We woke up just afte 8 and hit the snooze a couple of times, getting up around 8:15 to be ready for breakfast at 8:30. Our hostess had asked us at checkin yesterday what we would like for breakfast (and that it was included with our stay, and we said eggs, milk, bread, and any fruit would be great. So today we got up and saw they had some mini-clementines, and bread sitting out. We asked the hostess if it was for us and she said that it was and the manager was cooking us our eggs at that moment. Wowza! That’s service! She brought us some hot milk (weird, but great) as well as some fried eggs (fried in soy sauce I think) which were great as an egg sandwich. Afterwards we got our stuff together and left the hotel for our day out at the summer palace. Despite getting some directions from our hostess, we opted to take a different path in case we could walk from the subway stop (since our Beijing map made it look like it was only 2km or so from the stop.) We made it to our stop with little effort but after walking for just a bit we figured that since the other foreigners (and chinese) seemed to be opting for taxi’s, we should try the same. We hailed a cab and hopped in and showed him the map. He told us no to the stop, making us 0-3 on figuring out WTF is wrong with taxi drivers here and why they’re so feakin’ picky. Well, we asked the taxi behind him (because he had kinda pointed at it) and that guy said yes. So we took the taxi with him out there, and even getting stuck in some traffic it only was about $4.50 to get out there. The summer palace was about 8$ each, despite a sign saying that in the off season it was only 20 for us, but alas I didn’t press the issue and we payed 50 rmb each. (6 to 1 ratio fyi). We entered at the east gate and perused the south end first, which included a beautiful bridge that linked a small island, a bronze ox to ward off floods, as well as a large pavillion with 16 pillars. We went over to the island and poked around and looked at some of the buildings. They were nice but weren’t particularly eye-popping. It did give us a great view of the main complex area, which is where we headed to next.
A 10 minute walk got us up north towards the main complex area, which we went on into and began to look around at. This area included tons of courtyards, including the Jade pavillion which the last real Emperor of China was imprisoned in towards the end of his life while the Empress dowager was off being a tart.
Some of the woodwork here, while being restored, was still amazingly intricate and opulent. Some of the pictures really help do it justice in regards to just how vibrant and overwhelming it is. This was driven home by the walk along a causeway that’s roughly 2600 ft. long that contains over 10,000 original paintings within it. It’s practically impossible to take in and you end up just barely glancing at them as you walk by.
We finally started the trek up to the temples at the top of the hill, which included some scenic walking along the outskirts as well as some steep steeps along the front of the main temple. Again, the scale of this was extremely impessive and something that I’ll remember forever. Upon reaching the summit, we looked around inside and saw that there was a temple for Buddah, which we (I, ike,) accidently snapped a photo of when I wasn’t supposed to. It turns out that there was one final push to the actual top in another temple that is obscured / seems to blend into the first temple from a ways out. So we continued to walk up the rock pathways that were built while admiring the scenery. The final top was much more subdued on the inside (while being pretty imposing on the outside) and included another budda statue. Afterwards we made a long decent down through another pathway that was more sloping paths instead of strict stairs. While we had a general idea of where we were going, the simple fact was that it isn’t difficult to get lost on a 587-acre complex like this.
We made our way to a large pavillion/boat that has a wooden superstructure on top of a rock base that is painted to look like marble. The empress dowage Cixi made sure to use money to renovate the navy in the early 1900’s to build this. Mean, I guess technically it was for a boat, right?
Afterwards we started the hike back to the other side and just enjoyed the walk for the next 20 minutes. As we were nearing a special exhibit of some of the treasures of the Summer palace, we got an unexpected pleasant surprise. A little boy came up and started talking with us! In english! (Bethany and I both looked around when he first showed up thinking he may be one of those distractions while someone else rolls in and goes for a pickpocket) but it turned out he was just a genuinely awesome kid who wanted to chat with us in english! He was 8, and asked us things like “Where are you from? What do you do? What’s the climate like there?” He even asked us about the olympics and asked how many medals the USA got. I said, “well, I think we got 40 or so gold medals, but not as many as China” and the boy said “no no no, how many medals….*moving his hands back and forth*” “oh…altogether?’’ “yeah!” and proceeded to tell us he thinks America is awesome and he’s hoping to go there in two years to live with his Uncle in New York. Afterwards he said goodbye and shook our hands! Pretty much adorable, and we had most of this conversation near the entrace to the next exhibition, and the lady who was punching tickets chuckled after we finished chatting with the kid because she also realized just how darn cute he was.
Day 2 Observations: Chinese people are built bigger than Korean and Japanese (I’m guessing from their more robust diet) :-P
TBC
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
China Trip: Shenyang and Beijing: Day 1
China Trip Diary:
Prelude: Ike: woke up nice and late (but still 30 mins before my alarm) on Saturday morning. Made sure everything was packed up and tooke off for the bus stop for my bus at 11:30. Caught it, got to Nagoya, and purchased my return ticket for when I get home on the 10th of January. Thanks to bethany, I had no problem finding the train station and catching my train on out to the airport. I then got my flight out to Korea with no problems, although it was either delayed (or the travel angency got it wrong) by 30 minutes, and I ended up getting into Korea about 8:25 and met up with bethany at 9. We then went to the hotel and got our room (which was actually really nice!)
Shenyang
We woke up at 5:30 the next morning to catch the first shuttle to the airport since our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:20am. Lucky duck us, our flight to Shenyang ended up being delayed by and hour, and then another hour. So we boarded just about 10:20 or so, which was when it was supposed to be taking off even after the delays. Since we hadn’t heard a ‘last boarding call’ yet, and had been grabbing a bite to eat with some vouchers we had been given by the airliine because of the delay, we hurried back to make sure we didn’t miss the flight. Lucky us, turns out that apparently everyone else was just taking their sweet time as well. We didn’t end up taking off until say, nearly 11 or so. The flight was still only about 1/3 full, so I’m not sure if people just bailed on their flight or it didn’t have many people booked.
Note on asian airlines: awesome. Metal silverware, a bit roomier, the vouchers, nice flight attendants (both in appearance, language skills, and overall demeanor), in flight meals on 2 hour flights, etc etc. Stuff like this makes the whole experience much better than flights are stateside.
So we arrived in Shenyang and immediately noticed that it was pretty blurry on the horizon, an ample combination of both the fog (that delayed us) and pollution. We met Brian at the airport and he took us back to his place to drop off our stuff. His apartment is fantastic! We were both overwhelmed by the scale of things here as opposed to our adoptive countries. The roads are huge, the buildings are huge, there’s just a much larger sense of space then as opposed to Japan and Korea. Oh, and the bonus was the weather up here in the NW part of China. On the flight, they said it would be -11 C, or a balmy 5 F. In other words, “Balls ass cold.” –Bethany.
So, Brian’s place is really nice, and it was very nice of him and his family to shack us up for a couple of days. We’re also big fans of the family portraits that are around the house, both because of the genuine cuteness of them and partially because of the LOL factor associated with them. The best are the portraits of brian, particularly in his room. Seems a bit narcissistic to have 3 large portraits (and 1 wall scroll) of yourself in your own bedroom. But I must say, I slept soundly with 4 pairs of brian’s eyes looking over me. “Diamond cuts diamond, indeed.”
After dropping off our crap at Brian’s apartment, we set out to find a travel agent. Well, it turns out the first place we went doesn’t sell train tickets. The next two places we went were “closed” but they still had people sitting there at the desk, lights and heat on. I mean, if they’re closed, why not just lock up and not pay any of those bills? After we gave up on the travel agents (since it was Sunday) we went directly to the train station and bought our ticket on an express 4 hour train to Beijing on Tuesday morning. Then Brian dropped us off on some main shopping district so he could go spend a couple hours with his girlfriend. Well, Bethany couldn’t last very long in the super cold weather since she didn’t have her long underwear on. We took refuge in a shopping mall where we got a popsickle to sooth our aching throats (from the pollution) and later in a McDonald’s where we got 2 peach pies to warm us up!! Finally we went back to meet Brian at 5:30, but he didn’t show up until 5:45, and we were pretty cold by that time! Then him and Camellia took us to an AMAZING restaurant and we ordered a million different dishes. I guess we had to order at least 400RMB worth of food for the big table that we wanted. It’s a good thing we had such a big table, because we filled it up with dishes. We tried frog, chicken, chicken head, chicken neck, fish, silk worm (you don’t eat the heart or the outer skin, and it was surprisingly delicious), pig kidney, aorta, beef “pizzle” (penis), taro cakes, delicious green beans, boiled dumplings, Ike had a super spicey chicken wing, local beer, and delicious plum juice, and many MANY other dishes. It was pretty amazing! And they were nice enough to treat us to the meal. After dinner we headed back to Brian’s house and after showering both of us pretty much crashed!!!
Today we got up and went the the Shenyang Forbidden Palace. It was built as a contemporary to the Forbidden palace in Beijing (both were built by the ruling Qing (ch-ing) dynasty that came out of Manchuria and were originally based in Shenyang. The palace was pretty even on a cold day like today (but luckily there had been a light dusting of snow the night before). The best part was probably either a few of the architectural features or the main courtyard area that had collections of weapons / armaments of the ‘8-banner army’ of the Qing, whom apparently Brian’s family can claim membership to. (The yellow banner section at least.) Afterwards we briefly looked through a little shopping/schmaltzy souveneir shop. We were all wrapped up by 1 and ready for Brian to pick us up.
But then he didn’t show up. Then it was 1:30, and we thought, maybe brian got the times mixed up (since he had briefly suggested 1:30, but we changed to 1), then 1:45 rolled around. And we were freezing. At ten til 2 we started to try and figure out where the hell we could call him from to figure out WTF was going on, as the public phones we had seen all required a card. Meandering around in the cold and bewildered state in a country in which neither of us could speak a lick of the language made for some frustrating decisions. We even tried the tourist information section at the palace but were just pointed to another card-phone. By pure luck, we spoted white guys #6&7 (yes, we’re keeping count) and asked if they spoke English, and by the grace of god, they did. And they had a cell phone we could borrow. We called Brian, and found out his car had broken down and he was 5 mins away. Whew.
