Wednesday, August 22, 2007

One of the coolest things ever...

Been a little bit since the last update but as school starts soon there will be even more stories to tell, like today when I saw one of the coolest sites I've seen yet... more on that later.

So I think I left it off with monday. It was a normal day at first, then the boys soccer team asked me to supervise them while they went swimming. Now I love swimming and never really did much of it back home mostly due to time and money investments to do so. I was their hero for the next couple hours as they got to swim around in the cool pool under the hot summer sun, I know I enjoyed cooling down but atleast nights here the temp drops a good 10 degrees or so. I wouldn't be able to sleep if it was too hot. Anyways I taught the students how to play marko polo :) they thought I was crazy at first but ended up playing it for about an hour. I went home later and I've been watching this show "Daxter" alot lately, it is amazing. It is kinda twisted, especially for the faint of heart. What it is about, is a serial killer who only kills people who are evil. It is brilliantly written, but as I just found out tonight Matt left out an episode near the end of the season so now I'm stuck on a cliff hanger until I get internet; estimated connection date Aug 28th but who knows really.

Anyways so tuesday Aug21 rolls around, I put finishing touches on my speech and started to prepare a "self introduction" lesson which I should have started a while back as it is the single most important lesson I'll teach really, and I'll do it atleast a dozen times maybe more. After work I was planning on going to Ina with Jake to watch a movie Neal recommended. I don't know the name off hand but when I found out the movie had a price tag of $3500 yen (about $33) I had to decline. I kinda feel bad about it... but holy crap over $30 to see a movie in a theater? And transportation for the night would have cost about $6 as I found out today. I might have to watch that movie again sometime in the future, but save $40 doing so. So I was at home watching Daxter again when a friend from work Kubota San called. I invited him to the movie earlier but he thought it would cost 1800 yen and opted out because of the high price. Anyways long story short he came over and we hung out for a bit, looked at pictures from home and later watched the movie "Orgazmo." Hilarious movie if you havn't seen it, just know it's not for kids, I brought it from home.

Today Aug 22. I got up at 6:45 to catch my train to Ina. Most people know that I have maybe gone to bed at that hour more than I have woken up that early so it was a bit of a struggle. The fear of being late and/or missing my train... again.... helped give me the adrenaline kick to the butt to get moving. I got to Yayoi High school and it is a very nice place. The girl students have a white shirt blue skirt dress code and the boys have a white shirt black pants one. There is another high school nearby (Ina Kita) and they have sailor outfits for their uniform. That reminds me of a funny story we heard at Tokyo orientation. During one of the large speeches made by one of the more powerful people in charge of Japanese education, one of them mentioned the sailor outfits for girls. "I don't know who chose those outfits, perhaps they had a fetish". Comedy gold right there folks.

So we got to the school, I wandered the large hallways for a while trying to... figure anything out ;) somehow I luckily found the principals office. It was funny as I hadn't changed into my indoor shoes yet because I couldn't find slippers so before they would say hello or even shake my hand they helped me take my outdoor shoes to my own locker and got that all sorted out. THEN we exchanged formalities, it was very neat. I showed my Kyoto Sensei (principal) of Yayoi where Regina was on google maps and gave him other data such as how I lived near "Prince of Whales" (a point he mentioned during the gym speech) how many people live in Saskatchewan and other stuff like that. We later went to the gym after a short teachers meeting where in front of all the students and staff of Yayoi I gave a speech. Before we were in the gym one of the students talked to me... and did the vulcan V thing with his hand. I'm not sure what it is called but when you see it you know it is from star trek. "Live long and prosper" he tells me ;) heh I guess there are trekies in Japan as well!

