Halloween Party at Tiger Bar

Bow down before me please....

View from the hill

These pics are of the funny girls who I have been eating lunch with every day. They are 9th graders and are really friendly and we trade food. One of the girls is the one who says "Peanuts Please." and "Peanuts make me happy" cracks me up!

I had to post these pics of the sun seting from atop this hill. Japan is 80% mountainous terrain so there are little mountains or hills randomly in the middle of neighborhoods. This is next to where I live in the middle of the city. There are about 00 straight up steps to get here and your legs WILL burn by the time you reach the top. Any how its so relaxing once you get to the top. You can see all the city and no one wants to walk up these longs steps so its nice and quiet. I almost fell asleep watching the sun set....

Also, there are a lot of articles on suicides and teachers and such:


One last one...i promise. I found this article today. It kind of talks about the role of temples in the lives of the young people here. Once very popluar at all levels, everyone I talked to says they could care less about them, they are for the older people.

Last Day at Maenosho Elementary

The end is near...

Today was a pretty fun day. Just knowin the end is near it makes you not care about what ANYONE thinks and I pretty much just goofed around wit the kids today. I have to admit, I make all Americans seem probably crazy. I hop up the steps into every class now. Why? Cause its funny and its what I want to do. The kids expect nothing less. While walking through the hall, I walk really creepy and sneaky past their open classrooms and make faces. I still speak in my weird accents and NEVER talk normally. I would love to actually see a video of me teaching to see what it looks like. It has to be funny i just know it!! :) well at least to me. I even make the teachers laugh and they have no sense of humor. I was telling corny jokes that are on the stickers i was giving the kids today and cracking up at the answers while they sat there not knowing what was so funny.

Anyhow today I taught my own lil lesson on Halloween and made a True or false quiz for them to get. I read through my quiz, such as "Its is very common for kids to dress up for Halloween." I was going to give a sticker to anyone who got all 12 answers correct but no one did. They have no clue about Halloween. No one trick or treats or dresses up here. It was fun. They asked me questions about it but i think that was only so i would give them a sticker as that is my bargaining tool to get answers. They love stickers of any kind. I have to teach this lesson all day on Friday too. Its fun though even though I have to work with mrs. Miwa who I loathe. She's so fake to me i hate it. So now I am SO fake to her. I love it.

I ate lunch with the same group of girls today. The yell "Don-yell, Please please!" and I enjoy lunch as we traded today for my candy. Renee's mom sent me sour gummy spiders and I brought them to share with the kids. I traded one for one, my food for theres. I dont like candy to much so I got some good Japanese candy out of the deal. I told them they were sugared spiders from the US and they believed me and all wanted some. I ended up giving them all out and but I still got some tabemono (food) coming my way on friday! They laughed at my spaghetti/rice combo today. I tell them mits very famous in America and they say its gross. The teacher said it to cuz she was laughing and I said, "What if i said I think its weird that you eat a raw fish?" She had no answer. Don't mess with me when I m on a roll. The students all will come over and stare at what Im eating and drinking. One student noticed the Yellowcard sticker on my water bottle and knew that band and brought me a sticker of them today. IT was cool. I have given all my stickers and prizes away so far this week. Its fun to give stuff away.
During one class, Shinji sat in the back and flipped me off the whole time while also doing the throat slice gesture to me. It was quite pleasant while teaching. Then another student who sits by the window used the glare off his mirror to try and get me in the eyes. Its a bit of a challenge sinceI cant discipline so I just laugh and shake my fist at them. Shinji has never done any of his work and doesnt even open his book and when he does he makes hi neighbor do it in front of the teacher and they dont say anything.
I have to prepare a farewell to speech to give at a special assembly for me this friday. I want to say I LOVED working with the kids when I actually did and all you teacehrs need to go buy a sense of humor. ITs sad in a way I wish they would have let me work with the kids some more. I also have to write a letter for the school paper for the parents too. It was weird the principal talked to me today, I mean he acknowledged me. It was weird.
Yesterday was handicapped kids day. It is so fun to work with them. I do nothing but read a few cards. They just memorize the words but the kids are just too cute. Theres also a really strange boy who I have been giving small little ifts too and he loves them and talks to me in Japanese and I just nod and say "hai" and he just keeps talking. Others make fun of hm as he is really strange but I like it cuz they think he must be cool if Im talking to him.

