Draw her with bigger eyes and greener hair

You may remember my last post was a bit rushed, as right after I put it online I had to run to Ina for a large going away party. The ones the week before was for English teachers while this one was a big one for everyone at the school that was leaving. Much like the graduation I had to chose one or the other: Tatsuno or Yayoi so this time I went with Yayoi thinking it would be a bit more fair as I went to Tatsuno’s graduation. I ended up missing my train anyways and was half an hour late for the party.

When I got there, there was delicious food and many beverages waiting for consumption, and plenty of friendly people to talk with. So many friendly people in fact that it was hard for me to shovel my face, as I hate doing that while talking with someone. Luckily I’m a fast eater so during the brief reprieves I managed to do a lot of damage to the table’s food supply (delicious! My favourite was the medium rare steak they brought out; so good it didn’t need BBQ sauce) Speaking of which, one of my friends told me when he worked at a restaurant that most people don’t know what they’re asking for when they get medium rare. Most restaurants in that case will cook it longer just so the customer won’t complain when they get a steak with an inside pinker than they thought.

We went out for karaoke after, of which I sang a couple songs but mostly was there for the tasty desserts and socializing. I tried to get more of those Mario voice box things from a coin machine only to find out it was sold out! I ate and sang until it was time to catch the last train home so I could crawl in to work the next day… needless to say I was feeling pretty good when I got home again so I played video games with my older brother John until 3 or 4 in the morning instead.

Most of the rest of the week was some form of suffering… ranging from not eating/sleeping right to stressing over reservations that somehow got lost. On the upside I got a free 40 of whiskey and lots of sake :) My caretaker Uchiyama sensei brought in her kids to help her clean an old English room that hasn’t been used in years because of declining enrollment and found those treasures for me. They told me to be careful when drinking it because it’s old and was covered in dust. It’s new enough that the seal hasn’t been broken and alcohol doesn’t go bad right? “ya, I’ll be careful” muhahaha ;)

Friday was kind of eventful, I got fiber optic Internet hooked up and now my speeds are easily 20 times faster. I cleaned up my house really good for the upcoming visit from family and said goodbye to my Kocho (principal) who is also my neighbor as he was transferred; apparently it’s common practice for principals to change out every 2 years. That would explain the large selection of former principal portraits hanging in his office. As he was packing up his house to move, the baseball team jogged over and helped him load up the truck. Needless to say they were done in 3 or 5 minutes; it was really fast, almost as fast as my new fiber optic internet!

I went to bed kinda early after packing to be gone for the next 2 weeks and bused to Tokyo early Saturday. First thing I noticed while entering the massive sprawling metropolis (besides being in the metropolis for over an hour partly due to traffic and party to it being just so big) were the pretty pink trees everywhere. Ah yes, the season of sakura (cherry blossoms), a famous symbol almost of Japan itself. I have been excited for this for a while now and since Tokyo is warmer than my prefecture you can see it. I met up with Neal and John from Saskatoon and we headed out for the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2008!

We got out to our destination and there were no lockers! I needed to lock up my luggage somewhere as I packed for the next 2 weeks. We figure we can try and risk finding one later and head to the Tokyo Big Sight complex where the event was held. There was a line for the event at least ½ kilometer long, I am not kidding. It stretched so far and took so many bends and curves. The line moved really fast though, we got inside after 15 minutes or so, as fast as the 6 lines for tickets could sell them out. Before we hopped in line we needed to grab some food and nearby conveniences stores had been absolutely ransacked. We had never seen shelves so bare; I was lucky to snag the last two corndogs they had though, as this would be my breakfast and lunch until 7 pm; even the fast food vendors had lines out the doors.

It was neat being in line; that is a really beautiful part of Tokyo with the sprawling space surrounded by massive buildings. We saw many of the early otakus leave with their anime shirts and big bags full of swag and many other excited people dressed up marching their way through the line. I was so nervous walking with my somewhat big bag of luggage rolling behind me, especially considering the crowds. Luckily the venue had locker space inside and I practically bent the door just getting my bag to fit inside. When we got inside we were treated to a huge room about 1/3rd the size of the Tokyo game show that was packed with people. The temperature was a bit high and so was the shoving in some of the more crowded areas. (so happy I found that locker)

We walked up and down the rows mostly with the flow checking out all the exhibits and cosplay, again much less than the game show but it was still fantastic. With John with us this time, he was much more bold in walking up and getting pictures together with the pretty ladies. I saw many exhibits for old shows I had watched briefly in years past and could only remember how bad they were, which left me in confusion as to why they were here. Some of the more popular shows like One Piece, Bleach and Naruto were missing their own exhibits and cosplay, which I found confusing.

All’s well I suppose. We covered the whole place quickly and looked over our photos. The venue was pretty dark so I was lamenting most of the day how most of my pictures weren’t turning out and were blurry. I suppose I have taken over 8000 pictures with my camera… I wonder if it’s just getting tired. There were creepy guys there again with huge elaborate cameras getting personal with the ladies being paid to stand there and smile.

The one camera looked like Darth Vader’s Tie Bomber and each picture he took made 5 different flashes in different positions to fire in different sequences… I’d hate to imagine looking at that thing while it blinds you. A lot of the fun was just watching the mobs form semi circles around the scantily clad ladies and take pictures. John was great in that we broke up their fun by busting in there and getting group photos with the ladies; I heard many of them grumble too, but they didn’t have the courage to walk a meter and get a picture with the girls too so their loss I guess.

Well we walked around and took pictures for 4 hours or so, then headed back for some ramen and beers. Sitting down was just heavenly as I reflected on when I sat last; it had been when I was on the bus, about 8 hours earlier. I think I might have damaged something during that marathon, as my right hip hasn’t been the same since; only noticeable during these more punishing occasions. We ate some delicious spicy food for very reasonable prices (ramen is famous in Japan, so is Tofu) and John had to catch his train home. Neal and I browsed the bustling area for an hour or two before it was his time to part as well. I love the large neon lights and the sense of energy in the air… then we saw a man passed out sitting up covered in puke. I guess he had a bit too much energy that night.

