More later, now sleep.

Just writing to let you know what I learned today:

1. Snowboarding is fun.
2. Snowboarding WEARS YOU OUT.
3. It's better if you don't fall.
4. It's even better if, when you do fall, you don't literally punch yourself in the face (with your own fist).
5. It's also better if when you get a lot of speed going, you don't freak out and make a stupid move and something happens where you spin in the air once or twice and land face down in the snow.
6. Newbies: Forget turning. Turning is like, months away from your abilities.
7. I look really cool on a snowboard.

Merry Christmas to all!

I don't know about the rest of you, but my Christmas turned out pretty sweer. Work was pretty fun (since people kept saying it was "free time" and talking to me), then I had a relaxing while to do a bunch of errands, then I went to the hotel where our end of year office party was, tried my first onsen experience and enjoyed that, and had a blast all night with the people from my office!

Also I got to get to know my 23-year-old coworker on a personal level, we talked about how we get lonely sometimes and we've decided to have a takoyaki party at her apartment together. :)

All in all, a great Christmas, if a bit untraditional.

Bump in the night

Had an earthquake about 30 minutes ago.

THIS earthquake!!

My screen doors shook quite a bit. I'm excited to be able to match up my verrrry minor shaking to a REAL LIVE WORLD EVENT.

The days shall now commence their lengthening.

Having reached the darkest and dimmest day of the year intact, I say with some conviction that I am looking forward to the new dawn of warmth and happiness and longer days.

I celebrated the winter solstice by getting myself my Christmas present (BTW, I got myself snowboarding clothes. AWESOME jacket, pants, gloves, and thermals. Keiko and Emerson and who knows who else are going to turn me into a SWEET AWESOME COOL snowboarding superhero, just you watch.)

Today was really great. I reinstalled Starcraft which will be ok as long as I remember to leave room in my life for doing other things. Thanks to a little help from my friend, I now have a clean house. (We even took care of the mold that was on the top of the fridge since I moved in...oy.) I was so happy tonight I kept dancing around my room...because there was room for it! Clean houses make the long dark winter seem less desperate.

Also despite the temperature not breaking 55 F (13 C) today, I haven't had the heater on since over 30 hours ago. And I haven't really gotten cold at all. I feel as though I'm running an experiment on myself to see if I can hack winter.

I'm about 7 months behind the curve but...

I love this song by Japanese boy band "Greeeen" and I can't get it out of my head.

Inoshishi 猪

I eat all kinds of strange things in Japan. Japanese mustard spinach, Komatsuna, a high in calcium green vegetable. Daikon, the famous gigantic radish of Japan. Hassaku, the citrus with the bite of a grapefruit and the pucker of a lemon. And one of my favorites, persimmon, the little orange fruit with a tough skin and a sweet, sometimes mushy interior. (better when not overripened)

So I was all game to try some inoshishi. Inoshishi stands for wild boar. My friend Keiko invited me to go with her to the dinner at her good friend's house. I went there and met her friend, his momma, his wife, and their cute little baby Kotaro.

Inoshishi was good! We had homestyle Yakiniku (grilled meat) on a skillet sort of thing. There was also pork, chicken, and beef provided, but I ended up enjoying the pork and inoshishi the best. Another thing Japan has changed about me is reversed my aversion to the fat on meats and the skin on chicken. I am not sure that's a good thing but it's the truth! Fatty meat is yummy meat...

I spoke mostly Japanese all night. Even to baby Kota.

Weather forecast for the next 3 months of my life

Me: blahblah something Tokyo. Maybe I'll go to Tokyo for New Years.
Home-ec teacher: blahblah something Tokyo! I love going to the museums there!
Me: Me too! blahblah National Museum.
Home-ec teacher: Going to Tokyo in wintertime is so strange. It's not like here. They have cold weather, and snow, but they also have sunshine! Here it stays so cloudy.
Me: ...ah..haha...so Tokyo has clear skies in the winter, but here it's always cloudy.
Home-ec teacher: That's right!
Me: That's Tottori for ya, huh?
Home-ec teacher: (with a big SMILE) yup!

Tokyo - Day 4 - November 3rd

Note: this post has few pictures. I think the pain of my feet was affecting my brain function.
Monday! Culture day. Everywhere we went on this day was sure to be as packed and crazy as the last few days. Coupled with the national holiday, the weather continued to be beautiful. A perfect time for sightseeing, if only we could ditch some of these crowds.

Our agenda for the day started with Ueno Park, and within it, the Tokyo National Museum. For 2 hours or so, we walked through the exhibits、upsetting serious Japanese tourists with our oblivious photo-taking in spite of the posted signage. I also spent a good deal of time trying to work out the meanings of the Japanese descriptions when the English description amounted to 'Maki-e Laquer Box' and the Japanese description trailed on for a paragraph. There were beautiful objects preserved since even the oldest periods of Japanese history, such as the Jomon (pre-400 BC), Yayoi (400 BC to 250 AD) and Kofun (250-583 AD) periods, to the most recent, Showa (1926-1989). We only managed to see the Honkan (main exhibit hall) before we needed to move on to our next destination, Akihabara.

