'd stayed in a small dorm in the same hostel, and her bunkmates seemed like pretty cool guys. There was Colin, a tall Missourian who'd come here to teach English; Matt, a New Zealander on a few days stopover en route to London; Yusuke, a Japanese student in the US on holiday; and Andrew, a Vietnamese-American who'd been travelling Southeast Asia for several months.

We went to the old district with the famous temples and Grand Palace. One the way, we took the Sky Train, an elevated train that crosses high above th city. The view is spectacular, but you do catch the occasional glimpse of mounds of trash and homeless people under the freeways that remind you there are still some problems here.

From the end of the Sky Train, we caught a boat bus up the river to the old district. We saw Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), Wat Pho (where the Reclining Buddha is), as well as the "Big Buddha," a 32-meter standing statue. It was all interesting, but I wish I'd had something to read so I could understand it better.

Last up, we hit Khao San Road, the infamous backpacker's street. Loads of stalls selling all manner of goods, along with bars and cheap flophouses catering to "farang." A good, but long, day overall.

PS - had Japanese for dinner. Yum!

First Day in Bangkok

(Note: The date has been changed to reflect when the events took place, not when it was written. Enjoy.)

I've arrived in Bangkok and caught a train to my hostel. The guesthouse seems to do a brisk business, with a bar and restaurant on the first floor. The room's pretty tiny, compared to what I got in Vietnam. It's on the second floor, right next to an extension of the restaurant/lounge. There are a couple of Dutch or Germans making plans, as well as a couple of Asians attached to their laptops.

I met a nice girl while checking in, a Dutchwoman named Boukje, or something like that. She's pleasant enough, we had a good conversation and decided to go sightseeing together tomorrow. I have a feeling this country is going to bleed me dry, things aren't terribly cheaper than Japan or the USA, especially given that everyone's purpose is to get your money. We'll see what happens, but I'm betting I run my credit card up again, like I did last year.

Anyways, tomorrow's going to be spent doing basic sightseeing here, then the next day will be for Ayuthaya in the north, then off to the islands for some diving. I hope.

This just in: Bangkok's hot in summer

I got to my hostel last night around 7 or 7:30pm. I was rather surprised, I thought it would take longer. The flight was only 6 hours, and Thailand is two hours earlier. Not bad, overall. The taxi ride was a bit frantic at times, between the driver's crazy maneuverings and the worrying fact that he kept glancing at the address I'd given him like he didn' know it. Sure enough, I had to use his phone to call the place and get directions. Not too difficult.

There was a nice girl at the check-in desk, a Dutch girl who'd arrived just before me. We're both flying solo, so we'll split the taxis and do the basic sights today. Maybe look at some tours up north briefly, before getting down to the islands down south.

The brief cool spell in Japan must've wrecked my heat acclimatization (is that a word), because it's stifling hot here. Even the nights are oppressive. Let's hear it for A/C. The big downside to being here is that people were noisy until almost 2am, while I was trying to get some shuteye. So I'm running on about 3 hours sleep. Yay.

Stuck between boredom and extreme action

Well, now that it's the night before I leave for Thailand, everything seems to be happening at once. I've had several days to myself, during which I've done almost nothing. My roommate Tracey's gone back to Scotland and won't return until after I leave, Julian's out travelling with his dad, who's visiting, and everyone else I know is busy working. So all this free time has left me wondering what to do with it. Well, it turns out I sit around and watch movies a lot. That's not so bad, but I always have that feeling I should be doing more, such as studying Japanese or getting out and seeing the countryside somewhere.

I did get to meet a few friends for dinner recently, and I went out with Julian and his father. Phil's got a wine shop in England, so he knows his stuff. He came well-prepared to visit breweries and pubs around our area. I went with them to Kamakura and, after doing a nice hike through the hills, we stopped off at Kamakura Brewery, a really tiny factory whose employees seemed shocked to have three gaijin turn up on their doorstep asking for a tour. The brewmaster, a young lady about my age who had enough English to supplement our bad Japanese, gave us a short tour with a few tastings. We got to try 4 of their 5 or 6 varieties. They taste quite good, certainly better than the mass-produced crap from Asahi or Kirin. As a present for their hospitality, Phil gave them a bottle of English-made beer called "Kamikaze," complete with a politically-incorrect Japanese guy flying a plane over the WWII Rising Sun flag. Yikes. Well, the people thought it was funny, so I guess no harm, no foul.

Anyways, tonight I just finished a drinking party with teachers from one of my schools. They're really nice people, I always enjoy talking to them, even though I don't get to do that much chatting while I'm at school. Not that I'm busy, they're always scrambling around. I've got some things to pack up still, then I'll take off tomorrow morning.

Btw, I've uploaded some photos to my flickr site, so you can click on the link at the side of this page and check them out. I haven't put descriptions up yet, but you can pretty much guess what they are. I'm saving that for when I'm really bored by myself in Thailand.

Wet and exhausted

Today was fun. One of the people at the gym I go to asked me to help carry an omikoshi, a portable shrine, around town. The deal was, we'd carry it into the ocean. I didn't know exactly what they meant by that, but I said yes. It's something I've always wanted to try out.

I met a group of people from the gym in the early afternoon, and we wandered down to the beach area. I swear people wouldn't do this if there was no alcohol involved. So we started drinking before we even picked up the shrine. They told me to bring a small towel, fold it up, and stuff it under my hanten (the gray coat I'm wearing in the photos), so I wouldn't bruise my shoulders too much. Good advice. When we got there, someone looked at my shoes and said that since we were headed into the ocean, my shoes wouldn't do. Some random person made off with my giant purple shoes and gave me a random pair of flip-flops.

We took that thing into the sea a few meters, but then took it out, set it on sawhorses and went off for a break and a beer. Then we picked it up again and marched it through the streets. I'd signed up to just take it into the ocean, I didn't realize I'd be carrying this monster around for the next few hours also.

We got it to a warehouse-type area and set 'er down again, this time for a food break. We had some potato croquettes, onigiri (rice balls), and juice or tea, rested and washed off our feet, then picked up the big omikoshi and set off for the shrine. I helped out with the big one for awhile, but it was too much for me and my back. I'm about 1.85m tall. The average Japanese person is well below that. So I had to squat down in order to carry the shrine at the same height as everyone else, doing a double number on my back and legs, not to mention my poor shoulders. Around this time, I lost my left flip-flop. I never found it again, either. I spent the next 2 hours walking around with one flip-flop either on my right foot, or jammed in my waistband.

I eventually moved up to help the smaller teens carrying the omikoshi I originally helped with, and stuck with that until the end. We wound up in the dark, bouncing the shrines up and down on our shoulders at the main shrine, then set them down and had a free meal, complete with beer.

After that, we headed to a bar, of course, and drank a lot, then ended up in a ramen restaurant. I wobbled my way home on my bike and here I am. My laundry's done, so I'm going to leave you all so I can hang my stuff up to dry. I'll try and post photos tomorrow, and linkify this post.

Make it stop!

Well, we're almost done with the rainy season for the summer, and it was a rather dry one. Hardly anything worth calling a downpour, a sprinkle, even. Well, Mother Nature's decided to make up for her lack of precipitation. It's been raining pretty much continuously for the past 2 1/2 days, though we're in a lull right now. The afternoons seem to be light showers, and it only really comes down in the morning. Right, oh, about when I go to work. This morning I went to work in shorts and a T-shirt made to dry quickly in the summer heat, and a pair or cheapo sport sandals I got in Vietnam.

What a way to close the school season. My roommate Tracey left today for Scotland. I'll bet this is the one time the weather there isn't as bad as it is here. She'll be gone until just after I leave for Thailand, so the last time I saw her, Monday night, was the last time I'll see her until late August, when I return from vacation. I just hope I can remember to water the plants.

Another 3-day weekend!?

Yes, folks, it's that time of year, when I'm almost through with classes for the summer. And right on time, today (Monday) is umi no hi, or Sea Day. Nobody knows what it's for, but we all like a nice holiday. This weekend has been rather busy, full of physical exertions. Saturday Julian and I tooled down to Enoshima on our bicycles. The beaches around there have beach bars set up with music and the beaches are packed. They call themselves the "Miami beach of the East," but that's being too generous. The black sand and trash everywhere don't bring Miami to mind. But it's better than Hiratsuka, where the undertow will suck you out to sea like what happened to an acquaintance of mine.

My old roommate Gavin got a new guy in his apartment, one who liked surfing. Mike took his surfboard down to the beach and went out. I guess it's popular with surfers, so he must've done something wrong, but in any case he ended up getting pulled out into the bay by the current, despite his best efforts to paddle in. He eventually got to a buoy of some sort and clung there for a while, til the tide came in and he was able to paddle back to shore, albeit the next down over. Guess he had a long walk home with his surfboard.

