More from the Start

Hi again everyone. I'll continue filling you in about this past month.


As I mentioned before, I have a cell phone now. Aside from the beer, this cell phone is light years away from phones back home (except maybe the iPhone). It has an infrared port that you can put up next to other phones to exchange information, it has a barcode scanner, it's own email address (send me email at anragreg@softbank.ne.jp), can make international calls, and it's waterproof. Oh, did I forget it to mention it streams TV? I HAVE TV ON MY PHONE. I almost considered upgrading to the next model, wherein the phone jacks up to your brain an inserts you into The Matrix, but $40/month wasn't worth it.

Last weekend I went to the Omagari fireworks festival. This is the 2nd or 3rd biggest fireworks festival in all of Japan. I have never seen as many fireworks in my life as I have at the festival. It was a competition between fireworks companies in Japan, so they were all trying to outdo each other and win prizes. I kid you not, the festival was supposed to start at 5 (I think in reality, it started at sundown), and lasted until at least 9:30. We left after we thought we saw what was the finale. As we were walking away, the fireworks started again. I've never felt "eh" about fireworks until that night.

Helen, Seth, and Nick at the Omagari Fireworks.

We camped at lake Towazako that night, and we happened to meet up with some JETs who were camping right beside us. It was cool to hang out with the people there. Despite the rain, we remained pretty dry, and the next morning I woke up early to get a beautiful view of the lake.

A shrine at the Edge of Towazako.

So, last night, I went to the gym. It’s a pretty good deal, you only pay the equivalent of $1/hour. Anyways, as you know, in Japan, you always take off your shoes at the entrance of certain places. This was one of those places. I took of my black dress shoes and did my workout. When I finished, I picked them up from my cubby and went home. Well, this morning, I try to put them on, and find out they’ve magically shrunk! Who in their right mind would break into my apartment while I was asleep and replace my shoes with their-….crap, I took someone’s shoes from the gym, and I have work in 15 minutes.

I am proudly sporting my sneakers today at work. What? You don’t wear sneakers to work, Mr. Nakamura? Pfft, you’re a little 18th century, buddy. Around lunchtime, I’ll drive to the gym and begin the game of charades required to solve this issue.

I had my first day on teaching this past Monday. It was a lot of fun. The students were so energetic. They were really excited to see who this new English Assistant was. The school is pretty small, there are only 19 students, in total, for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. They brought me to their auditorium and had a whole welcoming ceremony for me. During class, they had lots of questions for me. They wanted to know my favorite music, the sports I like, my favorite and least favorite Japanese food (natto, hands down) and so on.

I do have a sad story to share. Yesterday at work, I was talking with my Japanese Teacher of English (JTE). She works Monday through Friday, from 7am-8pm. On Saturdays, she comes in to do a sports club for the students. This poor woman is spending her life working. I couldn’t believe it! Not only her, but the principle, and I’d bet most of the other staff, have the same schedule. I do feel the tragedy of the situation, but I have one question; there are 19 students in the entire school, how can you have that much work? How do their American counterparts do everything? She doesn’t have time to cook when she gets home, so she buys her dinner at the konbini on the way. It breaks my heart that she has, and continues to put up with, such a rigorous schedule. I asked her what she does on her free day, Sunday, and she told me that she sleeps all day. She is a slave to her job, and it’s unfortunate that she is still so young (29).


Tonight is my welcome party, or enkai, for all of you Japanese speakers out there. The plan is pretty much the following: Greg makes a welcome speech, the principal or mayor makes a speech, everyone proceeds to get drunk. Since I am the guest of honor tonight, not only do I not pay the $50 cover charge (woohoo), but everyone will be competing to pour my drink. I am looking forward to getting my coworkers a little loosened up, finally meeting the real people beneath their hard-working office exterior. Unfortunately, so the story has gone thousands of times with previous JETs, come Monday morning, everyone will be back to the usual, not even mentioning the good times they had on Friday.

Also, the enkai is a great time to dry food you’ll never find anywhere else. My predecessor was telling my stories about live fish being on the menu! You are supposed to smother them in soy sauce, and then pop them in your mouth. No, I know what you're thinking, but I draw the line at eating living creatures.

I have seen HUGE octopus tentacles at the grocery store though. I’d say maybe as long as my arm. I really want to do a “Japanese Thanksgiving” this year and cook one of those up, instead of a turkey (since they don’t have turkey here, as far as I can tell).

For those of you who studied abroad in New Zealand, do you remember the gorgeous scenery as we drove on route 1? Driving up and down mountains, seeing streams and some waterfalls? Well, it's very similar here. Driving through the mountains, seeing sapphire-blue lakes...Japan has a similar quality to New Zealand that I wasn't expecting. I haven't seen all that much of Japan yet, but so far, it seems to lack the variety of geography that you'd get in a similar 5 hour drive in NZed. It's not as pretty (is anything, really?), but it's close. Still, it reminded me of some of the gorgeous scenery and those amazing times we had. Oh, and instead of Tip Tops on every streetcorner, they have Lawsons instead.

Speaking of Konbini's (convenient stores), they are amazing! All of them are open 24 hours. Also, wherever there is civilization, there is a konbini. The food they sell is good, usually healthy (no tacquitos), and they've got pretty much everything you'll ever need. You can also pay your bills at the konbini (electricity, phone, etc.).

