A live experiment on backpacking; result: Great Success!

So Tuesday I get to work, still wondering what I’m going to do that long weekend but I can’t deny the itch to get out was strong. Anything out of my prefecture would do, it was more of a mental thing at this point. At work I awaited my new schedule for the next 3 months or so but realized there wasn’t anything for that week. Apparently it was test week and I had nothing to do, making it possible to take some nenqyu (holiday). Well on to the Internet I went, sent a message to Moon-Ju (a Korean friend of the family) asking what she was up to that weekend with the vague notion of doing something crazy like going to Korea. With nothing to do I went home and made some potato sauce for the office as I found out the cultural festival had come and gone and I still had no idea when I could share this delicious food with my Japanese friends. So I cooked some up and shared it; everyone loved it. What a difference having proper white vinegar again.

So I get a message from Moon-Ju saying “this weekend is great…” and other important stuff that I stopped reading after the first sentence, more on this later. At this point I was dead set on Korea. So to the Internet I went looking for flights. It was too late to book online so I got a lot of help from my caretaker, Uchiyama-sensei, and got the ball moving. I again discovered how bad I am at asking for help, I would try to be independent like “do they speak English?” and when I got the standard “probably not” response I would go silent while longingly looking at the phone… trying to think of some way to reach out and… use it. Uchiyama is so nice though, she kind of saw my expression and would ask “… would you like me to?” and I would jump to “onegaishimasu” (literally: “please do me this favor”, very common in Japanese) She joked later how she was my travel agent and was “open 24 hours.” Very cool, I made sure to buy her some special Omiyage (gift) for her efforts and it probably wasn’t a bad thing I buttered everyone up earlier with my cooking.

So there I was driving to the large city Matsumoto to the north. I kept track this time and found out it takes 40 mins to drive 30km. The place took over an hour to reach. While I was there I found a cool shop not unlike our “San Francisco” stores and bought cool Christmas presents and other items. Because I bought my tickets Tuesday and was leaving Thursday the price was double normal, and because I was coming home Sunday and not Saturday again the price was double. I didn’t care though, the itch was strong and I needed powder! After all, how many times have I gone to Korea before? And how many times will it be “a good weekend” to visit? It was late when I got home and Wednesday was an interesting day of not doing much again because of tests, only taught the 3rd years.

So after that class some of the girls started to gather and ask questions again. Nothing wrong with that, I like talking with people here as it is ALWAYS interesting. After a bit the “are you married” question came up again and if not why wear the ring. This is a gist of the golden conversation ensued:

Student: “so do you have a girl friend then?”
Me: “nope, not yet” give the ‘shucks’ gesture.
Student: “what do you think of Japanese girls?”
Me: “they are very pretty”
Student: “what do you think of high school girls?” with the leading in voice… something is implied here…
Me, sensing the trap: “oh they are lots of fun! Very genki!” (Energetic/cheerful)
Student: “no, what do you think of Yayoi girls?” (I was at Yayoi that day) she could see that I was stalling and avoiding the issue at hand.
Me: “uh… genki?” At this point, there are about 10-15 very good looking 18yr old high school girls crowding around me in a semi-circle with their eyes wide open and with big smiles on their faces expectantly. Also at this point I am expecting a teacher to jump around the corner and fire me on the spot, but I knew I wasn’t going to escape this trap either. I had to think of something, and do it fast!
Me: “well… uh… maybe… uh… “

Good one Tony! Way to woo them with your words. In the end I chose job security and envisioned my friend Neal with a bowling pin above my head should I say what any other man would have said in that situation. “Maybe kocho-sensei would say no… so I don’t know” (kocho = principal) feeling very defeated at this point. The crowd of cute girls quickly scattered and I felt sad and empty ☹ Ah well, there will be time for that stuff later. A couple of my English club students stuck around and we started talking about my South Korea trip and an upcoming Christmas party, I offered to cook a turkey if they wanted. Long story short, they wanted me to buy them some Korean seaweed until the anti was upped by one student to jewelry then they all wanted jewelry. I told them I’ll see what I can do and headed out for the day.

That night was a little crazy with the packing and figuring out just what the heck I was going to do in Korea. Remember how I stopped reading after “this weekend is good”? Well funny story. Moon-Ju literally meant after her university entrance exam, which was Saturday. Also, she doesn’t live in Seoul; she lives in Ulsan, 5 hours away by car. My day Sunday would be busy getting home, the plane left at noon. Reasonably there was no way to meet up, who wants to spend 10 hours traveling when you only have 3-4 days? Well this is what happens from hasty plans I guess; at this point I’m searching google with strings like “what to do in Seoul” and making bad notes ☺ Also made a booking at a Hostel for one night, it was $25 a night. I ended up staying there the 3 nights.