I slept in a cube again like when I stayed for the Daft Punk concert and tried to sleep in to give my body some reprieve from my overzealous spirit, missing out on the nightlife again. Alas morning came and I wanted to go see stuff again (Tokyo does that to you, you want to get out and try to tame this wild beast; make its secrets your own). I went to a park that is famous on Sundays near Harajuku. Here is where cosplay and other events take place. What started as a way for girls to express themselves freely from overbearing school rules and punishing bullying has turned into a large cultural attraction. You might remember me mentioning this place in my last Tokyo adventure.

Apparently many Goths will make the commute and just hang out for pictures and what not, but I seemed to have trouble finding it. I went in to the park to discover a shrine nestled inside. I went their briefly but didn’t stay too long; knowing I would see similar things with my mom later and still feeling the pains from yesterday’s ambitions. For me when you see one temple/shrine you have seen 90% of every other temple/shrine out there.

This park was pretty special I thought though. There were soft gravel roads surrounded by large trees and overall relaxing atmosphere. Inside a couple had just got married and they were together for a family portrait; Kimonos are always a treat to see. When I left the park there were 2 foreigners dressed up in pink outfits posing for pictures, which got me somewhat confused again. A guy was going around looking for donations for a fundraiser so I threw in some money while prodding for information. Fundraisers are great that way, in that you’re almost obligated to help the stranger out that just threw into your hat, much like when I asked that dude how to find Tokyo Tower however many months back.

So I found out that I was in fact in the right place, but it simply was a bad time of year and bad time of day to see any action. Neal and them had told me to not bother on rainy days but it was only overcast. So I walked around a bit to kill some time, not helping but notice just how crazy busy this area was. There wasn’t any standing room on the sidewalk; you needed to keep moving. Nearby was maybe some sort of famous street, takeshita dori, for shopping, as it was wall-to-wall people.

Unfortunately the shopping involved was for clothing and if you know me it’s hard to drop off my interest faster than a clothing section… I mostly walked straight through the place. There were many vendors for crepes and the displays were mighty tempting, but the lines threw me off. Eventually it got to the point where I just needed to sit down and let my legs recover for the last two days and I found a buffet restaurant. This was a real treat as they are so rare they practically don’t exist.

I went back to the park later but in vain. There were some Goths putting on makeup I guess but nothing really exciting. The 10 year old girl walking around with a barbwire fence running through various holes in her bottom lip was more entertaining… unless if those were piercings?

I headed back to my hostel and wrote this blog for most of the afternoon. I was in pitiful shape when I started but sitting down for a couple hours gave me some life again. I brought my laptop on this trip for the first time mainly for this blog. I went out for some half decent pizza in a country filled with pizza you want to cry for it’s so bad. Later I was hustled by some Johns standing on the corner again wondering if I wanted to follow them down a back alley for a good time at a premium price. No thanks, I thought; wish I wasn’t alone that night so I went back to the hotel early, those jerks kinda ruined the spirit of the night, as they tend to do.

I slept in real late Monday and trekked out to the Playstation store as I was finally in Tokyo on a weekday and they’d be open! I got there but was somewhat disappointed by how small it was… and most of the games were sports/racing orientated. A genre I usually stay away from thanks to its mind-numbing repetitiveness. I still played PSP on a large screen for an hour and had a good time but easily recognized I couldn’t kill a day here playing games like I though I could earlier, so I took a trip to Shibuya. This is one of the young centers in Japan and one of the busiest. My book said it’s not really for the “not young” crowd and went on to explain people over 25. It occurred to me that I’m on the razors edge of falling into the “not young” crowd! Something unsettling about that...

The intersection is maybe one of the busiest in the world with 2 million people crossing it a day. I watched it a couple times and was in awe at the throng of people. Outside of the station is a statue of a dog waiting for his master to return. Apparently back in the day a man would go to work from that station and his dog would wait for him to return. One day he died at work and never came back, but the dog kept waiting each and everyday until he died himself some years later. A statue was built in his honor. I took pictures and saw statues nearby of naked little boys wrestling… I wonder what their story is.

I perused the area for a while longer and happened upon the love-hotel capital of the city. It wasn’t really what I expected but maybe they would be cooler if I went inside. I went back to the hotel to post this and relax for the night as my mom comes in tomorrow. I might go out later but it’s looking unlikely. It’s fun being alone, sure, but for some things it’s just more fun to have someone with you, like going to a techno club tonight.

So ya, here I am in Tokyo writing my blog! I think there aught to be some readers mailing me thank-you chocolates right now… nah, it’s all good.

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -Helen Keller

tnoy

My shoji, let me show you it

Nothing too much again this week… calm before the storm to say the least with BIG things coming up this weekend and so on… updates may not be on Mondays for the next couple weeks as I simply won’t be home, but I’ll see what I can do to feed you adventures in a timely fashion.

Monday I met up with John from Saskatoon. We had Italian food and just visited, it was a nice night out and nice to see other young people walking around town! On Wednesday Jake suggested we take a trip to a local onsen (public bath/spa). It sounded all right, those places are always nice; I just hadn’t been to a local one yet. That hotel in town had one so we went there. It’s kind of up on the hill with a great over-view of the nearby park and other local treats.

So this onsen was a lot different in that there was no real blinds in the way from enjoying the view, I’ve only seen it once before. So when we got out there ready to jump in the giant hot tub, we both paused in wonder at the beautiful scenery. We couldn’t help but be frozen in time appreciating the mountains coming to life with the upcoming spring, the swans swimming around the now non-frozen lake, the little girl in the parking lot looking up at us butt-naked foreigners…

Haha ya that was a shock. Sure she was 70 meters away or so but we still covered up and jumped in the pool. It was yet another wonderful time out at the onsen, soaking up the amazing scenery and relaxing hot water.