Afterwards we went and snagged some food with him at another local place (which was again quite delicious, and cheap) and then proceeded to head around town for a bit. We snapped a couple of pictures of a Giant Mao statue in the middle of town and then made our way out to a museum about the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, but unfortunately it was closed so we didn’t get to check it out. Briant took us by Shenyang’s huge Mao statue on the way home. This is one of the perfect Mao statues not only for it’s embracing of Maoism but also because it was built to last and is huge. Next we proceeded to do was come back here and while Brian is out having dinner with his g/f for her b-day (with both sides of her family) we’re writing thise and just relaxing. We may be heading out for karaoke later if we feel up to it, but we’ll see.
Initial impressions of China:
BUSY: tons of people, everywhere, all the time.
Dirty: both bethany and I had sore throats after several hours yesterday from the pollutions, luckily the breeze today kept the place pretty clean and easier on our lungs.
Loud: first, there’s no nice way to put it: Chinese is an ugly language. Particularly in the advertisements. It’s like aural assault. Not a fan particularly.
Materialism in Asia, and China in particular, is rampant and seems to be the new diety of the area (and this will come home even more in Beijing and Shanghai.)
People here spit all the time, everywhere. In Korea this happens a lot and while isn’t polite, isn’t terribly out of order (while blowing your nose in public is….) Here though, it’s everywhere and including inside of restaurants. Weird.
No TP in the public restrooms, another WTF. Including at the palace today which had a really modern bathroom, but no TP. What’s that all about?
Bethany’s surprised by how many bicycles there are here, Ike not so much (reminds him of Osaka, but they’re very run down here.)
Driving in China is absolutly out of control. If there aren’t stoplights, there’s no signs at all. I haven’t seen a stop sign yet. Lots of places say no left turn and instead have you turn right and then flip a U-turn. Also, people cross the street any and everywhere. Frankly, I think it’s a miracle I haven’t seen more people getting just wrecked by the cars.
There is a HUGE variety of makes and models here, a large percentage of them are new as well. Since China has plants that built tons of different cars, we see all of these different brands, but with the local chinese plant also listed on it. So you may see a Ford that says it was made in Shanghai, or a Toyota made in Beijing, etc. Whereas in Korea you only see Hyandai or Kia and Japan you’ll only see the Mitsubishi, Toyota, Honda, Daihatsu, etc.
Beijing:
We woke up just shy of 6:20 to get prepped for our train to Beijing. Brian was kind enough to help us out by calling our hotel to make sure we could come a day early, as well as writing a couple of notecards so we can hopefully take care of the stuff to get to Xi’an. We then made our way to the train station. We bid farewell to Brian not far into the train station, as we had to get our tickets checked. We then hopped in line to catch our train, and boarded at about 10 til 8. It was an express train and was very nice. Pretty similar in design to the Shinkansen (bullet train) in Japan, and hit top speaks of about 250 kph (right around 150 mph). It was a four hour ride from Shenyang to Beijing. We dozed for the first couple hours and then watched part of The Golden Compass for the last bit. (fyi, that movie is pretty blech, unless you’re a fan of heavy-handed attempts to talk about how the Catholic Church is an evil entity that tries to stifle free throught, then go right ahead.)
We arrived in Beijing and got off the train and went on out. Brian told us to go ahead and try and take a cab to our place, so we got in line for the cabs and walked until we found a cab to get into. The guy put our stuff in and we hopped in and showed him our paper. He read it for a bit, then proceeded to ramble on in Chinese, which of course we can’t understand. So then he makes it clear that he won’t be taking us. We’re both pretty baffled as to why, so we find another taxi and point to the map and ask him, he says no as well. So now we’re both pretty flustered as to why the taxi’s refuse to take us to our stop, but we assume that it’s because it’s only about 3 KM or so away, and they only charge 2rmb/km so it wouldn’t be as profitable for them. We think. So we make our way back out of the taxi area and there are lots of people out there who bug you if you want a taxi, we figure, what the heck, if they’ll take us, and ask them. They say 200rmb (32$) and we laugh and say no, we’ll take the subway, the guy says we should name our price. So I said 50 rmb, and he says 50 each, 100 for both. I told him to forget it and we went to find the subway. We had some difficulty finding the subway but after wandering around for a bit we were able to find it. The tickets were 2rmb each (so all of $.75 total) and made our way to the subway. As part of the Olympic preparations, they have a brand-spankin’ new subway, and it’s as good as anything I’ve seen in Japan. We got to our stop and headed on up. We were able to use our map inside the guide book coupled with a map from the website for our hotel. Traveling along the large road we took all the turns we needed too and were able to figure out the roads we needed to take, but it increasingly got more and more secluded and a little more, lived-in shall we say. After walking down an alley (which was also a street but was called an alley) we passed the hospital that we new was on our map and turned at the next cross-alley thinking it was the route. Luckily it was, and we spotted our hotel and checked in. The receptionist gave us an option for for either a king-sized ‘single’ with two windows or the ‘standard double’ with no windows. The king one was much better so we took that. The hotel has a nice quant feel to it, along with a fantastic staff to lend us a hand. We then went out and found a place for lunch which was very cheap and the staff even spoke some english as well as having a menu in english for us. Our entire meal with drinks was $4 ahha. We also stopped by the convienance store next door to snag some stuff for our hotel, i.e. water drinks and fruit. We then went back to the hotel, fired off the e-mails to let people know we had made it, and then took off again, this time for the shopping section not too far from us (since it was coming to later afternoon.) The walk was a bit far but we had no problems getting there, which was a plus. The shopping district was pretty busy and had tons of upscale places as well as the more typical touristy places. We also stopped by a church that is out front and met a guy who told us he teaches at the Sunday school there. He showed us an art exhibition that they had in the Sunday school as well as some things they are selling as a fundraiser for the church. We bought a wall scroll they had there for a smidgen more than the wall scrolls they were selling out on the shopping stalls but have since noticed that the guy wasn’t entirely honest with us about the scroll. We’re on the fence on this whole thing because on one hand: it was in the church complex and was in the basement of the Sunday school area (the church’s area was all fenced off) and we’ll feel pretty bad if even the Churches are running scams here, but who knows. Live and learn huh? We picked up several red traditional chinese ‘tassels’ for lack of a better description. Bethany also got a pretty doll in traditional Chinese dress. By this time it was getting dark so we made our way back home. The rest of the evening we’ll be relaxing and watching a movie before we try and go to the Summer Palace tomorrow.
Interesting things for Beijing: Day 1:
Interesting mix of modern and traditional archetecture. Again, the sense of scale here is pretty overwhelming. In some respects, it’s almost like a large city in America multiplied by 6. So when you see a large building in America, here you see 6 of them all going up side by side. On the train platform we also saw a van driving, like, down in the station. We saw several nuclear plants on the way to Beijing from the train. Bethany noticed that there are many more corn fields here than in Korea. She also noticed that the greenhouses here have these mats made out of straw to cover the greenhouse or could be rolled up to let the sun in or down to help trap the heat.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Is it really Christmas?
Yeah, I know, I haven't posted in forever. sorry about that. :-p It's really crazy to think that tomorrow is already Christmas! The time has just been flying by, and without the traditional markers, I still can't really believe it!
I'll be making some cookies for them tomorrow though, which I think they'll love. When I asked the teacher today about it, he was like 'homemade cookies? really? that's ok?' and I was kinda chuckling and saying of course! I had volunteered after all!
Lets see: in the last week, some of the things I've done are:
1) set up christmas decorations around school. there's a christmas tree set up near the entrance with decorations and lights on it, and the presents i received in the mail are sitting underneath it. No, I don't have to worry about my students stealing them. Garland is on the main stairwell and looks awesome, and there are some christmas lights up in the hallway near the english teacher's lounge.
2) Made grandma's christmas wreaths with one of the advanced english courses. They had a blast doing it; totally awesome.
3) Met Kasuga's daughter Nanako. She just returned from her first semester at college at Central Arkansas U. I was laughing at her american accent. She's pretty cool.
4) finally got my China visa. I got stuck with a bunch of additional fees by the consulate and will end up spending nearly 250$ between the travel agent fees to get it ordered and the extra crap from the Chinese consulate. Bah.
5) contemplated purchasing a car one of my brazilian students family was selling since they are returning to Brazil in February, but found out the next day that they had already sold it. This country has hustle.
6) met my new neighbors, who finally moved into the house that was being built out in front of me.
7) did a christmas cards lesson with several classes. Students made postcards for many of you back home, so expect them in the mail in the next couple of weeks.
8) realized once again how darn excited I am for the Watchmen movie that comes out on Pete's birthday.
9) went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of socks taht are all totally worth more than a buck a pair.
10) got my haircut, finally! I had a cup that had the name of a local barber shop on it, and I figured Jon went there, so I checked it out. turns out Jon never did, but oh well! I got the whole shebang for 40$, cut, wash, conditioner, shave, hot towel, scalp moisturizer, even a massage! The barber was a young man who grew up in Iijima, cool guy!
Saturday I take off for China via Korea! How cool is that?! Whee!
I'll be making some cookies for them tomorrow though, which I think they'll love. When I asked the teacher today about it, he was like 'homemade cookies? really? that's ok?' and I was kinda chuckling and saying of course! I had volunteered after all!
Lets see: in the last week, some of the things I've done are:
1) set up christmas decorations around school. there's a christmas tree set up near the entrance with decorations and lights on it, and the presents i received in the mail are sitting underneath it. No, I don't have to worry about my students stealing them. Garland is on the main stairwell and looks awesome, and there are some christmas lights up in the hallway near the english teacher's lounge.
2) Made grandma's christmas wreaths with one of the advanced english courses. They had a blast doing it; totally awesome.
3) Met Kasuga's daughter Nanako. She just returned from her first semester at college at Central Arkansas U. I was laughing at her american accent. She's pretty cool.
4) finally got my China visa. I got stuck with a bunch of additional fees by the consulate and will end up spending nearly 250$ between the travel agent fees to get it ordered and the extra crap from the Chinese consulate. Bah.
5) contemplated purchasing a car one of my brazilian students family was selling since they are returning to Brazil in February, but found out the next day that they had already sold it. This country has hustle.
6) met my new neighbors, who finally moved into the house that was being built out in front of me.