Akihabara is known as a center for all things electronic, and also all things geeky. We met my unapologetically geeky friend Lenku there to explore the locale and hunt for imported American games. Of course, Lenku being a resident of Yokosuka naval base...he could get any of this stuff shipped to him and the healthily subsidized postage rates and bypass any and all of this...but still we hunted. We wandered by maid cafes and shops selling any manner of electronics. Eventually, we stopped in at an action-figure shop where they were trying to sell vintage (HIDEOUS) monster figures (think Godzilla done in cheap hideous pink plastic) for thousands of dollars.

I know you think I am the type of person who would in fact kid you, but I promise in this case, I kid you not.

We ended up picking out a few lower-end plastic figures that were much more attractive and making our leave without investing in a piece of Japanese monster movie history. Lenku proceeded to search for a RPG shop (think, table and dice, not electronic) and buy some mad amount of dice so he can set up his own game on base.


It was starting to get dark, as happens so frequently, so we said our goodbyes and traded our hugs and set out on our separate ways. Chris and I returned to our hostel for a regroup, then feasted that evening on Wagyuu (Kobe-style) beef yakiniku (Korean barbecue) and Korean food, and following that, delicious Baskin Robbins ice cream.

Oh, our feet also were hurting.

See also: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Tokyo - Day 3 - November 2nd

Ah, Sunday. We were starting to wish that we had scooters, like those people who went to The Scooter Store and had medicare cover the cost of their personal mobilization device.

But, we were in TOKYO. We were not there to sit around in a sparse hostel room and snooze the day away. So, mustering our strength, we set out for another day in the big city.

Our first stop of the day: Shibuya. Shibuya is one of the busiest places in Tokyo, famous for the crossing in front of Shibuya station. The crossing is called the 'busiest in the world' and every few minutes a hoard of pedestrians and bicycles take over, dodging this way and that and making it to the side of the road of their choosing. Even at 9:30 am there was a crowd, although nothing like the last time I was here on a Monday evening. The smell of the sewer is about the same though.

We start to wander, with no particular destination except to end up somehow in Harajuku by the time all is said and done, and see a few sights along the way. First, the dog stature 'Hachiko', built for a loyal dog who waited at Shibuya station for his master every day, even when one day, his master stopped coming home. Hachiko's statue also serves as a meeting place for people meeting at the sprawling Shibuya station.

Next, we walked through Yoyogi park and saw the structures built for the 1968 Tokyo Olympics. They were...olympian. Futuristic, in that 60s conceptualization of the future. Totally retro and wholly out of place, but still pretty interesting.

From there, we procured a meal, I believe our first of the day, from an Ometesando Hills Subway (the restaurant, not the mode of transportatin') and I walked around feeling outclassed by all the trendsters despite my awesome plaid shorts and leggings get-up. No longer dying of hunger, we wandered into Meiji Shrine.

The difference from my last visit was starkly evident the moment we reached the stone bridge that leads to Meiji Shrine. Instead of a scattered few strolling towards the Shrine, the bridge was littered with hipsters dressed in ostentacious fashions and masses of people heading for the shrine. Rather than the peaceful paradise of 3 months ago, it was one of the busiest weekends of the year. There was a festival as well as the celebration of Shichi-go-san. Shichi-go-san is when children who are aged 3, 5, or 7 go to a shrine dressed in their cutest baby kimono with their parents to pray and receive blessings for their lifetime.

That said, the shrine was still incredibly beautiful, and we found our ways to make the most of it. We saw a few places I had never been to, such as Empress Shoken's inner garden, and the treasure museum. After hoofing all over the world that morning, we still had much to conquer, being due in Shinjuku at 3 or something. We made it to the garden a wee bit late, but with plenty of time to walk around with my friend Rebecca and her friend Ayaka and mentally block foot pain from our minds.

After that, one of my favorite parts of the Tokyo trip...Mexican food. We went to a restaurant in Shinjuku called El Torito. I dined famously on chicken and beef fajitas, an apple margarita, and a banana creme chimichanga for desert. This food made me so very, very happy. I think of it fondly sometimes, remembering how I didn't even mind spending $20 on a meal I could have scored in the South for less than $10.After that, our minds and bodys rejuvenated, we sought to entertain ourselves further that evening. We walked over to the Mos Eisley of Tokyo, Kabukicho ("I just want to see it for a second!" Rebecca helped us justify.) and while not quite a hive of villainy at 7 on a Sunday, we could definitely see that it deserved its reputation. Following that, we met with more of Rebecca's friends of the English teaching variety and went to karaoke.

The night dragged on, and we didn't make it back to the hostel until after midnight. I think we took probably one of the last trains back. Upon arrival, I fell asleep quickly. Despite the blisters on our feet, we continued to look forward to the coming day.

