May Madness

Yo yo yo, as they say....probably somewhere.


I've got great news for you all! I passed my Japanese Driver's License test! You know what, let's add a few more exclamation points (!!) to show just how excited I am. I'm so excited because usually they fail us foreigners a few times before they actually let us pass, but I did it in one go. Ohhhh, wait, let me back up a few seconds, you might think that that comment would be a derision against the Japanese License Test system. Well, it sort of is, but let me explain a little bit. I do not mean that previous comment to be mean or say they are racist, it is just a mere fact of the way the system works. So, close your eyes, hold your breath, and let's begin the driving test experience together.

The test includes a 10 question paper test. The paper test? Well, let me give you an example question that isn't exaggerated one bit (though, this is not a real question on the test, because somehow the government would find out, then I would be fined and lose my job, I'm guessing).


"When driving, I make sure not to drive over the Speed Limit." TRUE or FALSE (answer below).
(*True)


Ok, so that paper test was a breeze. Now, the big daddy of the test. You drive on a pre-made, insulated course. You must MEMORIZE the course before driving on it. If you ask the instructor where to go, at any point in the test, you fail. That's it. If you do not enter the car in the correct order, you fail. (Don't forget to start off checking the front and back of the car, to check for cats maybe? Then open the door slightly, check right and left, then fully open it, get inside). If you mess up the order, or, god forbid, turn off the car in the incorrect order, you fail. So, I spent a lot of time memorizing this course, and it paid off. I knew when to check left-right, when to stop, double-check. When turning there is a FIVE STEP PROCESS you must follow, or else, you guessed it, you fail. Look in the mirror, flick your turn signal, look in your sideview mirror, look over your shoulder, scootch the car over a little bit, wait a sec, then turn.

After doing my best to follow my memorized course, we finally ended. The instructor, I kid you not, gave me this assessment. "Well, you were good with safety, but you were slow with your blinkers sometimes. I'll need to think about it." Then, she asked the most important question of all "Where did you get lessons?"

"Hachinohe Motor School."


At this point, I'm pretty sure a huge *DING* went off in her head. Yes, say the magic words, "Hachinohe Motor School," and your chances of passing go through the roof! I did get a lesson with them, which was very helpful. So, half an hour later, after assessing whether or not my good safety technique vs. slow blinkers were acceptable, I was notified I passed! So much for the 4-7 times other people have taken. I win, Japan!

It was also quite nice to get lunch with Marti by the sea. She was kind enough both to translate the test, hang out, and confirm that Hokka Hokka Tei is not a good bento place. Not to mention being an all-around cool person. Thanks, Marti!

Alright, now that I own 2 different driver's licenses, what else could I possible write about? Hahaha, well, I think there was a little scandal going on at one of my schools. Again, names shall be spared, but I think there might have been an affair going on. JUICY, NE! Sorry, I can't say more than that, I honestly do believe the Japanese have a magical way of knowing anything I might commit to this blog, so vagaries is all ya get. Side note, it reminds me of my acquaintance, Bill, who used to think that, in 1st grade, his teacher could read his mind. He described how he would try to only think good thoughts about his teacher, with a maddening look on his face. I picture something like that and this blog. Only type nice things...Only type nice things, only type nice things, only type nices things...


In other teacher news, a teacher I've previously written about, who was denied her vacation to go to New York in order that she could help with a Christmas party for a school of 17 students, has FINALLY decided that she wants to get out of the system. She is planning on moving to LA and working at Starbucks. THANK WHATEVER BEING(S) YOU MAY OR MAY NOT PRAY TO. This made my week. I really hope that it's not just something she's saying and hoping for, but actively working towards.

This past weekend was busy again. I went clothes shopping. Yeah, painful, but one of the things you must do in life if you choose to wear clothes. I went with a small group so I could get advice (oh how I miss the expertise of Nii and Geoff, they would probably be ashamed at what I bought). I even tried to push the time back an hour, to minimize actual shopping time, but the shoppers were too savvy. "No Greg, we won't have enough time if we start at 1, we need to start at 12." "But guys, it's a scientific fact that shopping for more than 2 hours causes heart disease, and leprosy." "But those are curable, so we're going."