7) did a christmas cards lesson with several classes. Students made postcards for many of you back home, so expect them in the mail in the next couple of weeks.
8) realized once again how darn excited I am for the Watchmen movie that comes out on Pete's birthday.
9) went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of socks taht are all totally worth more than a buck a pair.
10) got my haircut, finally! I had a cup that had the name of a local barber shop on it, and I figured Jon went there, so I checked it out. turns out Jon never did, but oh well! I got the whole shebang for 40$, cut, wash, conditioner, shave, hot towel, scalp moisturizer, even a massage! The barber was a young man who grew up in Iijima, cool guy!
Saturday I take off for China via Korea! How cool is that?! Whee!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Up to Nagano for the day
So on Friday I made my way up to Nagano in the early hours of the day in order to get my re-entry permit to come back to Japan after China. So I hopped on the bus bright and early at 7:45 and spent the next couple of hours on my way up to Nagano. I got off at the last stop, asked a guy for directions to the place I was going (since it was only a 5-10 minute walk from the last stop) and then was nice enough to even get a map! I was a bit thrown off though becuase I was under the impression I would have to buy my round-trip ticket on the bus becuase of a problem Kasuga-sensei had when booking them for me, but I was told I wouldn't be able to buy them on the bus. When we got to Nagano I asked the driver where I could buy them and he told me at the bust terminal, which was about 2 km back. I called Kasuga and he told me I should go there, but then called back shortly after to inform me that actually he had booked both tickets, I just couldn't buy them at the same time. Lul.
I found the place I was going to with no problems and went on upstairs and began filling out the form. It only took a few minutes, but in true Japanese beaurocratic fashion I then had to go downstairs to the first floor to purchase a ticket to put on the form in order to finish my app. I knew this was coming though so it wasn't a big deal. After that, I was all done, it took me all of 15 minutes, which left me with about an hour and a half until my bus returned to Nagano. I had spent some time talking with a girl named Jessica who is working up in the Hakuba area (huge ski resort area of Nagano) and was getting her visa extentsion. We chatted for a while and then after she was done I meandered along with her to burn some time, making my way over to Zenkoji temple (the big one in Nagano) before we parted ways. Zenkoji temple didn't seem particularly interesting (at least the parts I could see for free) and was dreary becuase of recent rain, cold weather, and no snow. :'(
So after that I made my way back towards the bus stop (at the prefectural office) and was kinda looking around for a place to snag some lunch. Lo and behold, about 2 blocks from my stop was a Denny's! Pretty much stoked, I stopped in and had an absolutely awesome sandwich for lunch.
Rode the bus home, and was lucky enough to talk to several groups of my students on my way back. :-) I got a bunch of wide eyes to see me 1) after not being at school 2) outside of school in general and 3) in street clothes. Haha!
I then made my way to buy some stuff for dinner and such. I found a delicious Japanese version of souju that's fantastic.
Today I made the christmas wreath cookies as well as chocolate chip cookies. I feel awesome being a baker. Lol. The cookies are a bit brittle and I'm not sure what I did wrong, i think too much heat. :-/
This week I get to do some cooking at school with one of my classes which will be great! And hopefully I can get my christmas/new years cards lesson plan implemented, so I can send the good ones out! :-D
I found the place I was going to with no problems and went on upstairs and began filling out the form. It only took a few minutes, but in true Japanese beaurocratic fashion I then had to go downstairs to the first floor to purchase a ticket to put on the form in order to finish my app. I knew this was coming though so it wasn't a big deal. After that, I was all done, it took me all of 15 minutes, which left me with about an hour and a half until my bus returned to Nagano. I had spent some time talking with a girl named Jessica who is working up in the Hakuba area (huge ski resort area of Nagano) and was getting her visa extentsion. We chatted for a while and then after she was done I meandered along with her to burn some time, making my way over to Zenkoji temple (the big one in Nagano) before we parted ways. Zenkoji temple didn't seem particularly interesting (at least the parts I could see for free) and was dreary becuase of recent rain, cold weather, and no snow. :'(
So after that I made my way back towards the bus stop (at the prefectural office) and was kinda looking around for a place to snag some lunch. Lo and behold, about 2 blocks from my stop was a Denny's! Pretty much stoked, I stopped in and had an absolutely awesome sandwich for lunch.
Rode the bus home, and was lucky enough to talk to several groups of my students on my way back. :-) I got a bunch of wide eyes to see me 1) after not being at school 2) outside of school in general and 3) in street clothes. Haha!
I then made my way to buy some stuff for dinner and such. I found a delicious Japanese version of souju that's fantastic.
Today I made the christmas wreath cookies as well as chocolate chip cookies. I feel awesome being a baker. Lol. The cookies are a bit brittle and I'm not sure what I did wrong, i think too much heat. :-/
This week I get to do some cooking at school with one of my classes which will be great! And hopefully I can get my christmas/new years cards lesson plan implemented, so I can send the good ones out! :-D
Sunday, December 7, 2008
The Wall of Man and Nii-gata
I'm writing this during the teacher's meeting, something I find very interesting. Apparently the teacher's meetings are done so that teacher's can talk about various things, but the most importatn thing seems to be that it's from an old practice to allow the teacher's to practice their public speaking skills with people they are more comfortable with. Judging by the views of the majority of teachers in here (after Kasuga-sensei has been talking for about 40 minutes about several things, but mainly test scores) I can see why many places are phasing it out. Typically this is the time I run off to the english teachers room to do Japanese practice, but today I wanted to stick around and get some stuff accomplished online. :-P
So, Friday evening I made my way over to Komagane and to an Izukaya to celebrate Jessie's birthday with other ALT's. It was a great time, lots of laughter and fun. As well as getting to have lots of great food (mochi and cheese on toasted bread reminded me alot of goat cheese pizza in turkey, how i miss it :-P) I gifted Jesse a pack of my beef jerkey, no light present; I'm sure he'll enjoy it.
I left before everyone else to catch a train back to Iijima and because I had decided Friday afternoon that I was going to make it up to Nii-gata for the wall of man meet. I ended up getting home around 11:20-ish and got to bed just before midnight. I had to wake up at around 5:20am the next morning to catch the first train out from Iijima at 6:02. Ugh. Always a bad sign when you head out in the morning and you can still see stars. The mountains in the east as well as a few clouds above them left it pitch-black in Iijima. In fact, it I didn't see the sun until after 7. We still have two weeks until the shortest day yet. Crazy. I can't imagine if we actually used daylight savings time here. I had no problems making it up to Nagano city, but unfortunately, my late train in Matsumoto made me miss my train out of Nagano by just a couple of minutes. I went into the help area at Nagano to purchase my ticket to Kita-arai (where I was meeting Joe) and when I asked for help, the guy checked the book (leaves at 9:23) and then looks at the clock (9:24), looks at me, sighs and says "that's too bad, huh?" and i just chuckled and said yes. The next one was at 10:30, about when I was originally supposed to arrive, what a shame. :-P I got on the later train and got to Joe's without any trouble. It was a nice ride (good comfy train) as well as some very pretty views along the way. The last bit heading into Nagano was set up in a very rural area in the mountains and overlooking the valley far far below. The bit from Nagano to Joe's was full of rural areas that had lots of character and was through the wilderness as well. Absolutely gorgous. I met Joe and we headed out for Marshall's place, about an hour and a half away by car. The drive was also very pretty. We arrived at Marshall's town with no problems and met him and Marcus, then proceeded to snag a delicious lunch of soba noodles which his town is supposedly famous for.
afterwards we made our way over to a local store that had an international alcohol selection, which made me eccstatic. due to lack of liquer taxes in Japan, it's as cheap here for alcohol as it is in the states. We also grabbed a couple of Dr. Peppers, and I was a happy happy man later that evening as I got to drink a dr. pepper.
After that we went to a grocery store and picked up stuff to make burgers for dinner (as well as my now famous bloomin' onion, thanks again to bethany for that idea, i get requests for that almost weekly now.) After that, we retired to Marshall's place to spend the evening enjoying each others company, playing Wii games, and making dinner (which turned out splendidly.)
Although we were all ready for bed by about, oh, 7pm, we ended up staying up until about 3am with intermittent dozing going on. I woke up from my nodding off to join in with Joe and Marshall about the chances of Japanese being a unique language over the next several centuries, and if the spread of information will allow Japanese to persevere and never go extinct or if it will speed the fall as it becomes increasingly easy for a global lingua franca to be established (most likely mandarin and english).
The next morning Marcus was off by 10, and Joe and I waited around for Marshall to get back. Afterwards we went off to snag a delicous lunch at a fast food place(i had a bowl of curry rice, so good!). Sunday morning also saw tons of snow on the ground, although the warmer weather/ground was causing it to disappear quite quickly. While Joe and I made our way home (after bidding farewell to Marshall), we stopped to take some pictures of the beautiful scenery and Joe got to put his new camera to use (and boy it's a doozy.) We got back to his hometown and I checked out his apartment (and was totally jealous of his internet TV he has hooked up to his nice TV), then made my way back home. Took about 6 hours from when I left Joe's place to when i got back to my apartment (if you skip the 2 hours from Marshall's to Joe's), and the evening seemed to be gone all too fast. But in all it was totally worth the trip there. I had a fantastic time and hopefully we'll be meeting up again in the middle of January. I have to plan around Stephanie and her friends visit to Japan in later January though, but I'm so excited to see them!
So, Friday evening I made my way over to Komagane and to an Izukaya to celebrate Jessie's birthday with other ALT's. It was a great time, lots of laughter and fun. As well as getting to have lots of great food (mochi and cheese on toasted bread reminded me alot of goat cheese pizza in turkey, how i miss it :-P) I gifted Jesse a pack of my beef jerkey, no light present; I'm sure he'll enjoy it.