See also: Day 1, Day 2, Day 4

Tokyo - Day 2 - November 1st

Waking up at the crack of 8 AM, we began our day eating cinnamon rolls (well Chris ate candy and leftover steak from the previous night) and playing Wii. After much digression, my friend drove us to our train station around 11 AM. We booked back toward the hotel, freshened up, then set out for our destination of the day: Odaiba.

Odaiba started as a number of island cannon batteries constructed in the 1800s to protect Tokyo (then Edo) from sea assault. The current island of Odaiba consists of one of those batteries (#3) plus some islands built out of trash and then relabled 'reclaimed land' and covered in business and entertainment.

A suspension bridge called the 'Rainbow Bridge' connects Odaiba to the mainland and
has a pedestrian walkway. So we took a train to the base of the bridge, and then walked across. When dressing for the day I didn't expect the crosswinds we encountered on the bridge. I spent much time on the bridge clutching my skirt to my legs and shuffling along.

After we snapped some awesome pictures of Tokyo, we arrived on the island of Odaiba and checked out the parks. Walking through the parks, something like 70% of the people had their dogs with them. We found the old battery #3 and due to the lack of English signage and my total failure at reading the Japanese, thought it dated from WW2 rather than the 1850s. After that, we headed towards the 'Statue of Liberty', the second piece of fake-America we ended up finding in Tokyo.

Our stomachs growing weary and starving, we searched for some food and landed on a festival in progress in front of 'Aqua City', a huge high-class shopping mall. There was fun dancing to watch, and cheap food to eat. We ate lunch for under 500 yen a person and also got entertainment for free. Sitting down and watching the dancers was a nice change from walking kilometer after kilometer.

Following our brief rest, we headed back into Aqua City and neighboring mall Decks Tokyo Beach and looked around at all the cool things to buy. We searched in vain for the 'Comme Ca Ism' branded candy, finding only Comme Ca Ism clothing, and Comme Ca Ism lunchboxes.

From there we wandered through the malls, figuring out where to head next. After we had decided to go to Palette Town, a conceptual mall/entertainment district nearby, we had one more stop - this cat store/amusement park. We passed on the 'attraction' (over $20 a person to pet adorable cats and watch them) but the store was hilariously overstocked in all things ridiculous for your cat.

At Palette Town, we wandered through Venus Fort, stumbled in on the Car Museum, and took a ride high above the skyline on a giant ferris wheel. The views from the top were terrific, even if my camera largely failed me.

After that, we hoofed back to Asakusa. Once in our hotel, I was lulled to sleep by the warmth and comfort of the bed, and promptly crashed, sleeping through dinner entirely.

See also: Day 1, Day 3, Day 4

Nifty new online archive

Google, in its ever pressing desire to take over the world, has introduced a new archive of photos from Life dating from the beginning of photographs to the 1970s. Some of the photos have never been published before. Linky.

There's a lot of cool stuff, like a bunch of old-timey pictures of airbases like Barksdale. Or pictures of the Ruins of Persepolis, one of the 10 coolest places in the world American's really can't go. Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Kittens. Basically, anything you want.

Fighting through the cold

Winter is starting to get here. I mean, it's still warmer than NY was, and it always will be, but in NY it was a trip in a parka from overheated room to overheated room, and here it's more like sitting in a 15 degree offices rubbing my hands together in a shirt and sweater. Then walking through 5 degree corridors to 10 degree classrooms to teach 50 minute lessons and am I losing you with the celsius yet?

(5 degree - 41 degree, 10 - 50, 15 - 59)

Solution is obviously to buy more sweaters. and turtlenecks. and start wearing a parka at ALL TIMES EVERYWHERE.

I fear for my electric bill...but I did up the efficiency of my apartment by plasticking my windows with bubble wrap.

Honestly I wouldn't mind so much if there weren't these ominous dark clouds. I can't see Daisen out my office window today...sigh.

Taiyou WHALES and such

I spent basically the last hour speaking to the school's industrial arts teacher about how many seasons each part of the US has, followed by why I went to collegei n New York instead of Louisiana, followed by Japanese and American differences in school systems and testing for college, followed by testing to become a US foreign service officer, followed by kanji for different kinds of fish, and I'm sure a number of things in between.

Also, he spend much of it waving a knife around.

Tokyo - Day 1 - October 31

Early in the morning of October 31, braving the darkness and the morning chill, Jessica and Chris set out from Nanbu-cho with their heavy luggage burdens toward Yonago station. Boarding a 5:30 train to Okayama, they slept fitfully in their seats as the sun began to brighten the world. In Okayama, they transferred to the Shinkansen train bound for Tokyo. And finally, at 11:30 in the morning, they arrived...and so begins their tale of triumph and the human spirit.


So once we had arrived at Tokyo station, we wandered around and I proceeded to get us terrifically lost. Our destination was the Imperial Palace, but it took us about an hour to find the location, only a kilometer or so away from the station. But the palace was awesome...if only we could enter. We wanted to go to the East Garden, but it was closed to the public (closed on Mondays and Fridays, of course!) so we only walked around. There were copious cool things to look at though, and nice pictures to take.