So anyways, one of my speeches was in English, the other in Japanese. It was really neat as many of the students were slightly whispering when I was speaking in English but as soon as I started with the "Mina san, ohaiyo gosaimasu" (good morning everyone) there were large GASP!s heard throughout the gym. And dead silence. I'm not the best public speaker but I did pretty good today, although I did shake like a bowl of tapioca pudding on top a 5 foot steel pole during a 5.6 magnitude earthquake. Luckily my baggy pants hid the violently shaking knees and at one point my hand was shaking so badly I had to brace my arm against my chest for solid support. But I went through the whole speech, got some giggles when I mentioned how Chris introduced me to Japanese Anime and Manga and got a thunderous applause when I finished. Later I met up with the star trek fan again. I mentioned in my speech how I graduated from Electronic Systems Engineering and he tells me when he is done school in.... February I think their semester is over, he will go to college to do Electronic Engineering himself.

I am dead serious. All the stereotypes combined into one. It was so eerie, but at the same time.... I knew he would find a proper home there. He gave me another Vulcan V salute and I gave him one back; my future brother of engineering. I wished him good luck, but I know he will be in good hands in University with what he will be studying.

The walk back to the teachers room was covered with questions from students wondering what Anime I liked. When I said One Piece was my favorite they were amazed and thrilled, and other questions followed like who was my favorite character (Sanji). The first day back all the students had to write tests... to show that they all studied during their summer vacations. I think there would have been some mutiny back home if that would have happened but it also meant I didn't have to teach that first day. Which is great, considering I hadn't met many of the teachers yet nor know what they wanted me to do. I guess at the end of the day I'm still not sure what they want me to do but luckily that self introduction lesson will buy time for me to get more answers.

There were scattered small conversations with students here and there throughout the day. I found out there is an English club at Yayoi that I will be head of and they are going to throw a party for me :) It runs Mondays and Wednesdays (the days I teach at that school) and I don't know much more than that. It should be exciting though, the students seem very genki (happy/energetic) so it should be easy to feed off that energy. The day passed at a moderate pace as I had a mountain of reading to do and many people to meet and talk with for the first time. The end of the day came and I was walking around the school a bit to maybe help me not get so lost next week when I come back. I was chased down by 3 screaming girls "Toni! Toni!" I tell everyone to call me Tony as it is a million times easier to say in Japanese than Anthony and I don't mind either way, plus it is a good conversation starter explaining nicknames, but I digress.

So they hunt me down and start asking what anime I have seen or whatever and we talk for a little bit. They ask about Naruto, I tell them my friend Chris likes it. They ask about Gundamn I say I know of it but havn't seen it. They start poking around with a "Dragon..." not quite sure what they are trying to say. So I ask "do you mean Dragon Ball Z?". They scream a little and laugh wildly and then two of them proceed to do a fighting/dance move that showed up later in the series. People who know, know that it is the Fusion dance used by Gotan/Trunks and Vegeta/Goko to form super fighters Gotanks and Gogeta respectively. My mouth dropped and I could think of nothing but taking a picture. They posed for me and it definitely was one of the coolest moments ever. Evar. Man I'm such a nerd.

My mind is still kinda blown, it was so cool. I took the train home, was advised to buy a train pass so maybe it will be cheaper, I'm not sure. I just know train transportation for the day cost about $6. It took me about an hour to type this and I should have gone to bed but I have a feeling the rest of the week might be its own posting. I read something about how one of the largest raves of the year is being held in Tokyo this weekend and it costs $100 just to get in. I should email around and see if anyone is going, but if that falls through there is a BBQ party or something this weekend instead. I can't get my car even looked at until September at the earliest unfortunately but hopefully that won't dampen any possible events.

I'll close with some funny stories I also remember from the some of the orientations I've been to recently. One girl came as a JET from England. The school she went to had a strict "don't dye your hair" policy so when she came with dyed blond hair... she had to keep it that way. She was like "don't even ask what the prices were to have dye shipped from home every now and then". Pretty amusing. I guess every now and then a 'rebel' student will show up to school with dyed hair to whatever color, only to be called to the principals office and having it spray painted back to black. At the Nagano city one on friday one guy was talking about how much stress students are under. "And here is a picture of the students at their desks, with all their parents standing behind them; pressuring them to do good in school, do good in college, get good jobs... and eventually have them move in together to be taken care of."

"Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!" -Anne Frank

Anthony

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Oh noes! The return of the mondays...