Anyhow, it was a fun day. Tomorrow I will goto Yumesaki-Cho one last time.

Oh and the BEST thing of my day is one girl always begs me for my "Butter Peanuts" which bring everyday. She holds her hand out and says "Peanuts make me happy". That cracks me up, and I can picture that on a tshirt and one of their funny slogans they have everywhere.
:)

My TIme to Boast

So I was sitting on top of this hill today watching the sunset and it was really peaceful and nice. I was thinking about things and I decided I am very proud of myself to have had the courage to come allll the way over here to live. Even if it wasn't for a full year. I have known friends of mine to have studied abroad in Australia or England, or maybe even northern Mexico but that's it. This is WAY different when you can't read, write, or speak a language. I have seen a number of places here, basically all of the Honshu region. Some great sites. I have also learned what it is like to be a minority, be scared, frustrated, stared out, ignored, laughed at, etc. BUT i think this gives me even MORE a sense of compassion to minorities and other foreigners in the US. It has given me an appreciation for another culture. I LITERALLY sit in my desk and watch the people at school speak and communicate and think "Wow, how are they communicating? Its not English." It was weird to me and now i understand there are other entire CULTURES. Interesting, but cant be seen in a book. I also realize how much I am grateful to live in the US. I have learned who my true friends are and those who will send me a myspace message and act like we are best buds. I have learned what it is to be lonely and overwhelmed with people around you too. I first tried backpacking, taking the trains, buses, cooking for myself for the first time, buying groceries, opening a bank account, expressing and communicating with people with no language, meet friends by myself, i.e. manami and eric. And gained an even BIGGER appreciation for traveling in the future. I DEF am not scared to backpack in Europe. It cant be harder than not being able to read signs or speak to anyone or write anything.

Some other important things I have learned that cant be bought are I have learned to ignore what people think. Many times in the past I would not like to upset someone or step on toes as they say. I have learned to ignore what people will think and just do what feels right. I didn't feel like staying an extra 10 hours of unpaid time at work, so i said nope sorry. They tried to blame me for something, I said nope didn't do that. Sounds easy but i would not have done that in the past. This is my new favorite thing. I learned to do what makes me happy more too. No staying home on the weeknight, go out and have FUN!! Anyhow, I could care less what people think and i am glad i made the decision to come here and will leave with more than when i came. (unfortunately that doesn't go for money :( ) But this is my little pat on my back.

