Good afternoon.

We're going to start this entry with a "Threat Down!" borrowed from the one and only Stephen Colbert. Today's Threat Down is the zombie infestation I wrote about last week. Turns out, the zombies were, in fact, just normal Japanese people. Who would've guessed?

Today has been great so far! We celebrated Halloween at my favorite school, Herai Elementary school. We did a trick-or-treat simulation throughout the entire school (these poor Japanese children will never know what it's like to do real trick-or-treating). I dressed as a mummy (toilet paper, of course) and gave out candy. Afterwards, the students, who were broken in groups put on little 5 minute plays and introduced their group and costumes. I was one of the judges. My favorite of the day was the Super Mario Brothers' themed group. They even put on a play where Mario saves the princess. Ah, so good. Also, the entire office is so friendly, they are very talkative, and they let me try Japanese and they try English, it's a lot of fun.

Afterwards, I played soccer with the kids outside for recess. It was just a good day.

Let me recount my weekend for you (and my selfish records).

Saturday was the Halloween Event and Party we JETs put on for the children in Hachinohe. It was a big event, held at Hotel Washington, and we had maybe 450-500 children come. Basically, we put on a few skits and tour the children around downtown Hachinohe, with some vendors offering to do trick-or-treating for us. Afterwards (and this is where I came in), we had the children do arts and crafts. Halfway through, the lights turn off, scary music plays, and the "Scary Monsters" come out!

I was the terrifying "Ketchup Monster!" I cut up one of my shirts and used ketchup (I couldn't find fake blood), then wrapped twine around my upper-body. With my inside-out cat mask, the costume was complete. I was joined by The Terminator, played by Matt Cosnett, and some Japanese university students with scream masks (hint, if you want to be scary, you need to make some noise, I'm talking to you Japanese students!). We only got one child to cry. At first I felt bad, until I saw her dad video-taping her crying. He gave me the Japanese equivalent of thumbs up (they use the "ok" hand gesture).

Sidenote: speaking of Japanese gestures, the "come here" gesture is the same as our "scoot along" gesture, palm down with fingers going in and out. It's very confusing, and my reaction is pretty much to back away, then come closer when I see them do it quicker, then back away again, then get closer. This pretty much happens until they make a move.

After the event, I got dinner at Bon with Matt, Melissa, Sam, Adam, and Theresa (from Shichinohe). The food was good, as usual, and we made it out in time for the Halloween Party to start at a bar called Oldies, which Everest of Apples (a JET charity based in Aomori) hosted. I switched my costume, with a little help from Erin, Greg, and Ariel at the 390 Yen shop at Cino. And when you are presented with cheaply-made clothing and kitschy stuff, what is the only costume you can make? Well, a pimp costume of course.

It actually turned out really good, and I was told by a lot of people that I should've run for the costume contest. Arg, maybe next year, haha. It was very interesting though, Westerners could totally tell what I was going to be, the Japanese at the party...well, instead of trying to explain the mechanics of selling such things, I just told them I was a crazy person. Yep. They believed it too (one guy kept repeating it everytime I walked by).

Other notable costumes: Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber (yes, they planned it separately), a ninja-spouse duo (complete with cookie-cutter "throwing stars"), and a Japanese Darth Vader.

It was a lot of fun, and I went home after the party. I had 5 people stay at my house that night, so it was a little full. 3 of them didn't make it to my place until 5:30 am...one could say they were pretty out of it. Luckily my apartment is quite large, and I could've fit at least 2 more comfortably, and probably squeezed a lot more. Also, thanks to my predecessors, I have about a million futons, which means I can comfortably sleep 6 people and they don't need to bring anything. I should probably be opening up a hotel.

Sunday I was planning to go hiking in Towada, but after the craziness of the previous day, I just stayed in. Cleaning my apartment, which needs perpetual cleaning (why can't it just stay clean?! There's always more to do!), and doing some grocery shopping.

Monday was Paul's birthday, and a small group consisting of Mike, Wade, Paul, and myself, all went to Bon, which is still the best restaurant here by far. Paul just turned 22, now he's officially a 20-something.

Tuesday was Seth's birthday. He turned the magical age of 23. After Japanese class, we went to the Golden Palki for dinner and had some cake and delicious dinner.

Ok Japan, earlier in the post I allowed you a threat down, but I don't just give out freebies like that. Now it's time for a "Threat Up!" What is the problem now? When Japanese can't decipher English words that are almost exactly the same as Japanese words. (For those of you who don't know this, Japan has a whole alphabet dedicated to words they borrow from other languages.) So, when you ask me what "bideo-gemu" I like, and I answer "Final Fantasy," you are NOT ALLOWED to look at me all confuzzled until the teacher translates it to "Finaru Fantashi." No! Not allowed! I interpreted your "bideo-gemu," so you can just as well interpret my Final Fantasy.

Speaking of "bideo-gemu's," Paul downloaded Mega Man IX. We've been playing that a lot. It's old-school fun at it's best. With Cement Man and Gravity Man down, no one can stop us! No one!