I was up at 3 that morning to catch my bus that left at 4. I got to Seoul maybe 1 or 2 in the afternoon feeling very alone and very nervous. Maybe it got the better of my judgment as a guy asked me if I needed a taxi. “Sure” I say, thinking it would be convenient. Turns out that 1 hour taxi ride cost $150 US. I found out later that as a good rate but I wish I had gambled with the bus or train as it took slightly longer but easy cost 93% less or more (about $10 by bus to the airport) Mind you it would have been tough to figure out when to get out, I was still pretty wide eyed at this point. I avoided another China-taxi scam depression when I found out I got a very good deal considering it was a taxi, the man was friendly and gave me some tips too. His English wasn’t the best though so he dropped me off at the wrong place. I took another taxi to the right place, this ride cost maybe $10.

Well that was my only bad story about Korea and now it is out of the way so no more asking! People love the bad stories but I would have been fine if I had stuck to the two golden rules of airports. 1) never exchange money at an airport and 2) never take a taxi from the airport. (the exchange rate there is terrible, when I traded my money at a bank I easily got 10-15% more money) I don’t like International airports much, they try to stuff every type of culture into one building and then dehumanize it further with uniforms and monstrous security. If there was a one world government (coming soon?) I bet every place would look like an international airport.

The hostel staff was very friendly, going so far as running out to the road when my taxi was near and the driver phoned to find out where they were. Some of the staff shared interesting Korea information with me and let me join them eating some kind of strange fruit that was a cross between tomato and apple. When it was time to go they wanted to get their picture with me first. That was something of a first; pretty cool too having two cute girls wanting individual photos of me with my arm around them. This of course was just the beginning of my Korean adventure too.

I took the subway just to get lost, knowing I had a card should things get bad and just cab it back. I was on the subway for over and hour and mostly figured it out, except on how to pay ☺ I looked around and couldn’t find no Japan-style ticket booths so I just walked on the subway. And when I got to my destination the ticket guy just waved me through because he didn’t know how to talk to me. The second subway experience I found the tickets, but didn’t know how to get them stamped. So when it came to exiting the turnstile wouldn’t let my unstamped ticket through. A nice lady, total stranger, motioned for me to get close to her. We ended up going through together and my second subway trip was free as well. When I got it all figured out, the subway cost about a dollar for most destinations, a little more if you went further; very reasonable.

I went to the lake going through South Korea and mostly walked around and enjoyed the scenery. There were low prices and interesting street shops everywhere; something I missed from China. The lake was cool with stepping stones so people can pass over the stream together and it was something of a couple’s hang out. I went home later with intentions of going to a local bar I read about at the Hostel, thinking “just go for one drink” but my body proved too exhausted as I passed out fully clothed on top of my bed at 9p.m. I guess that happens when you wake up at 3 a.m. and spend a couple hours walking around a foreign city.

Friday I got up early to ride the subway for ½ hour to do a tour of the DMZ (demilitarized zone, it separates South Korea from North Korea). I met a cool Norwegian girl on the bus, Inga, who could speak like 6 languages (must be nice to live in Europe) and had been in South Korea for a couple weeks. She gave me some tips and showed some pictures of her travels including The Secret Garden by the palace in Korea when the autumn leavers were just turned and were dazzling colors still. The trees are leaves are mostly dead now so they aren’t as pretty in Japan and Korea but that’s ok.

So ya, the tour was interesting, it was kind of sombering to see all the razor wire fence strung out on the coast to keep North Korea spies from infiltrating so easily and the dark reminders of the Korean war where 6 million people were killed. Now the biggest event in Korea is the thanksgiving event, where usually sometime August family members from North Korea and South Korea that were forcibly separated get the chance to get together again. This of course is a very recent thing as many families have been separated for 40 years or more with no contact.

It was raining that day rather hard so visibility wasn’t too good. We took a tour of some of the tunnels the North Koreans were digging in the 70’s to invade South Korea again. So far they have found 4 tunnels, the latest one being in 90’s which shocked many people, knowing North Korea still wanted bloodshed. It was a very locked down place, our passports were checked by armed guards and we were specifically told when we could take pictures or not, there was even a painted line on the ground at one point where taking pictures was ok with a guard watching it. Again because of the rain we couldn’t see any North Korean soldiers.

We later visited a train station that has linked the North and South and got special stamps for our passports. George Bush was there in 2002 or 3 and signed a rail. Long story short it “looks” like things are getting better but personally it’s hard to say what is going to happen with all the stuff you hear in the news. But then again what isn’t negative in the news.

So the tour bus took us back to downtown. I saw a temple place of some sort nearby so I went sightseeing there and took lots of pictures. Inside the temple grounds was a national museum of art which I also walked around for a while. I don't know, "fine" art is lost to me, I just don't "understand" what the descriptions are trying to say. "you can see from this piece all the anguish in his life..." all I saw was horrible drip marks from poor painting, not to mention a canvas so dark good luck making anything out. I'll stick with real photographs or computer generated images for my art.