Classes wrapped up and things were largely uneventful… Saturday came around and Kubota came over to help me fix my shoji. If you are wondering what shoji is, I’m sure you all have a picture in your mind of those wood and paper sliding windows that are very Japanese. There is a reason why I don’t have many pictures of my house, but I feel that has changed a lot since moving in, as this place needed a lot of love to help it feel like home. Part of what was falling apart was the paper windows. A combination of it raining and being windy while the windows are open, and me having the humidifier on this winter too long causing all the paper to fall off…

Anyways, so K (short for Kubota, he likes the knickname) and I went to the hardware store to buy replacement materials. I guess recently there is a new style of shoji out, one that doesn’t require a lot of glue or mess. I got this newer style and a slightly higher price of course but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The style I got is a picture of a bamboo stalk going up as opposed to… plain white. And the premium price was $10 for 2 windows instead of $5 for 4 windows.

So first step to fixing the shoji was removing the old glue/paper. We got the remnants wet and scraped it off, then took towels to dry the wood. The next step was to roll the paper out and iron it on. Easy as pie right? Well for the later step we had to kick Otaku out of the room as the paper was quite the toy to her, and she put many holes in it. Luckily the finished product is boring to her and she leaves it alone, and my does it looks beautiful! (no holes) I definitely want shoji when I have my own house someday in Canada. I’m not sure if I’ll do the paper look as drinking causes people to poke smiley faces in it; Patricia has a style where instead of paper it’s glass.

So ya it was an interesting half day of renovations. I showed K how Canadians like to do home renovations; with a beer in their hand. Of course since there were four windows to do there were more than one beer that needed drinking… one thing led to another and K ended up appointed doing the steady-handed tasks. Either way I think I prefer the iron much more than glue even though I’ve never tried it :) Glue is generally unpleasant.

I took K out for supper after as a thank-you gesture and taught him ‘useful’ English all day I’d like to think. Things like “that iron has seen better days” and explaining the method to my madness. We got our food; I got 2 main courses and a dessert while K got one course (my biggest expense in Japan must be food…) Unfortunately K wanted to eat in Ina so the driving involved got me rather sleepy and I had to call it an early night… I was in bed by 8:30. Kinda embarrassing, but that’s what a steady stream of beers since 10 or 11 a.m. can do to you.

So, signs of the economy slowing down: layoffs. K got one and it's been a hard time. Another fellow Canadian got the pink slip from his private job so Neal and I went out with him just to hang out, as it may be the last time. Our first stop however was to gram house, where Neal’s students roped him into attending their high school concert. Now I’m not sure how much many of you remember about high school music, but that bar was smoky enough to choke an elephant and loud enough to put a plane crash to shame... they never even tried to tone down the wafting feedback shaking the room.

English, as always, was something of a novelty in the songs as one song quite easily could have been titled “F@CK YOU!” Neal used his power of Japanese translation to tell us how there were 3 other sentences in the song besides the catchy title followed by the one-finger salute; apparently the singer went through a bad break up.

The audience was fun, several of my students made it out to the party as well. A couple of them were in my advanced English class and tried talking to me…in Japanese. I didn’t know a word they were saying and they didn’t say one English word. I can’t help but feel a bit of failure but let’s blame it on their lack of ganbaru (try hard).

We couldn't get out of there soon enough as our ears were bleeding and my throat was collapsing from the smoke having a techno party in my larynx. We went to a nearby Brazilian restaurant where we had proper hamburgers, then again to another restaurant for dessert and just hanging out. It is always hard to say goodbye to a good person so we cherished the time we could spend together and called it late in the night.

Today I had to rush this update but never had much to write about anyways. I heard from John something bad may have happened to Grandpa back home. My heart goes out to you and I hope everything is alright.

"I cannot do all the good that the world needs. But the world needs all the good that I can do." - Jana Stanfied

tnoy

Today’s update brought to you by the letter “x”… rated

Monday and Tuesday passed with little consequence, then Wednesday came and it was time to toast a colleague who was parting ways with us. I hopped on the train and rode it to Ina for ½ hour like I usually do when heading that way; this time was a little different though. I was sitting in my seat spacing out listening to music when some guy went right up to me and asked “Australia?”

I said “no” so he asked “America?” Again I was like “no. Canada”
“Ah” and he walked away.

I was confused but whatever, I think that might be the same strange guy I encountered before and wrote about in one of my first posts. Anyways, I started spacing out again and later he comes back and again it takes me a while to even notice him even though he’s standing right in front of me. He asked another weird question that I can’t remember at the moment and left in the same manner previously. Again 5 minutes or so later he returns but this time “What is your full name?”

Before I was weirded out, but now he was full on creepy. It’s hard to describe his demeanor but ya, it’s pretty darn hard to get under my skin and he was carving away…
Me: “Anthony”
Him: “Anthony”
I tried not to say more, hoping that would suffice like the previous questions. After a couple seconds of him giving me creepy stares I caved.
Me: “Schoenroth”
Him” “Shhee… Sheppard”
Me: “No, Shane-roth”
Him: “Sheppard”
Me: “Shane”
Him: “Shane”
Me: “Roth”
Him: “Roth”
Me: “Schoenroth”
Him: “Sheppard”
Me: “y… yea…” and he left.

Luckily my stop came up before he had another question to test my limits. I quickly joined 9 of my English-speaking colleagues at a nearby restaurant. I got there and found out that Komatsu-sensei, one of my favourites, was being transferred. He only found out Monday and I only found out 2 minutes before I was asked to give him a toast. It was a little awkward but maybe I did alright. I made sure to get a picture with him and a group picture before the night was out, I’m going to miss him as we taught the most advanced class together.

And so the party went on for a couple hours. I finally had a chance to share some of that Cider from B.C. that I brought; I think it was well received. Again I impressed people with my eating and drinking skills. Unfortunately there was no after party but maybe that was for the best as the last train home was at 11 and I grabbed the second last one. I was still feeling pretty good when I got home so I didn’t get to bed until around 3:30 in the morning.