After that, we boarded a few trains bound for Asakusa, the district where our hotel was located. From there, our backs and legs aching under the weight of our overpacked duffels and backpacks, we took the long, long (10 minute) trudge to the hostel. The staff was friendly and we checked in with no problem. However they didn't provide towels there so we would end up having to purchase one at a convenience store.

This is the famous "flaming poo" Asahi beer building
in Asakusa, a short 3 minute walk from our lodgings.

From there, I hopped on a computer to see if I could resolve a 'I forgot my passport, can I still get on Yokosuka naval base?' problem. Problem resolved, we headed out for Yokosuka to stand in line for like 3 hours to get onto base and attend a REALLY FUN Halloween party with my old college friend.

There was carving of pumpkins, and wearing of super lame costumes, and fun was had by all. Also, we shouldn't have purchased that first night at the hotel. But since it was so cheap, it wasn't a huge loss.

See also: Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

Difference: made.

So I just wrapped up a 2nd year junior high class. It wasn't the most exciting class, but I got to throw in a few comments and dispute the idea that Americans overfeed their homestay guests.

Here was the reading comp for the day:
Nana: Everyone in my host family is nice to me. But my host mother always gives me too much food. Do I have to eat everything? It's too much for me.
Teacher's Answer: You must tell your host mother. Say, "I'm sorry. It's very good, but I can't eat that much." She'll understand.

After we'd gone through the reading and made sure the kids understood it, my co-teacher turns and asks me, 'Jessie-sensei, is this how it is in your family?' To which I got to turn around and say 'No, not really. We have all the food on the table and we can choose how much to eat on our own.'

Stereotype: busted.

In this particular class, there are two other teachers besides me. While the kids were working on writing practice, the other teacher came over and asked me if it was common in America, or if the way presented in the reading sketch was more common. I taught him the term 'family style'.

Later, the kids were working on a worksheet. I walk around and see how the kids are doing, and one of the smart kids appears to be done, so I ask him 'Are you finished? Can I see?' and look over his sheet. He is done, except for two vocab words and he made a little plural mistake in another part. The vocab is in English, he's supposed to translate it into Japanese. He goes for his dictionary/glossary. But no, I have other plans. I first pick the word 'anywhere'. Me: "Ok, 'anywhere'. You know 'anything'?" He sort of sits there, mulling it over, so I prompt, "How about 'where'?"

"Ah...'doko'" he says. Then I say, "So, what's anywhere. any." "Ah! dokodemo?" "Yeah!"

Then the next one was 'compare', so I threw out some comparisons. "Today is warm. Yesterday was cold. He is tall. He is short." I also did a scales motion with my hands, like I was weighing the options. Quickly I was rewarded with him finding the proper Japanese word, "'kuraberu'?" "Correct!"

It was really fun to teach like that. Instead of just giving him the answer, I made him come to understand the meaning through critical thinking. It's a better way to learn than rote memorization, I would say.

Earthquake Survivor

I JUST SURVIVED AN EARTHQUAKE.

In all actuality it was so mild I didn't know what it was until my coworkers clued me in.

But still...it's my first earthquake! (that I've noticed)

Tendencies of Mind and Body.

Back in high school, that one time I was in dance, I always had a bit of a problem in my stretching. From the beginning of the year, I had better flexibility in my right leg. But rather than redoubling my efforts and stretching my left leg more earnestly, I instead continued to devote more time to my right leg. I wasn't even trying to strive for balance, only putting in the bare minimum for my left leg.

Fast forward to my Japanese study. Early on, I got this knack for kanji (Japanese characters) study. I just enjoy the characters...I enjoy writing them, practicing them, learning new trivia about them...all very silly I know. But in the last two years, since the end of my grammar-based classes, I have focused on kanji to the detriment of my other skills.

What this all adds up to is a 167 on my JLPT 2 practice test. Maybe I should explain. The JLPT 2 is a test of Japanese vocabulary/kanji, listening, and grammar/reading comprehension. It is out of 400 points. You must get a score of 60% to pass the test. I got a 41%.

But do you know what I got on the kanji portion? Nearly 80%. Fabulous number, to be sure, but it's not going to pass the JLPT2 for me...kanji/vocab only accounts for 100 points of the score.

Oftentimes in my life I have let things fall by the wayside and focused on what I am really good at. In the context of out lives, specialization is required in order to find our careers and niches in the world, but in things like language study or stretching, balance is required. I can't get by just putting off doing those things I don't have as much skill in...it only makes the imbalances worse and harder to correct.

I could read all the kanji in the world but still have trouble understanding the meaning of a sentence if I cannot parse the grammar forms used.

Today I studied grammar for over 2 hours. Yesterday I did a pose in yoga multiple times that I have difficulty with. I am working to regain balance...but balance is difficult.

Irony

I bought this bag of about 15 mikan (little oranges, like clementines) yesterday and consumed the whole bag in one evening.

Today in school lunch we had a mikan.

Honestly though, it's ok. I really like mikan. I might go buy another bag full of mikan today.