I did buy some great "Engrish" T-shirts. I was looking for last-year's best-seller "Touch my Truck" shirt, but I guess they didn't have it this year.

So, after the painful shopping, we went to see Erin's concert at City Hall. Support your friends and their school bands. It was really good. And that's about the best I can do describing music with writing. Suffice it to say, they beat Medway High School's band by 3-4 miles.

After that, we went to an izakaaya to celebrate both Erin's concert, and Wade's acceptance to Graduate School in Singapore. Congratulations to both of you! Then we all crashed at Natalie's house. The next morning, we were awoken by Erin's alarm at 7:15. "Ohayogozaimasu! Ohayogozaimasu! Ohayogozaimasu! (Good morning)" After comfortably falling back asleep, we were then awoken by Nick's alarm "Instrumental doodling." I think that's about the threshold for humans waking up. Two alarms and that's about it. So, we just lay around, played mario kart, then made our way for some doner kabobs. Afterwards, we went to my house to play DnD, got some dinner at a nearby ramen shop, and then called it quits. Phew.

RaNdOm JaPaN:
This weekend Jero, the African American Japanese Enka singer will be playing in Hashikami, a nearby town. This man is like a platinum record seller here in Japan. He's the first person of African descent to break into the Japanese music scene. You can wiki him for more info. Apparently though, it is unsurprising for Japanese people that someone so famous would come to such a small town (like, smaller than medway, I'm talking under 10,000 people), even though he so famous. I find it so hard to comprehend. In the US, the huge bands only go to big cities, to both please a larger fanbase, as well as make more money. I guess here, that is not the case? Regardless, I'm gonna see Jero, I'm gonna see Jero.

Gosh, Snowboarding, and a Quick Review

Good evening,


How are you? "I'm fine, thank you, and you." That is the response you are cultivated to say if you are a Japanese elementary school student. Other acceptable answers might include "I'm sleepy, I'm hungry, or, I'm happy" depending on if you are the smart kid or not.


What a week. Ladies and gentlemen, we've got a great post for you tonight. In my post, I'll write a little bit about Japan, a little bit about the things I've been doing, and, of course, your favorite tidbits about anything I have to comment about. We'll also talk about the newest Of Montreal album, Skeletal Lamping. I tried to book them for a live show, but they were busy touring in Tokyo. Yes, I'm serious, they are actually in Tokyo next week touring, while I am going to Tokyo the day after they leave. Ah, such luck, but, before I ramble too much, let's get on the with show.

As an English teacher in Japan, we get some interesting questions. Some deal with your gastronomic tendencies (what food do you like/hate?), others with the way things are in America (what food in America do you like/hate?), and some things about your physical appearance (why is your nose so large?). Today, I got, perhaps, the most, um, interesting one. I was asked why my eyes weren't blue. For this one, the teacher had to jump in and explain that people from all over the world get married in the US, so not everyone has blue eyes. Also today, what is your favorite vehicle?

What have I been doing lately? Well, aside from the regular routine, I collected on a snowball fight with my friends in Goshagawara. After buying a snowball fight with hot cocoa and dinner at the service auction earlier in the year, we decided it was time to collect before all of the snow melted away. A 3 hour drive on Saturday (after my enkai friday night with a principal and his favorite teacher), got us to Gosh.

Now, I specifically sent blueprints for a two-turret snowfort, with a small, but stable, perimeter made of ice walls. For some reason, our hosts weren't able to make this in time, so we had to make due. We went to a park in Gosh that was full of snow and ice, and we just jumped around and had a great time.

That night, we had a nabe (japanese soupish food) party, and then we crashed at Katie's place.