I left before everyone else to catch a train back to Iijima and because I had decided Friday afternoon that I was going to make it up to Nii-gata for the wall of man meet. I ended up getting home around 11:20-ish and got to bed just before midnight. I had to wake up at around 5:20am the next morning to catch the first train out from Iijima at 6:02. Ugh. Always a bad sign when you head out in the morning and you can still see stars. The mountains in the east as well as a few clouds above them left it pitch-black in Iijima. In fact, it I didn't see the sun until after 7. We still have two weeks until the shortest day yet. Crazy. I can't imagine if we actually used daylight savings time here. I had no problems making it up to Nagano city, but unfortunately, my late train in Matsumoto made me miss my train out of Nagano by just a couple of minutes. I went into the help area at Nagano to purchase my ticket to Kita-arai (where I was meeting Joe) and when I asked for help, the guy checked the book (leaves at 9:23) and then looks at the clock (9:24), looks at me, sighs and says "that's too bad, huh?" and i just chuckled and said yes. The next one was at 10:30, about when I was originally supposed to arrive, what a shame. :-P I got on the later train and got to Joe's without any trouble. It was a nice ride (good comfy train) as well as some very pretty views along the way. The last bit heading into Nagano was set up in a very rural area in the mountains and overlooking the valley far far below. The bit from Nagano to Joe's was full of rural areas that had lots of character and was through the wilderness as well. Absolutely gorgous. I met Joe and we headed out for Marshall's place, about an hour and a half away by car. The drive was also very pretty. We arrived at Marshall's town with no problems and met him and Marcus, then proceeded to snag a delicious lunch of soba noodles which his town is supposedly famous for.
afterwards we made our way over to a local store that had an international alcohol selection, which made me eccstatic. due to lack of liquer taxes in Japan, it's as cheap here for alcohol as it is in the states. We also grabbed a couple of Dr. Peppers, and I was a happy happy man later that evening as I got to drink a dr. pepper.
After that we went to a grocery store and picked up stuff to make burgers for dinner (as well as my now famous bloomin' onion, thanks again to bethany for that idea, i get requests for that almost weekly now.) After that, we retired to Marshall's place to spend the evening enjoying each others company, playing Wii games, and making dinner (which turned out splendidly.)
Although we were all ready for bed by about, oh, 7pm, we ended up staying up until about 3am with intermittent dozing going on. I woke up from my nodding off to join in with Joe and Marshall about the chances of Japanese being a unique language over the next several centuries, and if the spread of information will allow Japanese to persevere and never go extinct or if it will speed the fall as it becomes increasingly easy for a global lingua franca to be established (most likely mandarin and english).
The next morning Marcus was off by 10, and Joe and I waited around for Marshall to get back. Afterwards we went off to snag a delicous lunch at a fast food place(i had a bowl of curry rice, so good!). Sunday morning also saw tons of snow on the ground, although the warmer weather/ground was causing it to disappear quite quickly. While Joe and I made our way home (after bidding farewell to Marshall), we stopped to take some pictures of the beautiful scenery and Joe got to put his new camera to use (and boy it's a doozy.) We got back to his hometown and I checked out his apartment (and was totally jealous of his internet TV he has hooked up to his nice TV), then made my way back home. Took about 6 hours from when I left Joe's place to when i got back to my apartment (if you skip the 2 hours from Marshall's to Joe's), and the evening seemed to be gone all too fast. But in all it was totally worth the trip there. I had a fantastic time and hopefully we'll be meeting up again in the middle of January. I have to plan around Stephanie and her friends visit to Japan in later January though, but I'm so excited to see them!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Nagoya Day Trip
The time for our trip was moved up from 8am to 7am, so I made sure to set my cpu and clock alarm both for bright and early, and then I proceeded to wake up the next morning at 7:15 and freak out. Somehow my cpu alarm went off but didn't make any sound, something that is bothering me. Also, after changing the alarm time on my clock, I guess I just forgot to turn it on. This resulted in me causing everyone going on the trip to have to wait 15-20 minutes for me. Wow, I felt like a POS.
This was quickly forgotton though, as I was introduced to another unique aspect of japanese culture: it's totally ok to drink in the morning no special event days. So here I am, riding a bus to Nagoya with my co-workers drinking at all of 7:45 am. By the time we arrived in Nagoya, several of my co-workers (and myself to a small extent) were already inebriated. Wow, I think that's a cultural thing I should bring back state-side.
The first place we went was the Kirin Beer Factory/Beer Park. We kinda got blindsided as outta nowhere Iijima's administrative staff showed up and we ended up touring with them.(this included the mayor.) All the teachers kinda had a 'shimatta' moment when they realized it was their bosses that were showing up, and here we were after several hours of drinking. A shame. It was also awkward having to talk to the mayor about things like how I like my bike and stuff. I'm also ready to be done w/ the 'meta-boru' jokes that keep getting cracked at my expense. In Japan, meta-boru is a deriviation of something along the lines of metabolic disorder or something that is used in reference to people who are overweight. Thankfully the alcohol helped take the edge off that and relegated me to just thinking 'you laugh short stuff, I could still put you through this window' instead of actually doing it.
Afterwards, we went to Meijimura, a meiji-era villiage (Meiji era was Japan's westernization period, 1868-1910). The place was very nice, including lots of western and japanese style architecture often side by side or even within the same building. It also included some buildings they had brought in from around the country. Some of the buildings reminded me of Old Main, since they are roughly comparable in age. But before we went to all of this, we had lunch. I sat with five of the male teachers, and apparently lunch was the peak time to try and down beer. Who knew. The meal itself was delicious, sukiyaki, aka meat and veggies cooked in sugar and some sauce. The meat was phenomenal.
Afterwards, lots of the teachers I was with were just going back to the bus to sleep until it was time to go. The rest of the teachers had left earlier to get some wandering in. Luckily, I was able to meet up with Oomori sensei and we made our way around the area. It was lots of fun, relaxing, enjoyable. In fact, we came across a large catholic church: the first I'd been in since coming to Japan. The stained glass was very beautiful and there was someone playing music in there as well, a nice touch. It was fitting too that this week the papacy is beaficating 187 martyrs who were killed in Japan over 300 years ago. Unfortunately we had to high-tail it outta there becuase we were running late. We hopped on one of the old meiji-era trollies, and ended up going the wrong way, which was funny, but we met up with two of our other teachers and the four of us continued on out. We briefly stopped and looked at a house built by Frank Lloyed Wright, and then headed on out.
The last stop was at an outlet mall. This was a nice way to end the day, but I didn't expect to be getting anything. I poked around a sketchers but didn't see anything. I then stopped in an Adidas store and saw that they had many shoes from 22cm - 30cm. I wear 30's or so. Well, I wasn't having any luck seeing any as I was poking around, so thinking they might be in the back, I asked an attendant to help me out. She said they didn't have any for the shoe I was looking at. I asked her if they had any at all in my size, she started looking around, and eventually found one that was a 32cm (14), and I tried it on. It was too big, but not terribly so, but I asked if we could keep looking. She found one more pair, but they were in a color I didn't want. She then went into the back and poked around for about 5 minutes, and came back with just one box. I opened it up, and they were perfect, blue shoes, exactly what I wanted. They were listed as 12's, but fit perfectly, and best of all, it was about 15$ cheaper than the ones I had been looking at earlier! I felt pretty stoked.
Afterwards I went through a few more stores, but didn't see anything in particular that I wanted. Unfortunately, there wasn't an electronics store, so I couldn't get my USB controller. I did end up finding a present for Pete though, and talked with the vendor in both English and Japanese about it. He seemed like a cool guy, and I hope pete likes it!
I had a delicious whip cream, caramel, and nut crepe to end the time at the outlet (after debating buying a pair of pants at a nice store, but I couldn't justify the 60$ tag, even if they were good pants.)
That pretty much rounded out my day, the ride home was uneventful and all.
Here are the pictures: Nagoya Day Trip
here are a few of the highlights:
This was quickly forgotton though, as I was introduced to another unique aspect of japanese culture: it's totally ok to drink in the morning no special event days. So here I am, riding a bus to Nagoya with my co-workers drinking at all of 7:45 am. By the time we arrived in Nagoya, several of my co-workers (and myself to a small extent) were already inebriated. Wow, I think that's a cultural thing I should bring back state-side.
The first place we went was the Kirin Beer Factory/Beer Park. We kinda got blindsided as outta nowhere Iijima's administrative staff showed up and we ended up touring with them.(this included the mayor.) All the teachers kinda had a 'shimatta' moment when they realized it was their bosses that were showing up, and here we were after several hours of drinking. A shame. It was also awkward having to talk to the mayor about things like how I like my bike and stuff. I'm also ready to be done w/ the 'meta-boru' jokes that keep getting cracked at my expense. In Japan, meta-boru is a deriviation of something along the lines of metabolic disorder or something that is used in reference to people who are overweight. Thankfully the alcohol helped take the edge off that and relegated me to just thinking 'you laugh short stuff, I could still put you through this window' instead of actually doing it.
Afterwards, we went to Meijimura, a meiji-era villiage (Meiji era was Japan's westernization period, 1868-1910). The place was very nice, including lots of western and japanese style architecture often side by side or even within the same building. It also included some buildings they had brought in from around the country. Some of the buildings reminded me of Old Main, since they are roughly comparable in age. But before we went to all of this, we had lunch. I sat with five of the male teachers, and apparently lunch was the peak time to try and down beer. Who knew. The meal itself was delicious, sukiyaki, aka meat and veggies cooked in sugar and some sauce. The meat was phenomenal.
Afterwards, lots of the teachers I was with were just going back to the bus to sleep until it was time to go. The rest of the teachers had left earlier to get some wandering in. Luckily, I was able to meet up with Oomori sensei and we made our way around the area. It was lots of fun, relaxing, enjoyable. In fact, we came across a large catholic church: the first I'd been in since coming to Japan. The stained glass was very beautiful and there was someone playing music in there as well, a nice touch. It was fitting too that this week the papacy is beaficating 187 martyrs who were killed in Japan over 300 years ago. Unfortunately we had to high-tail it outta there becuase we were running late. We hopped on one of the old meiji-era trollies, and ended up going the wrong way, which was funny, but we met up with two of our other teachers and the four of us continued on out. We briefly stopped and looked at a house built by Frank Lloyed Wright, and then headed on out.