I went shopping at a huge COEX mall and bought more christmas presents after. One of the places a nice lady was asking if I needed any help finding anything. I said no thanks, just looking for some Omiyage (gifts). She stopped, stuttered heavily and was like "omiyage? how do you know that word?" so I was like "Nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu" (I understand little Japanese). She practically bowled over in shock and before I knew it we were talking in Japanese to each other for a while. I was surprised how many words I knew as much as she was. It was a good confidence booster and seeing her reaction was priceless.

I was at the mall to also meet up with Moon-Ju's cute friend, Star. She helped me find some shops and we went for supper together for some Korean food. She spent time in Toronto and is pretty much fluent, we had a really good time. She introduced me to Korea's "dongdongju" alcohol, similar to Sake but much better tasting. She unfortunately had to work the next day so the night didn't get too late, also the Subway closes down at a certain hour. She showed me some other things like a nearby buddhist temple and street shopping places. A lot of people in Korea were wearing pink ties... and they looked good! So I bought one and plan to wear it this weekend to the big JET conference. But ya, we walked around for a while, got good food and saw cool sites.

Saturday I slept in (until 9?) and went to Gyeongbukgung temple, where the main royal palace was. I got there just in time to watch the changing of the guards and you can see it too through the power of the inter-tubes! (I posted it on youtube) The place was huge and I spent a couple hours walking around and listening to an audio-tour of the place. It was really beautiful and there was a lot to take in. There was a folk museum nearby and I went there after. Again lots to take in, lots of pictures, lots learn. I was pretty exhausted after that so I went to the next meeting place and took a break for a while and relaxed.

This time I was meeting Moon-Ju's older sister, Moon-Hee. She is also very nice and even though she and Moon-Ju said her English wasn't very good she spoke better than alot of my 3rd year students, pretty good I think for someone who doesn't like the language. She is majoring in Korean dance and took me to a theater to watch it be performed. We watched 3 different acts and although I couldn't really understand what was going on it was still neat to see; the dancers were very skilled. We had Korean food and had a nice visit for a couple hours. (Moon-Hee is on the left, her friend was performing right away so he was wearing a lot of makeup)

Sunday was spent getting home, I took hundreds of photos of the clouds from my prime window seat. I should be a pilot or something with the way this stuff fascinates me. I of course cut out a million stories due to time and size restraints; it is midnight to me and I am exhausted. To sum it all up Korea had everything I loved from China (low prices, street vendors, etc) nothing that I didn't like from China (only saw 1 homeless person, wasn't targeted/scammed for being a foreigner) and had things I wish Japan had more of (friendly strangers that would try talking with you). I have never had so many beautiful women that I just met tell me how handsome I was like that before. But anyways, maybe I'm just wishing I was in a bigger city sometimes or battling another wave of homesickness. Either way it got me thinking about why I'm teaching in Japan and not Korea. That lovely country has stolen a piece of my heart and I definitely will be back someday, if for nothing else to visit Moon-Ju properly next time. I was confident I would most likely stay a second year and teach in Japan but now it's up in the air again, I'm thinking maybe I should do Korea. I have until February to decide at any rate.

I have learned so much from this trip it is hard to put it into words. I, alone, went to a different country with no plan and little money and made out alright. I now have full confidence in my ability to backpack around Europe or one some other crazy adventure. Backpacking was always a far-fetched crazy idea to me, far too extreme for someone like me. I of course feel differently now and am wondering where this new-found confidence will take me.

"Live in your imagination today, for tomorrow it could be your reality" -Kevin Eikenberry

Tnoy

Gobble Gobble

I ate turkey and other goodies for America’s thanksgiving this weekend, it was a nice taste of home although I still miss the proper dressed we enjoyed back home and not the mushy from-the-box stuff. Oh and two different types of gravy! I put it on everything from the salad to the freshly baked Italian bread. All kinds of JETs brought stuff and/or cooked it there. Heh getting ahead of myself though, this all happened Saturday.

The schedule was a little confusing and we got more than a little lost trying to find the place. It was maybe a 2 hour drive but would have been 3 hours by train. Something to get used to while being here for sure, considering the place is maybe not even 100km away. Anyways I was hoping to maybe cook up some potato sauce as other people were doing similar things. We got there at 4:30 and the eating was suppose to start at 4 so I figured I didn’t have enough time plus there weren’t any free pots left so my ingredients sat in a corner for the night, I’ll have to make it later or something.

Dishes included soba, fried rice, Gyoza (China’s Jiaozi, it’s like wonton pirogies/dumplings) devil’s eggs, sweet potatoes baked with marshmallows on top, all kinds of pie, salad, vegetables, fresh Italian bread (ficado?), and of course lots of turkey and gravy. I’m sure I missed mentioning some dishes like the stuffing. Brian our PA (prefectural advisor) from Ireland made some Irish coffee. Basically hot water, instant coffee, whiskey and whip cream. It was good, I thought it was pretty strong though.

We were at a community center so there were many people walking around. Some Japanese students got curious and we invited them to join us. We might have scared the one a bit at our table as the drinking got a little intense for some people and the accents were all over the place. We had Australian, Canadian, American an English accents for sure at our table alone. We were suppose to be out at 7 but stayed until basically 8 by the time everything was cleaned up.