Ok folks, it's time for your favorite section: Random Japan.

Tonight we highlight my friend Chris, teaching in Gifu. Chris went to the gym last week and was minding his own business, doing his workout. An old man comes up to him and says “You have the Amazon forest on your chest.” Needless to say, Chris was speechless and confused.

Chris has also developed a good rapport with his fellow teachers and students. During class one day, the students had to ask Chris questions and make a statement about him. Amid the usual “What are your favorite sports?” and “What music do you like?” One student says “Your head is small.”
“........................Uhh, thank you?”
The teacher must have noticed Chris’s confusion, because he jumped in and told Chris that “It is a good thing.” To this day, Chris remains confused and self-conscious about his head-size.

The beginning of the adventure

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my blog, which I will keep updating for my duration in Japan. So, where have I flown off to, you might be wondering. Well, I am in the city of Hachinohe, in Aomori, Japan. It's a small city of 250,000 people, and I am about 30 seconds away from the bullet-train station (I walk through it to work every day).

So, without further ado, here is what I've been up to since I arrived in Japan on August 3rd:

Upon arriving in Japan, the JET program took us to the Keio Plaza Hotel, a swanky hotel in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. They had a lot of lectures for us to partake of, warning us of culture shock, teaching us how to drive in Japan, and so on. That's sort of boring though. At the end of the first day, I met up with my two Japanese tutors-turned friends, and set out to explore Tokyo.

First of all, Tokyo is HUGE. It's definitely a city that merits more exploration, you could be there two weeks and still not see nearly everything there is to see. We went to a Ramen shop. This isn't your 13 cent college box of Ramen, however. I'm talking about Japanese guys preparing you ramen in their 3 cubic feet of space-restaurant. It tasted wicked good, and there is no way I would have been able to figure out that you had to buy a ticket from a vending machine, and then bring that to the chef, in order to get food. Thank god for Japanese friends.

The next day, we visited Shinjuku district so I could see some girls dressed up as one can only do in Japan.

I couldn't get many good pictures, just keep in mind that this is but the tamest of what I saw.

I also went to a shrine right outside of the train station. It was surreal with all of the fog and rain, I'll be including a link to those pictures when I get them up, so be patient. It was unlike anything I've seen before, even when I traveled and saw temples in Vietnam. The air was deathly still, and there were still people praying at the shrine, it was really cool.

That night we went to Roppongi district and took some beautiful pictures of Tokyo from the top of Mori tower. Again, Tokyo is ridiculously huge, and seeing it from the top of a tower just reinforces that fact. It's also great for bringing up some philosophical questions when you consider the scope of what humans can do and so forth.

Oh, I see you've been ogling the sexy attraction pub. Well, if anime girls on airplanes is your thing, a plane ticket to Japan is only $1500 away.

So, you are probably wondering about what crazy things have happened, here are a few excerpts.

In Tokyo, we went to a purikura.

What is this strange thing? I had no idea, until I was shoved into a claustrophic, white-walled box. Try to put yourself in my place: Suddenly, lights! everywhere! Music blaring from speakers! A green screen drops behind you, almost on your head! There's a countdown timer on one wall with a screen. Your Japanese friends are giggling and speaking unintelligable syllables. You look to your American friend for support, but he's suffering from the same shock you are, his head swiveling from side to side like he's watching speedy gonzalez engaging the roadrunner in ping pong. The counter on the wall is at 5, 4- you try to ask Sakiko and Mari what is happening- 3,2- they make poses in from of the timer and say something overshadowed by the music and the brightening lights, 1- FLASH. A picture of your confused face fills up the screen in front of you, and the timer starts again.

That is purikura. And now I proudly own thumbnail sized pictures of that memory in my wallet.

After Tokyo orientation ended, I flew with the other Aomori prefecture JETs to Aomori city, where I met my supervisor, Sato-sensei, who drove me to my home in Hachinohe. He's a really cool guy, and I'll get a picture of him to put up. He is very lighthearted, and he chuckles a lot. Not to mention, he's been really helpful about telling me what I should be doing in a Japanese office. Oh yeah, and his English is fairly good, which is a really big help. He even took me out for my first official meal in Aomori, McDonalds (woo!).

After my arrival here, it was pretty much setting up my apartment, running from office to office (Japan is a big bureaucracy), and the like. At night, I've been meeting up with JETs in the area to hang out, go to dinner/the beach/fireworks festivals, and generally having a good time. Unfortunately, I have school tomorrow, so I have to keep this first post short, but don't worry, I will update you gracious readers when I am able (ie. tomorrow after school).

I will leave you with the most recent "weird" Japan story. I got my cell phone today (surprisingly, it's not easy setting up something like that when you communicate with charades and drawings). In the bag the salesperson gave me were the usual: cell phone charger, service plan agreement, 6 pack of beer, phone manual- wait, 6 pack of beer?! Oh yes, that kindly woman behind the counter gave me a 6 pack of Asahi, on the house. She didn't card me, didn't even mention it, just handed me my bags and said a few arigato gozaimasu's. And that, ladies and gentlement, is why cell phones are superior in Japan.

Oh, and the toilets have remote controls.