The next morning, we went to Ajigasawa mountain for some snowboarding, woohoo. 3rd time in, and I was really loving it, a lot. The snow was so nice and powdery, it didn't really hurt. That was until I fell off the snow lift on my way down and caused the Japanese guy on my left to crash into me. Sumimasen, gomen nasai.

After that, it was time to go back home and sleep. The end of a great weekend. That Friday before Saturday (but really, when else does Friday night come?), I had an enkai with those two previously aforementioned teachers. It was really fun, regardless of the language barrier. We got to the izakaaya, and they just ordered a ton of random food and drinks while I watched and my stomach was happy. Afterwards, I met up with Paul and we went to karaoke with his visiting friend. It was a good time.

I'm starting to get tired of my music now. Not good. I have crested over my need to hear Of Montreal's Skeletal Lamping. And, speaking of that, here's the quick review.

Skeletal Lamping. Wow. This CD surely isn't for everyone, even the previous die-hard Of Montreal fans. From 60's rock and roll sound to melodic, synth rock-pop that sometimes diverges into light funk, this band has evolved by leaps and bounds. Their cd is quite ambitious, and it takes the so-called "ivory tower" upon which indie bands have typically rested upon, and at once levels and extends it. Listening to the tunes are enjoyable, but actually hearing the lyrics ups your enjoyment by at least 80%. The lyrics range from normal-yet slightly weird, to full-blown "you won't understand me without a dictionary and a book on Greek/Nordic/British Literature." What makes it even more intriguing, at least to me, is that the lead singer (who actually is the band and writes all the music) references himself and his life in the music. The more you know about his life, the more the lyrics will make sense to you (even the ones that seem meaningless or put in there just for the *shock* effect).

Now, the real polarizing effect of this album isn't the lyrics, it's the abrupt song changes every 30-60 seconds. Some people cannot handle this. They see potential in a melody he introduces, in a great chord progression he puts forth, and they just can't understand why he would ruin it after only 45 seconds of playing it. If you can't stray from conventional music standards, don't bother with this album. The opening song, along with one or two other songs, are fairly standard, but aside from those, it's full-blown craziness. I happen to really enjoy this new take, and I think it's a great idea that works very well with this album.

I must rescind one of my previous comments though. Sometimes the lyrics are meaningless, only put in there for effect and not for meaning, especially as compared to Of Montreal's previous records, which heap up on the polysyllabic spelling-contest words. But, much of it is not.

Well, that's it for the mini-review. And also that's it for the 1st half of the show. Hope you enjoyed it, come back next week for more.

-Greg

The end of September/beginning of October

Hello Again.

Things are going well in Japan. Tuesday the 23rd was another national holiday. The night before, I went to a restaurant called Bon with some Misawa JETs. Here’s an interesting bit about Japan, they have tons and tons of small restaurants. Hmm, maybe you’re not understanding me, some restaurants only hold one or two tables and about 5 bar seats. Ah, now you understand, much better. Anyways, Bon is fairly renowned among the JET community in this area. So, I went with pretty high expectations.

And they were fully delivered. The owner, Kappa, speaks pretty good English, and he has decorated his restaurant with really cool Indian art. There are a few scrolls with pictures of Shiva, a few statues of Ganesh, and some great mood lighting. Another very interesting part about Bon, you never ask for a specific dish on the menu. Ignore the menu and just ask Kappa for a “Dinner Plate.” This sends Kappa into a frenzy of slicing, dicing, and cooking that (from what I’ve heard) always ends in something delicious. That night was no exception. Kappa whipped up some sort of spicy curry thing, quail eggs, rice (it’s Japan, of course), lamb in a red wine sauce, and green things (vegetable are not my forte, nor are they important for you, kiddies). Oishii (delicious)! After some good political conversation (JET participants are mostly liberal so far) I went back home and skyped some friends.