There was a board where people could write up what they were thankful for. You had the standard stuff, sure, but the one that really stuck out for me on there was “I’m thankful I don’t work for NOVA.” I don’t know if it’s in the news at all back home, but it’s big time here. If it wasn’t for JET I probably would have went to NOVA as much as I didn’t want to. Before going to Japan I read about sketchy things on the Internet but only recently has it made mainstream news. The company is filing for bankruptcy and all their teachers haven’t been paid for a long time, like longer than a month. There are people walking around cities with “will teach English for food” signs. They are contractually obligated to stay in Japan but they aren’t getting paid. Other teachers have been forcibly relocated as they tried downsizing to make up for the shortfall. One teacher in particular in Nagano was selling all the stuff in his house as they were moving him and you could tell he wasn’t impressed having bought some of these appliances for new not long ago and having to sell them. It’s just a bad situation, I’m pretty sure they have like over a thousand employees.

I’m doing ok as far as saving money is concerned, but I try to live fairly simply. I now do my shopping like an hour or two before closing (coincidentally usually that is the only time I have to go shopping) and there are many things on the discount trays. There is nothing wrong with them most of the time, like the liter jug of pure grape juice I got for $1.30 reduced from maybe $2. It pays off the most with fruits and veggies, as those are normally pretty pricey. I suppose I should start spending more on traveling. Speaking of which, there is a 3 day weekend coming up and it’s been bugging me that I’ve only left the prefecture once already. I will look into it later, should be able to start a road trip.

Little off topic but ya, that Saturday night we went to a local JETs and had something of a house party. It sucked when they played the same crappy bar music that I didn’t miss from back home. They just needed to play that horrible “save a horse ride a cowboy” and I know I would have been in a crappy Regina bar for sure. Luckily later they stopped caring as much and I was able to play some good music ☺ We started raving a bit, Brian and I which was pretty sweet. People commented that watching us was like watching a lava lamp; you get lost watching it. Unfortunately we didn’t have glow sticks; that would have topped everything. We did about 5 songs until the host of the party wanted more “grinding music” and not techno. Fair enough I suppose, it was her house, I would play what I want in mine. It was ok I guess until like 2 songs later they played “who let the dogs out.” Ugh, 80% of the party went into the other room and closed the door trying to keep that music out. But enough about that I guess! Only one weird thing left to mention, a local American came over at like 4 or 5 in the morning after everyone fell asleep and started taking pictures of people. Creepy.

Sunday, the next day, I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the active volcano in Saku where we were. Apparently it explodes every 40 years and kills people every 200 years. And guess how long ago those things happened? Yup exploded 40 years ago and killed people 200 years ago. And according to our host the volcano went from merely smoky to unbelievably active from the locals as soon as she showed interest in it. At any rate it’s suppose to be pretty cool with a cloud of smoke always coming out of it, it is the most active volcano in Japan. Our host watches it in her kitchen window every morning, pretty cool view I’m told. (Again, I didn’t see it ☹ next time)

I managed to catch an hour ride to a big city where the train wouldn’t be nearly as complicated but got a lesson about catching trains alone, it’s tricky. Got home alright after missing 2 trains and riding one for an hour and a half. The one train Matt and I ran to and tried to open the door, seconds before it started moving. The conductor just waved at us as he crawled by 2 feet from us with his door wide open. Might as well have slapped us. The rides were amazing though, seeing all the trees all over the hills with all the different colors. I wish I got more pictures but I was stuck in the middle back of a car with no middle seat so my butt was sore ☺ A ride is better than no ride though.

Well that was more or less the weekend. Friday night I went out with a local I met last week at the party, Junko, and she showed me a cool restaurant. We had pork cutlets and they were pretty tasty. Jake is back from Okinawa, I ordered some video games (Mario galaxy, rainbow 6 vegas), relaxed in the one room that I’m heating and have lined the walls with blankets. After this morning though, I’m thinking I’ll need to make a trip to get some bubble wrap.

When I got up it was maybe 2 degrees in my house, no lie. My breath came out in a thick cloud and there was frost/snow all over the ground outside. When I got dressed I immediately threw on 4 layers and warmed up right away. Tonight I think I’ll move my bed to the room I’m heating and I’ll learn how to set the timer on the kerosene heater. You can get it to turn on before you wake up so the room isn’t so frozen, or set it so the temperature doesn’t drop below freezing. I’m just a little surprised it reached this temperature when it did, kind of thought (maybe wished?) it wouldn’t happen until late in December.