Dollars and Yens

The US dollar is hovering at 100 yen in currency exchange these days. Although I am confident my home currency will recover eventually and once again beat out Japan by a wider margin, this is an economic bright spot at the moment for me, because I get more bang for my yen when sending money back. I have to pay some bills in the US so in the next few days I have to send some money back. I am of course happy to get almost $100 for every 10,000 yen I send back instead of $90.

So what makes the yen strong? Japan hasn't been growing very quickly in the last 20 years ever since the housing bubble burst. And one of the reasons is that people have stuck to very low-risk, low-reward economic policy. They also turned their economy inward, focusing on domestic development (ridiculous overpriced domestically grown fruit, for instance) over international trade.

Whatever that means, Japan doesn't have banks falling left and right at the moment. Instead, it's trucking along just as it has been, although cautiously lest the world drag it along with them into the dirt. And Mitsubishi just bought 21% of Morgan Stanley.

I should have kept up with studying economics more...I want to be able to have grand universal theories about this global economic crisis.

Life Shock

Recently I would say that although I am doing well in life and having a blast travelling every which way and buying things like persimmon trees and cardigans, I am definitely in a period of extreme adjustment.

First off, the obvious, the culture shock. My culture shock has been pretty mild altogether. Even though I've only been here a few months, I had been here before. There haven't really been things about Japan bothering me. There is the difference in social manners which takes some getting used to. I don't think I'll ever get used to people brushing their teeth at their desk. And I myself still don't properly perform all table manners and social graces.

I'm working on it though. Two of the most useful phrases in Japanese are "o tsukaresama (deshita)" and "yoroshiku onegaishimasu". The first literally means "You must be tired" But is usually used as "Thank you for your hard work" Situations where you might hear someone say "otsukaresama deshita" to you:

-You leave work for the day
-You come back from an out-of-office business meeting
-You get off a bus or train or airplane
-You perform any sort of action which may benefit someone else or yourself

And "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" basically comes out to "please treat me kindly" and it follows any request or action which may cause any social disharmony whatsoever. "I am taking a day off, yoroshiku onegaishimasu" or "Would you make a worksheet? yoroshiku onegaishimasu" and the most awesome, "I'm glad to meet you, yoroshiku onegaishimasu"

Honestly, if you learned those two phrases, the basic greetings, and "shitsurei shimasu" (I am rude, used when entering or leaving rooms, homes, etc, and for saying "excuse me" to people) you would probably come across as fluent. Because sometimes it seems like that's all people really need to say!

Back to the topic, after that tangent, I am facing adjustments beyond culture shock. It's like this whole change from college to work, (work shock?) and the switch from living with people to living alone (LONELY SHOCK). Like many of my difficulties adjusting to work have less to do with the Japaneseness, and more to do with the fact that I just got out of college. And many of my lonely moods have more to do with the fact that I live alone than the fact that I live alone in Japan.

Taken as a whole picture though, I really am doing well. I'm proud of myself and I feel like every day I accomplish something for myself or someone else. I would tell myself "otsukaresama" if I was allowed to!

A special treat for you all.

I made a video!



Please enjoy the images of Japan set to cheesy music, followed by a brief clip of karaoke funtimes.

Universal Truths

No matter where you go in the world...



You will always find Richard Feetoff.

Elementary = funfunfun

Today I observed two elementary classes another JET was teaching.

We played lots of fun games, like a game where 1 person was the "Wolf". The other children had to ask "What time is it Mr/Miss Wolf?" and then the wolf would reply with a time of day (any time) like say "3 o'clock!" Then the wolf took three steps, staring down the other children menacingly. This would happen again. The third time the children asked "What time is it Mr Wolf?" the wolf says "It's 12 o'clock!" And the kids all go "Aaaaaa It's lunchtime!" and the kids all run from the wolf and whoever is caught by the wolf is the wolf's "lunch"

Then the "lunch" becomes the next wolf. Rinse and Repeat.

This message brought to you by "Jessica's suggestions for ESL games ripped off from other teachers" available this coming April in bookstores everywhere.

This might suck if my car wasn't so tiny

Gasoline in Japan goes for around 160 yen/liter

To save you the trouble you would likely not take to figure that out in real money and units, that's about $5.80/gallon.

I guestimate my Honda Today gets over 50 mpg, but I haven't really tested it.

Sports Festival

Just about every school in Japan runs a few festivals. The big ones are the Sports Festival and the Culture Festival. The Culture Festival revolves around arts and speeches and things, plays, exhibits, etc.