Aboshi Lantern Festval October 21 2006

This weekend I went to the Aboshi Lantern Festival with Manami and Atsumi. I met them at the train station at 6:30 and we took the train to Aboshi whch took about 30 min. They brought there other friend Dan along who was from Canada. The girls were chatting together so I talked with Dan on the way there. He was nice and had been in Himeji for 2.5 years. He taught English at the YMCA here. He said he only taught 1 day a week and got paid enough to get by. Can you imagine having to work only one day a week? I asked him what the hell he does all day and he just said, “Not much of anything.” He did tell me some cool stories of a biking adventure he took. He biked from here to Tokyo in about 1 month, just sleeping in a tent at night in a park. Then he went and bike through Kyushu in a month and then did Okinawa. How amazing that must have been. He said Okinawa was a real party town. I am sad as I will have never have gotten the chance to have seen that Island.
I followed Manami since she new where to go once we got off the train. Our group had added a person as some British girl asked f she could follow us on our way since she had no idea where to go. She lives in himeji and works for NOVA. NOVA is a for profit corporation that also brings foreigners over to teach English only they actually work. They do about 8 classes a day and don’t get weekends off. I hear bad things about them but if you don’t get into the JET progam and still really want to come here that’s what you do. They don’t even make near as much money as us either. Shitty.
Basically the Festival was similar to last weeks festival (each town has its own festival) as the colors which correspond to what neighborhood you live in each have a shrine and the men wear that color headband to carry the shrine through the streets to the temple to have it blesses. This festival has something to do with the harvest season from the sea since historically that is what this region of the country is known for. Remember how big those shrines were? Well tonight the would hoist them over there heads on cue and then lower them. IT was incredible considering how much these things weigh.
Then the communities would carry the lanterns through the streets and meet in the center of the town. They would chant for a while then the MC would call otu something and then they would smash the hell out of each others lanterns in the air. I had no cllue why though. They did this for a while so we wlked around. Atsumi and Manami got Takoyaki (octopus balls) which are good but I decided to just get a desert made out of the really good sweet beans. MMMMMmmmm! We wondered aroudn and looked at all the good food stalls. It was fun. Then we went to the main temple. Inside it was packed. It was crazy though. There were about Jr. High age girls getting wasted playing drinking games, the local hoodlums picking up chicks, and others getting drunk all around. Matsuris are all about drinking too. IT was funny. There were a number of fights I saw. Kinda like girl fights since all the boys are scrawny metrosexuals with long permed hair Manami told me some even wear make-up! I could never be stylish here as I wont take that long to get ready. Some really drunk guy in a funboshi (or loin cloth) came up to me talking crap. I just laughed and ignored him. His buddy grabbed him. I didn’t know what he was saying but it didn’t sound very nice. I saw one fight and one guy would not let go of the other guys hair and literally ripped a full handful of hair out. It was gross. Then I met some girl from Chicago and it was FUN to talk to another normal American girl. I also met up with some of Manami English speaking friends. One guy was REALLY wasted and cracking jokes the whole night. I was on t he floor. Mostly cuz he was making fun (in a nice way) of Japan and how the react to us foreigners. Everyone on the train was just staring at him. I even got some pics with a local guy who just waslked up and put his headband on me. He then even gave me his special festival coat he was wearing to carry the lanterns on me so I could get a good picture. Still some nice people here.
Then I went to the Tiger pub to see if anyone was there. Downstairs was a funky jazz band. It was nice to just sit and chill and listen to some good msic. I talked to a few people I had seen before too. A girl came up and talked to me who was American but she kept telling me how wasted she was and I felt left out as I was not drinking. It was especially fun to see new American people! It was incredibly smoky in there and my eyes wouldn’t stop watering so I headed home as I was so tired from walking around all night. I am REALLY glad I met Manami as she is a great guide and really fun to talk t about stuff. She’s a good listener and you can tell she’s interested. She’s also very open-minded about many things and can speak on a broad range of topics such as religion and human rights and such. Some good conversations, even though sometimes I cant understand her English entirely.
Today I went to sit by the castle on a bench next to the water after I had a nice long lifting session at the gym. However, I got my book out, started to read and after 10 minutes my eyes were closing. So I decided to just close them a 1uick second, Japanese style. Next thing you know I was straight up sleeping on some bench while people walked by. No one bothered me and it was soo nice I didn’t mind either. Well mom comes in a lil over a week and I still don’t have out trip planned. I better get on it! One more week of work! Woo-hoo!

Notes:
1. My new favorite fruit is called Kake. Or in America I guess its called Persimon. (I have no clue how to spell it as I have never heard of it before this month) IT is nothing but a piece of pure deliciousness! They are coming into season here and are at the stores now. I bought another bag of them and they area great! You must try them!

ANother Friday....

So Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I literally did nothing but sit on my ass at work 8 hours a day It was actually really boring. I am good at doing nothing but only when I have things to do to at least pass them time. You are not allowed to listen to headphones and there is no more internet so it was bad. No one talked to me all day at work either. The kids were testing so I couldn’t talk to them either until after school. Instead of just sending me home they make me sit here all day wiht NOTHING to do. Its fun to talk to the kids after schooll. I am the school clown to them. My arch nemesis Shinji caught me off guard with a good koncho not once but twice. Then taunted me and would sprint away when I approached him. Its quite annoying having to cover your ass while walking amongst the kids but its good prep for prison. :) My friend Manami said it’s a joke and not to take it seriously. It means “they like you”. Greaaaat.
One teacher took me to his house to show me his black lab who is 1 year old. He was a big boy and very cute. E must stay in a crate all day which is cruel to me but what can you do. He gave me a tour of his huge townhouse and gave me a drink. He married a Candaian English teacher 5 years ago and now wants to move to Vancouver. I was surprised by how big his place was. I think it costs about 2,000$ a month.
The other English teachers are a holes. The lady next to me does not speak to me or tell me whats going on anymore so I just will be sitting here and everyone in the room leaves for early release or an assembly or something. Just gowith the flow. She is trying to blame me for messing up their test by saying the wrong thing on the oral test. My job was to read a script twice though. They think I cahnged what it said and screwed up the test. I really doudbt I read info not on the sheet out loud twice in a row and didn’t notice. I said with a big smiles, “No I don’t think so. I would like to hear the tape actually.” She said she doesn’t have it. They use me so much I decided I had endured enough boredom and since I needed to goto the bank before they close at 3pm I was going to go during the middle of the day. I just got up and took my bike and rode to the bank. I was gone maybe an hour and finished my banking and rode back. Absolutely no one even noticed. PS they are talking about me right now and its awkard cuz they think I don’t know a nd im right next to them. Anywho....

