Mud Soccer and Eclipses

On Wednesday I saw my first eclipse. Well, partial one anyways. Those down in Okinawa could see the whole deal, if it wasn’t raining on them. Where we were it was rather cloudy too, but it helped you from getting too blinded I think, from staring at the sun. It was very much like a quarter moon, except exceedingly bright. Aoi Sensei taught us a trick though: if you punch a hole in a piece of paper, the sun’s shape comes through on the other side. I’ve never really realized this before; I always though the circle of light coming through was round because the hole was round

Turns out it works quite well, and the sun’s shape is beamed through. On TV they showed a parking garage where there were many holes in the ceiling for design, and it beamed all these crescent shaped suns on the car; it was quite pretty. I guess the next eclipse isn’t for another 26 years and it’ll be right over top me in Nagano; but I probably won’t be here to see it haha

That night was a bit strange. I don’t remember why but I started drinking after I got my bus ticket for the airport. I was in the area, and that specialty world beer place looked good. I got some nice lemon beer from the US. After that I was walking home, and passed a little pub that had some of my favourite fried rice on display, so I stopped there for some; and more beer.

Neal gave me a call later and we met up and enjoyed our last traditional Wednesday together. He got a job up in Matsumoto and I’m happy for him, it sounds awesome. We went for Brazilian burgers; but I was too full to eat after my first two stops. We still had a good chat and reflections on the last two years or so: “What can you say about the last year? It’s over! Just like that!” about summed it up for me. How is it possible that doing something different and crazy constantly becomes its own routine? It’s a bit odd I think. I guess I was rather tipsy at that point; the nice lady let me bring in cheap booze from the convenience store across the street.

Thursday was all right; we finished that fun game and I hope the kids got a lot out of it. I think it was fun :) I had my last Japanese class for the next little while because of holidays, so my tutor Kayo and I went out for some yakiniku after to celebrate. The restaurant had some kind of special on where many of its dishes were half price so we went a bit crazy. She’s a really cool teacher; I’m glad we hang out more now.

On Friday night we had a work party to celebrate the coming of summer holidays. Before that though, we went for lunch at a nearby restaurant. I’m really glad they showed me this place; the prices are great, the food is super healthy, and the view is fantastic. Not to mention it’s a 5-minute walk from my house. We had a good chat and meal

Haha as I type this at the Nagoya Airport, waiting for my plane to Sydney, there was an Earthquake rumbling through the building. On Wednesday morning 2 of them woke me up too. It’s pretty crazy to wake up to see your room shaking around you. I contemplated rolling under my bed, but it was over before you knew it. I still think they’re really cool; I appreciate the raw power.

Anyways, Aoi Sensei remembered from the last party when I taught her to “double fist” her alcohol. She’s really cool, and sure enough that night we got pretty trashed. There was a lot to eat and drink, but even more so, there were many conversations going on. It’s great for me to be able to practice my Japanese, the other teachers don’t mind practicing their English, and it’s nice seeing them unwind.

For the second party, I suggested we visited Hiroko at the Vietnamese restaurant she runs. It was great and I think everyone had fun, but slowly they all went home and it was just Hiroko, her brother and me left. We went to a 3^rd party together at a nearby pub that I haven’t tried yet. We got a jambla or something, but I don’t really remember this party too well. I just remember it was fun times with fun friends.

Saturday I had to get up early; as usually is the case after a night of drinking it seems. I went down to the station and got a ride with Sheila down to Hase where we all tried mud soccer for the first time.

I wrote a little about it last year, but wow is this place beautiful. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a national park or something like that. There were 3 fields flooded and muddy, and many different teams from different places. Many had themes, which made it extra fun: like they would dress up like ninjas or wear frog hats/masks and so on.

There were 10 people per team, 5 on the field at a time, and the games were 5 minutes long. This may seem short, but that mud kills you. You try moving around in it, and you get really tired; never mind chasing that ball or anything. It was good to have people to switch out with and catch a breather.

The first 2 games we lost, but the last one we dominated. It’s quite a tricky game; playing in all that mud. We were just there having fun. A girl on the other team would stand in front of our net for example; just waiting for the ball to score. So we would chase her away by flinging mud up. When Ross jumped in after switching, instead of running for the ball he ran towards an opponent and started flinging mud at him. When we lost the game, we would cheer and have more fun than the winners; rolling around in the mudd and flopping down. I learnt how pigs say, “oink” in Japanese: “Buu Buu” so that got some chuckles.