Aug 19

Well I put the blog up, just in time too it looked like as the power at the school was out on Thursday and Friday for the power company to come by and inspect the school's infrastructure I believe. I got some good emails and what not from friends and family and so far the response is mostly positive. Sorry I can't do pics or videos yet but be patient, hopefully I will atleast have applied for internet next week and have someone hook it up before the month is up but I don't know. My new friend Neal that lives about 20 mins away got fiber optic internet and it took 7 months to hook up. Paper work, red tape, construction permits, etc. He says it was worth it and it was part of why he's staying another year to enjoy it, I don't think fiber is offered in my city though, too rural unfortunately. I'll have to settle for only a T3 I guess for a little more money but at this point almost anything will work for me.

Anyways enough on that, I'm sure you want to hear some adventures!

Wednesday August 15. They had that firework show over Suwa lake (central nagano prefecture, about 20 mins north of my house) They say there was around 1/2 million people there, large roads were closed down and served for pedestrians only. They had many shops set up selling all kinds of things from squid on a stick, to Nintendo DS units and Wii videos games. Yes, they were selling video games at a fireworks show. I made sure to take a pic. Other good things to take pictures of is many of the female population were wearing spring time Kimonos. They aren't called kimonos though as they are cotton and not silk and are cooler to wear in the summer. They were very nice to see and there were many of them, maybe this was the one time a year when people really wear them, during the Obon festival. I had a squid on a stick because it looked cool and it's now another story to "things I had that people back home will think I'm crazy for" like those scorpions we ate in china, or the sea worms that gave Chris and me food poisoning and looked/felt like... well you know where that is going. But I digress, the squid was chewy without much flavor so I doubt I'll be getting it again.

So this humidity is something new to me. I found out I need to drink like 2 liters of water before I start drinking as I almost started dry gagging after 4 beers later in the night. It was almost embarrassing, but I guess I havn't really had much in terms of booze in 2 weeks and have lost 6 kilos already (combination of food? sweating?) So anyways, the fireworks. So there were like 1/2 million people there and the shoreline to watch them were crawling with people and there were many units set up to record the event. The show started when it was a little light outside still and it was amazing. There were fireworks there that I had never seen before that were gorgeous, there were fireworks that shook the ground they were so loud, there were fireworks so big it didn't fit in the whole frame of my camera even though we were like 5 kilometers away, hard to say (I was never good at judging distances). They lit up a long line of fireworks that bounced off the water and for the finale they lit up a similar line of fireworks, except this one circled THE WHOLE LAKE. So there is the lake, encircled in fireworks, with the large ground shakers still going off in the distance and ... just wow. Words escape me it was so cool. I took videos and pictures of course ;) The only thing kinda weird was the fireworks would go hard for 5 minutes then they would have a lull. A voice would come on the speaker and say something then the next round would start very quickly. I found out later they were announcing the sponsor of the next round of fireworks. Really neat I guess, I remember hearing back home how a 5 minute show could cost $30,000 and one number I heard earlier was they were shooting off over 35,000 fireworks that night. Pretty amazing.

Unfortunately I didn't see much of the finale as we started to leave early... as vetrans from last year were smart to do. As it was, we waited for an hour and a half just to catch a train. There was an absolute sea of people and when we caught our train there were people still as far as you could see into the dimly lit streets back where we were waiting in line 1.5 hours ago. The trains were packed so tight as well but another japan vetran with us said she had seen worse, like trains that are so packed you don't have room to stand, your body forms some sort of cramped position kinda like when you stuff laundry in a wash machine. I think something like that would be cool to see, I'm sure most people have seen the videos floating around the internet of conductors with gloves shoving people into a train so more will fit. How you are suppose to get off at your stop is beyond me, and things are extremely punctual in Japan, they have a very good reputation for that. More on that for my friday story.