The Sports Festival...well it revolves around sports all right, but not in the "baseball and volleyball and soccer" way you might imagine. Here`s a rundown of the events that occured in our junior high sports festival here:

-Opening Ceremony in which all students and teachers must stand for ungodly amounts of time doing basically nothing and listening to nonsense Japanese. (ok, so only nonsense to me)
-Rajio Taisou, calisthenics performed en masse to catchy piano music. I participated with the rest of the students and teachers in looking like a total dork.
-100 meter race
-"Mountains and Valleys" a game where students must balance a ping-pong ball on a fan and walk over to a pylon, circle the pylon twice, and return.
-"Olympics" a strange collection of events that do not resemble the olympics at all, i.e. spinning with you head on a baseball bat, and then participating in a 4 legged race (3-legged race with an extra person)
-Tug-of-war
-"Friend park" a unique er...game where two person teams compete. First one person drags the other on a dolly to station A. At station A they both put on helmets and mount a bicycle (one person sits on the cargo seat and balances two large but lightweight boxes), then they travel to station B while balancing the boxes. At station B one person gets in a wheelbarrow and the other pushes her to the finish line. Yes.
-Relay race, one for each grade level (all students) and then one with all the grade levels (some students chosen from within the class)
-長谷川Japan vs 太田Japan, girls from each 3rd year class compete for who can grab the most tires and bring them back across the line.
-Tama-ire (Balls-in) the 1st years throw balls into baskets lofted in the sky. Whoever gets the most in wins.
-"Boy Fight" Two teams of boys each have a pole. Half the boys hold up the pole, the other half go try to knock the other team`s pole down. Winner is first to make the other team`s pole hit the ground.
-Mukade Race (centipede race) groups of 5 students have their legs connected together and must hobble around the track. This was done relay style. The last place team was um...4 minutes behind everyone else. Quite sad.
-"Folk" dance in which all the students dance halfheartedly to some weirdo dance the 3rd years created to a catchy Japanese pop song. Well the 3rd years were at least pretty excited..
-Closing Ceremony, which is the same as the opening ceremony except after it`s over I have to help clean everything up and take down tents.

Note about the relay race: the teachers had to join in with the 1st year students. We ended up getting 3rd place. I was the first teacher to run and I was in 3rd place after the baton pass. But I felt ok about this because a lot of people were slower than I, and at the end of the day all the teachers kept saying "Jessie-sensei hayai! hayai!" (fast! fast!) but man...I`m not fast. Those little 12 year olds are fast. I will try to do better next year...gotta get in shape.

Note about the Japanese school system: Elementary is 1st to 6th grade, Junior High is 7th to 9th grade, and Senior High is 10th to 12th grade. I`m having a lot of trouble explaining and getting the people I work with to understand the fact that they have 7th, 8th, and 9th graders at their school in English instead of 1st grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade(which of course makes them sound like 7 year olds). So I have more or less compromised and I`m trying to make them say "1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year" Do you think this is for the best?

I`m not always sure what to write about, so if you ever have any questions about my life in Japan or anything about Japan, let me know.

School lunch SCANDAL

This day just got exciting.

Today on the school lunch menu, it said we would be eating "Momo zeri" (jello with peaches in it) with lunch. BUT INSTEAD it was...a frozen mikan! It feels like the world is crumbling around me! What if tomorrow they feed me a live cicada! I cannot trust the school lunch menu ever again. As they say, fool me once...and such and such. The elevator of trust has bottomed out at ground floor, and my heart aches at the betrayal I`ve experienced.

In all seriousness now, why would you freeze a perfectly good orange? Much tastier at room temperature or lightly chilled, in my opinion.

Freakish mutant insects.

Ahhhh Japan. Beautiful mountains, gorgeous coastline, rich verdant valleys, and giant man eating bugs of doom.

If you thought Mothra was just something someone made up, let me tell you. Mothra is real. He`s real and he flew in my face this morning. Well, if I`m exagerating, it`s only slightly. Mothra wasn`t the size of a small mountain, only twice the size of my fist, but I think we can all agree that that qualifies as freakishly big on the moth size scale.

I have trouble convincing my Japanese colleagues and friends ("But everything in America is bigger!" is the frequent refrain) but the truth is that the insects of Japan are in a class all their own. Beetles the size of your fist. Moths the size of your face. Dragonflies with a wingspan larger than 6 inches. Hornets that make the American ones look like babies.

This isn`t to imply I`m running around like a little girl crying over them, and in fact I find the insects here fascinating most of the time. I just wanted to let you know that Mothra was probably inspired directly by the gigantic moths that actually live here, and same with that one Japanese cartoon "Blue Gender" I saw where giant bugs take over earth and kill all the humans.

Lastly, I`m currently in a protracted war with no end in sight with the spiders that live on my balcony. Every time I destroy their webs of evil, they return stronger than before, bewebbing my garden and balcony the second I turn my back. I may have to surrender to them eventually.

Dinner and a Family

One of the nicest things I got from my predecessor wasn't the TV, or the (ugly) couch, or the bookshelves, or the kitchenware. You see, my predecessor left me a family.

Once a week on Wednesday or Thursday usually, the Iwada family welcomes me into their home. Mr. I is a psychiatrist who wants to get a fellowship in the US and live there. He is working hard to study English and hopes to get a good enough score on the TOEIC test to get a position in the US. Mrs. I is a stay-at-home mom who studies English every day and is trying to get over an 800 on the TOEIC. They both took the test last month again, and the missus improved her previous score by 100 points! (up to 620) So I hope I can be of help to them, teaching them English.