For the actual national holiday, I picked up my friend, Nick, from the Hachinohe bus station (he spent the weekend in Tokyo) and we explored Hachinohe all day. Unfortunately, on the way home from Tokyo, he put his backpack on the wrong bus, and we almost had to drive to Towada (about a 45 minute drive away) to pick it up. Luckily, the Japanese are extremely helpful in these situations, and his backpack somehow (I’m going to go with Japanese Shinto Magic) made it back to the Hachinohe that afternoon. That gave us more than enough time to check out the exotic city of Hachinohe.

In the mall at the bus-stop, we spent some time wandering around the Fantasy Dome. We played a few arcade games. The shooting game based on the Silent Hill Videogames was actually all in English, including the voice acting. The game where the music actually mattered, a Taiko Drum rhythm game, didn’t have a single English song. Too bad.

In downtown Hach, we found a variety of cool things. There was a very cool bakery called Sweet Pea that offered small set meals for lunch. It might be a chain. There were also a few people staring at us, as usual. We also passed by a mural outside a hair salon that was pretty damn cool. It had a space-station in the background with this long-haired Viking God in the front and a small earth in the corner. It made me want to get a haircut.

We also passed by a pachinko parlor named “Concert Hall,” that I confused for a real concert hall. Pachinko is a whole post in itself, so I’ll just leave it as this: I should have known what it was from the façade, multicultural posters, and the look of ennui on the old people’s faces.

Afterwards, we went to an arcade, which I will now refer to as The Segadrome. Ok, you’d think that, if Sega owned this place, it would have at least one game with Sonic. Nope. I even saw Mario in there, but no cute blue hedgehogs. It was actually really cool to see how something can take off so much in one country, and totally flounder in another. This emporium of games was filled with people. And things that you would never see in America! For instance, there was a woman (somewhere in her 30’s-40’s) who was just watching her boyfriend/husband playing a driving game. She was standing there, stroking his hair and encouraging him, game after game. I can vaguely sort of see that in America, but only if I stretch my imagination and try to suspend the stereotypes that we’ve grown up with.

Their arcade games are so much more advanced than ours are, too. Remember Magic the Gathering? That card game from awhile ago that still lives on today? Well, they’ve taken that about 4 or 5 levels past what we’ve got. You can actually buy cards, put them on this gridded table in front of you, and the monitor you are staring at actually picks up which card you put down and creates a 3D visualization of it, the battlefield, and everything that is happening at once. Spells are flying all around, and as you move your cards in real time, so the monitor shows what happens. Your dragon was kicking so much ass until the computer summoned that huge magic eye, that you tried to counter but couldn’t, that paralyzed the dragon that was attacking the sprite who was casting haste on the… Yeah, all of that in real time. Wicked cool.

One more thing about their magical arcades. They are training children to gamble. There are many games where you slide in your tokens in order to mess up this order of tokens that might push down other tokens which you will get. It’s pretty basic, but it prepares them for pachinko later in life.

That night, I went to my coworker’s house for dinner. Shimotai-san has a great family. They were really nice and I hope I can get dinner with them again soon. They made sukiyaki, where they get a lot of vegetables and various kinds of meat, throw them in a hot plate-thing with a lot of soy sauce, and let it cook on the table while everyone uses their chopsticks and dips in. It doesn’t end there, though. You then dip whatever it is you picked out into raw egg. It was actually really good and, hey, no salmonella yet.

After Tuesday, it was just regular work for the rest of the week and activities after work.

Here’s the story for this past weekend. On Friday, the 26th, I went with Erin, Seth, and Wade to an izakaaya. It’s an all you can eat and drink place. Yes, you can keep ordering for two hours. It’s amazing. Plate after plate of appetizers, pitchers of beer, and as many cocktails as you want. We had some good palaver, and at the end of 3 hours, Erin, Seth, and I took a taxi to my place. Seth and Erin stayed the night so that we could wake up early and go to the Takko Garlic and Beef Festival the next day.