Thursday saw another going away party, this time for Tatsuno. Before the party Junko came over to play with Otaku for a bit, I was surprised to find out that even at her construction/accounting workplace she had to wear a uniform not unlike what students wear for high school. It looked great, sure, but I can’t help but feel like Canada is too casual now. Otaku has a lot more energy when people come over to visit, I wonder if that means I’m boring. :)

But anyways the colleague, Kawai-sensei, was being transferred to Kiso, an hour commute each way. Again I gave a toast and again shared some cider. This time however I hardly talked with anyone, as it was predominately Japanese so I mostly ate and drank in silence in the corner. When you’re tired it’s MUCH harder to give a different language a try as it really is taxing on the brain. I was in bed earlier I think, maybe 1 a.m.

Friday was White Day/pi day. The day men give chocolates back to the women they got chocolates from and give out extras to love interests. So if you read my valentines post I didn’t spend a lot of money for that day, I gave some out to the nice Librarian Inoue-sensei and my Caretaker Uchiyama-sensei in my office. When I say “caretaker” it means they are in charge of practically babysitting me on the side while they still have their English teacher duties to do. (in case that needed to be clarified)

Anyways, I had been invited to my caretakers to enjoy a meal with her family but it was cancelled unfortunately because her daughter got sick again; I guess she has asthma too. Too bad I can’t tell them more about how I got over my asthma other than “it just went away, haven’t used a puffer in over a decade”. I guess Neal had a White Day party that I forgot about on the account of thinking I was busy already and couldn’t go, but either way I was stupid and didn’t go to bed until 4:30 a.m, which leads to Saturday’s adventure.

In case you are wondering about the title, let me just say it now and get it out of the way. Penis. Down in Nagoya there was a rather large Penis Festival, where men and women, young and old, came out to… rub large wooden penises and smooth marble balls while praying for… good luck maybe. Fertility? Since it’s a spring festival maybe it has to do with praying for good crops.

So anyways, since I was tired I chose to be DD. Besides, I already had my fill of alcohol for a while and any more at this point would make me dead to the world. 5 of us piled into a car and drove down south for a couple hours. The price of the road trip split 5 ways with gas and tolls included was cheaper than a 1-way 1-person train ticket there, and maybe 5 hours faster. Anyways we got there and were treated to many different penis paraphilia. There were all kinds of differently elaborately decorated bananas coated in many different types of chocolates and coatings. There were good luck scribes with penis pictures as people made their… wishes maybe. There were shrines with penises as big as me carved beautifully in rich wood, smoothed down over the years by the countless hands coming to rub it down. There was a bell above the temple as with all shrines, but this one was shaped as… well you can probably guess it was a penis.

Needless to say the inside jokes on this road trip were rather perverse in nature so you don’t need to hear them, the biggest one though was everyone would purposely break out laughing whenever anyone said “penis” and “come” in the same sentence; at the person’s expense of course, would you have it any other way?

Some poor sap: “When will the penis parade come already?”
Everyone else: “Bwahahahahaha!”

Maturity at its finest.

I will try to stop saying dirty words so much and use some of the cleverer words/slang I overheard at this fine event (I did say this post was X rated, you’ve been warned). So we got good spots waiting for the parade to come by as the lineups to see the ‘meat-trains’ were too long and crazy to brave, especially when they would be following a predetermined path right away. While waiting we were treated to interesting encounters with many different types of people, half being other JETs from our camp (as with any Japanese festival, many foreigners were around).

The one encounter was an old man who I thought was just being friendly, giving out beer and sake like he worked for the companies. Patricia got drunk off her tree and before she knew it and she was in the thick of the ‘male-muscle’ action, must to the appreciation of hundreds of cameras in every direction. He would always say “kanpai!” (cheers!) and toast each of the girls and totally ignored many of the men in the group a couple times, which led to some awkward cups in the air waiting to be clinked by a cup that had already turned it’s back on them. Later on he got bolder with his cheers, ‘clinking’ his cup on every ‘chest pillow’ in his reach. Tiffany in our group called him a “sukebe” and he laughed admirably. (sukebe = dirty old man. There are SO many ways to say dirty/perverted in Japanese) Oh and earlier Rachel had people get close to her and take pictures of nothing but close-ups of her ‘sweater huggers’. (I learnt lots of slang this weekend, even Japanese!)

This was one of slowest parades I’ve ever been to. It was maybe 100 meters long, but took over an hour to pass. The first person in the parade would give you salt to purify your hand for the upcoming ‘knob polishing’. Next was a man carrying a banner that someone spent WAY too much time painting considering the level of detail, I wonder if they painted off a model or from memory… Next there were many beautiful girls carrying ‘wood carvings’ about a meter long and letting everyone in the crowd rub its head; even children who could hardly reach it. They were also carrying boxes and carts people used to ride on for reasons unknown to me, needless to say they weren’t grabbing as much attention as my drunken friends being edged on into provocative poses with the passing ‘frankfurters’.

Later on there was more free sake, 2 carts in the parade in fact giving it out, rather impressive considering how small the parade was. The men carrying the large chairs on their backs were wearing shoulder pads or something to make them look all beefy and strong, with the heat you could tell it was taking its toll. (It felt like summer, so beautiful) And finally the main event slowly marched down. A ‘pink piledriver’ easily bigger than my whole body wearing a decorative hat was escorted by many burly men. They would stop regularly and spin it in circles while chanting. It was a rather impressive carving into what once had to have been a tree trunk.

After the main attraction, there was another sake cart, more rubbing, and one other large ‘beef bayonet’ being carried on the strong shoulders of proud men. This one however was pointed up, and they took turns putting it on its side so the crowd on both sides could experience happy hands. After the parade passed we followed the masses as ‘the wild bologna pony’ was slowly inserted back into its shrine but to the wild appreciation of the gawking onlookers, who provided appropriate sound effects to better immortalize this momentous occasion.

Feeling spent, we gathered our drunken comrades and took a rather long train ride across town to visit the outback steak house. On the way to the train there was an older fellow selling woodcarvings of you know what. He had a lot of creative artistic skill though; I’ll give him that. After supper we went home and I went to bed much earlier this time (2 a.m.) The pictures of this festival are in their own folder: 08MarchNagoyaPenis. You can get more information about that festival here: Link

Sunday we got up early and were treated to a tour of the Kamiina-gun area (kinda like a ‘county’, Tatsuno and Ina are here). Patricia teaches an English class and the last couple weeks have been helping them become tour guides for this event, it was really nice as everyone practically had their own personal tour guide.