Neal even had his own harem going, as many of his students on another team who were covered in mud, would surround him and rub off their mud onto him. We would tackle people and throw them in the mud. We lined up and all back flopped together. We wrestled with people on the other teams, and Neal even got a yellow card for tackling the one girl that wouldn’t stop cherry picking at our net haha. Good times.

I don’t have pictures obviously; given what a mess I was. There were many people around taking them though so I’ll find a way to post some eventually. We went for onsen and spicy noodles after, and when I got home around 2 in the afternoon, I crashed until the sun set pretty much haha. I guess I was pretty tired, and had a good night of R&R.

Sunday was pretty cool too; I’m surprised how little I got done. In retrospect I could have wrote this up then, but oh well. I watched a couple movies and just relaxed. Packing didn’t take long. One movie was called: “Hard Candy.” It’s super creepy and disturbing, but maybe that what makes it such a good watch.

Now I’m in Sydney; but those posts are for another time :) Only two teasers to say about that so far: what a GORGEOUS city, and I should have packed warmer clothes…

"You make the world a better place by making yourself a better person” -Scott Sorrell

tnoy

Ohryou: Tatsuno’s Turn

That was a late entry I made last week, but it saves me from writing too much on this week. On Thursday after Japanese class I went to Kappa Sushi for no other reason than it had been a while and sushi is really tasty. My stomach shrunk some, but I wish I could go to the gym still. My monthly membership expired a while back and it doesn’t make sense to sign up again until after I’m back from Australia. I’ll be leaving from July 27 to Aug 9, so maybe I can get one more update in before I go.

On Friday I didn’t have the biggest plans, in fact it was a bit tough to even leave the house with the awesome anime I was watching (Desert Punk). I got myself out before the stores closed and finally filled up my fridge with groceries. I got a little desperate that morning for breakfast, so I was ready to open up a can of fruit but couldn’t even find the can opener haha. Ah the life of a bachelor is an interesting one: no one to answer to but myself :)

In retrospect though I bought way too many groceries because I have a trip coming up. I still treated myself to expensive luxuries like plums and watermelon because it has been a while. Later on in the night, my friend called me to play a drinking game over the phone :) Haha it was interesting, I guess she was drinking alone and wanted company. I finally got to play the “two truths, one lie” game, which quickly got difficult and downgraded itself to that other “never have I ever.” Even a quiet night at home alone can’t escape a few drinks.

I was up early Saturday and went to Tatsuno for their festival. It was quite different though, in that Saturday is still not open to the public. So in the morning we set up displays and got ready, then in the afternoon they did various things like a drama, taiko, dance, band and so on. Later on they had a “the best couples” contest.

I didn’t really care or understand, but it was interesting how the bar kept getting raised. At first, the couples came out a meter apart and facing away from each other, then they worked up to holding hands, and then once a couple kissed, the bar was raised as far as I cared to stick around for. The reason for this was because every time a couple finished their short interview with a kiss, the crowd screamed. It was clear I couldn’t sleep through this any longer so I left.

Instead of going ½ hour south to go home, I went ½ hour North to Okaya that night, where my Japanese tutor, Kayo had a drinking party. There was a superhero party a couple hours drive away too that I would have liked to attend, but it seemed a bit too daunting for my schedule. So in Okaya we had curry, drinks, met new people that weren’t JETs, and had a great time.

One girl was from Spain and made a Spanish Omelet for us. They are surprisingly easy to make, so I made one for my breakfast yesterday. Basically it’s an omelet with potatoes in it. What makes it tricky, is slow cooking it without burning it, because you can’t really flip it or stir. Mine turned out pretty good though; I loved it <3>

So we were up drinking until 1:30 in the morning or so. Most people went home, but I lived an hour away and couldn’t get there for a needed shower and sleep. Luckily (?) I was wearing festival-appropriate clothes already and went straight back. Now the festival was open to the public, and I had lots of fun doing similar things that I did last weekend.