Last week was alright, I got a poster finally to hang in my house! I went to a game shop and after a while of asking “okii shashiin moteimasu ka?” (big picture have?) and gesturing with my hands they were still confused. I pointed to the poster outside and was like “Mario galaxy” and whatever else I could to say (read: not much). After confirming a couple of times that I wasn’t after the game but the poster they went to their big stash of posters and gave me the Mario galaxy one, for free even. Well I was in a little bit of disbelief, after semi-looking for over a month I get such a cool one for free. I was so happy I brought it to school and showed it off to a couple people. One was one of my students and her jaw dropped when she saw it. “Tony give me!” heh sorry kid, this one is going on my wall. I wanted more posters but figured not to push my luck, I already just walked out with one for free but I already have my eye on what to ask for next time I go in (a one piece poster, very popular anime). And now I know the Japanese word for poster! “Posutaa” (say it fast) …yea I suck.

I stayed late a couple days helping students with a “step” test, it’s a standard English test some students will take in interviews for entrance into university. Lots of tests being written, coincidentally today is a test day so I have more time to do noth… study Japanese ☺ yea that will do. I found out today I only have 3 or 4 more classes with my 3rd years then they will be too busy with their University entrance exams. Got me a little down, they are my best students obviously and I won't be seeing them anymore.

Well that’s enough for now; I probably should study for real. My first test has to be done first week in December and I have a lot of catching up to do as was relevant by my quick browsing this morning through the lesson book. It was expect I know a bunch of Kanji that I haven’t seen yet.

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." -Oprah Winfrey

Anthony

Kerosene attacks and other shocking tales of samui!

Another week, another adventure for the blog it seems. Maybe most note-worthy was the Indian music concert Sunday, but more on that later. For now, harrowing tales of my fight for survival in the 10-degree house! Tales that will shock and amaze! Oh and for reference “samui” means “cold” in Japanese; a word I hear dozens of times each day, especially when they see me walk around the school in short sleeves still.

Well maybe not that amazing but ya, I discovered the kerosene heaters, which are essential tools for staying warm during Japanese winters. It all started when my friend from work Kubota-san informed me there is a closet in my house I didn’t know about. Sure enough, there were my electric blankets, electric rug (now I have two I guess) and about 4 or 5 different heaters. 2 rather big heaters do the kerosene routine. I went to the my shed near the house and opened it for maybe the 3rd time since being here and got the jerry can and went to the gas station to fill it up. For 20 liters it was about $16, double the price it was maybe 3 or 4 years ago, much like gasoline. So I throw the jerry can in my car to discover the lid was broken! It happens with old plastic and cold temperatures I suppose, but it still sucked to see maybe a liter of kerosene slop out and sickening to see my car seat eagerly slurp it up. The car ride home was… interesting. I got quite the headache even with the windows rolled down. For reference, kerosene smells like pure gasoline, maybe even riper if that is possible.

I had to pull over and breathe for a bit so I stopped at the grocery store half way between the gas station and home. I left my windows down so it could air out a bit in my car. Fighting the headache I soon realized I smelt like kerosene much like my car, as other shoppers were quick to avoid a 3-meter moving radius around me. Of course I wasn’t thinking straight so I kept shopping (was quick, it’s a small place anyways) and got out of there. I drove home with the windows down again and it wasn’t too bad. I filled up the tanks (maybe 3 or 4 liters each, last 8 hours at full blast I’m told) and listened to the “glug glug glug” of my money thirsty machines as they prepped themselves to keep me warm for the next 5 months or so.

Well the first part of me to go numb is my toes usually, hence my decision how many weeks back to get that electric carpet. So I stuck my heater under the table in my living room thinking “oh boy, it’ll blow heat on my legs and the heat will rise while I’m on the compy. (laptop)” Ya I have my blonde moments. Sure, it blew heat on my legs and rose alright, it blew the kerosene fumes there too. By the time I realized this I was half way through an email and just wanted to get it done. I was ducking to the side occasionally and holding my breath but the damage was done and I got another nasty headache for the next hour or so from the carbon monoxide poisoning. This keeping warm thing is turning into an ordeal at this point.

The heater is now more to the side, leaving me in the clear. And really the first time you use the heaters is the worst; just like turning on a furnace back home for the first time, you got to burn off all that dust and other fun stuff first. I started to slide close my doors (Japanese style paper doors) at home in hopes of heating one room and not the house and wow does that make a difference in making my house feel cozy. Sure it doesn’t seem as big when you’re in an enclosed room but it just feels cozy now. I started putting some blankets up against the walls for some make-shift insulation and it seems to be working ok, I’ll need to buy more though as normal blankets don’t hold up to well unless I decide to pin them to the wall. Also with heaters now, it helps when drying my clothes as just having the fan blow on them wasn’t working as good as it got colder.

So ya, my car has been sitting in my spot since Tuesday with all the windows open a crack in hopes I don’t pass out next time I have to drive somewhere. So of course, I forgot they were open when I woke up Sunday morning to the sound of pouring rain. I thought it was strange this morning when I went to work that there was so much moisture hugging the inside and outside of my window, usually morning dew isn’t that relentless. I’ll find out the damage later when I get home, I hope the fumes have cleared out.