Through the course of the day, as seems to happen fairly often, (especially with Neal advertising it) it came out that I am Otaku. I usually am kinda happy when it comes up as everyone gets a hearty chuckle and the conversation easily switches to cool things like video games. That day it was a little different.

One of our guides would ask me “have you been here before?” and I would say no, not even knowing where I was (beautiful places though). She would laugh and talk in Japanese to me, the only word I can understand is Otaku. Later on the exact same thing happened while we were at a farm that looked like every other farm I had seen so far; apparently this one was famous. Jake later told me “She’s saying that you really must be Otaku because you have never been here before.”

I don’t know why but I found it somewhat offensive that this girl thought I was a shut-in when I’ve probably seen more things than she has. It’s all fun and games until someone is laughing in your face in a language you don’t understand completely at your expense. Luckily Jake explained to her and helped clean up some of the ignorance.

But that aside, the tour was really cool. We saw a large shrine that was made out of a single tree, I got to ring one of those large bells that sound so beautiful and I learnt many new things. I even got my fortune finally! Mediocre luck and a message saying something about how if I don’t care what my neighbors think of my happiness then I will find true happiness.

Later on we were treated to the most expensive restaurant in Ina. The hostesses wore full kimonos and we ate in a very beautiful Japanese style room with bamboo growing outside the windows and new tatami mats on the floor. We were treated to a story of how in old days, ninjas would hide under tatami and when you stepped in the wrong place they would stab you through the tatami. Ninjas are so sneaky.

Well that’s about it. I am enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather here; t-shirts and open windows. It still gets cold at night but oh well; it’s nice enough during the day. I finally posted some more youtube videos if you’re interested, again check out the pictures! :)

"Before you borrow money from a friend, decide which you need more." -Anonymous

tnoy

Skirts and Blizzards

Deep sleep, elaborate dreams, mystic visions of superpowers and fantasy worlds… oh how nice it is. It tells me that my kitty let me sleep for a span longer than 3 hours this time and if for nothing else, I know I don’t have a sleeping disorder. Chris (my buddy back home) once told me I woke up suddenly, looked confused, then said “man I can’t tell if I’m sleeping or playing video games” before quickly falling back asleep (he was playing Doom 3; spooky having this real-life zombie nearby).

But as all good things seem to end before their time, the buzzer went off and it was time to roll out of bed into that cold room. I quickly looked out the window (as may be habit for some people) and freeze; pun intended. The world is once again covered in white and relentlessly being bombarded with large soft while projectiles slowly descending to the ground. Well that was a bummer on the day, the only thing that perked me up was the possibility it might be a “snow day” and I would get to stay home :) (Pictured: Students braving the cold with their bare legs)

Alas no, off to work I went today; braving the weather. It looks beautiful, sure, more beautiful than any snowfall I’ve seen back home. I made sure to take pictures as just yesterday there were scarce hints that it had even been cold lately, save for that path of ice by my front door because it’s mostly in the shade and I can’t be bothered to clean it away; heck the floor mats for my car are still on the ground where they were last July. haha I’m sounding like trailer trash now :)

Anyways in part of my Japanese studying I learnt the kanji for “south” used to mean “the warm side of the house” and after learning that I realized most houses and large windows on every building here faces south. I can only assume because it will help a bit with keeping warm in the winter, as the sun will always be in the southern side of the sky. I also discovered a vent on my kitchen door that was open all winter (it’s not windy here so it’s hard to tell when there is no draft; also who puts a slide vent on a door?!?)

So yes, the business-as-usual after graduation continues still. I went in to work Tuesday fully expecting nothing to do, only to find out I had a class 1st period and I was late :S It was ok in the end, we just played the card game 99 and again some students loved it so much they want to turn it into a club activity (something they do for hours everyday; after school and on weekends like their sports). Then later in the day a teacher came in wondering why I didn’t visit him like I always do when there is an upcoming class then told me I had 2 classes in a row right away. Well lightning doesn’t strike twice so I knew something was up; eventually I found out there was a new schedule for me out that everyone had but me :)

Wednesday I was back at Yayoi and saw my new 3rd year OC (oral communication) for the first time; and I even made a syllabus for them! It was fun, 16 girls and 1 boy in this class and they all had to prepare questions for me. They ranged from “what are differences between Canada and Japan” to “do you have a girlfriend?” The rest of the day I spent in intensive Japanese study; I blasted through half a month-long book/course that day then promptly got a nasty headache.

After school Neal and I usually meet up for burgers and beer; as is something I pushed on him to start a “tradition” not unlike my wing nights back home; it’s very therapeutic. Anyways Neal was busy with “last class” parties and I found out about a new sushi train place so I wanted to give it a go. On the way I bumped into some of my new 3rd years and they walked with me. We had a good, light conversation and they were ecstatic to be able to talk with a foreigner, AND mostly in English; I can tell they will try hard in class this year, they kept saying how much fun they were having speaking to me. (Pictured, the train I took to work this morning)

So anyways, they ask, again, if I have a girlfriend then go on to ask with whom I was going to the restaurant with (this question took a couple minutes for them to figure out how to ask). I said I was going alone and after they punched a word into their cell phone/portable translator they told me I was lonely. Shucks kids, you don’t have to play captain obvious here :P I saved face again by saying how Neal was busy… and that I have a cute kitty at home. But ya, eating alone in public is something I always found difficult, prying on my insecurities! The sushi was really tasty though :)

Thursday and Friday passed without many things to write home about, although half the day Friday I ran errands like groceries and laundry instead of sitting at my desk; lamenting how I should be studying but just not wanting to. Ever since my Korea trips I keep an eye out for that Kimchi. It’s so tasty, and a much better alternative than chocolate bars that I’m used to reaching for when I need a quick snack; on that note I found these amazing Oreo chocolate bars here.