Anyways, Julian and I rode down to Enoshima and checked out the scene. Saturday night was "Pirates of the Caribbean II." I was the only one who brought a pirate hat, so that was discouraging. Everyone else tried it on, and I think Miwa ran off with it. Incidentally, there's a pirate bar in Hiratsuka, the outside is done up with wood planks and fake cannon portholes. The logo is a skull wearing a chef's hat and a knife and fork crossed beneath, in the style of the skull & crossbones.

Yesterday, Sunday, was soccer with some of the foreigners and a few Japanese from around the area. I tried to make up for my lack of skills by constantly running back and forth, exhausting myself. Which meant that riding over to Chigasaki, the city just east of Hiratsuka, for a beach BBQ wasn't the best idea. It was nice to go down there and cook up some steaks, have a few drinks and chat to people, but riding back home tired me out.

Today, Monday, is a holiday, and I'll meet a few people and head to Enoshima again (this time by train) to see a small ceremony with floating lanterns on the water and a small fireworks show, weather permitting. The forecast has been for rain this whole weekend, and aside from a few stray drops yesterday, the weather's held. Hopefully this evening will be nice and clear, the fireworks would be a nice way to finish the weekend.

I've only got 3 more days of real work. I'll finish on the 20th. I have a few things to do the following week, I'll go in for a couple of days to help a student prepare for a speech contest, and I've got a private lesson, but that's it. I'll be off from August 2nd to Thailand for three whole weeks. I still don't quite know what I'll do, hopefully I can get my open-water SCUBA certification, assuming I can find some cheap contacts with my prescription.

Finally, downtime!

Last weekend was the festival weekend. It was Tanabata Festival ("Star Festival") in Hiratsuka. The festival's not all bad, but there's not terribly a lot to do other than walk around and spend money on overpriced carnival food. The first day there was a good taiko drum demonstration, but beyond that, I never found much worth doing. The big draw is the amount of decorations hung from bamboo poles that dangle over the streets. But by the 4th day, it gets a bit old, as does the food and trash, which really starts to reek about that time. And the organizers wonder why attendance has declined in recent years.

Last year, my friend Ana introduced me to the Gion Festival in Narita, the town where she lived and worked on her first trip to Japan. I got acquainted with a few of her friends, Yumi, and the Kiuchis, a couple that is always welcoming to foreigners. They were nice enough to let me and Julian come along and attend their dinner party that evening. It was quite a time. It was a full-course Japanese meal, replete with sashimi, tempura, and a unaji (grilled eel on rice), not to mention all the beer you can drink.

Some of the other highlights that day were coming across a group of old men with a barrel of sake open and offering drinks to the public, and watching the dashi being pulled around the town all day. There were some crazy hairdos that day as well, though I couldn't get a full on shot of them. My favorite was this particular person.

The next day Julian and I took a stroll through a much-quieted Narita. We hit Narita-san temple for a bit, but the heat and humidity was such that not even the beautiful gardens there could cool us off. So we headed back to Hiratsuka in time to have an early night and recover from the weekend's festivities.

More photos here.

The Nature of Nature

This post by David Neiwert at Orcinus was truly beautiful, as well as sad. In our busy, urban nature, we tend to lose track of what Nature is: wonderous but cruel. I only wish I could write half as well as this guy. Anyway, give it a read, it's something we should all understand about life.

Happy Birthday, Little Brother!

Well, it's my little brother's 23rd birthday. And he's gone and joined the military. We may not be very close, we've certainly had our differences and our disagreements. But I love him. I hope he gets through training and can become a medic.

He knows I'm not the biggest fan of him joining the military right now, the pyschological and physical trauma people who've been sent to Iraq come back with is horrifying. So I wish him the best and I hope, if it comes to it, that he can make it back in one piece.

And happy birthday, little bro.

Either the best practical joke in the world, or truly the dumbest person in the world (and that's saying a lot)

Forget the whole abortion debate. I don't devote this blog to covering political topics, and (though I may start another just for that) I don't plan on starting now. But the sheer stupidity of people in the world amazes me. I don't care what side you're on, it's funny, or tragic, depending on your point of view.

A couple posts ago I mentioned the "pro-life" person, Pete, who posted a topic on his anti-babykilling site about an article in which a woman extols the joys and pleasures of having an abortion. She says things like this:

I've got an abortion to plan, and I just know it's going to be the best non-anesthetized invasive uterine surgery ever!

or this:

I seriously cannot wait for all the hemorrhaging and the uterine contractions. This abortion is going to be so amazing.

Now, when you read an article with lines like that, what do you think? I think, 'nobody seriously wishes for these things, so they're probably kidding.' And you'd be right. Because the article is from The Onion, a satire newspaper.

What I don't think is how horrible it is someone would have these thoughts and then write about it on a blog devoted to shutting down women's clinics.

Well, this genius did.

And not only that, after 800 comments telling him, in not so polite words, it's satire, he goes and writes another article claiming he actually knew all along, but then proceeds to post an 'exchange' (I doubt it ever happened, but if it did all the more proof of his naivete) where the woman he talks to proclaims she wouldn't have any problem at all if she were killed and mutilated. Uh-huh.

Anyways, he's become a minor celebrity now. They say there's no such thing as bad publicity, but I'm beginning to seriously doubt that. I can't imagine anyone would want to donate to this fool's organization now. No more publicity for him. Read those two articles, laugh a lot, maybe leave him a rude comment and then ignore the rest of his idiocy.

Photos are updated

Well, my quarterly photo update has finally come about. I was going to write about my weekend, festivals and all, but that isn't going to happen. It's past 11pm, and I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in at least a week. Hopefully, I'll be coherent at work tomorrow and have time to type something up.

Until then, I've uploaded photos through the end of June. There's a lot to see, including horseback archery and the school festivals I mentioned earlier. Next up are festival photos. But that's for another day.

Further proof of our failed education system

I have a lot to write about tonight, I'll get around to it later. But now you all gotta see this. This made my day. And the comments are pretty good as well.

(via Pharyngula, the newest addition to my blog reads)

New Phone

My old Sharp's been on the fritz lately, causing me some frustration. It would randomly shut down and then start back up, particularly right after I'd closed the clamshell lid. That and some battery problems prompted me to take it, only to find out I was just beyond the warranty period. Yay. Instead of paying to have it repaired, I decided to dump the brick and go for a better one I'd seen before. That's how I ended up with my Samsung. I tried to take some photos to post, but my camera batteries crapped out. That's my next gadget to replace.

It's touted as being the world's thinnest mobile, which is pretty cool. The camera is the same resolution as before, but it seems to take clearer snapshots. And, by the way, there are 2 of them. One camera is on the outside, the other is on the lower right of the clamshell. I don't forsee many videophone calls, but it's nifty. It has some other features, the ones I like the best are the animated shockwave wallpapers (I have a picture of a Japanese castle with cherry blossoms falling in the foreground) and when I receive messages, they letters pop up and the punctuation marks do funny things. I can see this getting old after a week, though.

There are a couple of downsides. One is a lack of removable media storage. There's no SD slot, but it makes up for it with a 140MB internal memory and a USB cable to connect to my PC. Most phones nowadays use either MiniSD or even MicroSD (!) cards, so being able to use my old SD cards has become a moot point. The other downside is that I can't use the mp3 files I can put on my phone as the ringtone. I can't believe they'd actually not allow that, so I'm hoping I just haven't figured it out yet.

So that's what I've been doing with my time and money lately. I'm trying to save up for Thailand, but that's not likely what with the festivals coming up this weekend. Anyways, off to make a snack and to bed.

Happy Birthday America

Just don't let the morons in charge screw it up before I get back.

If You Like A Lot Of Trotamundos On Your Biscuit, Join Our Club.

I checked out The Advertising Generator Slogan to see what my blog's slogan should be. This was what came up. Perhaps I'll add it in later.

In other news regarding nifty things that computers can do, I found this site. I'm not sure how well it works:
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Amazingly, Julian looks like Jet Li, and Damien is a famous French singer/songwriter.

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OK, enough playing around for me. Off to cook some lunch for this week.

Lots to say, but perhaps not today

I've been in a slight funk in the past week or so. It's a normal occurrence, nothing to be terribly alarmed at, just a cyclical thing Jeremy's brain goes through. It's just that this mood has precluded me from putting any serious thoughts down on paper (or on my blog, as the case may be). And now it seems I've ended up with so much to say, it's tough to know where to begin.

For starters, last week I worked at the special education school in the school system I work for. Many schools have special ed classes, but sometimes there are students that can't function in a normal school environment, and that's when they're sent to this place. The teachers there are absolute angels. I spent five days among them, and by the fourth day, I was ready to quit and run out. The students were friendly enough, most of them, but I encountered a little too much stress, not to mention bodily fluids, to soldier on. I made it through, and finished the week with high praises from teachers and students alike, but I have no desire to go back. Too bad I'll head back there in September for another week.