This weekend I'm going to Tokyo with Grahame! I leave tomorrow on the Shinkansen, and since we have Monday off, we'll have a good 3 days there. We're going to meet up with my friend Mari, and we'll traipse all around Tokyo. I can't wait, it should be wicked exciting.

See you next week. Maybe if you're lucky I'll put pictures up. Maybe.

A Little Zombie, a Little Ponyo

Warning!

I think there are zombies in Japan. Ok, sometimes I fantasize about zombie attacks and how I would survive, but this is actually real. I was driving my car back to the office from my school, and I saw two women who I’m pretty sure were zombies. How do I know?

How do zombies walk? In a dazed, haphazard fashion, until they sense living tissue and make a mad hobble for it.

How do zombies look? Pale, lifeless eyes and stained clothing.

Bam. The women I saw fit both characteristics. One was hobbling left and right, her head flopping like a bobble-head. The other woman was down the street, a grandmother, and she was immobile, except for a vaguely menacing look in my direction as I drove past.

I will keep you updated on the zombie-warning in Japan. I’m pretty confident in my zombie-survival skills, so don’t worry too much about me.

What happened this past weekend? Well, let me enlighten you.

Friday night, I met up with Paul and Tina at the outside Ramen Shops (Ramen Alley) for a few drinks. Imagine a ton of little bars outside and cool Japanese style, and that’s what you get. We went to an “Okinawan style”one, it was pretty good. We got a few drinks, had some freshly cooked seaweed (I saw her pulling it out of an aquarium) and relaxed. Afterwards, we went to “Ethnic Bar” for some “ethnic” drinks. And by ethnic, I mean, random décor from all over. Again, it was a lot of fun.

Now, we begin the crazy busy weekend. Saturday, I had my elementary school’s chorus concert. They sang, they performed plays, I understood about 0, and I was there from 9-12:30. I’m proud that I am that dedicated. Afterwards, I went to a ramen shop, then headed to a temple to kill 3 hours before my Jr. High School’s pre-festival festival. After walking around, I tried sleeping in my car. I didn’t expect to fall asleep, and I didn’t, but it was good just to close my eyes since I was so tired.

Then, I headed to Shingo Jr. High. The students were doing things. Yes, things. I still don’t understand Japanese…so that means I go to these things and just sit. Yep. Special things of note, I was a guest singer for The Souji’s (The Cleaners). I helped them sing Ponyo (be careful, it will stay inside your head and destroy your brain cells). Then, I was given the surprise “Greg, now is time for you to play the piano.”
“Today?!”
“Yes.”
“Now?!”
“Yes.”
“Um…ok.”
So I got up and played half of Clair de Lune and half of Liebestraume, which I haven’t practiced in forever. I sort of mixed them together, but I think it turned out ok.

That night was…you guessed it, time to meditate and drink with the monk! Unfortunately, I wasn’t smacked with the wooden board. Afterwards, it was the same as last time. They brought out tons of food (gyoza, soups, random vegetables) and drinks. We had a lot of fun sitting around and talking, drinking, and generally having a good time. I went with Seth and Erin this time (and we met up with Brandon and Takafume), but we didn’t go with the Japanese to karaoke. Instead we drove back to Hach/Gonohe. I crawled into bed late that night, and woke up and got to Shingo bunkasai early the next morning.

So, all of Sunday, I spent sitting down, again, not understanding any of the plays or music. There were some funny slapstick things that I was able to enjoy, but that was about it.

After the bunkasai, the plan was to go to Gonohe’s Makiba onsen for our enkai. So, I drove to Gonohe, had dinner with Seth, and he drove me to my enkai. Quick sidenote: we discovered how to make toast with his inverter microwave! Yeah, I’m proud. The enkai was fun, aside from the eating and drinking, it’s just a great time to learn about the teachers who are oh-so-silent in the office. I did a lot of talking, and my Japanese has been getting better and better, so we were able to communicate a lot more. A lot of the men smoked in the room, so I also ended up smelling like cigarettes. Afterwards, I called Seth to pick me up (it felt like I called my dad to pick me up from a middle school dance), and I crashed at Seth’s place.

Time to begin a new week.

This weekend is the Everest of Apples Halloween Party and the Halloween Tour for Hachinohe children. I’ve signed up to be a monster, so I get to scare little children. Sweet.

What else is going on? I think all of the weird things that consistently happen here are becoming more normal. Or, a better way to put it would be, my body and mind is finally used to the fact that random, unexplainable things constantly happen here. So I end up ignoring them, or just waiting for them to play out since everything ends up turning out ok. Because of this, I can’t think of anything right now! It’s frustrating.

Arg, I can’t think of much else, so I’ll just write a few non-Japan related things and leave it here.

1) Read the Dark Tower series. It’s wicked good. Stephen King writes fantasy in the epic adventure style of Roland, and it turns out amazing. This series is almost up there with George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, but gets a few bonus points for being finished and clocking in at 7 books.

Wow, this post was lackluster, so…hopefully next week’s will be better. Have a good week.