Thurs Aug 16, Got extra insurance for my car for the next year, paper work, other fun stuff... then I drove for the first time! It was messed up, everything in the car is backwards to back home except for the gas pedals. Oh and I have a standard transmission so that added extra havoc to the excitement ;) My predecessor (Sarah) left the car with less than fumes in the tank and it cost almost $60 to fill up, a price that is pretty new to me as my neon back home never broke $40. Gas here is... maybe 15-25 cents more a liter so not that much more. It is going to take a bit to get used to driving. I'm used to sticking close to the solid line on my right but now I have to stick to the one of the left so there were times I almost started driving on the sidewalk as the streets are pretty narrow. I had a friend from work, Kubota San with me which was really nice to have moral support and someone to help with directions. He showed me a big supermarket about 15 mins away from me that is much larger than my local ones so things like mustard and cereal is a little easier to find. But ya, driving will take a bit as drivers here aren't the best as the locals themselves say. There are special stickers for vehicles too, new drivers and elderly people have large stickers on the front and back of their vehicles so you know to take extra care with them around. After shopping Kubota San very kindly helped me translate a speech I will need to make in front of the schools next week. I have to do it in Romanji as I can read it faster that way although I understand Katakana. If I get a request or two I can post both versions of my speech on here if people want.

Fri Aug 17. Friday was a very big day, it is the day I got my certificate from the Board of Education of Nagano after the superintendant speech to all new jets in the prefecture. So how did I start the day off you ask? The right way!

I missed the train.

Ahhh..... crap. The train left at 7:41 and I left my house at 7:30. I must walk slower in the mornings but now I know 10 minutes isn't long enough. So there I was in my suit and it was getting hot out already with no phone or no idea what to do. I walked back to the school, it was still locked as it was too early. I went back to my place and called some co-workers that gave me numbers in case of emergencies. (nothing like getting a call at 8 in the morning when you're on holidays right?) One of them didn't answer, the other one told me i can catch the next direct train at 8:47. I called other people telling them I missed the train and please hold on.

If you know me well enough you know I'm not really a good morning person. Unfortunately it takes me a good hour somedays before I'm even in a talking mood and when it is hot outside and you're dripping sweat at 8 in the morning... ya it was a bad morning. When tired I speak less and less as I'm more likely to say something I'll regret, like one morning when mom tried talking to me while I was getting ready to go to work. I only remember it happening because of her recollection where she would try talking to me because we don't get to see each other much with both of us working the hours we did and I kinda snapped saying "you know you asked me 20 questions in the last 2 minutes?". Yea I still feel terrible about it, I'll make it up to you sometime mom.

Anyways, maybe those factors helped make the train ride one of the best experiences I've had in Japan so far. I put on some music I never really listened to in weeks because without internet there is little reason to go on my laptop and I've been really busy with paper work and learning Japanese at the same time. It was just nice to sit back, play my favorite music, sit on a soft seat, and feel the air conditioning while the beautiful mountains and towns went by my window. The trip took about 2 hours or so and I got some pictures. At one of the stops a lady in a business suit came on to the train and sat beside me. She was on there for a little over an hour and slept for most of the way. It was weird having someone nod off beside you like that, in a full suit no less. People work extremely hard here with very long hours and get sleep when they can. It isn't odd to see people sleeping at their desk I'm told.

At one point the train was going along fine, then it slowed... then it started backing up. I thought maybe they missed someone at the last stop but then like 3 minutes later a train whizzed by us in the opposite direction! It was pretty crazy, but I guess that is why punctuality is everything in Japan. So I get to Nagano and I'm well over an hour late and have a good 20 minute walk ahead of me in the heat again. Unfortunately I started to get a little bitter again, not sure why they don't give us more time to do stuff in these big cities we have never seen before, just like the Tokyo orientation. I mean here I was in Nagano for the first time, a City that hosted the winter olympics 9 years ago and I was going to spend the rest of the day indoors in meetings. Luckily the speeches I saw were entertaining and informative so it wasn't that bad and my phone call about missing the train saved the day for me as... well it happens.