That's not to say it was terrible. The hours were great. I could come in at 10am and leave by 2:30 or so, not to mention being able to wear shorts and a T-shirt in school greatly decreased the sweating that normally occurs. And the kids were truly lovely. They were so happy if you spent any time at all with them. Unlike many of the 15 year-olds I taught who are complete jackasses because they think their friends will respect them more for it. I had lunch with the elementary 3rd-graders. There was one student who loved to just look at me. He would look at me and if I returned the glance, would launch into hysterical laughter. He thought getting to play kickball with me was the greatest thing. Especially because he couldn't walk right and had to wear leg braces and heavy shoes that made him sound about 300 lbs. as he thundered across the floor, chasing a ball.

This experience also rekindled the interest I had in mental problems that left people unable to perform certain functions, especially social ones. The kids were sweet, but they don't always know how to interact with others. But like I said, the teachers were angels. I went to the grocery store to do shopping with high school students, so they could familiarize themselves with money and how to use it. I walked with one kid named "Eight." Literally. It's probably not good to name students, but this is a Japanese name I've never heard before. Anyway, we had to hold hands with our partner students. So I'd hold "Eight's" hand as we walked. Well, it being mid-June with 80% humidity, those clasped palms got a bit sweaty and uncomfortable. So we'd switch hands. Unfortunately, right before that, he'd usually wipe his nose with his free hand and then run to my other side and give me a nice gooey clutch to change hands. Needless to say, I tried to touch as little as possible.

So that gooey experience pretty sums up my time there. I won't mind going back, because I know I have just one more week that I'll do it. I couldn't imagine doing that every day, which makes me respect my mother, a teacher of BLIND mentally handicapped kids, even more.

I'll write some more, but hopefully this weekend.

The heat is on

Well, it's the rainy season now. Which means continuous 80%-plus humidity, constant rainfall, and lots of heat. I did all my washing this weekend, and it's still damp. Soon I won't have any underwear or socks that aren't damp. It's a bit frustrating. Not to mention the sour mood one gets in damp skivvies.

My ankle stopped hurting a few days ago, so for good measure I went to the gym today and yesterday. With all the jumping and hopping around in the body combat classes, my ankle has now resumed its bloated form. Yay. I need to take it easy from now on.

The next Japan game is on in a few minutes, so Julian's gonna pop by. Should be a fun time. Too bad it's a Sunday night. Tomorrow's gonna be rough.

Warudo-Kappu Netsu!!!!

So the USA's buggered its chance in World Cup. 3-0 loss. Oh well, at least it was to Czech, one of the top teams. Japan lost to Australia, which made the aussies here unbearable. The worst part is the earliest game starts at 10pm, just when I go to bed. The USA-Czech match was on at 1am Tokyo time. This means I don't get to watch our boys play. I'll probably stay up til the 4am match this weekend, but I'm not gonna enjoy it.

In other soccer news, I somehow managed to seriously twist my ankle playing 2-on-2 soccer during lunch with a bunch of 13 year-olds yesterday. I never realized how difficult it is to move around this country when it hurts to walk. I bought a brace this afternoon, just in time for most of the pain to stop, but the swelling's still there. Looks like I have a hippo glued to my ankle. Hope it gets better soon, I'm headed to the gym for jumping tomorrow night, and Sunday is my own private little world cup match, when I get to show the guys just how a real American plays soccer (that is, poorly).

PS - at least Spain's winning right now. 3-0, but I keep missing the goals. Curse my low-level ADD!

Man, I need to get back into the real world

I came across this article today. Makes me want to get back into the world of science and studying what I really like.

I've been having some serious thoughts lately on what I want to do when my contract's up next year, and how I can go about doing that. I don't know what'll happen, but every time I see an article like this, it makes me want to jump back into the world of academics.

Beach BBQ

Last weekend I went to a beach barbecue in Chigasaki, the next town over from Hiratsuka, with Julian and some other friends. It was a bit cloudy, but that certainly helped my delicate complexion, since I didn’t fry myself. The food was good, the company even better. I got to meet Julian’s friend Phil, an amateur BMX rider. He’s big into the skateboarding and BMX scene here, I guess. Phil’s also got the ideal job. He does the same thing as me, but directly for the school, so he works 3 days a week and gets paid more than I do. I need to find one of those jobs.

Some of Phil’s Japanese friends showed up with some fish they’d caught off the pier that morning. They just tossed them on the grill directly, no gutting or anything. I swear, Japanese people will eat anything that comes out of the ocean. It was rather amazing. One guy devoured the fish, minus head and guts, in under a minute. It looked like it was out of those cartoons where the cat puts the fish in his mouth and pulls it out completely clean. I guess coming from a landlocked state, it’s just not that normal for me. We also got to play some Frisbee, I was glad to see my Frisbee skills haven’t gotten too rusty since my ultimate days in high school.

In other news, Wednesday was my friend Julian's birthday. We had a couple of drinks this evening, and the big bash for him is Saturday night. Should be a good time. Tomorrow night I'll see "Da Vinci Code." It probably won't be as enjoyable as the book, but I feel obligated to see it. Plus, there'll be a group going, so if it's boring, we can just make fun of it.

A tale with a moral

This is a lesson in meeting people, I guess. At the schools So about 4 months ago, I went to a friend’s birthday party in Fujisawa. I met a bunch of fun people, and a group of about 6 of us headed back to Hiratsuka to for a sort of after-party. On the way back, a few of the guys with us ran into a former high school classmate of theirs. She seemed a bit uptight, but they persuaded her to join our group. We went back to Hiratsuka to the local salsa bar. She was one of the few to actually try dancing salsa. We had a pretty good time. By the end of the night, she’d given me her email and told me to write her so we could go out sometime. She wanted to practice her English, and I always need someone to help me with my Japanese. But she never responded to the mails I sent her. I hate getting blown off like that, especially when the other person seems enthusiastic about going out.

So Monday I got to a different junior high school and meet a bunch of the student teachers. By now you can see where this is going. She didn’t recognize me the first time she saw me, and it wasn’t until Tuesday when I called her by her first name before we’d even been introduced. She had a rather shocked look on her face. So the lesson is, don’t blow someone off or be rude, even if they’re a foreigner you think you won’t ever see again, because you never know when they’ll turn up and be able to say embarrassing things about you to the other teachers.

Another brief, slightly inebriated post

So I've finished my week at the school I dread. I met some teachers for drinks tonight, one of them informed me that the school I just finished has a reputation for not being friendly to teachers. So I guess now I don't feel as bad. After the sports festival, the general atmosphere seemed to get better, maybe the teachers didn't feel under the same pressure as usual.

Tuesday was nice. I went to Yugawara city with my friend Kaori. We went to a hot spring resort I know. For $10.50 you get entrance for the whole day to this place. It has a rooftop onsen (hot spring) with a great view of Sagami Bay. It's co-ed too, which makes it ideal for going with someone of the opposite sex (but you have to wear swimsuits...too bad in that respect). This week I got paid, which meant an overindulgence in going out, especially tonight. I just finished a several-hour drinking binge with Julian and assorted teachers, plus some karaoke. Tomorrow is a beach BBQ in Chigasaki, the next town over, and Sunday is a friendly soccer game with the folks I went camping with. It oughta be fun.

I need to conserve my cash. I'm saving up for a trip to Thailand in August. If I can get the cash for it, I want to sign up for some SCUBA diving if I can. That requires some logistics given my sight capabilities, but I'll see what can be done. Anyway, signing off for now. Take care all.

A Short Update

I just got back from the field day at my school. It should've been on Saturday, but got rained out. So guess what I did instead? I worked! We had classes on Saturday instead, and I had to go there in the rain to teach. It turned out to be not so bad. The teachers were a bit friendlier and talked to me more. Last week sort of drove me nuts. I had a long post I wrote at work about how I'm ignored by everyone at work, no one thinks I can speak any Japanese (despite my speaking to them in my --admittedly broken-- Japanese), and how I felt generally awful. But Saturday was a bit of a pick-me-up. Unfortunately, that means for a second week in a row, my days off are being split up. But it'll work out all right.

Yesterday (Sunday) I went to the yabusame (horseback archery) demonstration with my friend Miwa. It rained all night before, but stopped around 11am, so we went down to Miura Beach. We thought it'd take only an hour, but it turned out to be twice as long. We arrived at 2, an hour late, but they had just started the demonstration, and we got to see lots of shooting.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. They were shooting at targets about 2 meters away. Granted, they're shooting from a galloping horse, but I was expecting something a bit more grand. It must've been quite difficult, because not everyone could hit the main target that was eye-level with the riders, let alone the smaller targets only a foot above the ground. It only lasted until about 2:40, so we spent more time going there than we spent at the actual demonstration, but it was fun to see and got me out of the area I'm so used to being in.

Tomorrow I'm heading down to Yugawara, a well-known hot springs area with my friend Kaori to enjoy soaking in some hot water. Now it's off to the gym, where I've been absent for too long. Need to get back into shape.

Burnout, or something like it

These past several days have been a bit exhausting for me. The taikusai (field day) was pretty good. I took some photos, and will post them later. It was cancelled on Saturday because of rain, so we had it on Sunday. Yesterday (Monday), I started at a different school. They're practicing for their takusai, which means they want me to go to theirs this Saturday. The prospect of working from Sunday to Saturday isn't too appealing right now, and I'm trying to figure out how to get out of it. Not to mention I've been going to bed later than I should, and sleeping is getting more difficult due to the increasing humidity. All this has created a grumpy Jeremy lately. So tonight's dedicated to an early night, which I hope I can get.