Yesterday I went to a new Elementary school I had no clue what station to get of on and that was not fun. I can’t read any signs The teacher at the school was nice but didn’t speak any English. I just brought pics from home and the the students asked me questions for the next hour. I did that 4 times over, same question over and over. I didn’t ind though. The kids are too cute. Ex: Whats you favorite color? What’s your favorite flower? Do you like Japan or the US better? What is your favorite saying? What is your dream from being a kid??? Also, interesting they asked me my blood type. I asked my friend last night and she said its very popular to do that and everyone knows theirs I have no clue. People use it to choose a mate or just to say, “yea I figured he was A type.” or something. Interesting.
Then I went to the gym and to our ALT meeting. It is where all have to gather to chat. THEY bitched about TRASH and TRASHCANS and other petty issues for like 30 min and all of a sudden I started laughing as I couldn’t believe all of these grown ups were arguing and side chatting and making this meeting awful About TRASH AGAIN I wanted to rip my eyes out.
Then I went for a jog, and had dinner. Later that night I went for a walk with my friend Manami again. She is nice and asks me lots of questions and I enjoy our talks. She does too. She always works so its hard to et to see her but she invited me to a festival with her and her friend from golfing atsumi on Saturday night. Im excited for another festival at least. In my free time at work today im gonna keep planning Tokyo. I AM excited for that and to see my mom
Also my friend dave called me and said he really wants to backpack in Europe. I was thinking about it and got excited. I know it would be fun to go with a buddy and it cant be any harder than here in Europe. I just look around and learn by observations. It’s the only way since icant read or write.
Later on today...I decided to goto the bank as I had nothing to do at work again for the next 3 hours left in my day. I was gone today for about 1.5 hours and no one noticed again. And im not even sneaky about it. I also taught the kids to play Heads Up Seven Up, which I really liked in school. They really liked it to. I also did hang man today which I really enjoy. This is how they use me...for hangman and heads u seven up?? Whatever...beats working hard I guess. I stayed after as I was asked to help a girl with a speech in English, it was so awful I just wrote it for her and then sat on the other side of the room while she practiced. Her breath almost knocked me out.
Like everyday i dont want to sit with the teachers anymore at lunch so i join the kids. They all have to come over, laugh, point, and stare at my food before they can eat. today it was half cooked spagheti, with rice, peanuts, furakake and soy sauce mixed up. Yet they eat rawfish and still laugh at me. I could easily get mad at being laughed at but they are kids. I just ask them questions the whole lunch period. I like asking what they would like to be when they grow up. Whenever eric or manami comes by around dinner they also laugh at my weird meals. I dont mind them and dont know how to cook so its all i can do for now. Thats what a girlfriend is for! :) I will learn one day i swear.
I got SOOO frustrated trying to close my bank account and communicate with the teller I almost broke down. That on top of a generally bad day was not fun. I ended up saying screw it and just taking my money out and leaving the account open for now. I also decided to use the last of my vacation days for my last 3 days of work. I was gonna work them but since I have earned them and they are not friendly at work and I just sit around I say screw it! Im going to relax! PLUS I haven’t even begun to pack anything. They will not be happy but oh well. Eric is being stalked by his employer. He keeeps calling in sick and just not going and they literally stood outside hs door till he had to come out today. I thought it was soo funny. Anyhow, that’s all or now. I hope tomorrow is better.

Nada Fighting FEstival Oct. 15th

The next morning I had to wake up to go and meet Eric and my boss and others at the train station to goto the Nada Fighting Festival. It was in a nearby suburb of himeji. It took only 15 minutes to get there. The train was packed as was the station. Many people were eaded there.