After that was done I had time to meet some of the new people I'd be living near for the next year. We all later went to the all you can eat and all you can drink hotel to start the welcome party. It cost about $35 and... wow, you don't get cool stuff like this in Canada. Sure the food was kinda standard: western/japanese/chinese food buffet, ice cream and slushie machine. But the all you can drink part? Wow. They had "help yourself" rows of alcohol. It was so cool. You could pour your own shots straight from the 66's or grab a mug and put it into a machine that tips and pours your beer for you. This thing lasted until midnight and we got there at 6 or 7. Alot of drinking was done and later on half the crowd went out for Karaoke. I stayed behind because most of my immediate neighbors did although I'm sure it was fun. One good thing about staying was later on was that nights' accommodations. Now before I only heard legends about these "stay over night at an internet cafe" locations but now I was doing it for the first time ;) we rented rooms for 5 hours for about $22. It was nice having unrestricted internet again but I wasn't online long as I was feeling the 6 hours of "nomihodai" (all you can drink).

Saturday Aug 18. got up at 6 or so, missed the first train back home but there was another one coming up right away. Spent the next two hours on the train with John and Noboru talking about movies and whatever else and sobering up. It was a good time. I got home and took it easy the rest of the day

Today, about noon now Aug 26. I did some dishes and got other odd things done. I'll leave in 15 mins or so to meet Neal in Ina to visit an electronics store for the first time! Sure it'll be nothing like that crazy electronics place in Tokyo but right now I kinda need necessities like a vacuum cleaner, cell phone, fun stuff like that. I have my alien registration card ID now so I should be able to apply for services. I'll maybe have to start writing entries more regularly as this one got pretty long, sorry for that. Things have just been crazy lately and sound like they will get even crazier. Yesterday was the first time I played video games since Sunday of last week so that is usually a good indicator of how much free time I have. I might need to buy a new frying pan and stuff like that, I have one burner in my kitchen and it has 2 settings: on and off. Yesterday I tried cooking something more complicated than instant noodles for the first time and it was a challenge, but hey, baby steps right? It was only fish and rice but it's a start. I should get a BBQ or something for that "taste of home" action, not very high on the priorities yet though as I don't want to start messing with fire like that without knowing how to say more than "Tasukete!" (help) if things get bad.

It's now late in the day. The cell phone shopping was kind of a bust as I guess I should have expected with the million types of phones out there and me not really caring what I get. I did get a vacuum though and spent the last hour or so cleaning :) so happy. The trip to Ina was something of a nightmare. I thought the road I was to drive down stayed straight the whole way, well it kinda does except for the part where it crosses the bridge. I was lucky Neal was out and started screaming at my car as I drove by the meeting place that I couldn't find as I was well over an hour late at this point. The car stalled atleast 4 times getting home and the one wheel well was screaming something fierce with squealing noises which added to the frustration of driving around. I would assume I won't get lost again though and we had tasty curry for lunch. The car drove good Weds but I don't think I'll be driving it anymore until I get it fixed. The sticker under the hood says the oil should have been changed 10,000 kilometers ago and it looks like black goo, I can only pray Sarah changed the oil herself atleast once in that time. Oh ya, now that I have a vacuum I'll be able to clean the car a bit too. Neal was amazed to even see the floor of it so I should be happy for small favors, Tonya helped clean the car and my house for a good couple days before I moved in so I have to buy her some beers as a thank you. I'm starting to adapt the policy of the less I know about my predecessor the better but hey you're right Patty, people in BC really must be more laid back ;)

Good times, school starts next week. Hope things are cooling down back home ;)

"Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have."
-Doris Mortman

Anthony

Monday, August 13, 2007

Alright the blog will be "official", sorry for dissapearing

Good morning everyone,

I seem to be getting more emails from friends and family wondering what I'm up to so I guess this once temporary blog will become my official blog. http://aschoenroth.blogspot.com/ pictures will be posted to a site like flickr or image shack I havn't decided yet nor will I be able to do any of that until I have internet at home. I am currently at my work computer and don't want to do too many personal things on it. Videos will be posted to my youtube account http://youtube.com/user/aschoenroth there isn't much there at the moment except mike falling off the custom 2 seater bike and Chris promoting CVIC's chinese EyeHome unit :) both classics if you havn't seen them yet, oh and turn the volume down as in some of the videos the language gets a little out of hand.