Next weekend I hope will be fun. There's a festival in Miura city down the coast, and they have a yabusame (horseback archery) demonstration scheduled. It will be, that is, presuming it doesn't rain. That's all for now, catch you all later.

Undokai

Saturday will be my school’s undokai, or field day. That is, it will be if the weather holds. I’m actually hoping it doesn’t, and gets rescheduled to Sunday, since that means I can stay out later in Tokyo on Friday. I remember doing field day in my elementary school, and we had them also in middle school and high school at Zionsville. They were ok, but if we’d done events like these, it would’ve been much more exciting. They have the usual dashes and relays, but then there are some other ones that are much more exciting – and dangerous – than what I ever did. There are four colored teams – red, blue, green, and yellow. Each is comprised of a mix of 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-year students. There are team competitions within each grade, as well as competitions that use a mix of ages.

One event is a train of 2nd-year students, 7 or 8 long, their left legs tied together and the same on the right side, so they all have to move their legs in unison to go. Each color team has four sets, two boys and two girls, and they have to run a relay. It’s rather comical to watch, especially when the first one falls down and everyone behind him creates a huge pileup.

If that’s not daring enough, the 1st-year students have to do an event that would have American school board lawyers wringing their hands. There’s a bamboo pole, about 15 or 18 feet (2 or 2 1/2 meters) tall. It’s held straight up by four boys bracing its bottom, as well as four ropes tied to the top, pulled out and held down by three or four students. There are 3 flags about 2/3 of the way up. A team of three kids carry one of their lighter teammates up to the pole and this last one shinnies up and grabs a flag, slides down and races off on his/her “chariot” back to the starting line. This is repeated by 2 other sets of “horse and rider.” Once all the flags are down, they have to go back up and drop the flags in the top hole of the bamboo pole. The first team to do this is the winner.

The 3rd-year students have an odd form of tug-of-war. There are four ropes on the ground. The one in the middle, the longest, is worth two points. The other three are shorter and each is worth 1 point. Two teams face off from a starting line and have to run and pull as many ropes as they can over to their side. Obviously, most kids go for the two-pointer, but the element of strategy enters into it, since even if you get the longest one, you can still lose. It looks like fun.

The Taifun is another unique one, though not nearly as dangerous, although it can cause some damage. Students of all ages on each team line up five abreast, half on one side, half on the other, of a diamond with corners of cones. One line takes a length of bamboo and the five of them have to run to the first cone, go around, run to the next, go around, and so on until they reach the other half of their team. The middle three split off and the two end students have to run the pole underneath their comrades, who all have to jump in perfect time or risk having their legs knocked out from under them. Then they crouch as the pole is brought forward just over the tops of their heads to the first row who take off in the other direction. The first team to have all rows finish crouches down and stands the pole upright in front of them is the winner.

The last competition that I’ve seen them practicing this past week is a sort of team jump-rope. It’s pretty normal, using the bulkiest 3rd-years to swing the rope and everyone else jumping. One team I saw got 31 jumps on the first try, so I’m guessing they’ll win.

It will be fun to go and watch the kids compete, not to mention I’ll get a day off this week so I can relax. I’m scheduled to run at some point with the English club, though not in a teacher competition. I think the gym teachers or PTA are going to do some race, so I might try and get in on that.

An expensive night out

Well, I guess this post has been a bit longer in coming than I’d planned. Things have been a bit hectic and it doesn’t help that I’ve been feeling a bit of apathy lately about most things. I guess I’m just in another one of my funk moods. One of my friends is taking off, and my best friend here, Julian, is talking about leaving in July or August. People come and go, I guess. I have Japanese friends, but I don’t think they can take the place of the foreign friends I’ve had here, Ana, Damien, & Julian. The language barrier here can be quite strong, not to mention the natives never seem to have time to hang out. I don’t mind if I can’t see my friends every day, but when many of them seem to only have time once a month or so, that’s not quite enough. Not to mention I get the feeling from certain ones that they only reason they hang out is to practice their English. Being a walking language lesson gets old, especially when it’s your day job, too.

So enough whining. My Golden Week vacation wasn’t as eventful as Id’ve liked, though it wasn’t too bad. Last Friday I learned an important lesson. Japanese people may have the stereotype of being very punctual and respectful, but that’s just not true. Julian and I organized a party for the ALTs in the school system, as well as various teachers we’d met at different schools. We invited about 25. Fifteen said they’d come, so we reserved that many places at an izakaya (sort of restaurant/drinking establishment). Well, only 9 showed up. Three of our ALTs cancelled the day of, and 2 of the Japanese teachers evidently misunderstood what I told them, as well as the email ,in Japanese, that Julian’s girlfriend wrote, about the date and time. So Julian and I had to pay the $30/person that didn’t show up. It was a fiasco, financially. But we who showed up enjoyed ourselves. On the way out, we passed by some mannequin heads that had been put out on the street. Julian got ahold of one and managed to button his shirt up around his head so he looked abnormally tall. He went all the way to the train station with it like that. He got lots of looks, and we were all in stitches. I don’t know if the other teachers found it funny, but I thought it was hilarious.

So this month I’m trying to keep expenses down, yet every weekend I have some sort of expensive social obligation. This weekend is looking to be a fun one, if everything goes as planned. Friday night I’m meeting a couple people and heading up to Tokyo. The Akihabara district, to be exact. We’re going to head to a maid café. I’ve been wanting to find one and check it out for awhile, especially when my friends Aaron and Molly came to visit. We tried searching Akihabara, but no luck. We did find some girls dressed as maids, but they were advertising their pop band.

A maid café, apparently, is a café where all the workers are young (or young-looking) girls dressed up in skimpy French maid outfits. They were started up a few years ago to serve the otaku crowd: the geek crowd that has taken over Akihabara district, known for being the electronics shopping district. Evidently, they’ve also expanded to shops that offer haircuts, manicures, etc. Now you don’t have to be a greasy-haired dork to be an otaku, you can be a well-kempt dork who gets manicures from 30-year-olds dressed as his favorite anime character. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Fun things

So I was planning on today to blog a bit and catch up. Well, since it's past my bedtime here, I guess that has to wait for tomorrow. But in the meantime, check out these two sites. One is a website with a movie timeline that chronicles all the events that have taken place in movies. Ana, you'd love this one.

The other is one that bears a bit more focus. One Red Paperclip is about a guy who's decided to barter his way from one red paperclip all the way up to a house. So far he's traded for an afternoon with Alice Cooper, and he's currently looking for that next trade. So if that's worth a house to you, go for it. Anyway, I think it's amazing he's done so well, though I have to say that TRULY trading up that way, for any average Joe, would be doing it without banking on the fame/notoriety you've gained from what you've decided to do. It's probably possible, but I'm sure it'd take a lot longer, as you wouldn't have famous/wealthy people deciding to do it for kicks. I wonder if anyone could do it surreptitiously. Hmm...

Actually, it reminds me a lot of a short story by Mark Twain I just finished. It's called the "1 million-pound note," and is the story of a man, lost at sea, who's rescued and dumped in London with no friends and no way to get help. He meets a couple of rich old brothers who make a bet. They want to see if a man, with only one 1-million-pound bill in his pocket, can survive for 30 days without starving/dying or being thrown in jail. Obviously, no one will change it for him,
and if he goes to the authorities, he would be tossed in the slammer for theft. It's quite a good story, I highly recommend the Signet Classics volume of Twain's short stories.

Both Twain's story and One Red Paperclip seem quite improbable, yet the short story (ok, so it's fiction) worked out, and the barter project seems to keep going up. I must say I'm impressed.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when I'll (hopefully) write some more.

Late Saturday night post

Well, Golden Week's winding down. I've got some things to write, but I'm exhausted now, so I'm going to bed. You can take this test to tide you over til tomorrow. I always considered myself agnostic, but these things are so accurate...

The Ardent Atheist The results are in, and it appears that you have scored 63%...

You are an atheist, pure and simple. You think God is just one big lie, and consider religious people to be both annoying and beneath you. Ardent atheists will argue tooth and claw for their position, and have no truck with people that won't listen. You think being an atheist is the only way to lead an honest life, and see no reason to accept the pleas of faith. Ardent atheists are the backbone of atheism. Be proud.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 30% on pentagrams

Link: The Atheist Test written by chi_the_cynic on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

New photos up

I've posted new photos over at my flickr site. The new additions are photos taken when Molly & Aaron came to visit, plus a few hanami (cherry blossom-viewing) photos this month. I've labelled all but the Hakone and Kyoto folders, which is a daunting task. But I better get it done before I head into Golden Week and take another hundred or so photos at the festivals.