The last stop was at an outlet mall. This was a nice way to end the day, but I didn't expect to be getting anything. I poked around a sketchers but didn't see anything. I then stopped in an Adidas store and saw that they had many shoes from 22cm - 30cm. I wear 30's or so. Well, I wasn't having any luck seeing any as I was poking around, so thinking they might be in the back, I asked an attendant to help me out. She said they didn't have any for the shoe I was looking at. I asked her if they had any at all in my size, she started looking around, and eventually found one that was a 32cm (14), and I tried it on. It was too big, but not terribly so, but I asked if we could keep looking. She found one more pair, but they were in a color I didn't want. She then went into the back and poked around for about 5 minutes, and came back with just one box. I opened it up, and they were perfect, blue shoes, exactly what I wanted. They were listed as 12's, but fit perfectly, and best of all, it was about 15$ cheaper than the ones I had been looking at earlier! I felt pretty stoked.
Afterwards I went through a few more stores, but didn't see anything in particular that I wanted. Unfortunately, there wasn't an electronics store, so I couldn't get my USB controller. I did end up finding a present for Pete though, and talked with the vendor in both English and Japanese about it. He seemed like a cool guy, and I hope pete likes it!
I had a delicious whip cream, caramel, and nut crepe to end the time at the outlet (after debating buying a pair of pants at a nice store, but I couldn't justify the 60$ tag, even if they were good pants.)
That pretty much rounded out my day, the ride home was uneventful and all.
Here are the pictures: Nagoya Day Trip
here are a few of the highlights:
Friday, November 28, 2008
The Mid-year conference...
...was surprisingly enjoyable. Kasuga picked me up bright and early and we left just after 8 on thursday morning, making it to Shiojiri right around 9:30 when the doors opened. turned out that the event didn't start until 10:30 though, so we just kinda pattered around for an hour to pass the time. The place we were having this conference at though was fantastic. Not only was it really pretty, but it was set up on the side of the mountain with a beautiful view of the valley below. I still just can't get used to how cool it is to see for nearly twenty miles and see everything in between. The events we had for the day were a mixture of enjoyable and not so. The keynote speaker was engaging in the fact that he talked about some of the problems we face as ALT's and how we can try to be creative in our ways to address the innate probelms of the educational system we're a part of. The two afternoon sessions we had weren't fantastic though. One included 'how to team-teach' which was annoying to me, and I've only been here for four months. I just know it was terrible for the people who are in their 2nd or 3rd years, because it is so counter-productive to show demo lessons for 10 minutes as a presentation when 1) lessons are actually 50 minutes and 2) we've all been team-teaching already. If anything, it just showed me that some of the other ALT's are really rude and inconsiderate people, a vibe I could get in just watching them lead a demo lesson for 10 minutes. Yikes.
Afterwards we made our way up to the hotel for the evening. The SHS and JHS ALT's all went to different places, and we had been given a warning not to be too hectic and get too inebriated as apparently had been the issue in the past. Kasuga was one of just 2 or so JTE (Japanese teacher's of english) who was spending the night up at the place, since we are being reimbursed for the cost (and at 90$ a head, I'm very glad of that!) So we followed one fo the buses that was taking students up to the hotel. Kasuga was laughing pretty hard at the nickname Jesse and Matt had given the bus (prison buses) because of the fact we were taken even further up into the mountains with no way to go out and get away and had no access to shopping etc.
The place was pretty nice and we had a fantastic dinner served in the traditional style. Before dinner though, I had kasuga take myself and one of my roommate on what I guess could only be called a 'beer run'. We had no luck finding the Lawson's conbini we were given directions to and dropped into some random guys little liquer shop and stocked up for ourselves and others. I felt deliciously delinquient.
So there was a very nice general mood of revelry at the hotel, as is per the norm whenever a large group of us ALT's get together.
After dinner and lots of chatting with friends I made my way to the onsen. FINALLY I made it to an onsen. It's pretty despicable that I hadn't hit up a japanese public bath yet, but that's fine. It was extremely relaxing to shower off and head into the very hot water. I opten to head outside (considering it was about, oh, 35 degrees) and relax in the water. Also surprising is how quickly your western worries of modesty drop away (also aided by the alcohol, no doubt) and you just enjoy it for what it is.
Afterwards, it was only 9:30 and I felt like I could just call it a night, but I went with one of my roommates to a room that was having a little party of sorts. I spent the next couple hours there, and by the time I left it was getting pretty out of hand but was still just a blast altogether. I ran into Kasuga a couple of times, completely blitzed, and I guess he was pretty popular because he kept running into people out and about in his imparied state. When I saw him, he was in the process of trying to find his coat, but to no avail. (When I asked him about it this morning, he had no recollection. a shame.) This mornings breakfast was a traditional japanese breakfast, which was about the worst thing ever on a morning after stomache. Lol.
The sessions this afternoon were both good and bleh. The sessions on dealing with JTE-ALT communication issues was great because I think we really got to drive home to point to the JTE's how important it is for us to get feedback and talk to us if there are any issues. There was also one on how to internationalize the classroom and I was able to come up with some good ideas for that while I was doing my 'secretary' work for that presentation (aka writing up a 1 page report on it so people could re-create the lesson if need be. :P)
The one on recontracting with JET was little more than an interrogation with veiled threats that we should re-contract, which was lame as hell.
There was also an interesting one to end the day going over information gleaned from a survey given to JTE's and ALT's. One of the most interesting things we discussed was the results of "Should ALT's be expected to use the exact same accent as the speakers in the textbooks?" 25% of JTE's said yes, and 0% of ALT's said no, which was really interesting.
We wrapped it up and then made our way home. Tomorrow at 7am the bus leaves with the teachers for Nagoya. We're going to a meiji-era village, beer factory, and a shopping center. I'm hoping to get a USB video game controller adn green food coloring (so I can make x-mas wreaths for one of my classes! :-D)
Next up: pictures!
I spent two weeks growing a beard for no-shave november, but I had to bail on it due to the fact public servants in japan are discouraged from having a beard.
the room we stayed in last night
view from the window this morning, the rain coming down was washing away the snow we got last night.
in one of the presentations today.
the view on the way out after we were all done; note kasuga's determined stride/look in the bottom left.
heck of a view! really beautiful the first afternoon, the clouds were just thick enough so you couldn't tell where the clouds ended and the mountains began.
Afterwards we made our way up to the hotel for the evening. The SHS and JHS ALT's all went to different places, and we had been given a warning not to be too hectic and get too inebriated as apparently had been the issue in the past. Kasuga was one of just 2 or so JTE (Japanese teacher's of english) who was spending the night up at the place, since we are being reimbursed for the cost (and at 90$ a head, I'm very glad of that!) So we followed one fo the buses that was taking students up to the hotel. Kasuga was laughing pretty hard at the nickname Jesse and Matt had given the bus (prison buses) because of the fact we were taken even further up into the mountains with no way to go out and get away and had no access to shopping etc.
The place was pretty nice and we had a fantastic dinner served in the traditional style. Before dinner though, I had kasuga take myself and one of my roommate on what I guess could only be called a 'beer run'. We had no luck finding the Lawson's conbini we were given directions to and dropped into some random guys little liquer shop and stocked up for ourselves and others. I felt deliciously delinquient.
So there was a very nice general mood of revelry at the hotel, as is per the norm whenever a large group of us ALT's get together.
After dinner and lots of chatting with friends I made my way to the onsen. FINALLY I made it to an onsen. It's pretty despicable that I hadn't hit up a japanese public bath yet, but that's fine. It was extremely relaxing to shower off and head into the very hot water. I opten to head outside (considering it was about, oh, 35 degrees) and relax in the water. Also surprising is how quickly your western worries of modesty drop away (also aided by the alcohol, no doubt) and you just enjoy it for what it is.
Afterwards, it was only 9:30 and I felt like I could just call it a night, but I went with one of my roommates to a room that was having a little party of sorts. I spent the next couple hours there, and by the time I left it was getting pretty out of hand but was still just a blast altogether. I ran into Kasuga a couple of times, completely blitzed, and I guess he was pretty popular because he kept running into people out and about in his imparied state. When I saw him, he was in the process of trying to find his coat, but to no avail. (When I asked him about it this morning, he had no recollection. a shame.) This mornings breakfast was a traditional japanese breakfast, which was about the worst thing ever on a morning after stomache. Lol.
The sessions this afternoon were both good and bleh. The sessions on dealing with JTE-ALT communication issues was great because I think we really got to drive home to point to the JTE's how important it is for us to get feedback and talk to us if there are any issues. There was also one on how to internationalize the classroom and I was able to come up with some good ideas for that while I was doing my 'secretary' work for that presentation (aka writing up a 1 page report on it so people could re-create the lesson if need be. :P)
The one on recontracting with JET was little more than an interrogation with veiled threats that we should re-contract, which was lame as hell.
There was also an interesting one to end the day going over information gleaned from a survey given to JTE's and ALT's. One of the most interesting things we discussed was the results of "Should ALT's be expected to use the exact same accent as the speakers in the textbooks?" 25% of JTE's said yes, and 0% of ALT's said no, which was really interesting.
We wrapped it up and then made our way home. Tomorrow at 7am the bus leaves with the teachers for Nagoya. We're going to a meiji-era village, beer factory, and a shopping center. I'm hoping to get a USB video game controller adn green food coloring (so I can make x-mas wreaths for one of my classes! :-D)
Next up: pictures!
I spent two weeks growing a beard for no-shave november, but I had to bail on it due to the fact public servants in japan are discouraged from having a beard.
the room we stayed in last night
view from the window this morning, the rain coming down was washing away the snow we got last night.
in one of the presentations today.
the view on the way out after we were all done; note kasuga's determined stride/look in the bottom left.
heck of a view! really beautiful the first afternoon, the clouds were just thick enough so you couldn't tell where the clouds ended and the mountains began.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
morning game and today
Yes yes, I know it's been forever since I've posted. I'll try and turn that around here. :P
So this morning, Kubota sensei was giving speaking tests to the class I was with, so she had me practice some new dialogue with some of the students for a bit. Well, we finished in like 20 minutes, so we had nothing to do for the next 40. So we played a game called castles. The best part of this though, was that the boys team wanted to be called 'Barak Obama'. So on the top of their castle, I drew an american flag as their flag, and then i drew a little barak obama underneath it.
the game was going pretty well, the students were having a good time with it. Then i drew a cannon on their castle, and before I knew it, we had an 'Oooobama cannon' thing going on. it was pretty lulzy, since every time the boys got a question right, they would 'fire' the obama cannon at the girls castle.
also a bonus was one of the students who the boys called 'boss', as well as a couple of the boys getting really intense when it came to writing on the board.