Some repairmen also came last week to install a working heater for my bathtub. They took out the old stove (didn’t cover the hole that the chimney went through yet though, I stuffed some towels in the hole for now) and put a modern gas water heater on the outside of my house beside the heater that works the shower. So last week I had my first Japanese style bath! For reference, Japanese baths aren’t for washing but for relaxing. They aren’t as long but they are really deep. When I sat inside just to tops of my knees and my head weren’t under the water but that was alright, it was like sitting in a hot tub.

You leave the water sit in there for a week or two (again you don’t go in dirty) and you can set the heater to keep it constantly warm or whatever you want it to do. I need to buy a cover not unlike a hot tub cover to help keep it clean and warm though so for now I’m not going to warm it up again until I have those (I’m cheap, what can I say. Not paying to heat the shower room)

I find myself waking up quite regularly in the middle of the night and rolling over. I think it might be because half my face gets really cold so I roll over to warm it up on the pillow. I should maybe hook up that small electric heater to blow on my face when I’m sleeping like I did back in Regina as I can’t sleep with a blanket on my head and I can’t sleep with the kerosene heater on or else I won’t wake up ;)

The heaters here are very advanced; they have timers, temp control, safety switches (bumps will turn them off; protection against earthquakes) and 3-hour timers. If you had it on for 3 hours it will beep and turn off, telling you to air out the room with fresh air so you won’t be in a dangerous situation. I have yet to try out my kotatsu (Japanese heated table) but I have a feeling that will be heavenly. One of the warnings they gave us though is “prolonged use has been shown to cause sterility in men.” So again, I can’t be falling asleep under it ;) haha. I’ll be sure to post a picture sometime so you know what it looks like, but you can search google images for a picture too, they all basically look the same.

Quick fun fact! There is a “grave yard” of sorts I read about in a Japanese book the other day. There they send the nose ring of bulls that are slaughtered for food. When the picture was taken, the current mound has over 6 million nose rings of all different colors. It was something else to see, I might have to do a trip out to the area sometime, kind of morbid too.

My student Miyuki-san tested me again to see if I remembered her name, keeping me on my toes. She was ecstatic again that I remembered, even when I was so off guard as I was. That, unfortunately, triggered all the other students around her to ask me if I remembered their name too as she rushed around bragging. Luckily they didn’t know how to ask me or not and keep pointing to themselves expecting me to know what they were asking (I knew… oh how I knew). I feigned ignorance to their pointing; pointing to myself as well while cocking my head in confusion to their reference as I slowly backed up into the classroom and was saved by the bell. Literally. They rushed off to class and I sighed after dodging all those bullets of what would have been countless crying children. The tearsss it burnssss ussss. Hissss!

Needless to say my name memorization effort has tripled (no, I still don’t know the name of the teacher who sits beside me although we talk several times a day) I let other teachers know of my difficulty and they try to help me out, going so far as asking me now “so do you know their names?” after I had been talking to some students for the last 15 minutes or so. I do my deer in the headlights look and give my sheepish “no” and they proceed to tell me their names and try to help me remember.

I take notes now, to say the least. (she has glasses, she is short, etc)

I worked Saturday again, although I only found out about that Thursday. Good thing I didn’t have anything important planned is all I can say to these last minute “come in this weekend” shenanigans. Oh well, I didn’t have to do much and I get a day off in January for it. The morning I helped out some of Jake’s Junior High students get ready for New Zealand. (He is in Okinawa, where I should be right now too if that witch hunt didn’t happen, lucky guy) and in the afternoon there was one big cleaning of the school. I helped a little but mostly walked around. One room I helped wash the floor and apply wax while other students fixed broken desks, washed windows, stuff like that. I’ve heard of students cooking sweet potatoes under a pile of old burning desks but alas that didn’t happen at my school and I got funny looks for asking about it; rightly so I suppose. “Hey can we burn these old desks and eat sweet potatoes?” Ya, right in the middle of fall when you have dry leaves all over the ground.

That aside, that night we went for another 2 hour nomi/tabe-hodai! (all you can eat/drink) for $35 for 2 hours. Man I wish we had those back home, so sweet. It was a bunch of JETs and a bunch of Neal’s tutoring students. It was fun, and I got a poster of someone putting 3 kittens up for adoption, I’ll have to look into that tomorrow. Before we went out we met up at a little family run restaurant near the train station in Ina. It is a popular place among us JETs as the owner is fluent and very friendly. When we got there, there were a couple locals who had… “indulged” for the last 5 hours and things got a little more than interesting. No harm was done though, awkward moments and laughter was shared by all. Like the one guy hugged me good-bye, extremely rare in Japan, and in the middle of the hug told me not to worry, as he wasn’t gay.