There are fewer students in Tatsuno, so there was a bit less to do. It didn’t matter to me though. There were many displays and reports hung in the rooms but I didn’t understand. After I saw most of what I wanted, I made my way back to my desk where I fell asleep for almost an hour. :)

Once it was closed to the public around 3 or 4, students cleaned up and prepared for the bonfire and dancing. Tatsuno does extra activities and games compared to Yayoi so that was fun. There may have been no mud fight, but since it was raining most of the day there was still plenty of mud to get dirty if you felt inclined. On more than a couple races, students slipped turning the corner and sometimes got covered.

It was quite fun; so many kids were wearing cute cosplay outfits. It may have been a Care Bear, or Santa Claus, a full-on wedding dress, or Pikachu. Many various things, it was great.

They made a big cauldron of soup for everyone, they danced around the fire, and then we watched the fireworks. This time was the best I think, I got to talk with the kids the most and we all had fun.

I was thinking: “I look forward to next year’s festival” and one of those weird epiphanies of “wow I’m in Japan” hit me again. Sometimes it’s too easy to fall into routine and take things for granted. I started thinking of family and friends back home and how crazy this all would have been for me a couple years ago. If I hadn’t signed on for another contract, instead of going to Australia next week I’d probably be moving back home. Before I know it, it’ll be January again and I got to decide what I’m going to do…

For now I’ll delay the tough decisions again and keep having fun. This Australia trip will be a good chance to clear the mind and all. (haha can you tell I’ve already checked out?) As I was saying, yesterday was my first day off in 2 weeks so it was quite nice. Cooked a Spanish omelet, played video games, cleaned; all kinds of stuff. I didn’t get to bed until 3:30 in the morning but have no class today so it works out.

"We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are." -Calvin & Hobbes

tnoy

Mud-Fighting and Unbearable Heat

Heh, as much I wanted to edit out silly parts of that last post, I decided to just leave it. It’ll be good to look back on and laugh someday; of course I don’t have ‘only’ bad experiences. Also, I didn’t post yesterday because I was drunk again; this time it was Patricia’s leaving party and we sang karaoke until midnight.

Other than that, the heat and humidity is absolutely killing me right now. Maybe writing will help get my mind off how simply uncomfortable I am. As soon as I get home it’s cold shower time, then hoping I can dry off with air this thick.

Uh… I don’t remember much from the week. My tutor said I look trimmer now, which made me super happy given how I just ballooned 5kgs or more. I wanted to go to the gym more, but of course I got busy again. Oh ya, I had ramen noodles Monday with Richard, ramen noodles Tuesday with Michelle (or was that last week? god it’s hot out) I think there was a party Wednesday for something, Thursday was Brett and Kaoru’s house warming party which was fantastic. They made so much food and all of it amazing. Friday was yet another ramen party, which was good times, maybe doubled as a going away party for Neal I don’t remember right now. Was that Wednesday’s party? Anyways, I got the spiciest ramen again, I love that stuff.

Many people were leaving for baseball and sumo in Nagoya, and I really wanted to go, but I was sticking around for Yayoi’s school festival. I don’t know how much you remember from last year’s post, but it will save me lots of writing as I’m dying right now. On Friday morning they were suppose to set up still, but it was raining, so we went to the gym and watched a movie. I finally saw “ponio (ponyo?)”, it’s something of a really famous Japanese cartoon that came out last year, if for anything else the really easy, (and quickly annoying) song that loops over and over that everyone can sing it verbatim.

In the afternoon the kids had a dance contest, which was really cool. They did musical numbers up on stage to various things, including Jackson’s “Thriller” complete with outfits and dance. Saturday morning was when the festival really started; it was open to the public Saturday and Sunday. There were many displays, many food stands, lots of games and fun to be had. The stage this year was a big Buddha, and the big paper mache mascot was Obama, with a “Yes We Can” slogan underneath. Talk about a super star, everyone loves that guy :) Good on him. The gate was a mixture of Picasso and illusionary art.

I ate all kinds of foods again, although I was a little sad the kids were just re-selling takoyaki (fried octopus balls) instead of cooking them fresh. Of course it was still good. I had yakisoba (fried noodles), cotton candy, chocolate covered bananas, popcorn, traditional Japanese green tea, BBQ corn on the cob, shaved ice, hot dogs, ice cream, and my favourite: a big bowl of Okinawa noodles.