Next period, I'm going to the bank to make sure I can send money home this week, since I have to start paying off all that debt I've accumulated. :P
Tomorrow I'm going to the mid-year conference in Shiojiri near matsumoto for thursday and friday. we stay in some dorms and go to 5 different presentations. i'm the secretary for one of them, which means i have to take notes on the presentation and turn in a paper talking about the points presented. it looks to be pretty blech, but whatevers, I'll survive.
saturday i'll be going to nagoya with about 15 other teachers for the day. we'll visit a meiji era villiage and have lunch there, and then spend the afternoon in a big mall. i'm hoping to pick up a usb video game controller there so i can play some of the games on my computer i have, particularly ken griffey jr. 's baseball, lul.
i also agreeded to go to the end of the semester party in december the day before i leave for china, so i have a feeling the trip to nagaoya and to seoul that day will be pretty long. haha.
So this morning, Kubota sensei was giving speaking tests to the class I was with, so she had me practice some new dialogue with some of the students for a bit. Well, we finished in like 20 minutes, so we had nothing to do for the next 40. So we played a game called castles. The best part of this though, was that the boys team wanted to be called 'Barak Obama'. So on the top of their castle, I drew an american flag as their flag, and then i drew a little barak obama underneath it.
the game was going pretty well, the students were having a good time with it. Then i drew a cannon on their castle, and before I knew it, we had an 'Oooobama cannon' thing going on. it was pretty lulzy, since every time the boys got a question right, they would 'fire' the obama cannon at the girls castle.
also a bonus was one of the students who the boys called 'boss', as well as a couple of the boys getting really intense when it came to writing on the board.
Next period, I'm going to the bank to make sure I can send money home this week, since I have to start paying off all that debt I've accumulated. :P
Tomorrow I'm going to the mid-year conference in Shiojiri near matsumoto for thursday and friday. we stay in some dorms and go to 5 different presentations. i'm the secretary for one of them, which means i have to take notes on the presentation and turn in a paper talking about the points presented. it looks to be pretty blech, but whatevers, I'll survive.
saturday i'll be going to nagoya with about 15 other teachers for the day. we'll visit a meiji era villiage and have lunch there, and then spend the afternoon in a big mall. i'm hoping to pick up a usb video game controller there so i can play some of the games on my computer i have, particularly ken griffey jr. 's baseball, lul.
i also agreeded to go to the end of the semester party in december the day before i leave for china, so i have a feeling the trip to nagaoya and to seoul that day will be pretty long. haha.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Beautiful fall
I'll snag pics hopefuly tomorrow, because it's just strikingly beautiful here. The mountains are green, brown, orange, red, yellow, white on the tops. There are reds in the leaves here I have never seen before.
Today, I was pump faked and found out that for Kawaii sensei's 1-1 class, I was going to have to teach on my own since she was gone. I was a bit worried because I wasn't sure what we'd cover, but I ended up lucking out that it was the 1-1 class (since they're a big class they're split) that I really like, so that was a good thing! It also turned out that today we have some head honcho's visiting or something, so Kubota sensei was sent to my class as backup for me, which was nice beacuse then we just did basic textbook stuff while the bigwigs were in the class looking on, and then I played the 'typhoon' game with them in the 2nd half.
My next class was with Kasuga sensei, and we did a 'skit' where we talked about similarities between Xmas in america and new years in japan. It was pretty cool and the head honcho's showed up again and the principle talked to me afterwards about how interesting he thought it was, so I think we made a good impression. I also lucked out by wearing a tie today and looking spiffy. whew. The class with kasuga also moved into the next lesson, where we did the new dialogue about 'silent night' etc. We also got to listen to the song, but the boys in this class are so freaking rowdy. Kasuga chewed them out for me, which was nice lawl.
It's also been getting pretty cold here, which has helped outline just how weak my cardboard walls are. I've been getting into the style of making sure to cordon off sections of my apt. so that I'm not stuck leaving the header on constantly, and I need to run to a store and pick up some more socks and maybe wool slippers or something. wahh! It's also brutally cold in the hallways at school, since some parts are open air and they just have heaters in the different rooms.
during cleaning time, I decided to head on outside and help some of the students doing the raking of leaves. BRR! it was so cold! I ended up helping severl different students, but included one of the girls from the super shy 3 girl class, but she's the most extroverted of them. she did a little jump and looked genuinely shocked to see me come out and start helping her. I laughed pretty hard to myself about that.
Today I get to have 'mediterranean sea curry' and i bought the hottest one they have, because japanese curry is so freaking weak. nom nom nom.
Today, I was pump faked and found out that for Kawaii sensei's 1-1 class, I was going to have to teach on my own since she was gone. I was a bit worried because I wasn't sure what we'd cover, but I ended up lucking out that it was the 1-1 class (since they're a big class they're split) that I really like, so that was a good thing! It also turned out that today we have some head honcho's visiting or something, so Kubota sensei was sent to my class as backup for me, which was nice beacuse then we just did basic textbook stuff while the bigwigs were in the class looking on, and then I played the 'typhoon' game with them in the 2nd half.
My next class was with Kasuga sensei, and we did a 'skit' where we talked about similarities between Xmas in america and new years in japan. It was pretty cool and the head honcho's showed up again and the principle talked to me afterwards about how interesting he thought it was, so I think we made a good impression. I also lucked out by wearing a tie today and looking spiffy. whew. The class with kasuga also moved into the next lesson, where we did the new dialogue about 'silent night' etc. We also got to listen to the song, but the boys in this class are so freaking rowdy. Kasuga chewed them out for me, which was nice lawl.
It's also been getting pretty cold here, which has helped outline just how weak my cardboard walls are. I've been getting into the style of making sure to cordon off sections of my apt. so that I'm not stuck leaving the header on constantly, and I need to run to a store and pick up some more socks and maybe wool slippers or something. wahh! It's also brutally cold in the hallways at school, since some parts are open air and they just have heaters in the different rooms.
during cleaning time, I decided to head on outside and help some of the students doing the raking of leaves. BRR! it was so cold! I ended up helping severl different students, but included one of the girls from the super shy 3 girl class, but she's the most extroverted of them. she did a little jump and looked genuinely shocked to see me come out and start helping her. I laughed pretty hard to myself about that.
Today I get to have 'mediterranean sea curry' and i bought the hottest one they have, because japanese curry is so freaking weak. nom nom nom.
Last week...
Wasn't particularly exciting, since it was only a 4 day week and all. I did get caught off guard one day and had to do games with two classes because Kawaii sensei had planned for me to do them over a month ago, but we had moved them because of Bethany's visit etc etc.
High points for the week consisted of getting to do the 6 differences game with Kawaii sensei's 3f class (the lowest 3rd years) and her being shocked by how into it they got as we played. Once again proving i'm worth my weight in gold (pfft lol). I also finally found the stuff to make chinese food too, which turned out to be awesome. :-) Taste was great and it was cheap to make. win win! The weekend itself was uneventful as well, just relaxed and took it easy.
today i got pump faked as I found out kawaii sensei is gone and I have to teach her 1-1 class today, so i'm going to do a little bit of studying and then play a game with them. whee! :-P
High points for the week consisted of getting to do the 6 differences game with Kawaii sensei's 3f class (the lowest 3rd years) and her being shocked by how into it they got as we played. Once again proving i'm worth my weight in gold (pfft lol). I also finally found the stuff to make chinese food too, which turned out to be awesome. :-) Taste was great and it was cheap to make. win win! The weekend itself was uneventful as well, just relaxed and took it easy.
today i got pump faked as I found out kawaii sensei is gone and I have to teach her 1-1 class today, so i'm going to do a little bit of studying and then play a game with them. whee! :-P
Monday, November 3, 2008
rest of the weekend
On Sunday morning, after waking up at noon, chad and I went down to the showers. The next stage in our fun time at the nanner house involved us having to use our t-shirts to dry off after we took our showers. lawl. I also had a weird moment where I didn't realize a person had started using the shower next to mine, so as I was rinsing out my hair, I saw soap go rolling by under my feet and I was trying to figure out how it bounced off the side of the wall or whatever. It was only later that I figured out that someone was in there, whoops!
We then headed on out for Kyoto, as we were going to go to Heian-jingu for the day. The trip takes about two hours if you include the walk from the nanner house, but it was a nice way to just relax and enjoy the day. Chad and I laughed at mistakenly saying 'good morning' to people instead of 'good afternoon' because we had woken up so late. The ride was nice and relaxing on the way there,one of the benefits of starting from the osaka end was that it isn't difficult to snag seats on the express lines.
We got to our stop, and gave alberto a ring and were able to meet up with Haruna and Alberto, which included chad and I getting a hug in the middle of a busy street from Haruna, which was super adorable. I think we'd all forgotten just how awesome she is.
So Chad and I grabbed some lunch (it was nearing 3 lol) from a conbini and then we made our way over to the temple. We caught up with Haruna and also enjoyed the beautiful scenery (as well as the nice weather, lucky ducks down in Osaka) as we made our way to the temple.
Once there, we started snapping photos of pretty much everything, and then chad and I sat down and had our lunch. Afterwards we made our way into and through the temple grounds, laughing like fools and snapping pictures the entire time.
We got some great ones that included the scenery and just us having a great time through and through. It was a good way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.
Afterwards, we made our way to the train station and bid farewell to Haruna, then Alberto, Chad, and I meandered Kyoto for several hours. We started by just wandering around the city to see what was going on and such. Along the way, we had a great time walking along a path down by the river that snakes through the city. while doing this, we found a spot where rocks had been placed through the river so we could hop across. This led to a frenzy of silly pictures and general shenanigens in the middle of kyoto river and us just having a great time. We paused for a rest on the other side next to a group of japanese and french chatting and playing the guitar and violin. It was a good way to pass some time, for sure.
After this, while walking along the banks, we saw a couple standing at the front of a room (their backs to us, as they were back along the windows and we were behind the building walking) who were at what appeared to be their wedding. I decided it would be fun to snap a picture of them from down where we were, and I set up my camera (set to night settings) so i could get a nice exposure. I pressed the button, and then FLASH! which prompted a yell of 'CHEESE IT!" from alberto and us sprinting away like fools. Ahahah.