Friday night Jake and I ventured south to Ina to hang out with Patricia and her friend at a Jazz bar. The place had a lot of atmosphere, with posters on the walls, a toilet that was a 3-meter hole into the sewer, and a pair of pants plasticized into a lamp near the entrance. There wasn’t much for food, not much for seating past 10 people (yet they have live shows) and not much for drinks for under 600 yen ($6). “Yasui ne!” (cheap eh?) The bartender reassures us. We chuckle nervously… nah he was cool but we only had one drink.

Saturday a local friend was having a concert at Gram House (maybe the only club remotely close to me, still over ½ hour away) and invited us out; it was live reggae and I’m always down with something new. We were treated to a surprise visit from Ben, a prefectural advisor of ours that lives maybe 80-100 km away from us. He shared with us the tale of how he made it down to us in less that 3 hours without using the expensive freeway, we were shocked at his speed and resourcefulness. Reggae is a weird music to me… I have trouble dancing to such a slow tempo. It has lots of character though so that’s cool, I wonder if it’s meant for a lounge though; or maybe I should just stick to my raves and glow sticks.

I have written about Gram House before, (‘only’ 12 bands, etc) and it is a pretty small place. When our group of 8 foreigners showed up we doubled the population in the place (including the DJs and bartenders). We showed up fashionably late too but later on more people came out. We were shocked again as we chatted with a few of the only girls there and found out they were over 30 and married; It’s shocking because they look like they are still in high school. Anyways later in the night they had “Milky Way” come out to the stage and dance. I am not a mean person but I could help but laugh out loud at whatever it was that happened on that stage and I wasn’t alone with the people around me as they felt the same way. It’s hard to describe a cougar dancing half ballet, half like a stripper to reggae music. She wasn’t up there too long and our friend came out and started singing. I think it was good but I’m not a good person to ask as I barely understand Japanese and I barely understand Reggae. We didn’t stay too late, as everyone wanted to get up early to snowboard the next day. On the way out we saw Milky Way sitting in the backroom slouched with her head down... you know the look. I couldn't help but feel bad for the laughing earlier; I wonder if she will re-evaluate her career choices now. (Pictured: Milky Way)

And so ya, as everyone went snowboarding, again, I bet you can guess how the rest of my weekend went (I stayed home; a JET recently compressed some vertebrae on the hills). I discovered cow-tongue onigiri (rice rolls) at the convenience store that night and one of the highlights of Sunday was discovering I bought extras; it was a nice treat as it’s really tasty. I feel apologetic for my lack of exciting stories lately but I’m in a weird position of it being cold out, I have a big trip coming up (when my mom visits), practically nothing going on at school, and the attitude I had to adapt of “study now, party later”. How about some nothing/random stories?

Story 1: We have this newsletter we hand out with different stories in it, my Korean experience losing my skin made the cut. Anyways there was this story from a JET who had to get major surgery from a bike accident in Japan. Apparently she fell and broke her face or something, needing 3 major bones to be re-attached and plated in on her skull. It sounded like there was a bit of a wait for the surgery, of which they gave her no painkillers (they being the hospital/doctors/nurses) and she was never asked how the pain was, she repeated that a couple times. When she begged and pleaded enough, they finally went over to the lock-and-key box to get out some painkillers. It was Ibuprofen, and they didn’t give her much (it is illegal here), even after the surgery when she woke up screaming (apparently common for those waking up after being knocked out).

She begged and pleaded again and after a long time they finally gave her some morphine. She got 1 mg over the course of 8 hours, and the doctor said it was the first time in his 12 years of working he needed to give out a painkiller that strong; remember this doctor just finished screwing plates into this girl’s face. Later on in the story apparently she got an infection from the surgery and instead of getting antibiotics to fight it, they wanted to reverse the surgery or something really crazy… long story short she went back to America (at the request and pleading of her doctor parents) and things are peachy now. She made several references to how Japan is the country of “ganbaru” (try hard). (Pictured: Jake the super villain)

Story 2: My kitty Otaku is big enough now to jump up on counters and knock stuff around; this week alone she broke 4 of my cups but I came close to breaking them too as the overhanging thing above my sink isn’t very intuitive. I’ve been teaching her tricks still like “come here (snap my fingers)”, “shut up (spritz with water)” and “don’t bite (stop playing with her)”. She is still super cute and she finally stopped puking around the house… or at least she is on a couple day streak. She jumps up from her litter box (a booster) to get on the counters and has knocked the whole thing over twice now; not too much fun to clean.

But those are the worst/more interesting stories about her as I don’t know how much you want to hear how she’ll wait for me around corners and pounce me as I walk by, how she will hop on my lap and take a nap or how she snuggles in with me at night to go to sleep. Before I go to bed each night I usually sit in front of my kerosene heater for a bit, warming up for my cold bed and we take turns pouncing and stalking each other on the soft sheets. She gets excited easy and is lots of fun; she is very curious and almost acts like a dog sometimes with all the sniffing everything and waiting-for-me-to-come-home that she does.

Story 3: Because my mom is coming I’ve been trying to get a hold of her to confirm plans. Skype is a great program for calling home, a 45-minute call costing $1. It’s just that the times are so messed up. I stay up way later than I should so that when I call I don’t wake up my sister Melissa but my mom isn’t home from work yet. Then when I wake up in the morning I call first thing and she left FOR work already. On the plus side I talked with Melissa for a while. She misses her “I love you so much hunny bunny” man or something and then got all googly eyed (I could tell, even over the phone). She wasn’t speaking too clearly because I woke her up anyways and I wasn’t listening too clearly as I was so tired from staying up so late. I called my dad a couple times and he was still sleeping too. When I post this blog this Monday night for me, you will be able to read it first thing that same Monday morning.

Well that's enough of that for now. Pictures from February are posted on my photobucket now for those interested. I have a feeling next post will have more content... I'll probably get drunk 3-? times; lots of going away parties.