The kids set up this one in a classroom, fashioned like a restaurant. For $3.50, you got a big hot bowl of tasty noodles and a large slab of ultra tender pork. When I say tender, I mean you could chew the tendons with your tongue. It was so good I can’t even tell you. I wanted to buy it again Sunday, but they sold so much it was all out by noon. That was unfortunate, but I guess I spent and ate enough as it was. Some kids also had some KFC and Mosburgers (Japan’s McDonalds), and as cute as they were trying to get me to buy some, I was just too full. (Take it with you and eat it later!) haha I love these kids.

I played games and won prizes, I saw displays, I dressed up in a traditional outfit and got my picture taken (I posted it Monday). Juliet, the German exchange student, wore a traditional German dress. I did Japanese archery, I saw many displays, I got spooked in the haunted house, I saw a magic show, I bought new things for my house, I took numerous pictures with my kids, I went inside a rocket ship turned planetarium, I watched band performances. I had scores of good talks with good people and had a fabulous weekend of fun with my kids.

The cherry on top of course was the huge fire and dance at the end. The archery club shot flaming arrows into the crafts they made for the festival and let it alight. I didn’t get into the dance this year, but I did something I regretted I never did last year; I joined in on the mud fight.

I couldn’t do it last year because of a horrible sunburn, and good thing too! There’s quite a bit of rocks out there. I put on clothes that would be easy to wash and joined the kids. Most kids would just pick mud up and throw it in your direction, but some boys wanted more. The first time I fended off their attack there were 3 of them. I would throw them to the mud and be alright. They regrouped, found friends, then the next time they came at me there were 6 maybe. This time it was a lot harder, throwing them into the mud before they could best me and I somehow made it out alright.

The next wave though, I tell ya, there was atleast 10 boys, and they circled me like hungry hyenas. I threw 3 or 4 down, but there simply were too many, not to mention they just simply got up again. When I finally went down, there was a great cheer and they all washed my smooth head in the mud; I had to dig a bunch of rocks out of my ear haha. It was so fun. I later did some sumo with one of the teachers and while he did knock me down first, I did flip him quite impressively I must say. It was maybe my first time doing sumo. When I realized he was being serious about it, it was too late for me; he was underneath my stomach and therefore had the center of gravity advantage. Haha it was still good times

I was so tired after that I didn’t do much. Some kids got cold and went to the fire to stay warm, others washed up. Others would sneak behind me to trip me and coat me with a fresh layer of mud.

After a quick wash at a large drinking water area, we listening to closing statements, saw some fireworks, listened to all the girls crying, and went home. I was exhausted, and totally forgot the teachers were gathering for a BBQ party after. I heard about it Monday, it really sucks I missed out. It was good to shower though after all that mud. Speaking of which, it’s about time to go home and have a hot shower to try and escape from this heat.

"Do we need more time? Or do we need to be more disciplined with the time we have?" -Kerry Johnson

tnoy

The search for sagesuru (?) and the shennanigans thereof

Well this is a first. Posting while drunk. Although in retrospect, it's a wonder I've never done it before. I guess because I always write when I'm at school and therefore not under influence. Thank goodness for spell checker saving me from looking even more silly. A real, more comprehensive update will be posted tomorrow, instead of tonight's explanation-of-crazy-night 's unfoldings.

Well there I was at school after school festival. ( which I'll post about tomorrow) I was so damn tired during the day I didn't do much. Near lunch I made a big lesson plan using bar-code like things that will be lots of fun yadda yadda yadda

Richard calls me around 6:30 (?). I'm killing zombies. Yea, sure, I can go out for a party with your family/teachers/etc people. Being social is 'hip' now right? So I went out for friendly meat and beers and started off another social evening of fun. Nearby there was a dude at his own party that wanted in on talking to us in English. Before long we welcomed him to our table. Nice chap, talked a bit, but my Japanese was ok enough to fill in the basic gaps when he was too drunk to speak english.

Uh, stuff happened, people left, a girl from the English guide club tried to tell me "go home" because she became my adopted mom which might find me a Japanese girlfriend (but after 2 hard years of ONLY bad experiences, who knows?!?!) and something i forgot what I was typing. So there I was, this new dude I just met, who's almost 50, and me going out on the town.