This led to a ton of laughing by us and then we finally made our way to an okonomiyaki place for dinner. The best part of this dinner was either alberto finally breaking down and throwing his ice cube on the hot stove to watch it melt, and then as it's boiling having the waitress come up with our food and alberto having to look really guilty, or the lady refusing to let us put the sauce on our own food and alberto telling her 'i can do it myself' several times. Also great was that there was a contingent of what we figured must be engineering majors at the store, who all decided to leave at once.
Afterwards we made our way to a conbini and snagged some crepe's as dessert (there was a crepe store in it) They were really delicious!
After that we made our way back to the station and started to head home, since it was about 2 hours to make it all the way back to Osaka. We got back with time to spare and went to bed around midnight since We had to leave the nanner house by 8:30 in order for me to make it to Kyoto in time to catch my bus. Unfortunately, I had a terrible time falling asleep that night, as a combination of a hot bed, and mosquitoes in the room pretty much drove me insane. That, and I had only been awake for 12 hours when i tried to crash. Things were made worse by the fact that my phone, which was going to serve as our alarm, died at 5am.
But then I was finally able to get some sleep, and Japanese technology came to the rescue. The phone turned itself on to set off the alarm, and then shut itself off again since it was so low on battery. awesome.
so we got up and headed on out by 8:30 and made our way to Kyoto station. It ended up actually being a bit of a close call, as we got into kyoto station with just 15 minutes until my bus left, and this station is HUGE. Luckily, Chad's Japanese skills saved the day as we were able to ask and get directions to where we were going, and I got on the bus with time to spare. I bid chad farewell and made my way home. The layover in Nagoya was a bit long, but I was able to pick up some cookies for the staff as a gift, and I also got to ride on buses that were larger this time, so my knees were very thankful that they had some room this time. I got in at just around 6 and started to walk home.
I was surprised by one of the ladies who was on the bus with me stopping and asking me if I wanted a ride home. Turns out she is the wife of one of the teachers (I'm pretty sure that's what she said!:P) and she was kind enough to take me home. Awrw!
All in all, I had an exceptionally great time this weekend haning out with old friends, and I laughed harder than I had in a while. Greatness. :-)
We then headed on out for Kyoto, as we were going to go to Heian-jingu for the day. The trip takes about two hours if you include the walk from the nanner house, but it was a nice way to just relax and enjoy the day. Chad and I laughed at mistakenly saying 'good morning' to people instead of 'good afternoon' because we had woken up so late. The ride was nice and relaxing on the way there,one of the benefits of starting from the osaka end was that it isn't difficult to snag seats on the express lines.
We got to our stop, and gave alberto a ring and were able to meet up with Haruna and Alberto, which included chad and I getting a hug in the middle of a busy street from Haruna, which was super adorable. I think we'd all forgotten just how awesome she is.
So Chad and I grabbed some lunch (it was nearing 3 lol) from a conbini and then we made our way over to the temple. We caught up with Haruna and also enjoyed the beautiful scenery (as well as the nice weather, lucky ducks down in Osaka) as we made our way to the temple.
Once there, we started snapping photos of pretty much everything, and then chad and I sat down and had our lunch. Afterwards we made our way into and through the temple grounds, laughing like fools and snapping pictures the entire time.
We got some great ones that included the scenery and just us having a great time through and through. It was a good way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.
Afterwards, we made our way to the train station and bid farewell to Haruna, then Alberto, Chad, and I meandered Kyoto for several hours. We started by just wandering around the city to see what was going on and such. Along the way, we had a great time walking along a path down by the river that snakes through the city. while doing this, we found a spot where rocks had been placed through the river so we could hop across. This led to a frenzy of silly pictures and general shenanigens in the middle of kyoto river and us just having a great time. We paused for a rest on the other side next to a group of japanese and french chatting and playing the guitar and violin. It was a good way to pass some time, for sure.
After this, while walking along the banks, we saw a couple standing at the front of a room (their backs to us, as they were back along the windows and we were behind the building walking) who were at what appeared to be their wedding. I decided it would be fun to snap a picture of them from down where we were, and I set up my camera (set to night settings) so i could get a nice exposure. I pressed the button, and then FLASH! which prompted a yell of 'CHEESE IT!" from alberto and us sprinting away like fools. Ahahah.
This led to a ton of laughing by us and then we finally made our way to an okonomiyaki place for dinner. The best part of this dinner was either alberto finally breaking down and throwing his ice cube on the hot stove to watch it melt, and then as it's boiling having the waitress come up with our food and alberto having to look really guilty, or the lady refusing to let us put the sauce on our own food and alberto telling her 'i can do it myself' several times. Also great was that there was a contingent of what we figured must be engineering majors at the store, who all decided to leave at once.
Afterwards we made our way to a conbini and snagged some crepe's as dessert (there was a crepe store in it) They were really delicious!
After that we made our way back to the station and started to head home, since it was about 2 hours to make it all the way back to Osaka. We got back with time to spare and went to bed around midnight since We had to leave the nanner house by 8:30 in order for me to make it to Kyoto in time to catch my bus. Unfortunately, I had a terrible time falling asleep that night, as a combination of a hot bed, and mosquitoes in the room pretty much drove me insane. That, and I had only been awake for 12 hours when i tried to crash. Things were made worse by the fact that my phone, which was going to serve as our alarm, died at 5am.
But then I was finally able to get some sleep, and Japanese technology came to the rescue. The phone turned itself on to set off the alarm, and then shut itself off again since it was so low on battery. awesome.
so we got up and headed on out by 8:30 and made our way to Kyoto station. It ended up actually being a bit of a close call, as we got into kyoto station with just 15 minutes until my bus left, and this station is HUGE. Luckily, Chad's Japanese skills saved the day as we were able to ask and get directions to where we were going, and I got on the bus with time to spare. I bid chad farewell and made my way home. The layover in Nagoya was a bit long, but I was able to pick up some cookies for the staff as a gift, and I also got to ride on buses that were larger this time, so my knees were very thankful that they had some room this time. I got in at just around 6 and started to walk home.
I was surprised by one of the ladies who was on the bus with me stopping and asking me if I wanted a ride home. Turns out she is the wife of one of the teachers (I'm pretty sure that's what she said!:P) and she was kind enough to take me home. Awrw!
All in all, I had an exceptionally great time this weekend haning out with old friends, and I laughed harder than I had in a while. Greatness. :-)
It's Just Culture Bro: Kansai Gaidai Reunion Tour '08
First and Foremost: links to my complete albums on facebook, because I have almost 100 pix posted and I'm not bringing them all over here. do yourself and me a favor and mosey on over there if you like what you see. Just click on the album links below:
Album 1
Album 2
So, I got up bright and early (5:30) on Saturday morn, and quick threw on my clothes and headed on out for my Bus. Along the way (the cold way, brr!) I saw the band leaving for Tokyo for their competition this weekend. I got to the bus stop around 6:30 and caught my bus for Nagoya. Unfortunately, my height doesn't lend itself well to riding in some (not all) of Japanese buses, and this was one of them. I was just too tall to be comfortable (I couldn't sit normally, my knees hit the seat ahead of me.) Luckily I was able to catch some Zzz's here and there along the way (one of the perks of being up too late the night before). Before I knew it, it was 9 and I was at Nagoya Bus Center. I had 45 minutes to get to my next bus, as well as purchase tickets for the way home. It was going to be busy. I was able to find the central ticket area after getting a bit confused (thinking I had to go up to the 3rd floor, although I had been dropped off on the 3rd floor caused a bit of confusion.) I was luckily able to purchase a return ticket to Nagoya and then to Iijima, but the lateness of it, combined with them being individual tickets, ended up costing me a bit more i'm sure. It also added an inconvienance of me having to go from Osaka (where I was staying) all the way up to Kyoto to catch my bus. Whoops.
I then caught my connecting bus to Kyoto, and although there was a decent delay due to all the traffic of people heading to the Keihan (kyoto/osaka, their so big it's basically one huge city now) to see the sights and such since it was a 3 day weekend.
I ended up getting into Kyoto station a bit late (the biggest railroad station in the world I think) and after asking a station attendant, I was able to figure out how to get back on the old Keihan line to take me to Kansai Gaidai. Chad (one of the guys I was meeting up with, who's an ALT not too far from me) and I were texting each other, as he was about 45 minutes ahead of me, and we were getting all excited to be coming back. I got off at Hirakata (after passing Makino, where I always went as Heather's host family lived there and I bowled there alot. If I hadn't been late, I would have gotten off there and walked.) and caught a bus up towards Kansai. by this time I had a huge smile on my face, and made my way up to the school I hadn't been at for two years. Felt like old times!
Turns out we picked a good weekend to swing by, as it was the school festival and so the place was just rocking! I found Chad after a few minutes and then we just meandered around for a few more (as Alberto ended up having work that day, so he couldn't meet us there.) While doing this, I passed someone I thought I recognized, and after staring at him, and passing him a couple more times we both realized we knew each other. It was Sho! :-D I said hi and asked him how things were etc etc. Then Chad and I met up with Miho, another friend from the first time at Kansai.
She joined us as we made our way to the train station and would serve as our guide to get us part of the way to the hostel we were staying at (Banana House!) so we could catch up as well as hang out. We got to the station, had some baskin robbins, and then made off for the Banana House down in Osaka. The ride down there brought back tons of memories as well, and I loved making my way down there.
We met up with Alberto and made our way to the Banana house. we got there and were super surprised by the 'rustic' nature of the place. It was chock full of character, but also was pretty dingy. Chad and I had this idealized version in our heads, sincwe Alberto is a realatively picky guy, so we figured if he had just moved out after living there for two months, it couldn't be that bad!
Well, kinda. Chad and I ended up falling in love with the place, but it is best for short visits. :-P
We dropped off our stuff after signing in, and headed back out. We went to a Nabe place, which also had nomihodai 'all you can drink', so we got o have really well made drinks along with our delicious food. It was worth dropping the extra coin for it. Afterwards we bid farewell to Miho, and Alberto, Chad, and I walked around shinsaibashi as we prepared to do some bar-hopping.