I didn’t know what to expect once at the festival, it turned out to be very interesting. We had VP seats from the city which normally a family has to pay about 2,000US $ for the section of 4. We were above all the common folk. Lord knows I don’t mix with the peasants. We got unlimited beer and sake and snacks served to us and some nifty hats to keep the sun off of us. Although we looked Amish wearing the hats I still wore mine. We also ad to pick a color headband. I chose green and realized it meant what team we were for. Each section of town was acolor and there men would come to hoist up the shrine and bash them together.
It’s quite dangerous and I wouldnt do it. Once the all lift these shrines, which weigh a “few tons”, the march them through town, chant, beat a drum, trhow salt on them, and finally smash them into each other. Once they hit they fall anywhich way. If you happen to be under it, then your dead and people have died and are injured every year.Some guy started pushing me up to one of them when I was in the arena and about crapped myself and said no.

Eric hits on every girl who is breathing and he always has me go along. I always say stupid things and he was telling me my ridiculous sayigs and stupid hat were ruining his chances. I thoght it was funny. Our boss, izuka-san, kept insisting we drink more so I obliged. Afterall it was still my bday in the US. I had about 10 beers throughout the day and choked down some warm sake, but sitting in the sun you get drunk. It was great. Why did I drink and eat so much??? Cuz its free I also bought a large squid to eat on a stick. I figured I’ll never try this again so what the hell. Its tough like jerky but good. I also ate anchovies and eel that day too. Eel was quite good. Lunch was provided and prolly cost about 20$. We stayed after when everyone left to talk more with our boss. He is very nice and was telling us things about Japan we didn’t know. LIKE, DYKnow that when a kid gets in trouble with the law, like shoplifting, the first people the police call to deal with it is his teacher? How crappy is that for the teachers. E said he doesn’t get home till maybe 9pm at night. Eats a late dinner then bath, then bed. Not a fun life I would say but im not him. He told us of his time in Tokyo and how no one should live there. He said everyone is only looking out for themselves and concrete everywhere. No soil.
He told us he had an arranged marriage which I didn’t know they had here but apparently still use today. Also, he used to be a specialist for the behavior problem kids. And “off the record” he used to kick some ass, he’s a black belt in aikido. He also said he had a few bones broken from some kids though too. He would’ve got fired for hitting them though but said he had no choice. He was drunk and telling us to drink more too as sake is sacred and drank at these matsuri and everyone drinks from morning till night and everyone really was It was a real insight into tradition of japan.
Then they carry the shrines for more fighting out to a mountain nearby. It was packed. On the way we saw a nice lil fight. One guy was tattooed up so prolly a yakuza. I wanted to see some ninja action but still it was fun to watch, First violence I have seen here. Then the road leading there was sooo crowded I could not move. I told Eric I couldn’t take anymore and was leaving except I couldn’t move. I was freaking about and people started pushing and I was sure it would lead to a stampede. I was looking for anyway to go but couldn’t move. I REALLY almost freaked out and climbed a roof but pushed my way the other direction. Some bloody English asshole was shoving me from behind hard. I threw my elbow back wards into him and he got the point. But it was really scary and what if you fell? You would’ve been walked on. I then walked up to the top of the mountain and took a few pics. No where to sit on the entire mountain. I then headed for the train station.
Overall, it would have been nice to see my friends for my bday but it turned out to at least be an interesting day...


Side Notes

1. Port a potties are even squat toilets. It looks quite funny.
2. Everyone smelled like booze and sweat...ewwwww
3. There are many foreign tourists I see around Japan who spends lots of money to travel and tour here and I get to for free It’s kind of neat. I don’t hink you can really experience it though from a few nights in the big cities though.
4. Apparently, I knew nothing about Australia and quizzed this girl for about 20 minutes on the country. I even asked if they used US money there. Shows you what I knew. Interesting to learn about it though. She teaches Japanese in high school there which is the most popular language to take in school there she said.
5. Im at school and a teacher is yelling so loud at a student, it is now the sound of a growl. Kinda scary.
6. I feel like sucha nerd as my pants are hiked up so high at school. It is how everyone her does it. I look like Mark Karr, the perv guy from jon benet case. WHICh reminds me of bill mahr show. He’s so funny. E said, “I never thought I would say this to a pedophile, but for God’s sake pull down your damn pants ” That show is hilarious