First, he only wanted to take a taxi. Whatever, not even a 2 minute walk to the places we went and he paid the $10 fee. A couple times. Yes we did 3 separate after parties together. 2 were like lounges I would call them, and one was definitely a snack bar; where girls wearing too much make-up, too much fake accessories, and too much padding in their tiny bras were making small, very awkward conversation with us. He got bored of this and fell asleep (as he did at all 3 places) and we left early. The last place together there was definitely drool dripping down onto his shirt. The first place he literally fell off his chair onto the floor and stayed there for a bit sleeping.

I have the sneaky suspicion he was looking for a brothel; a soap land; somewhere to pay for 'services' but my small town wouldn't have none of that. Maybe that's why he got bored and fell asleep. I think what tipped me off was when he asked the one girl how much she costs.

At the very least, it was a cool look at a different side of Japan; inside these mythical infamous "snack bars" where you pay WAY too much for mediocre girls to talk to you. He spent like $100 on me at these place! (plus $100 for himself) I hope I wasn't taking advantage of him, he seemed to like it; when he wasn't asleep.

Are people really that lonely? Worse yet, are there even worse abominations who shouldn't be called humans out there that pry on these people? The answer is yes. Even for me last week, I was talking with some cute girl for Russian for 2 months. The person answering the email was real, for sure; but it wasn't the girl I thought I was talking with. My good friend Steve kept saying to be careful, and how it's a scam, and after 2 months, when I called them on it, 'she' stopped responding. Wow, my faith in humanity dropped another couple of notches. On a totally unrelated matter, in the morning I got an email saying one of my game accounts was hacked and hijacked; I fell for a phishing scheme. So if you get a weird email/message from 'me', I'm still changing all my passwords, scanning for viruses, and still doing damage control... I'm just glad I didn't save my credit card number inside.

Ack! I don't' want to leave it on a low note. Again. Hmmm, I sang many songs tonight at karaoke ;) I will drink lots of water tonight to make sure I'm not hung over from the (evil) Japanese Sake. I hope my new friend (who's name I don't remember) got home ok and will email me from the note I left him as I think it was a fun night, and I'm glad I didn't have to pay the obscene prices for what we got. Now it's 1 in the morning and I must wake up in 6.5 hours for work...

"Being poor is a frame of mind." -Mike Todd

tnoy

Making lemonaide from lemons ^_^

I'm tired and not much happened so this will be short! :D I also didn't have time to write this up at work, so I'm watching the clock, achin' to shower and go to bed at the moment. Also, I finally posted the photos from Kyoto: Enjoy!

So... last week. Wednesday was kinda cool, there were these Japanese raccoons that visited our school for the week :) Maybe they're still there! They call them "tanuki" here, and there's like some weird dog like rodent, popular in tales and such. Gamers will note too, that in Super Mario 3 for the NES, a "tanuki" suit was obtainable for Mario. Anyways, there were cute, furry little critters that did a lot of... foraging maybe down by the garbage area.

Uh what else. I remember having a rough time about something; a number of things piled up as they tend to do and I was tempted to drive around for hours reflecting. I instead went to the gym and punished myself for over an hour. I really like the gym now! I used to hate it back home. Also, I gained 5kg in the last week or two. I don't think I look fatter, so maybe it's muscle :) it's about time for it to come back, and for me not to be so soft anymore.

I'm sure other stuff happened during the week, like supper with Junko, Richard, Neal and others like usual. I was suppose to go on a road trip with Neal and Cam, but Neal had a job interview and cancelled. There were other things I could have done, like a huge beach party or a trip to a big city again, but it all drowned in the overwhelming inner scream for silence. I needed a holiday from my holidays.

Friday night I had some BBQ meat with some beers and relaxed. Saturday was to be more of the same, but Junko visited and we watched anime like nerds for a while. Later we went out to the nearby park which was nice, but really empty compared to spring when the cherry blossoms and people were out. Sunday was a lazy day again too. It was so nice sleeping in and being lazy. Neal got me out of the house later though for some food which was ok, getting the fresh air and all.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." -Aristotle

tnoy