Sorry for the rather crude look of my site as it'll need more work in the coming days when I get internet at home. If you have questions and/or comments you can post them after my blog entries where I'll try and respond to each one. Currently I'm going to try and make sure I post atleast once a week and I figured I might end each blog with a quote as saying 'later' gets stale. But again I'm at work so I don't want to spend too much time on the internet. Have a look at some of the stories I posted already and find comfort in that yes I'm ok and havn't forgotten about you guys :P I thought I figured out how to post a pic in the next blog entry but it hasn't seen to shown up. I'll try posting it again.

A couple quick notes, if you want to bookmark the page, press CTRL and B. Also spread the word to people who might be interested that I unfortunetly left out in my email as there are many people who aren't in my hotmail address book, SaskTel workers mainly but there are other people too like cousins and what not.

"Do or do not. There is no try" - Master Yoda

Enjoy the summer,
Anthony

Suwa 3 hour fireworks show only 2 days away!

Hello again,
As of this writing it is Aug 13. I still havn't even applied for internet yet as I can't read the Japanese but there are services out there to sign up for me. I'm thinking I might just have to start posting blog entries on whatever site will let me so that everyone doesn't think I forgot about them (I havn't :P) Oh and I figured out how to attach a picture. That is me at Suwa lake during that 3 hour bus trip to my new home town.

Heh, typing with this keyboard is odd as I almost started getting used to the Japanese one at work. To do an apostrophe (') you have to press shift 7 among other oddities. Classes start next week and I'll be making a speech in front of both schools both in English and Japanese. I wrote up a quick English speech already, but need help translating it to a Japanese version. Since it is a holiday for the next 5 days here in Japan (Obon holiday, they celebrate their ancestors) there are hardly anyone around to help out. I think I saw maybe 8 people total at school today (I still have to show up) and I got a bottle of Sake from my Kyoto Sensei (vice principal) and gave some English lessons to the head office staff while they helped me out with some essential sayings such as "Osakinishitsureishimasu" which roughly translates to "sorry that I am leaving the office before you" used when... you guessed it, when you go home for the day and someone is still there.

I would write more but I'm pretty exhausted, I went shopping at 2 different stores today for food and should be good for a long while now. It's really expensive at first buying stuff that will last a long time (Honey, Jam, spaghetti sauce, etc) but I think I'll be good for a while. As I write this I can hear scattered fireworks going off. I can't wait for Wednesday's show, which should last about 3 hours they tell me of non stop Hanabi (fireworks).

"Motivation doesn't last for a long time. Neither does bathing, which is why they're both recommended daily"

Until next time,
Anthony

Big update, post Tokyo

Hello again,

As of this writing it's 11pm thurs Aug 2 (8 a.m. thurs in Regina). I just got into my new house and don't have internet but i need to write down alot of this stuff while it's still somewhat fresh in my mind. A rule of thumb, if I talk about it, there is probably a picture I took of it posted with possibly more information. Oh and if I mention "Nagano" I'm talking about the prefecture unless I specifically mention "City" which is an hour north or so.

July 27 Guess I should start back with my last blog entry... before I headed to calgary. The overnight bus was something of a nightmare to try and sleep in. I wasn't bored by any means, I organized my music collection for 4 hours which needed to be done for a long time obviously when i wasn't trying to awkwardly sleep :) I was at the orientation way too early lugging around my large cargo (luckily they did allow 32Kg although it's being rolled back 20 pounds in October)

Justin picked me up and I spent my last night at Pastor George's (Chris' dad) Victory Bible Collegiate International where we shared the joys of Canadian chocolate (about $20 worth) with some visiting Americans and ended the night with the Simpsons movie. It was very good if you haven't seen it yet.

July 28 The plane from Calgary transfered over at Vancouver from which we had a 9.25 hour trip over the Pacific. I only got to play a little bit of the DS as they had a bunch of in-flight movies I wanted to see not to mention TV shows like The Office. I watched Children of Men, Blades of Steel, The Time Machine, and one or two others I can't remember right now, so the trip was kinda fast.