Oh also, they have offspring. Ma-kun and Ma-chan. They are cute. I mean, they are adorable. I mean, they are a 5 year old boy, and a 2 year old girl. Today was my third week visiting them, and Ma-chan hugged me! It was really nice, because the first day she was so afraid and would cry she caught me looking at her the wrong way.

The kids have the most hilarious books. I'll blog about them sometime. We didn't read books tonight so I can't remember the plots, but they are these children books in English written by a Japanese author for Japanese children, and the plots tend to be bizarre, or end suddenly, or totally change halfway through without warning. Oh I remember one of the plots a little, it's a book called "Balloon Cat" and the ending is "Balloon cat floated up toward the moon." next page, pictures of opposite things! "Short! Tall!" etc. WHAT?

Even if they didn't pay me 3 watermelons worth a week in yen for the pleasure of their company, the food alone would be worth it. There's always 4 or 5 different things, and fruit for dessert. It's quite lovely and saves me the trip to the conbini (convenience store) for a premade meal. Or cooking myself a small portion of spaghetti...again. :)

But ah, to spend the evening with learned, well-travelled Japanese people with fairly competent English levels explaining the differences between "abbreviation" and "contraction", or "any of them" and "some of them", whilst eating everything in sight and playing with baby children.

Also I learn some new Japanese as well!

Ah...so far, this is one of the best things about Japan for me. Every week I have something to look forward to.

My disappointment for today

While picking up some sushi at the grocery store for dinner, I grabbed ANAGO (saltwater eel) instead of UNAGI (freshwater eel).

The texture and taste of the Anago is similar but unique from Unagi.

Also, I don't like it very much.

Live and learn...to stop five seconds and make myself read the Japanese words on the package next time.

On the brighter side, my negitoromaki (Fatty tuna and green onion roll) is fabulous.

Shopping Therapy.

Peter Rabbit towel - ¥105

Kiyomi Taguchi kitty wallet - ¥525

Monkey and cat pot holders - ¥210

Triumphant fairy puzzle (1000 pc) - ¥3,280

Getting through a terrible sunburn sustained at Kozomi beach by buying fun new things - PRICELESS

Videos from Gaina Matsuri

A pair of cool vids I captured at the Gaina Matsuri. Enjoy!

First, umbrella dancing.



Second, lantern balancing.

祭り！Festivals!

I've really been enjoying the festival season here in Japan. At this time of year there is a festival just about every day! You could get tired of them pretty quickly, but I've had a blast at the two I've been to.

I went to the Gaina Matsuri on August 2-3 in Yonago. The first day focused on the thing shown to the left - lantern balancing and that parade. It was really cool to watch and one of the lanterns fell right above my head once! We also saw some catch on fire that had to be quickly stomped out. I think the one the kid is balancing isn't lit, but they don't play around in Japan. Those paper lanterns were lit on fire and being carried around.

The second day we went to a great fireworks display followed by some Taiko drumming. The other big thing at festivals is food stalls. Festival food stpales include takoyaki (octopus dumplings), manjuu (bean paste confections), ikayaki (grilled squid), and french fries! The stall pictured to the right sells yam fries.

The other festival I went to was the Tsuki no Wa (Moon Wheel) festival in Yasugi (20 minutes away from Yonago by train) There we saw the famous "3000 fireworks" fireworks display. It was amazing! The fireworks were RIGHT THERE next to us. Also they had some of the loudest fireworks I've ever experienced. More than a few times I heard bawling children. Following the fireworks there was a rock concert featuring the Japanese band Chunk followed by a screaming band named...something else. We really enjoyed Chunk so we got t-shirts and had the band sign them! Good fun.


Please check out the rest of the pictures - more cool lanterns and fireworks and cute children.

Very cool, very Japanese.

About a week ago I made this walkthrough of my apartment. Should give you an idea of where I'm living!



Apologies in advance if you feel like you've wasted your time watching this video!

Don't Mistake!

People often wonder why the Japanese use so much English on their clothing and packaging. Adding to the confusion is the tendency to use English that is flat-out incorrect. But there is a purpose, and that purpose is fashion. Simply put, English is a trend. English is cool. Much like some people wear Chinese characters on their shirts or their skin, the Japanese like to have some English hanging around.

But enough information. That first photo up there is of a bag from the kura-no-suke store. Cool place, and thanks for the kind wishes!

      

These are signs from a bathroom at the restaurant "CAFE MOTHER" (oh that place is such an Engrish goldmine!)

This chair promises a lot...and honestly I sat, and I was disappointed.

This is the first in a million part series.

Click here for the Engrish archive

I'm alive!

It's been a while, folks. And trust me there is lots to tell!

My internet just got connected! It's awesome to have it again!

Tomorrow I will try to start writing again about Japan, catching up and telling you about all the sights, places, people, and KARAOKE I've been up to!

明治神宮 -- Meiji Shrine

Meiji Shrine was built to enshrine the deified Emperor Meiji and his wife, the Empress Shoken. Emperor Meiji is one of the most famous emperors in Japanese history. He was in power during the opening of Japan following Matthew Perry's contact and during the Meiji Restoration, which was the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and a time when Japan rapidly westernized and adopted new technologies.