And go we did! We made it to Takko and ordered our raw beef and garlic. We then proceeded to one of the many outdoor grills and grilled our meat. There were a lot of other JETs there, and even more Misawa military folk. Even in the midst of all of these white people, one Japanese man still snuck next to Seth and tried to get a picture without “that white person knowing.” Well, we noticed this weird man posing behind Seth, and Seth joined in with his peace sign. I’m pretty sure he made that man’s day. We also got a few pictures with the high school students who were cleaning the grills, they were funny.

Ok, enough of Takko. Back into the car we went, all the way to Hachinohe University to hang out with the university students. The event was billed as an anime/manga exchange, but we really just talked and hung out. Afterwards, we all went to an Indian place for dinner. It was cool hanging out with the students, it’s just unfortunate that I don’t speak enough Japanese yet to carry on a long conversation. Regardless, it was cool hanging around them.

Afterwards, Seth, Erin, a Japanese woman named Etsuko, and I decided to hit up an onsen. You may remember my feelings towards onsens from my first post. Well, regardless, we still went. Yep, time to get naked. I had my modesty towel in hand and went from pool to pool, soaking in and relaxing as best I could.

Sunday, I cleaned my room a little, ran a few errands, and met up with my friend Grahame in Oirase. We went to Shimoda mall very quickly so I could check out electric pianos. Afterwards, we drove to downtown Hach, met up with Tina, Mark, and Wade, totally by accident sat down for a drink in the outdoor ramen/bars. Since I couldn’t drink since I was driving, I opted to eat the random sea animal. It looks like a really intense heart with spikes growing out of it. That’s about all I can say. The waitress chopped it up, and I began to eat a pretty gross whatever it was. General impression? In the words of Grahame:
“I would eat it if I were starving, but I’m not starving.”

Afterwards, Grahame and I got Ramen at another outdoor place, and I drove him back to Oirase. Another weekend done.

Yesterday, Tuesday, after Japanese classes, I got dinner with Wade and all of the Japanese teachers, many of whom speak English. There is one teacher who is hilarious, and she’s even on facebook! She kept asking Wade and I to come up with a trendy American name for her. She couldn’t pronounce Gertrude, which was a tragedy. So we gave her the name Rachel. I got lunch with her and another teacher (who happens to work in my building) today. It was a lot of fun. Now, I’m back in the office, about to talk to with supervisor. That’s about it for this week. See you.

Quick Update about after work today.

I went to Hibarino Sports Park in Gonohe to prepare for the soccer tournament this weekend. Seth and I were wandering around the fields looking for a team that would take us in and let the weird foreigners play. We found a group of middle-school kids who let us join their practice. Yeah, you know when you and your gaijin (foreigner) buddy are huffing and puffing while the Middle-School kids are barely breaking a sweat, you aren't prepared for a soccer tournament. I felt my age already, at one point Seth and I just looked at each other and said, in unison "I'm so out of shape." Dear god, and I'm only 22.

The students were really nice, though. Too nice, almost. One time, I was on the halfway mark of their field, and everyone spread apart (now I know what Moses felt like) and just shouted "Shoot! Shoot!" Really? Now? Ok, well if you're all going to spread before me, then sure. Other times, they would pass to Seth when there was no good reason to pass to him. The other team would move away from him and let him dribble up to the goal. It was like they were just playing with us. It didn't matter though, it was so much fun. We got some practice in, they were having a great time playing with the foreigners, and we even have an open invitation to join their practice whenever we want! It was so cool, and to me it was another example of how easy to put yourself out there and get taken in by the community, as long as you can take the first step.

After soccer, I went home, showered, and headed to a Brazilian restaurant downtown for dinner with a friend. As expected, the dinner was good. I had some sort of corned beef hash and fried rice thing with a sunny-side down egg. I'm not sure how Brazilian that is, but it tasted good enough. The only problem is, halfway through the dinner, my entire Capoiera class came in and caught me playing hookey! Dammit, why did I have to choose the only Brazilian haven in the city and have the Brazilian Martial Art club come in that night! Ah well, it was all good fun, anyways.