It's been rainy today, but I still got up early. I'm still sorting things out on this computer. I honestly can't see how people reformat and redo their computers every few months. It takes me that long to get everything I want loaded and set up. I'm headed off to the gym, and then maybe some ramen. Mmm, ramen.

Summer Vacation Thoughts

I'm thinking of places to go for summer break. I'll have all of August off, and potentially some of July. Thailand looks to have cheap flights then (~USD440), but I really want to go to Mongolia.

Otherwise, any suggestions?

Impressions

I've noticed one thing about the kids at every school I've ever taught at. Certain ones seem to really, really want to talk to me. At that point I'm often reminded of my dog back home, Penny. She'd chase our cat around the house over, under, and to my mother's consternation, oftentimes through furniture and other obstacles. But once she caught the cat, she had absolutely no idea what to do with it. She'd just stand there and stare.

That's often the look I'll get as I'm cornered by 6 or 8 13-year olds. They all have the idea that chatting with the foreigner would be great fun, but when he's actually there, they've no clue what to say. They can't (or are too embarrassed to) say it in English, and they think I can't speak any Japanese, so all that's left for them is to stand there and stare at me, a half-dozen blank faces.

It's cute and all, so I put up with it. At least they're not trying to poke me in various uncomfortable places.

Last week I rode my old, crappy bike over to the city I work in. I took the train home and bought myself a spiffy, new bike with 6 speeds on it, which makes commuting easier. This way I can ride down to Hiratsuka station, catch the train to Fujisawa, and then bike down to my school on the old bike. I realized that instead of walking 20 minutes, I can zip down in about 5. Much nicer, though I don't seem to be able to get up any later.

Next week is Golden Week, kind of the mandatory holiday week for Japanese workers. We've only got 2 days of school, which leaves me with a 5 day weekend. Travelling is a hellish undertaking during that time, so the most I'll do is head down to a festival in Odawara, the Hojo Godai Festival.

Beyond that, maybe I'll get some biking in. Now that I have more than 1 speed, I may try to tackle some of the hills to the west. Previously, I've pretty much kept to the flat plains to the east.

Downtime

While my fingers haven't been broken, I haven't had the time (nor much inclination, for some reason) to post. The new school year started off rather anticlimactically. The first 3 days were spent doing ceremonies. The first day was a welcome for new teachers as well as the new 1st year class. This of course involved all the new teachers (yours truly included) getting up on the stage and being introduced in front of the entire school assembly. Day two was a farewell to teachers who'd gone, so everyone who'd had to (involuntarily, of course) switch schools went back to their old place of work to accept flowers and give about 3 speeches each. Talk about boring. Not to mention the constant bowing-from-the-chair to various teachers, students, or VIPs passing by.

I think I'll like the schools I'm at. The first school wasn't terribly exciting. The teachers are a bit older and not as outgoing. Not to mention they were incredibly busy the first week, so I didn't have much time to get to know them. Perhaps I will later. The 2nd school I went to I spent all last week there. It's one that I'd gone to before, the one that has as its sister school the Orchard School in Indy. Small world, eh? I loved the teachers and students there, and it felt very comfortable and familiar being back again. The 3rd school I came to yesterday. It's pretty small, only 300-odd students. The kids are really friendly, and the teachers are pleasant. There are only 3 English teachers, 2 of whom are younger than I, and the 3rd is a very much-young-at-heart lady. They're quite nice to talk to, but the teachers here have an unpleasant tendency to constantly insist I take part in the club activities. While it's good for the kids, they don't always want me around, nor do I always want to deal with their 13 year-old banter and jokes. While it can be fun, sometimes I just don't want to do that.

I'm starting to get back into a routine again, which is nice. The gym beckons, I've been going back, but sporadically. I enjoy seeing the people there, but my social calendar's been a bit full. Too much going out and spending money. I was doing ok, until last week. My friend Erin went to Thailand. She came back with a friend from home, and I took it upon myself to show her around. It was good, but I spent a bit too much, but I did get to attend the local soccer match.

Beyond that, the main reason I haven't written is that my computer's been in a slow death spiral the past week or so. It started out a couple months ago when something funny would happen and I'd have to reset what hard drive was used first in the BIOS menu. Last week I started getting "disk read errors," which is a very bad thing. But it would usually start up again the next day. Well, I took steps to remedy that, but just as I was about to try and salvage everything from it, it seems to have made its final whir and up and died. I'm trying to recover what data I can from the other hard drive, I had a windows backup on it I might be able to salvage, though not for sure. I've backed up the important things that were on it (mostly my photos, at least through the end of last year), and everything else important is either on my flickr site (photos taken in 2006 up til mid-March) or they're in the hands of friends (Aaron, don't throw away those photos of your trip quite yet). I hate having things like this happen. And now I've gotta try and return the stupid drive, in addition to dealing with a new setup of windows, particularly changing all the settings to suit me.

So while I'm waiting for the data recovery program to finish, I'm off to a shower.

Things that will make you sleep poorly

1. Eat a bag of avocado-flavored tortilla chips as well as an entire wedge of brie cheese.
2. Drink an enormous black & tan.
3. Follow that up with some wine.
4. Get really frustrated at your computer because you can't log in to some of your normal websites.
5. Stay up really late.

Doing all of these, as I found out, will cause you to suddenly wake up at 4am and not be able to go back to sleep. When you finally do drift off, you'll spend the rest of the night in a cold sweat, obsessing over the little things you have to do the next day.

So yeah, I'm feeling a bit drowsy. Today's the 2nd day of school, as well as the day Aaron and Molly fly back to Cali. They left my house yesterday for Narita city, to relax and do some sightseeing before flying out. Also to pick up Aaron's passport since he lost it before he even got out of the airport 2 weeks ago. I've got a ton to write about that, as well as my first day at school. Maybe this evening. I"m all out of tortilla chips and brie.

Let the vacation begin!

I've been on vacation for nearly a week now. Well, I've had a few private lessons throughout the week, as well as some meetings and contract re-signing on Monday, but this afternoon my friends Aaron and Molly will arrive, and I'm excited. I'm really prepared to head out and have some fun. I'll pick them up at the airport and then head back to Tokyo and we'll stay there for 3 days to do some sightseeing. So I'll be reachable only by my cell email, which some of you may have. Hopefully when we get back I'll have some time to blog about what we did and perhaps post some photos. Cheers!

What I did on Spring Break

Well, I'm 2 days into my vacation, and I'm getting sick from not sleeping. Going out drinking doesn't help. Neither does sitting here writing after midnight when I told myself I'd go to bed two hours ago. Anyway, I've finished titling and tagging my photos for the past three months. So if you want to see them in context, have a look-see. I'm off to bed.

Links to satisfy your cravings

The problem with a blog is that you have to find time to write about the things you do. If you get too much of a backlog, you feel like you're rushing through things that you don't remember as well. If all you do is blog, then you haven't done anything interesting enough to blog about.

Bloggity, bloggity, bloggity, bloggity, bloggity, bloggity, bloggit, blogg, blog.....AAAAAHHHHH!

By the way, did you know the Pope has a comic?

Graduation Ceremony

So we're now approaching the end of the fiscal and academic year in Japan. I'm in my last week of school. As of Friday, I will finish my contract. Since I haven't signed a new one for next year, I'm a bit nervous as to my future. The company says they want to sign a new contract with me, but my instinct says don't count your chicks before they hatch. Well, Friday night is the end-of-contract party, so I hope they break it to me beforehand, so I don't waste money going to dinner with them. But seriously, I'm sure things'll sort themselves out.

I've gotten over my sinus problems. The medicine I took worked wonders. I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep, which is why I skipped the gym tonight, but between writing this post and uploading photos to Flickr, I'm falling behind again as I write. The writing has to be done though, otherwise it just builds up. So all of my photos since I returned from the US have been posted, so check those out. Just scroll down and click on the big ad on the right.

Last Friday was the graduation ceremony at one of the schools I work at. We all headed into the gymnasium for a commencement ceremony filled with speeches and bowing at all times. I sat with the teachers on one side at the front facing sideways, not at the stage. We faced the graduating students, who filed in to continuous applause. I thought my hands would go numb by the end, which they partially did. Or maybe that was the cold. There was no heating besides hundreds of warm bodies. On the opposite side of the gym, facing sideways like us, were a bunch of honchos from the board of education. After the arrival of the 3rd-years, the vice-principal got up and introduced the VIPS, each of whom stood and bowed at us, requiring us to return the bow, seated. Then came some more speeches and the handing out of the diplomas. As each student prepared to head up onto the stage, they bowed at us, and we sort of half-bowed back. There were more than 200 graduates that day. I think my hips still hurt. After some more songs and such, came speeches from the principal, vice-principal, and various student leaders.

One stereotype that we have of Japan is that you're supposed to hold in your emotions. Kids are permitted this, but once you get out of elementary school, I think society tries to effectively quash that. Guess it didn't work on these kids. I've never seen boys that age cry unless they broke a body part, but there were quite a few boys, and a ton of girls, just bawling. It was interesting because I noticed a few of them were the too-cool-for-school boys, ones that had reveled in taunting me in Japanese since I couldn't understand. Goes to show, at 15, they're still just kids.