The Imperial Line is fabled to be descended from the goddess Amaterasu. Since the start of Japanese recorded history the Emperor has been seen as a god and the Empress as a goddess. Even now many people think of their monarchs as gods and goddesses on earth.

As for the Shrine itself, it was the favorite part of my day. In the midst of the busy orientation schedule, and the insanely busy city of Tokyo, it is like a distant forest totally removed from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Adrianne and I basically walked around for an hour going "Oo, ahh, I feel so nice to be here."

See some more pictures from my trip to Meiji Shrine

Morning in Japan

After a seemingly interminable and hellish flight, I slept like a baby in Tokyo.



View from my hotel room.

2 checked bags, 1 carry-on, and 1 small personal item.

Ernie the cat helps me close my overstuffed suitcases.

All my eggs in one basket.

I first heard about JET in high school, as my high school Japanese teacher had been a part of it. However, I didn't give it much thought again until well into my junior year of college.

My first two years of college I spent totally convicted that I was going to be a college professor/scholar. While I've not totally ruled out such an end for myself, by junior year I was more and more burning out on the school thing.

Spring '06, I attended an "information session" hosted by a former JET and SUNY Albany alum. Then it all began.

Becoming part of the JET Program is virtually a year-long process.

Beginning in September I checked the site over and over, watching and waiting for the application to be posted.

Once that was posted I set to work on all the paticulars: letters of reference, assembling proof of enrollment, copies of my passport, the whole nine yards. Then a week before it was due, I got started on all those little things.

You know, like the two page Statement of Purpose, practically the most important thing on the application. (written in about 3 hours total, mostly on the day I mailed it, by the way) Oh, fun footnote, the first paragraph of my Statement of Purpose is a sentence fragment.

Finally, close to the wire, I paid waaay too much to overnight it since I worried it wouldn't make it in time. It made it in time!

Then, I waited. And waited. Until sometime in mid-January I found out I had cleared the first hurdle and was being invited to an interview in NYC at the consulate. Then more waiting, and some shoe shopping (for the interview, of course).

The interview was somewhat intimidating, and I arrived there nearly an hour early. I spent the hour mentally preparing myself and conversing with the other interviewees as well as some former JET participants who were there to "calm" us.

The interview itself went fairly well. The interview panel consisted of a man from CLAIR (the overseeing body of the JET Program), a Japanese literature professor from the College of New Jersey, and a former JET/current employee of the NY Consulate. The first question wasn't even a question, "I see you have a very high GPA!"

To which I nervously responded, "Oh? I didn't think it was very high."

After the interview I realized during it I kept messing with my shoes during the interview. I hoped the panel hadn't noticed.

The next wait was the worst. See, I kept intending to put in applications for other positions, finding other jobs.

I didn't. My eggs were all sitting in the JET basket, and I was begging them to hatch. Finally, in early April, as I slowly went insane, I found out that I had made the "short list." As long as it didn't turn out that I was secretly a criminal (FBI background check) or failing to graduate, I would be going to Japan on July 26, 2008.

However I wouldn't find out where in Japan I was going, or what my working situation would be, until the end of May.

Waiting, waiting, and more waiting. Now, 10 months after I first started this process, I'm about to start the actual job. I think it's been worth it, but I'm glad I'm almost done waiting.

Jikoshokai - Self Introduction

In Japan, it's customary to give a self-introduction to your new friends. Now, most of the people reading this blog (especially at first) are my friends and family, but just for fun, let me introduce myself.

My name is Jessica. I come from many places, but I like to think of Shreveport, Louisiana as my "hometown." I was born there, and went to high school there. This whole "Japan" thing started with an interest in the language and some Japanese culture (namely the pocket monster collecting culture) when I was in 7th grade. I went on to take the language in high school.

When I went to college, I wasn't set on the "Japan" thing but I knew I wanted to learn more. I chose a school with a small but robust Japanese program, SUNY Albany. When I first went there I planned to double-major in Economics and Japanese, then I dropped Economics. Then there was this misadventure into Computer Science...which I also dropped.

Following that nightmare detour, I happened to take an introductory Linguistics class. I finally picked Japanese as my major, and Linguistics as my minor, met my dear boyfriend, and thoroughly enjoyed the final 2 years of my undergraduate career.

Now, I'm about to set off on my second trip to Japan. Last time I stayed 4 months, studying at Kansai Gaidai University in urban Hirakata, Osaka. This time I'll be going somewhere entirely different--to teach at a couple junior highs and elementary schools in rural Nambu, Tottori. Nambu has a population of 12,000 people. So, it's like Brenham, TX, but smaller and without a Blue Bell ice cream factory. Or like Smallville sans Superman.

What Nambu does have is yummy fruit, rice with ducks swimming in it (more on that another day), a number of beautiful mountains, shrines, and temples, and a truly awesome, cheap apartment I will have to tell you all about.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu! (Nice to meet you)