"Whatever you fear has no power; it is your fear that has the power" -Oprah Winfrey

tnoy

Rocking the world for a quarter century

So I got this pickling spice for Christmas and had a batch of pickled eggs curing in my kitchen; I figured I should try making some of that “deviled eggs” after an email from Patty (my younger sister) gave me the idea. It was my first time but I think it turned out all right; I just pulled a recipe from the Internet like I always do. I was surprised I couldn’t find any dill spice though! I even made an emergency trip to my local grocery store in vain. Patty’s email had many cooking tips such as “preparing deviled egg’s filling in a ziplock bag”. I gave some out to my fellow co-workers at both schools with really good results. Everyone liked them and asked the same questions like “why do you call them deviled?” and “what is inside?” Maybe the funniest outtake was when I gave one to my Kocho (principal) at Ina Yogo school and he was like “oh is there vinegar in this? Ya it’s vinegar… oh it’s strong!” Then ran away :) I don’t know if he spat it out somewhere but it was kind of funny to see me make my boss run like that. Kyoto sensei (vice-principal) ate one at the same time to quite the opposite effect; he loved them.

Hmmm I think I had one class all week, and that class was just handing back final exams then playing games. The marks varied from 94% to 22% so I’m happy some people got good marks atleast; usually my tests are too hard. The rest of the time was spent studying Japanese, avoiding studying Japanese, visiting co-workers, and occasionally some students. Tuesday saw some really ugly weather, sleet snow/ice falling everywhere so I cancelled going to my Japanese lesson. I had to run a load of laundry to get dried though so I went out to brave the ugly weather conditions…

I think I was stopped at a light or something, and then it felt like there was a chunk of ice wedged in front of my tire. After about 10 meters, the car still shook violently, and I soon began to suspect that maybe my axel collapsed and was all bent? What would make the car go all wonky like this? Of course there is no where to pull over in Japan and the Laundromat wasn’t that much further so I pushed onward in the bad weather, shaking car, and lack of steering. Turns out I got a flat tire :( I don’t think I’ve ever got a flat like that before and it was the strangest thing; the tire seemed to just have popped off the rim and I hardly felt a thing; except for the weird after effects.

Well I should be happy I wasn’t going fast or anything dangerous like that, and it was lucky that I had a spare in the trunk; wedged in its hole from the many accidents and dents my predecessor put in the car. I am still just waiting until my car can’t legally be driven anymore which is either sometime this month or in May (I should probably look into that) then it’s off to me paying for it to get recycled (sucks eh?)

Wednesday was fun at my visit school Yayoi, as they had many students from Thailand come visit. After a rather strange introduction ceremony in the Gym where they sang and danced and stuff, they broke up into groups to experience different activities that were planned. I personally partook in Kadou (Japanese flower arrangement ceremony) along with Sadou (Japanese tea drinking ceremony). It’s tricky getting the Japanese names straight… (shodou = calligraphy, kyudo = archery…)

This was my first time doing Kadou and I found it fairly straightforward. You have flowers that you prune to your desired length, and then poke them into a spiked center in the middle of the flower vase; there is no dirt and hardly any mess. So yes, be as creative as you’d like and it usually looks very pretty when you’re finished. Of course I don’t believe much in flowers but I can see how others appreciate it.

Anyways, the English from those Thai students is amazing! They were from an agricultural school (usually means low English in Japan) but were practically fluent I thought; instructions were mostly given to them in English. I got to talk with many of them and many wanted their picture with me. At the end of the ceremonies, everyone would break out cards and started networking! I wonder if I should be making cards to give out too. So now I can potentially have like 30 or more penpals in Thailand, but I’m not sure I have time for that; I’m still having trouble keeping up with friends and family as it is. All of them had their own blog it seemed, and the cards varied from standard and boring to creative and crazy :)

The one student’s card was a picture of him trying to look badass, as there was a “wanted” sign above his picture. If you look in the picture over his shoulder though, it was captured in a bathroom as you could clearly see a toilet in the background. Another card was cut out of construction paper into a “Hello Kitty” shape and the information was writing out by hand. Along with giving cards, some gave out gifts like chocolates, good luck charms, and one student even gave me a rolled up set for calligraphy brushes. It looks very nice… but have no idea when I will use it :) Some students had pockets overflowing with cards and I tried accusing them of having too many boyfriends to much comedic results.

Thursday saw a couple students that were graduating that Saturday come visit me. It was strange like always seeing them out of their uniforms and in normal clothes as you get so used to it. Although the one outfit was even more strange than normal; really baggy jeans, held up by thick black suspenders and a ruffled shirt similar to something you’d see from those paintings of Shakespeare… the color scheme didn’t help much either but who am I to judge clothing? She was still cute

Anyways we got to talking about video games, anime and other fun stuff and I finally went on the internet to pull up an instant translator so that we could talk more. My Aunt Wendy emailed out a nice picture of my siblings and it was my desktop on my computer and proved to be an interesting conversation piece. I was able to explain how my sisters are in the navy and how Melissa’s boyfriend is going to Afghanistan in the military. They kept asking why he was going and I kept trying to explain and gesture with a gun and they were shocked! Also we all look similar apparently ;)

So both students are moving to Tokyo for university and I recently discovered that 40% of Japan’s population lives in the Tokyo metropolis area that includes 30-some towns. I told them to invite me to some of their university parties and the one said that we will have to go to Akihabara one day (geek/Otaku central!)

Friday saw us going on a trip up north to Nagano city for some JET teacher training. I enjoyed the conference again and am still surprised at how useful these sessions are. The second years don’t share that optimism though as they have done very similar things the year previous and have heard most of this stuff before. I got to talking with the one JET a lot and was surprised just how much negativity they were suffering. Whenever they could, they would bash Japan or tell stories about how they start doing little culturally incorrect things all the time (like wearing outdoor shoes inside)… to get revenge or something, I’m not sure. It’s too bad this has to happen, there’s a reason why they are hiring fewer JETs all the time other than budget.

For supper we went out to a Hawaiian restaurant and we all ate proper hamburgers. I got some kind of double patty monster that shocked and appalled some people that I was able to eat it as the grease dripped down my fingers and it was big enough to barely fit in both my hands; other people got things like chiliburgers and avocado burgers. It was great eating a proper hamburger again, but I might have accidentally started a bad reputation as a huge eater as I kept hearing after how surprised everyone was at how much I ate. I personally didn’t think it was too much food, maybe about a normal sized meal back home. Argh, these cultural differences from all sides are just too much some days!