There's a relationship called sempai and kohai. Basically, it means 'superior' and 'subordinate,' respectively, but Western minds have difficulty grasping it. I interpret it more as a type of adopted big brother/little brother type of relationship, which is usually formed between the students in a school club. The sempai mentors and protects the kohai, who in return lavishes respect on their superior. It's not always positive, as the sempai may spend more time teaching his subordinate how to make spitballs and disrupt class than how to get ahead in life. Typically westerners see it as easy for the sempai to take advantage of his poor subordinate, but that's not always the case. The kohai is free to up and abandon the sempai.

I mention this because after the ceremony, everyone mingled in the parking lot, saying goodbye to the 3rd-years. Especially packs of kohai, out looking to congratulate their sempai. Some of the 1st-years were in tears. I asked them why, and they showed me a clip-on tie. Evidently, receiving the clip-on tie from your sempai is a big deal, at least to 12-year olds. I ducked back indoors quickly since it was drizzling and cold. Just in time for my nice bento meal. I shelled out nearly $10 for a boxed lunch in which the most edible thing was the rice. These bento are made elsewhere and delivered, so any hot food has cooled and congealed. Yum. Nothing like cold fried chicken bits and a fish filet covered in a congealed, tasteless sauce. No wonder I've dropped 3 inches off my waist since I got here.

I'd meant to write more about last weekend, but I'll leave off here and pick it up (hopefully) tomorrow. Then you can learn all about the ramen museum.

The final push

Well, one of the pills actually was an antibiotic, so over the course of 5 days, I've steadily improved. Now the pills are all gone, and I'm mostly better. I've kinda leveled out, where I'm a bit sniffly and phlegmy still, but I look and feel a heck of a lot better than before. Hopefully it's just my body working things out, and it'll clear up this week. I don't normally get sick, and when I do it's usually just the sniffles and some rest and OJ gets me right again. But every now and then it hits me like a sledgehammer and I can't do anything but whine and complain about it.

I've started back to the gym, which after not going for over a week, has me feeling the pain, since I have to start getting in shape all over again. Beyond that, I've only got 2 weeks left of work until I'm through with my contract. I'm supposed to go sign on for another year sometime coming up, though I don't know when exactly. I'm always a bit anxious about that, I have this intense fear that something'll happen and I won't get it. I'm sure everything's fine, but until the contract's signed, I won't feel secure.

I'll have time off from the 17th until sometime in early April, during which time my friends Aaron and Molly are coming to visit. I'm psyched about it, and I've got lots of things we can see and do. Having friends visit is great, it gives me a good excuse to go out, blow a bunch of money travelling and do and see things that I always put off during the normal course of events. Plus, they're friends from home, and it's always good to have visitors. I just hope they like karaoke, cause we're gonna do a lot of it.

The weekend of weekends

Well, not really. Actually, it's one of my more miserable ones. This stupid sinus infection is 3 weeks old, and it's driving me nuts. It's gotten to where I can't sleep properly at night, sniffling and coughing periodically. I broke down today and went to a doctor. She said I had a sinus infection (duh!), and gave me some medicine. I was excited about it until I looked at the pill I thought was the antibiotics, and it said allergy on it, plus some kanji I can't decipher. Hopefully one of them means 'antibiotic.'

Also during this exciting weekend of mine, I'd taken two of my last paid holidays for the year so I could visit Nikko. Some of my friends headed to Korea, but I decided to save some cash and travel closer to home. Well, good thing I did, in my condition. Saturday I went to Nikko planning on a 2- or 3-day trip. I was miserable the whole way there, and having a 30 minute train delay didn't help. I got to Nikko at 3:30pm, all the temples and shrines closed at 4, and there is absolutely nothing else to do during the winter season in that town. It was good weather, sunny albeit a bit chilly, so I wandered around a bit. Sunday, it rained. A lot. At least it wasn't a complete downpour. But it was wet. I had a very tiny umbrella and saw what temples I could stomach, before limping back to the station to thaw out and catch a train back home. In Hiratsuka, it was raining too. That meant me just going home and staying in front of the computer, under the kotatsu, the whole evening. And I'm still here. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice too, I think, so I'll do some cleaning, but beyond that, I'm just hoping to get better. I hate being sick.

Haru Ichiban on Valentine's Day

Well, the runny nose I had seized up and gave me a nice little sinus infection. So I spent most of last week bemoaning my existence and blowing my nose at poor little kids.

By Friday I was a bit more perked up and went to the gym for some step classes. God, how weird is that. No leotards, yet. There are a few people there who preen in front of the mirrors, checking themselves out. Talk about self-absorbed. The weekend didn't involve much beyond an unexpected binge session with Tracey and Miwa, who crapped out right when we got to the nightclub. She was off around 11:30 to bed. Tracey and I got bored at the salsa club. We ran into Bob, Damien's old roommate. He was standing outside the club with a couple of my old workmates and another guy, a Scotsman who I thought was just visiting. The guy turned out to live in Chigasaki, the next town over, and is a real dick. Everything was prefaced with, "Well, I've lived here for 9 years, so..." You think after 9 years he'd learn to not be such a prick, and that speaking English to a bouncer who can only speak Japanese and Spanish (us being at a Peruvian salsa club) isn't gonna work. He got on my and everyone else's nerves, so we split to a hip-hop bar. Tracey was determined to find me a girl, and evidently a hiphop club is the best place to go. Needless to say, that didn't work out so well. The only girl besides Tracey was the DJ's girlfriend. All I ended up with was the awful stench of smoke ingrained into my clothes.

My sinuses have settled into a stalemate with the infection. It's just gonna stay there until spring, and I'll end up with a headache the whole time. I've fought off worse. At least I'm not delirious and fevered like last year. But I'm starting to wonder if I haven't taken on too much work with my evening classes. Today was Valentine's Day. I didn't get to enjoy it as I didn't sleep well the night before. My computer decided to crap out Monday afternoon and something major happened (maybe a trojan or virus, not sure), but I got it sorted for the most part, except I did something that pretty much removed my HDD with all my music, TV shows, movies, etc.

So today was Haru Ichiban, or the first day of spring. That's what they call the first day that is warm and springlike, I guess. My student informed me of this tonight, so I thought I'd make use of it. It was a balmy 17C today, I didn't even need my ski jacket in the afternoon. Today was also Valentine's Day. It's a bit different than in the US. Basically, girls have to give guys (any guys, not just boyfriends) chocolate, cookies, etc. I got a few gifts from my students. At least I'm popular among the 15 yr-olds. Yay. The chocolates were nice, although I feel bad because I won't be around on White Day (March 14th), when the guys are supposed to return the favor (though most don't). Better that I won't be here then, because with so many faces to remember, I couldn't pick them out of a lineup.

Today was grueling, 6 lessons during the day, which meant I only got about 30 minutes free for lunch. At least I got out at 3:30, so I could grab some more food before I had 2 evening lessons. Lots of work. I hate it now, but I'll be happy when I see that paycheck.

In other news, I'm getting ready for Aaron & Molly to visit. I made reservations for a 3-day trip to Kyoto. I only have to find a place to stay in Tokyo for a few nights, and we're set. I can't wait. I don't get to spend much time around Tokyo, so I've got a lot of things I'd like to do.

Let's get physical!

Last time I posted, I said it was a nice, sunny day and I went for a walk. Boy, that's sure changed. Friday night the temperature plummeted. Usually it's rather mild here, though even 7 or 8 degrees above freezing isn't so pleasant when you're cycling and walking everywhere. It dropped down to just above freezing, and then Saturday it decided to snow. It didn't stick, which was the problem. It melted on the still-warm pavement and then froze that night. So everyone had problems walking/cycling around. A couple people I know had wrecks, and I actually peeled out trying to start on my bike. It's tough, especially after a couple drinks in town.

Sunday was sunnier during the day, but in the shadows the ice still stuck around. Last week I joined the gym that my roommate Tracey goes to. Saturday evening I went for my orientation. The guy there was nice enough, and tried his best to speak English, though I understood him better in Japanese. He showed me how to use the weight machines, which I'll probably never use, then showed me the super-high-tech (c'mon, it's Japan!) treadmills, complete with personal TVs and all sorts of cool functions. Then he had me take off my shoes and socks and stand on these two metal plates in the shape of footprints. I picked up two handles with metal contacts and he pushed a button. After putting in my height, this computer weighed me and told me my body mass index, my percentage body fat, my water content, what parts of my body needed work (my torso and legs are ok, but I have no upper body strength), and finally it told me that my left side and right side are both equal. In other words, both of my arms are in the same physical condition. I always thought I favored my right arm.

So that was pretty cool. But I can't just wander in any old time and work out. The gym, just like all of Japan, is obsessed with shoes. You cannot wear shoes into the changing room. You walk into the lobby in street shoes. You go to the changing room and remove your shoes, putting them in a shoe locker. Go change and come back, putting on the gym shoes you've been carrying around with you. These shoes can be used only in the gym. Do NOT wear them outside. If so, you will contaminate everything. I repeat, do not wear your shoes outside. You can wear them across the lobby, where everyone walks in their street shoes anyways, then up the stairs and you're at the machine room and studio.