Well that was fun, Sunday came and there was going to be an Indian concert later that day in a Sri Lankan restaurant. One of Neal’s tutoring students, Junko, offered to give me a ride and we went together. She lives in the same town as me and is very nice. The owner of the restaurant was a pretty cool guy and we enjoyed over an hour of Indian music for 1500 yen (about $15). It was so cool; I’ll post a little bit of it on youtube later if you want to see. It was crazy that he sat the way he did and played and improvised song like he did for well over and hour. It was so relaxing, a couple people fell asleep… it was really cool. Words fail me as I was in a trance for most of it, swept away in relaxation and blissfully at peace.

We wanted to stay and have some awesome curry, but the restaurant wasn’t really set up for food that day because of the concert. We will have to go back again someday, Neal seems to be a big fan of it and we are trying to set up a burgers and beer tradition Wednesdays not unlike the wings and beer tradition I had going on back home. We have only gone twice so far though. I bugged Neal about it writing, “You’re not doing a good job of starting a tradition you know” one time in an email. Looks like other JETs will be joining us too and the restaurant is pretty popular due to the late hours and unlimited drink bar, last week I had a bunch of Tatsuno students say hello to me.

It was funny when I went in to work today sweating from the hard 15 minute uphill walk and saw teachers and students alike huddling around the kerosene heater saying “samui!” and “samui desu ne!” then bowl over in shock at me sweating and wearing a short sleeve shirt again. Heh, I never get tired of that. I tell them they are getting snow back home and since there is no snow here that means good weather ;)

People seem to like the poppy I wore for Remembrance Day; many students said “kawaiii” (cute) when I walked by. It was a little difficult to explain the holiday and that you can wear the poppy on other days than Nov 11, and I made sure to make the distinction that it started at the end of World War 1 and not World War 2 should I accidentally offend some people. It was strange too that I still remember most of the Flanders Field poem from our memorization days in elementary. Other JETs (the non-American ones, don’t think they have poppies for veterans day) congratulated me on wearing one and immediately asked where I got it. I was lucky enough to pick up a couple when I was in the Canadian Embassy my second day in Tokyo. People were even asking if they could buy them online, as they wanted to wear one too. It’s weird that when I talked about Remembrance Day, especially about the sacrifices that were made, I get a little choked up. It’s strange because I don’t know the horrors of war and wish that among nobody but still have it affect me so deeply.

I signed up for an AJET tatami time-share like thing, where for 1000 yen one time registration, you go into the database as having tatami for people in the area to sleep. In return I can sleep at other JETs houses around the country. I’ve heard of a similar worldwide thing, rent-my-couch dot com or something (you should check it out Steve) where you can sleep on someone’s couch all over the world. The one guy telling us was saying he hasn’t found a country yet where someone wasn’t registered. If I end up backpacking around for a bit I’ll definitely have to give this a look-see. Although I already slept at a hostel and it wasn’t so bad, so that is a good option too.

Well I skipped over it last time but I still didn’t see them last weekend so I’ll just write about the 3-5-7 festival in Japan quickly. What happens is girls at the age of 3 and 7 and boys at the age of 5 in the early weeks of November are dressed up and taken to temples where the family prays for their future health and well being. This reminds of me of other traditions that started similarly because child mortality rates were rather high in olden times and as such have been blamed on bad spirits. I however didn’t see any of this, maybe partly because it is chilly outside or I live in too small a town.

But at any rate good weekend as names were learnt, friends were made, and new experiences were had. Next weekend AJET (JET alumni) is hosting some kind of Turkey feast for the American thanksgiving but since it is turkey I’m not going to complain and I’m eagerly looking forward to it. I will probably make potato sauce there as well as they ask for people to make dishes from back home as well. It will be a 3-day weekend so that will be a welcome break. I should maybe think of something for a quick road trip, if for nothing else some cool sightseeing at a nearby area and come back in time for the turkey.

"Your chance of success is directly proportional to the degree of pleasure you derive from what you do." -Michael Korda

Anthony

I scare Japanese people, and I got my license!

Hello again, Gary (my cousin) gave me the good tip of being consistent and I think this will be something of a good routine for me. I *hope* to update my blog on Mondays as it is right after the weekend and I have some time at Yayoi to work on it usually like today. So that would mean Monday morning readers in Canada, in theory, should have a new entry ready. I will post pictures from October and possibly some more from early November as I mention a temple later on so that way you can see what it looks like. If I have time I will start posting more videos although I don’t take them very often anymore.

Well Halloween has come and gone now, and I maybe scarred some people for life with the shock of a painted green face walking around. Some of the reactions I got were priceless. They ranged from students spinning around and screaming at the top of their lungs to teachers giving a quick look from the corner of their eye then instantly jumping back with their eyes wide in shock, bowling over the students next to them (best double-take ever). I remember Neal (fellow JET) telling me once how Japanese people were easy to scare and I think they even have Patty beat (my sister) but it’s hard to say; Patty screams in horror at anything, it’s great.