During supper many stories were shared and one was about some kind of 7-storied porn shop in Akihabara. One floor is toys, the next dvds, etc. They went on to talk about all the weird stuff they saw like realistic dolls, jesus porn, and other weird stuff that would be better not to mention here. We wanted to stay late and party with everyone, but the last bus home left at 6:40 and some of us had our school’s graduation the next day.

So Saturday comes and it’s graduation time for many students. Unfortunately both my major schools have it on the same day so I had to pick one or the other; I chose Tatsuno because I’m there more often and I live in town. So I put my suit on and went to the gym for the celebration. Gyms aren’t really heated here, so they had some monstrous kerosene heaters with tiger-torch like flames burning inside them, shooting heat around the place; it didn’t help much though as I was still fairly cold. The ceremony itself was fairly different from ours back home and it started late as we all waited for the mayor to show up.

Although I couldn’t understand the majority of what was said or going on, this is what I pieced together. First, the students are marched in following their homeroom teacher from the past 3 years; we clapped the whole time. We sang what I can assume to be the national anthem, then the school’s song. Then they did roll call, similar to what we would do at the start of a class except much more formal. When your name was called you said “hai” and stood up; I noticed a couple students were missing. After roll call everyone sat down, then the class president went up one by one (5 total) and collected the graduation papers/diploma for their whole class. (I assume the class president handed out those diplomas later)

There were 4 students that got special recognition or something, as they seemed to get some kind of prize. After that, then the speeches began. This was easily the most difficult part to sit through, as again I couldn’t understand what was going on at all; the only part I understood was when they were saying today’s date. After numerous speeches by many people and even a couple students, I think it started to wrap up but things are pretty hazy at this point with all the fidgeting and trying-to-stay-awake that I was doing. I just know I had to get up at the end, rush to the back of the gym and join the other teachers as we clapped for the students as they walked out of the gym single file.

Well that’s pretty much a Japanese graduation. It finished before noon and I helped clean up the gym… so the students could start their club activities. Yes, right after school graduation, on a Saturday, the students still went and did their club activities. And today, Monday, 2 days after graduation, it’s a normal school day like nothing happened.

Different world for sure; graduation day for us was almost a symbol of the start of Summer holidays if I remember right; a vacation that seemed super long because you had no concept of time except vaguely trying to keep track of when Saturday would come because better cartoons would be on that morning… but that’s reaching pretty deep into the memory tanks; I remember when I figured out the clock enough to know around the time John (older brother) would get back from school and we could watch Duck Tails together.

This Saturday was a little extra special in that it was my birthday. I only told a few people, but information like that gets around pretty fast usually. I was given birthday greetings by a number of people and it was very nice; some students even said I looked like a prince in my suit so that was cool. Kubota even gave me a present, some Plum wine that is apparently a popular birthday present in Japan; I’ll have to keep that in mind.

So it was business as usual that afternoon, that night we went to that Fancy hotel in Tatsuno that I heard about for the first time when we traversed the park last weekend. It was really nice and I knew it was going to be a good night when it came time to drawing numbers to determine where you would sit and I picked “1”. (Lucky! Haha, I know I don’t really believe in luck but I’ll still play on it)

There was a table set up for the guests of honor, the homeroom teachers. They were presented flowers, gave speeches and even later in the night were asked to share amusing stories from the last 3 years. My birthday was announced and I was asked to lead the room into our night of drunken debauchery with a “kanpai!” (cheers). I was super nervous for the first time in a long time; probably because no one really wants the room to break into song for them and I had the suspicion it was a trap!

“um uh… mina, kanpai!” (cheers everyone) This got some chuckles and everyone kanpai-ed instead of singing so I was safe… for now :O (*dramatic music*)

So this night was very different in that for the first time I experienced an after party; one of the many stories I heard about before going to Japan but never experienced yet. After time ran out on this nomihodai (all you can drink), we went out to our second party, nijikai. A lot of people went to this one yet and it was a good time. My caretaker, Uchiyama sensei, helped me again to try and learn the names of people I work with and we talked about a number of things like the differences with graduation back home.

Later we went to the third party, sanjikai. There was karaoke at this one in a lounge format like back home and of the 6 songs sang that night I did 3 of them. One of them was a Japanese song too, much to everyone’s delight. I didn’t do very good of course, but I know the song from my favourite anime One Piece; so when things got bad I half closed my eyes and pretended I was (trying) to sing along to it like when I’m at home. This proved rather effective as I aced one of the choruses and everyone cheered loudly :)

The fourth party, yonjikai… the memory starts to get a little fuzzy at this point as we’ve been going hard for the last 6 hours, (I know we walked around a lot trying to find new places) but at the 5th party, gojikai, there were only 6 people left, myself included, and we were at some seedy snack bar I have told you about before. Right away one of our companions fell asleep, I had a large cup of pure sake in front of me, no more English teachers were in our group and there was soft lights and music playing; all those factors aren’t conductive for staying awake.

After we got out of that place I was pretty out of it, and maybe half our group went off to find the 6th party. I got a cab ride back home with some people and was dropped off nice and close to my house. All in all, that was one of the best party nights I’ve been on, also one of those most expensive! Good thing it was my birthday and my Kyoto sensei is such a nice guy; I am really glad I didn’t burn that bridge way back when over holidays and the witch-hunt. (pictured: my Kyoto, cool guy)

On Sunday I could have gone South for another party; someone was roasting a whole pig and needed people to come and help eat it, but I needed to relax and find my feet again so I didn’t go.

Well it was a good time again, but I can’t help but suspect a bit of depression the last week or two; simple things like getting out of bed or making supper has become a lot more difficult. Little factors like lack of sleep and boredom at work probably have a bit to do with it, but let’s not complicate the matter. For now I’ll just blame it on the weather, the Japanese studying (only memorized 85 new words last week), and the inevitable roller coaster that is life. We need to feel down every now and then to better appreciate when we are rolling high.

"A year from now you may wish you had started today" - Karen Lamb

tnoy