I had my first workout class Sunday afternoon. Tracey convinced me to go to these three 30-minute body combat classes. There's a lot of punching and kicking at air to a house beat, but it was fun and a good workout. My roommate was able to go because she just switched her days off to Sunday & Monday, so we went together. Before that, she started cleaning the apartment, which guilted me into doing the same. I cleaned & vacuumed my room, which must've kicked up some dust because Monday I had terrible allergies.

Today (Monday) I'm lucky I'm just evaluating student speeches at work, because my nose must've thought it was in a marathon. I finally got some medicine after work that stopped it running, but it's still hard to breathe. Add on top of that that a private lesson I was supposed to demo for didn't show up, no phone call, no nothing. 35 minutes of standing at the train station in the cold, feeling miserable, didn't help me. But going home and a nice, hot bath did. I'm so relaxed, I'm off to bed now.

A fine day out

Today was finally a nice, sunny, warm day. I took a bit to get going, but in the afternoon walked down to Enoshima island from Fujisawa and watched the sun set. I got some great photos, so I'll be sure to post the better ones later.

Tomorrow is the Chinese Lunar New Year, so I'm heading to Yokohama with some friends to check it out. We also may be getting tickets to visit Korea at the end of February. I have to do some calculations tomorrow and make sure it's financially possible, but it'd be a fun thing to do. Also on the list is joining the gym, so hopefully I can get myself back into some semblence of shape.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, the Densha Trooper! (via OctopusDropKick) He's also got a fun vid of him taking the train. Well, that oughta keep you going for a bit. More hopefully this week.

No, really....WTF!?

So I found this over at OctopusDropKick. It's insane and almost beats the Kikkoman song. Evidently it's some supergroup teaming up with a comedian. Go figure.

Work? Whatdy'a mean 'work'?

Sorry for the dearth of posts folks. A killer weekend and 2 days of too much work have prevented me from doing anything.

Friday was port and cheese night with Julian and Koichi. Beforehand, Julian and I stopped off at this little bar I pass on my way home every day. It looked interesting, but since it's out in the middle of nowhere, it was a bit intimidating to go into. We walked in, and tripped over the stools in the smallest bar I've ever seen. There was probably about 8 inches between the edge of the bar and the back of the wall. Those 8 inches were occupied by a row of barstools, 6 in all, with 2 barflies seated at opposite ends.

We took a seat and ordered up some beers. The bartender seemed a little ill at ease at first, but once he realized we could muddle our way through basic Japanese, he warmed up. The drinks were ok, and the 2 other guys in there were quite friendly. We had to sing some karaoke (Julian's idea, because he can actually sing, whereas I croaked out some Billy Joel), and the bartender, Oboke cooked us up some free squid okonomiyake, which actually tasted pretty bad. When he'd gone off for a bathroom break, Shinyu, the guy next to me leaned over and said, "Don't eat that. He can't cook. It tastes awful." It looked awful, too. We dutifully ate half of it between us, then begged fullness due to ramen earlier (mostly true), and sent it back. I'd finished my pair of beers, and was waiting for Julian (ever the talker) to finish his, when Shinyu started pouring me drinks. He had some cheap Jin-ro (sho-chu, dangerous Korean liquor), and was pouring me 3/4 that and a splash of oolong tea. Yikes.

So we finally escaped out dive into Japanese low-brow culture and got back to my place, where Koichi met us. We had a great bottle of port I'd brought with me from the States, as well as a block of Wisconsin cheddar (yum!). We had that while watching the first couple episodes of Long Way Round, the round-the-world documentary I'd just finished the book of.

Saturday I awoke to a splitting headache. That damned bottle of Jin-ro had done a number on me. Julian, who'd had about the same as me, minus Jin-ro, woke up just fine. It had started snowing during the night, and we awoke to a nice blanket of white stuff all over the park under my balcony. We watched it for a bit and tried to warm up in my less-than insulated apartment. I spent the whole day pretty much incapacitated and sitting under my kotatsu doing nothing.

On Sunday I had my first lesson with a private student in Japan. Masako's a nice lady, we met at a Starbucks' cafe. She was a bit lower than I'd expected, so I have to modify the lessons a bit, but it should go well, I hope. That's a nice sum to support my drinking.

This week I'm at O-shimizu junior high school. It's a great school, the teachers are really nice. But they seem to love working me to the bone. No breaks but lunch, really. I think not having slept well the past couple nights has aggravated a busy work schedule. Today, I had 5 classes (out of 6 possible) plus checking papers and correcting a letter the city office wants to send to Windsor, their sister city, as well as helping prepare some of the 3rd year students for English interviews for their high school applications.

You don't just go to whatever high school happens to be nearest you. It's much more like college. You apply to lots and narrow your choices, and then hopefully you end up getting accepted to one that's less than an hour's commute. A few students chose a school in Yokohama that will be 45 minutes by train. This one has a focus on English, so they have to take a special interview in English to assess their abilities. So I sat down with them today and yesterday, and probably tomorrow, to practice vocab and possible interview situations. I really hope they get in. They've tried so hard.

The rest of this week is looking busy as well. I applied for a job (unpaid, of course) as a freelance contributor for Nozomi Online, a website about Japan, particularly J-pop music and anime. I hope it'll force me to write more and actually get something done on that front. For those of you unfamiliar, I have a vision of myself as some sort of writer-type, and I'd like to actually cultivate that. I need the practice. Too bad I picked the one week I actually have to work my arse off to do it. Ah, well.

So that's what's up if I don't write for a while.

Penguin Sex!

Got your attention didn't it? :P

The weather yesterday was horrible. It was cold, and rained buckets. I went out once and got soaked coming back, so I just stayed bundled up. I watched March of the Penguins last night. It's pretty entertaining (maybe because I just like penguins), and the cinematography is spectacular. The emperor penguin is a beautiful creature, and it's vivid orange/red markings really stand out against the white of Antarctica. Morgan Freeman does an awesome job as narrator, he's got that soothing voice, and his accent makes him sound like he's weaving a fairy tale rather than talking about birds.

In other news, I've been reading this really cool book called 1421, about how the Chinese navigated, mapped, and colonized the world before Europeans ever did. I recall a National Geographic article a year or two ago about Chinese ships that were the biggest ever built until the advent of the aircraft carrier in WWII. The author, Gavin Menzies, asserts that these ships, accompanied by fleets of dozens of support ships (much like modern-day carrier groups), travelled the world and were responsible for the introduction of chickens into the Americas, as well as mapping almost the entire world. He also claims they were probably the first to reach Antarctica, and probably left settlers in various places in both the Americas and Africa. He comes up with some improbable ideas, such as the Bimini Road being a repair ramp for Chinese junks, but he does lay out a convincing case. I'd advise seeing for yourself.

In any case, we've all been brainwashed in elementary school about certain 'facts' (Washington and the Cherry Tree for one), and I'm all for having the truth be known, as long as it really is the truth.

Back home again in Japan

Got back last night, slept well, but woke up at 5am here. Suck. Here's why I hate flying:

1. Got into an argument with the check-in lady because I was allowed to take 2 bags @ 50 lbs each. I was freaking out before coming here because I thought I wasn't allowed that.

2. Because of (1), I was stamped SSSS, which in airline terms means you get everything searched. So it took them about 30 minutes to go through all my carry-on stuff at the security check. If you have electronic items, they have to swab everything and put it through a chemical detector. Here's what I had:

*1 cell phone in my pocket
*1 iPod in my coat pocket
*1 XPC computer that looks more like a bomb than a computer (that one was fun to explain)
*1 power cable for a laptop computer that I didn't have on me
*1 cd case that also counts
*various pharmaceuticals (all OTC)
*assorted computer cables that went to accessories in my checked luggage
*1 thermos cup of oolong tea. Oolong tea sets off all the warning lights when it's put through the sniffer, plus the metal container made it opaque in the scanner. Yay.
*1 turkey sandwich. I love turkey.

Not to mention a thick belt buckle and hiking boots. I held up the line so long, with so many people behind me, they just told everyone else to go on through. It was rather absurd, but that's how it goes, I guess. Thankfully, there was no security check at Detroit. It was strange, because I've always recalled going through immigration or customs when leaving the US. But I walked out of the gate at Detroit, down the way and onto the plane to go to Narita, without having to show anyone my passport or have anything stamped. I thought that was a bit odd. At least I didn't get searched again.

Northwest is one of the worst airlines to fly on. Every flight is late and something always goes wrong. Going to Indy, both flights were delayed (the 2nd of which saved me, otherwise I would've missed it), my tray table was broken, so I had to prop it up so my food didn't slide off into my lap, and the movie projector broke, which wasn't a bad thing becuase the movies showing were "Sky High," "Mr. Perfect," and some other piece of trash.