This didn't last long though, as the first place we tried, which was kinda classy but nothing spectacular, decided to devour our wallets. Japan has this awesome deal where they give you a little something with your drinks, which you have no choice on, and charge you an absurd amount for. We paid 15$ for 12 teeny slices of burned fish. On top of 8$ beers. Ouch.
We went to a huge complex that is made up of 40 or so small one room bars, and settled on one called 'el diablo'. Of course the three cute Japanese girls inside cleared out as soon as we arrived, and we proceeded to enjoy our drink, and then had to rush out because it was getting late and we needed to catch our train back.
Chad and I had a bit of a scare as we were going home, as just after midnight, one stop from where we were going, the train stopped and everyone had to get off. We thought we were screwed at first, but since everyone else was sticking around, we realized for some insane reason they were taking the train ahead to the last stop; empty. hurr.
We then got back on a train, got to Nakamuzo and walked on back to Banana house. Alberto had warned us that they might not be toilet paper but we hadn't really paid attention, and it turns out we should ahve. Our bathroom lacked it. :-( Luckily, Chad had some multi-purpose notebook paper with him. I don't think they knew that the secondary purpose would be 'TP'. Hah!
We then went back to the room and I played PSP while chad skyped with his GF and friends back stateside, who all sounded like awesome people. I eventually crashed around 2 and chad at 4, and we slept in until noon.
I'll have to break up the story there, as it's getting late. I'll post more tomorrow!
Album 1
Album 2
So, I got up bright and early (5:30) on Saturday morn, and quick threw on my clothes and headed on out for my Bus. Along the way (the cold way, brr!) I saw the band leaving for Tokyo for their competition this weekend. I got to the bus stop around 6:30 and caught my bus for Nagoya. Unfortunately, my height doesn't lend itself well to riding in some (not all) of Japanese buses, and this was one of them. I was just too tall to be comfortable (I couldn't sit normally, my knees hit the seat ahead of me.) Luckily I was able to catch some Zzz's here and there along the way (one of the perks of being up too late the night before). Before I knew it, it was 9 and I was at Nagoya Bus Center. I had 45 minutes to get to my next bus, as well as purchase tickets for the way home. It was going to be busy. I was able to find the central ticket area after getting a bit confused (thinking I had to go up to the 3rd floor, although I had been dropped off on the 3rd floor caused a bit of confusion.) I was luckily able to purchase a return ticket to Nagoya and then to Iijima, but the lateness of it, combined with them being individual tickets, ended up costing me a bit more i'm sure. It also added an inconvienance of me having to go from Osaka (where I was staying) all the way up to Kyoto to catch my bus. Whoops.
I then caught my connecting bus to Kyoto, and although there was a decent delay due to all the traffic of people heading to the Keihan (kyoto/osaka, their so big it's basically one huge city now) to see the sights and such since it was a 3 day weekend.
I ended up getting into Kyoto station a bit late (the biggest railroad station in the world I think) and after asking a station attendant, I was able to figure out how to get back on the old Keihan line to take me to Kansai Gaidai. Chad (one of the guys I was meeting up with, who's an ALT not too far from me) and I were texting each other, as he was about 45 minutes ahead of me, and we were getting all excited to be coming back. I got off at Hirakata (after passing Makino, where I always went as Heather's host family lived there and I bowled there alot. If I hadn't been late, I would have gotten off there and walked.) and caught a bus up towards Kansai. by this time I had a huge smile on my face, and made my way up to the school I hadn't been at for two years. Felt like old times!
Turns out we picked a good weekend to swing by, as it was the school festival and so the place was just rocking! I found Chad after a few minutes and then we just meandered around for a few more (as Alberto ended up having work that day, so he couldn't meet us there.) While doing this, I passed someone I thought I recognized, and after staring at him, and passing him a couple more times we both realized we knew each other. It was Sho! :-D I said hi and asked him how things were etc etc. Then Chad and I met up with Miho, another friend from the first time at Kansai.
She joined us as we made our way to the train station and would serve as our guide to get us part of the way to the hostel we were staying at (Banana House!) so we could catch up as well as hang out. We got to the station, had some baskin robbins, and then made off for the Banana House down in Osaka. The ride down there brought back tons of memories as well, and I loved making my way down there.
We met up with Alberto and made our way to the Banana house. we got there and were super surprised by the 'rustic' nature of the place. It was chock full of character, but also was pretty dingy. Chad and I had this idealized version in our heads, sincwe Alberto is a realatively picky guy, so we figured if he had just moved out after living there for two months, it couldn't be that bad!
Well, kinda. Chad and I ended up falling in love with the place, but it is best for short visits. :-P
We dropped off our stuff after signing in, and headed back out. We went to a Nabe place, which also had nomihodai 'all you can drink', so we got o have really well made drinks along with our delicious food. It was worth dropping the extra coin for it. Afterwards we bid farewell to Miho, and Alberto, Chad, and I walked around shinsaibashi as we prepared to do some bar-hopping.
This didn't last long though, as the first place we tried, which was kinda classy but nothing spectacular, decided to devour our wallets. Japan has this awesome deal where they give you a little something with your drinks, which you have no choice on, and charge you an absurd amount for. We paid 15$ for 12 teeny slices of burned fish. On top of 8$ beers. Ouch.
We went to a huge complex that is made up of 40 or so small one room bars, and settled on one called 'el diablo'. Of course the three cute Japanese girls inside cleared out as soon as we arrived, and we proceeded to enjoy our drink, and then had to rush out because it was getting late and we needed to catch our train back.
Chad and I had a bit of a scare as we were going home, as just after midnight, one stop from where we were going, the train stopped and everyone had to get off. We thought we were screwed at first, but since everyone else was sticking around, we realized for some insane reason they were taking the train ahead to the last stop; empty. hurr.
We then got back on a train, got to Nakamuzo and walked on back to Banana house. Alberto had warned us that they might not be toilet paper but we hadn't really paid attention, and it turns out we should ahve. Our bathroom lacked it. :-( Luckily, Chad had some multi-purpose notebook paper with him. I don't think they knew that the secondary purpose would be 'TP'. Hah!
We then went back to the room and I played PSP while chad skyped with his GF and friends back stateside, who all sounded like awesome people. I eventually crashed around 2 and chad at 4, and we slept in until noon.
I'll have to break up the story there, as it's getting late. I'll post more tomorrow!
The week leading up to Halloween
Sorry about the delay in getting anything new put up lately. I've been out of my mind busy lately, and finally have some time to post some info! So, this last week I've been trying to get ready for Halloween and make sure I could put on a great day for the kids! It actually turned out great!
Early on in the week, I asked Kasuga to help me out by seeing if I could get some help ordering bus tickets to Osaka/Kyoto for this 3 day weekend that is just finishing up. It ended up being a bit of a scare as due to the leaves all changing color, and it being a 3 day weekend, tons of people were heading to Kyoto/Osaka for the weekend, and the original bus I wanted to take to get to Osaka was already full. After some tense hours (it was so busy we couldn't even originally get ahold of the bust center in Nagoya) we finally were able to work out a change in Nagoya and getting me into Kyoto.
I also asked if I could do a Halloween lesson on Friday, and got approved. A big shoutout to Bethany who helped me with the lesson plans for it too. :-P
The week continued to slip on by fairly uneventfully, with classes really becoming a set thing and me just being a teacher. I hate to say it, but it's kinda to the point now where the daily grind doesn't really warrant it's own blog post anymore, so that's kinda part of the reason these are becoming more and more spaced out.
I did forget to mention that last weekend I went to Kasuga's again and spend the night after a nice full evening of drinking with him, his wife, their friend, and their son's ALT from Auz. That was also a great time and I shared some halloween candy with them. Just going to randomly throw that in here. :-P
So, Thursday afternoon I made sure to get the decorations up for the halloween stuff we did on Friday. I also bought a ton of apples and brought my 8 bags of candy with me to school (thanks mom!)
Friday ended up being a fantastic day all around. For the lessons, I had the students play halloween hangman (which they loved, even though the words were difficult), watch thriller and monster mash while they drew pictures of what they wanted to be for halloween, go through a halloween presentation with new vocabulary words (for halloween!), and watch a video on trick-or-treating. Then I had them bob for apples as well. The bobbing for apples was probably the best part, just because it was terribly cold outside adn we had them do it on the balcony to avoid getting the LL all wet.
We also got a pumpkin carved as well and the students loved that incredibly too. A few of the students (even some girls!) were willing to take a shot at scooping out the insides, or carving with the knife. I ended up having some extra classes even, as several smaller classes combined so that even more could get an opportunity to see the haloween stuff. I didnt' wear a costume per se, but my sweatshirt had skulls on it, i figured that kinda counted.
The best part though, was the constant battering I got of 'trick or treat!' by students so they could get candy. The dots were a HUGE hit, and I had saved a bag of smarties and students liked those as well. The candy corn wasn't quite a huge hit, but mainly becuase it wasn't individually wrapped I think (i bribed students by offering them two instead of one since they were smaller).
I would have a line 20 people long of kids who wanted candy. some would be shy and would have trouble coming up, but i made sure to visit as many kids as i could so everyone would get some (again, thanks mom!).
I even ended up putting the jack-o-lantern out in the front part of the school w/ a candle so the students could see/admire it.
That afternoon I went over to nanakubo elementary and showed them pictures of washington (to the 3rd and 4th graders) and I had a great time. I really like the 4th and 3rd grade teachers. Really nice, and the 3rd grade teacher gave me a ride back to school afterwards. The kids LOVED the pictures, and I got lots of "that looks so fun!" about the 'new dawn' park.
I came back to the jr. high and took down my decorations (kawai sensei had already done lots of it for me, which was nice!) and then since I had a ladder to take some down, they convinced me to help them change some halogen's in the room.
this led to a funny conversation with me asking if jon ever had to change light bulbs, and kubota sensei saying 'of course not!' and me responding 'oh, so this was a plan then? convince the new guy that it's part of an ALT's job to change light bulbs? I'll never know the difference!" which they got a kick out of.
I came home and had dinner, and packed up for my trip to Kyoto/Osaka for the weekend, which I just got back from. that's next!
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