One of the cooler reactions was some students caught a glimpse of my cape flapping in the distance as I walked across their view. They paused and excitedly started wondering out-loud what the heck they just saw. Remember, I’m acting like I’m completely not out of place as well, unless of course they wanted me to pose then that was another matter. I think the part they liked the most (other than the green face) was when I told them my cape made me fly. ☺ It was fun trying to explain how I was a “crazy Rider/football fan” and student’s guesses ranged from “superhero” to my favorite: “Green Machine.” Haha, technically I guess that is correct, although you don’t hear green machine too often anymore; pretty classy at any rate. A lot of the time people didn’t know what football was and I was having enough trouble explaining that Canadian football is “a little different” from American football.

I told my students to dress up and they will get candy from me. I only had three follow through but that’s alright and I gave them candy. I gave the rest of the sweets out to students who would say “trick or treat” or as prizes for Halloween themed hangman and what not. Speaking of which I’ve had to teach a couple classes how to play hangman which I thought is kind of strange. At the same time maybe not that strange though as my TESOL instructor told us to be sensitive about stuff like that, one of his students ran out bawling because their father offed himself that way earlier that week.

Also some of the classes were getting ready to go crazy with “yay Tony sensei” and stuff seeing my crazy outfit, just to have me respond, “Today we’re having a test! Yay!” haha ah how cruel I am. Before they were bored with the test though I posed for all their keitai (cell phones) as they took pictures. Yes, all the 14 year olds have phones, not that crazy this day and age I guess. For many people it is their computer too for internet use and such. But ya, it was pretty awesome to see all the students line up as say “Give me candy” or “Happy Halloween” until someone would go out and say “trick or treat” and everyone else would learn to do the same. Halloween night Jake came over and we celebrated Halloween by having a few drinks and playing “scary” video games on the old Sega system.

Thursday I had a nenqyu (holiday) to go to Nagano and get my re-entry permit and drivers license. I need the permit to get back into Japan should I leave for any reason; say visit home or South Korea or something. I had time left over and noticed there was a big temple nearby so I went to check it out. It was really neat to be there, it was very old fashioned and looked very good. I took several pictures and then eventually noticed a satellite dish on the roof. Nothing is immune to modernization I suppose.

I caught an hour train to Shinjiku and met up with my caretaker who took me to the driver’s exam place. Again since I’m Canadian the extent of my testing was an eye exam (which I got a perfect score on) and a bunch of paper work. There was a lot of confusion over the picture license and the yearly paper license, the changing expiration dates, all kinds of fun-to-explain stuff like that. After a couple hours it was all good and I got a Japanese drivers license good for 5 years. The only weird thing is since I can’t prove I was in Canada for six months before coming to Japan I have to have “beginners” stickers on my car for a year unless I give them paper work saying I have experience. SGI didn’t turn on their fax machine until 8:30 in the morning (11:30 PM my time) so that was a hassle, still haven’t heard back. Kudos to my Kyoto sensei (vice principal) for staying up that late to do it for me.

So in Japan, new and elderly drivers have to put stickers on their car designating them as such so other drivers know to be careful around them. Young drivers have an arrow fletch shaped yellow and green sticker while elderly have a yellow and orange shaped water drop. Have to have one on the front and the back, mine were cheap and are magnets, picked them up on the weekend. Also every 5 years everyone has to take a drivers test again instead of just simply renewing it like we do. So with a Japanese drivers license I am now legally allowed to drive to school although I will probably continue to take the train. It take almost the same time on the train as it does driving, the only time to be saved would be the actually walking from the station which is about 25 mins total each time. So if I miss the train someday which I probably will then I will drive and try to be on time still. Oh and I found out my transportation fees are reimbursed.

Well enough about that, Friday we went to Ina and did some karaoke until 4 a.m., then that weekend was Japan’s “koyo” (red leaves) which a good time to go and see the trees turn different colors as the leaves fall off. It really is beautiful, looking around at the area and the bright red trees. Japan places heavy emphasis on their three seasons. When I ask my New Zealand bound students “what can you tell me about Japan” they are advised by Kocho sensei (principal) to share how Japan enjoys 4 very beautiful seasons. I know springtime will be something else with the cherry blossoms but I’m not really seeing the lure of winter or summer, maybe because those last the longest and have more extreme temperatures. Anyways it’s popular to go out and spend time surrounded by nature this time of year.

I was pretty tired from the karaoke so didn’t do much the rest of the weekend except relax indoors. I need to find my kerosene heater as much of that relaxing time was spent with numb toes. It’s usually 15 degrees in my house lately, 10 degrees this morning. I should plug in those pipe-heating wires pretty quick in case it does dip into the minus. Next weekend will hold more adventures with a thanksgiving style feast among other fancy indulgences, even a 3 day weekend I think. Also there is a Japanese festival 7-5-3 happening, will explain more in the next post when/if I have some pictures. I've forced myself to have "lazy" weekend lately to maybe get myself more motivated to studying Japanese and what not, I have to write my first test in 4 weeks and I hope to go to a voluntary class tomorrow night for the first time.

"The difficulties we experience always illuminate the lessons we need most." -unknown

Enjoy the little things in life,
Tnoy