July 29 If you want to calculate the time for me, add 3 hours and switch AM/PM so we arrived sunday. It was an interesting ride to our hotel at Keio Plaza (very fancy 5 star) almost 2 hours away by bus where I sat by another Jet named Taryn. (Hear that Patty? That is a real name after all :P) On a couple occasions the road when over somewhat large bodies of water which was pretty interesting considering the skyscrapers within reach surrounding you. Our first night there, there wasn't much we had to do other than check in so my roommates and I went exploring. First thing we see is a performance outside that we didn't understand but it was still entertaining. We then went for some food where the prices were very comparable if not cheaper than in Canada.

July 30 We had free internet at the hotel and everyone was up super early because of Jet lag. Lester was on MSN so I asked him why he was online and not at work and he mocked me for not knowing it was Sunday for him :) Silly me. I shot a quick email or two so people back home would know I'm not dead and that I'd be super busy with no/little internet to say otherwise. The day was very long with very long speeches that always seem to run over time on chairs that were too low; but atleast it was all over by 6 or so. My Nagano prefecture 'team' (there are about 49 prefectures in Japan off the top of my head I believe) went out for drinks and food at one of those neat Japanese restaurants you always see on TV where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor but there is a space under the table if you need to put your feet somewhere. We were there until 11 or so then headed back in the pouring rain. Some people wanted to do Karaoke but because of the rain we decided against it.

July 31 The speeches were long and uninteresting again, but today we skipped some. (all information they had would be online anyways) It seemed like a crime to spend your first time in Tokyo cooped up in a 5 star western style hotel, being served western food. I went on a quick journey around with a roommate (Steve) where we saw a mall that was something over 20 stories. "Le Femme Home" was 10 of those, HMV had a floor as well, and eventually I saw a small row at an out of place mall... where I found what I've had my eye out for since day one, video games. I held the new Zelda Phantom Hourglass in my hand and contemplated shipping its empty case to Matt back home while sending him photos of me playing it. But I'm not the devil and decided against it. I also held Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix (Japan exclusive) in my hand. So ya, those were like small dreams coming true but I didn't buy anything really, I still have a bunch of games I havn't started that I picked up before I left. But I digress,

So there were people on the street handing out free stuff :) I've known of this Japanese profession before but it was still neat to see first hand. The day before they gave me a cold energy drink for free that tasted like candy and today they gave free manga and magazines. I opened it and the first thing I saw was a rather... provocative centerfold. Interesting to be sure. (sorry 'gents, no pics)

After lunch we skipped more speeches, got the info that was relevant, and went out to the Canadian embassy for drinks and food. There we enjoyed a speech from the embassy's head that had alot of wisdom and interesting information. He freely mixed french statements with his english effortlessly so there were times I couldn't make out what he was saying and when he cracked a joke about 1/2 the room laughed... guess he was seeing which of us were true canadians :( Supposedly (heard 3rd hand a while back) that the building is worth as much as all of Canada's national debt (470 billion?) although they got it for free, they had to work out a deal with the builders in the 80s that the first 2 floors or so would be used for an art gallery. It is on some VERY prime real estate and is a fantastic looking place, if I had internet I'd post an arial photo/link of the place. (update: I do now! http://www.mtarch.com/mtaemb.html might be ok, they have more details about how it was built, but you can still search google if you want)

We went for some Karaoke after which was alot of fun (all you can drink for less than $5) and when you sing a song a number pops up on the screen. We thought it was telling you how many calories you were burning as the number was always so low, usually not 2 digits. I found out later that was a 'percentage' marking you how well you did. So I guess we were all horrible singers :) After we stumbled around some more, the destination usually depended on where the nearest bathroom and it ended up being a sushi train place. Now how these places work is there is a conveyer belt of food in front of you. It goes around with different types of food on different colored plates. When you're done eating, they count the plates and charge according to color. Some plates are more expensive than other obviously, but it was pretty late so we didn't eat much.