This time, we left over an hour late from Detroit because of de-icing problems. The movies weren't too bad, I'd never pay to see "Dukes of Hazzard," but it was at least not completely horrible. The other two movies were some Reese Witherspoon flick and Roman Polanski's "Oliver Twist." Again, not bad, but it couldn't keep my attention the whole time.

I did manage to read The Long Way Round by Ewan MacGregor and Charley Boorman. It's a pretty good read, about two guys who go around the world on motobikes. Can't beat that. It also shows that actors aren't always superficial, and how events can affect people. MacGregor's thing was UNICEF, as they visited a few different facilities in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The best parts were reading about all the interesting people there, and makes me really wish I could do something like that. Guess I have to become famous first. Really, though, if two famous actors have trouble getting something like that funded and paid, what chance do I have. I think mine will forever be a pipe dream.

Anyways, I got back to Hiratsuka a bit after 9pm, took a taxi home, hauled everything up to my room, showered and crashed. I woke up at 5am and watched the sun rise, for lack of anything better to do. When shops finally opened up, I wandered out to the electronic store and purchased a monitor so I could hook up my computer. I've got it all set up and am back sitting under my kotatsu tapping away. Julian's off at a sumo match, I bowed out so I could straighten things up around here and prepare for classes tomorrow. But since the school's neglected to send me anything, I don't have that much to do. Oh well.

On that note, take care and hope to see everyone again soon, when you come here to visit. It's your turn now :P

Last night in the USA

Well, I'm finishing up my packing, the only major thing left is my computer box, which will gently go in my carry-on, then I'll be set for my big trip back to Japan. I really don't care much for travelling 24 hours by car, plane, train, & taxi, but that's life I guess. It'll be nice to get back and relax one whole day before I go back to work on the 10th. I don't have as much volume to take back, but my stuff weighs more. Since I'm allowed only 50 lbs for checked luggage, and 40 for carry-on, my suitcase isn't packed full, but already over the weight limit. I'll have to put an empty box in to make sure that nothing rattles around and gets messed up. I'm bringing back some stuff that's potentially breakable, so that's a big concern. Wish me luck, & see you all soon!

So...Happy New Year!

Sorry for not posting, I've been having so much fun here at home, I haven't had much time to do anything communication-related. Well, sorta. I've just not felt like posting lately. I always mean to, but nothing ever comes up. Xmas was fun, I got to see the whole family together for the first time in couple years (only because I haven't been there). We had a huge Xmas lunch/dinner with roast beef, mashed potatoes, etc., all topped off with my favorite of desserts, persimmon pudding. Yummm, droooool. The week in between was spent seeing old friends, especially the Zionsville crew. I'm amazed at how much everyone's matured. Most of the people are in semi-serious relationships, even the people avowedly not so 2 years ago.

I also got to see my good friend Sam from Purdue. She and I kept having psychology courses together and got to chatting. We really hung out only in the last semester there and the year before I took off for Japan, but I feel that I know her really well. She's one of those glowing people who makes everything, even going to see the late showing of "Brokeback Mountain," fun and entertaining. Hopefully, she'll come visit in Japan. Right, Sam? ;)

New Year's was spent drinking with the Z'ville crew and the first day of 2006 I spent lazing around the house, too tired to move. My family had our traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner, something that I've heard is a tradition, but I don't know anyone else who does that. If anyone has heard of this, please let me know.

This week will be spent arranging everything to go back to Japan. I'm still allotted only 50 pounds (23kg), and I think everything will be jammed in again. This won't be fun. I also have all my dinners for this week planned out. Tonight is buffalo wings, tomorrow is Japanese dinner at Ana's, Thursday is steak dinner at home, and my last meal Friday will be roast turkey breast, something I've been craving almost since I left the last time.

Last of all, here's your dose of cuteness. Imagine living in this world, and you can imagine being in Japan.

First day back: Disorientation

After I got up around 4:30, I wandered downstairs to forage for some food. I walked into the dark hallway, past the suitcase, down the stairs, and got some food out of the kitchen. I chatted with my dad for a bit, wandered around downstairs in the dark for a bit, then headed back upstairs, past the suitcase and into my room. I sat down at the computer to see if anyone from Japan was up, but no dice. I wandered out of my room again, past the black suitcase, to the bathroom for a....wait a sec, black suitcase?

I was so out of it I'd walked past my luggage 4 times. I guess it'd arrived after I'd gone to bed the night before. So thankfully, I have all of my clothes and presents now. All that's left it to wrap them, which will probably take a while.

I got to drive a bit on my first day back, and I seem to have remembered how to drive a stick as well as which side of the road to be on. Since I never drove in Japan, I guess it's not that difficult to fall back into the old habits. Let's hope I don't pick up any of the bad ones again.

Back home again, in Indiana

So I arrived back in Indy yesterday evening, 7am Tokyo, 5pm local time. I'd spent 23 hours travelling and had a nice rest. Now it's 4 am and I'm sitting up completely awake. I went to bed around 10pm, so 6 hours of sleep isn't so bad. I'm just gonna need a nap during the day to keep me going so I don't collapse at 6pm.

I arrived feeling tired but good. Unfortunately, my baggage didn't. As far as I know, it didn't arrive at all. I made it to Detroit, picked it up and headed through customs. Because the flight from Japan was delayed, I cleared customs with approximately 5 minutes before my flight left. Some jerk DHS guy searched my carry-on because I didn't take out my computer or laptop, and proceeded to swab everything and put it through a chemical analyzer. Dick. By then I had 2 minutes to go. So I'm sprinting all the way to gate A55, dodging up escalators, knocking down the elderly who can't get out the way quick enough, and when I arrived, there was no plane.

I looked up at the board and realized I'd gotten the WRONG flight to Indy, that mine was actually leaving from Gate B2, which is all the way back to the hub, down the stairs, through this enormous tunnel with a disorienting light display, and back up the stairs. I arrived panting and saw the door was closed already, but the plane was still there. I pulled out the ticket and gasped, "I'm...on...this...flight!"

"Don't worry said the guy, there's a problem with the elevators and it's delayed. You made it." Let's hear it for chronic tardiness at Detroit Airport. So I arrived in Indy an hour late, but I couldn't find my bag. I feel like Greg Focker, I'll probably get the wrong bag which, instead of presents and things from Japan will probably have whips and leather or some fat lady's underwear and a clown suit.

So until then, I'm going to put my early wake up to good use. I'm gonna go pet the animals.

Terminal Man

So, I'm now at Narita airport. I've undergone 2.5 hours of train travel (1 of them standing, the remainder sitting on an overheated seat). I arrived, checked in, went through customs and immigration, lost my boarding passes (both of them), got them replaced, drank 2 bottles of nihonshu, and am now waiting for a flight that is delayed for another hour. And it's not even 3pm here.

So I thought I'd shell out a few yen (500 of them, to be exact) for the chance to use the internet and charge my computer. One complaint I have with Japan is that it's very difficult to find wireless LAN anywhere. I know this country is famous for being gadget-hounds and tech-savvy, but that's all using phones. You don't need a computer to email people from Doutor (or Starbucks) if you can email them anywhere using your cell phone. I guess it's just another difference between Japan and the US. At least now I've brought my chunky laptop out. If I ever get another one, it'll be an extremely small one for web browsing and email only, though probably won't need it til I return to the US (or wherever outside Japan).

So, peace be upon all you, and have mercy on my co-passengers when I take off my shoes! See you all back in Indy-land. I can't wait. Gonna make my folks drive me to Mexican food ASAP!

Hard Gay WOOOOOOOOO!

So, Japanese TV is strange, everyone knows that. This stereotypically quiet and reserved culture, once put in front of a camera, send their women off eating bizarre (even for Japan) foods while pudgy men compete in physical competition for the glory of their company.

Well, while lots of that may be true, this takes it to a new level. Meet Hard Gay （ハードげ), a man running around Tokyo in black leather biker wear with extremely short shorts. See videos here and here. He's a sensation all over Japan. It's been this way for about 6 months, but the pop culture cycle has progressed, and he'll be out of the limelight soon. But until then, everyone knows about him, even my students, ranging in age from 12 to 15. They think it's extremely funny. I laugh at everything, Hard Gay himself and the juxtaposition of him with the vision we have of Japan. The best thing is that this guy is on TV at all times, even during the weekend cartoon runs. I've never managed to catch him myself, my TV being crap and missing a couple of channels, but it's something you won't see on American TV, that's for sure.

Photos up and other stuff

So, instead of packing, I decided to organize a bunch of photos and such. So, all my latest photos are up on the flickr site (link at top of page or on sidebar).

I also found a site Google offers that allows you to upload your own videos so people can see them. I've uploaded some of mine, but they're awaiting verification, evidently, so you can't see them yet, I don't think. But I did find a couple that were entertaining. One is a "documentary" about proper sushi eating (via Octopusdropkick), and the other is a combination of two of my favorite things, video games and dancing. This even beats Nathan doing the "masochism tango." Aaron, you'd get a kick out of it.