Aug 1 Got up around 7 or so. The roommate Steve had to leave at 6 but was still sleeping so I don't know if he missed his flight or not. Someone came to our room and made him get out of bed, poor guy. Anyways, hopped on the bus and went 3 hours west or so. The mountains here are unreal. I guess I should have known the "Rocky Mountains" were called as such for a reason as the ones here are just lush with green. Mostly Pine apparently. In Nagano I guess monkeys and bears and somewhat common "but don't worry, the bears are small; not like grizzlies" Haha... I'm not very reassured :) I was picked up by Otsuki Sensei and another teacher I'll be working with (Sorry, I'm trying very hard to learn names here, going so far as taking pictures of the person and writing the name down... which I should probably be memorizing right now [update: his name is Kumagai Sensei]) They took me to my new home town of Tatsuno Machi (Machi means town) and showed me the school after doing some shopping for groceries, applying for ID and other things I needed to get done.

I met the Vice Principal Hiki Kyoto Sensei (Kyoto = vice principal) and Kawai Sensei who I will also be working with in English. They helped me move into my new house where the first thing we saw was a screen that fell off the hinges and a wasp nest smaller than my fist. I was pretty nervous, especially considering my one bag swelled to what must have been over 80 pounds with my clothes and all that paper they gave us in Tokyo (still sorting it out). The rest of the night was somewhat uneventful, learning how to work appliances and such in my new house, cleaning a bit, unpacking... I kinda gave up half way due to exhaustion and went to bed. There are many things I'll need to buy like an alarm clock or something decent to hang my clothes up with to dry (don't like that rack thing I have now).

Aug 2 Got up early due to jet lag. Using my DS as my alarm clock for the time being. Thanks to it being summer though, I don't have to be up too early/go to school on time as there are no classes. I went to school dressed in the suit again although it got up to 29 because I'll be meeting people for the first time all the time and first impressions are everything. Sure enough, first person who called on me in the hallway was none other than the principal Yasuhito Takahashi Kocho Sensei (Kocho = principal)

We had an enjoyable talk after formal greetings (hajimemaste, doozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu) where I learnt he is my neighbor, the other teachers living around me, the names of others I'll be working more closely with. (Inoue Sensei the librarian and Uchiyama Sensei my caretaker) He gave me a background of the schools and such I'll be working with. It was founded in the early 1900s as a school to teach about silks as there are very famous silks in Tatsuno apparently, the school mascot is of a moth (moths are from silk worms) which is pretty interesting. After that we did some more little stuff like showing me my desk and we went for lunch which was pretty good. They're very interested to know that I know of Naruto, One Piece, Gundam (all are anime/manga) and asked me what I thought of the "Otaku" (cos players and other eccentrics). I thought they were ok but apparently they're not the most well liked people in Japan. They're comparable to "nerds" in North America but I went on to explain how nerds are cool now :) Atleast I want to be one, not just anyone can call themselves a nerd, you gots to be smrt first!

After lunch I went to my office to try and go through the plethora of paper I have to read. It's tough reading in a 29+ degree room and I went home and slept unfortunately until like 9. So it turned dark and I couldn't get much more done. I've been going pretty hard for a long time so this evening lounging around has been enjoyable. Stores close early otherwise I would have went shopping for more things I will eventually need. For example, the only ways I have of telling what time it is right now is from my laptop and DS. I would like to wash the walls but don't think I have a basin. Lots to do, but it's exciting at the same time.

Some of the most enjoyable experiences I've had so far is conversing with the locals with my broken Japanese and canned lines :) It's extremely exciting to be using the Japanese I've learnt over a year ago in practical applications for the first time, and being understood. That was something that was super disappointing in China, I took classes for 7 years or so but no one could understand one single word I spoke as the accent stress was so important. I amazed some students already with some of my Japanese that they were like "SUGOI!" (amazing) and "KAKOII!" (cool).

Well this entry took an hour and a half. Having a quote for each entry isn't really realistic I don't think so I'll just throw a couple out that I've heard over the last week.

"Teaching is like dropping a rock in a bucket of water. After the rock is gone, the ripples remain"

"If I give a dollar to a friend and my friend gives me a dollar than we both have 1 dollar. But if I gave him an idea/experiance and he gave me one back, then we both have 2 ideas/experiances"

Keep it real!
Tnoy