Morioka and stuff

Well, what has been happening this past weekend. I took a trip to Morioka with Tina, Seth, and Natalie. ‘Twas fun

What shall I write about? I want to write about something clever, fun, and new to those who aren’t living in Japan. I suppose I could write about one complexity of the language. In Japanese, “un” and “uun” are two different words with opposite meanings. “Un,” means “yes,” while “uun” means “no.” To make things even more confusing for you all, this is only in informal form. I’ve been learning the formal form up until now. But don’t worry, I have yet to learn at least one other, more respectful, form.

Japanese must be great for rappers though. All of the sentences end with the verb, and the verbs all end in the same last few syllables (-masu, -masen, -masen deshita, -mashita). Rhyming has to be wicked easy! I can picture the Japanese rappers now, with their long, sonic-the-hedgehog’s back dipped in bleach-hair, sitting around the izakaaya, thinking up lyrics.

“Hey man, what I should I rhyme ‘hanashimasu’ with?”
“How about ‘shimasu,’ ‘kakemasu,’ or any other verb in the formal present/future positive.”
“Oh…yeah.”

I don’t mean to insult or “diss,” as you kids sometimes call it, Japanese music. I’m obviously making an overgeneralization…I think. Regardless, I chose the wrong language to be perapera (fluent) in for my rap star future.

I had the pleasure of going to a Don Don Down on Wednesday (yes, this is all in English on their signpost) in Morioka. They have an interesting fruit and vegetable based economy system. Thinking back, I should have taken a picture. Basically, instead of having price tags on their clothes, they instead have tags of fruits and vegetables (only 1 per item of clothing). The tags correspond with a price, but that corresponding price changes every day. So, a pineapple today costs about 1/2 a mushroom yesterday. Unfortunately, two eggplants and a pineapple was a little out of my price range that day. Very interesting store, I’ll be back for sure.

What else shall I ramble about? Today the annoying kid wouldn’t stop hugging me. He’s a great 1st grader, really, but he’s also the loudest and most interruptive. Every time he sees me, he just runs up and hugs me, saying “hello, hello, hello, hello, hello” ad nauseum. I put a ban on hugs when he is particularly disruptive in class. I don’t think he understands that his behavior is the cause of the single-person hug ban, so I give in and just let it go anyways.

I was in Morioka this past weekend. Tina, Seth, Natalie and I drove down on Saturday. I think “drove down” is an incorrect phrase, because we actually drove in a huge circle before actually driving downwards to Morioka. We arrived quite late, we expected to check into the hotel at 3, but by the time we got to the mall outside of Morioka where we spent a few hours, it was already 5:30. But, this mall had Starbucks, and there were enough Starbucks junkies in the car that it warranted a stop. After the coffee, though, we had to look around the mall. A little Japanese girl somehow got attached to our group.

Actually, I know exactly how. She was on the escalator behind us when she heard Tina, who is of Asian descent, speak a language that wasn’t Japanese. I think it freaked out this little girl’s world, because she couldn’t stop staring at Tina. The little girl followed us around for a good 15 minutes, until she ran away somewhere.

Which was perfect timing, because it was time for Taiko! Yes, sweet game of my existence! The Super Mario Brothers theme song is on the machine, so we, of course, had to play that. I was driving the car, so they had to obey me anyways, hardy har har.*

*Note, pirates have nothing to do with this story, nor do I normally “hardy har har” at people in my regular day-to-day activities.

So, anyways, we made it to the Root Inn much much much later than expected, and it really only gave us time for a short walk down the main street to dinner at this wicked cool café. Then, back to the hotel for onsen and sleep.

On Sunday, Seth and Tina were taking the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test, aka our entire reason for coming to Morioka). What did this mean for me? I got to accompany the famed shopper, Natalie L from Shingapo-ru, around Morioka. I actually didn’t mind, I need some winter clothes and figured she’d be able to help.

We hit up a second hand clothes shop, didn’t find much (except a hoodie for $1.50), and went downstairs to the Freshness Burger, where I met up with the ordeal of ordering outside the box.

I think Japan likes things in orderly boxes, rules, and regulations. While I’m not always breaking the box (do you break it? Or do you more step out of it if violence isn’t your thing? They need to get a good verb to describe the transition from inside the box to outside the box, but I digress), I took one step too far. Here is a brief transcript from my conversation, trying to order a set of Burger, fries, and drink.

“Sumimasen, may I have this set please?”
“Sure, what do you want to drink?”
“Water please.”
“Oh, you can have any of these drinks on this list.”
“It’s ok, water is fine.”
“But, it’s not on the list.”
“It’s ok, I really like water.”
“Errr….umm…..”
“Ok,” *looks at list* “I’ll take the brown tea.”

We sat around Freshness burger and talked for a good while. Then walked elsewhere to continue the shopping. We hit a mall, that Don Don Down on Wednesday place I mentioned earlier, and so on. I was drained. I won’t say it nearly killed me, but I’ll imply it by leaving the previous phrase in this post.

We made it back to the hotel, and I was dead. Dead as in drained, not dead as in it nearly killed it and then I actually died at the last second. Seth mentioned his point of view when he met us at the hotel. Natalie was sitting and waving at Seth and Tina through the window as they were coming in. My head was back on the chair, legs splayed out, and eyes closed.

So, I was tired, which meant I clammed up for the rest of the trip, which was too bad, but ah well, I was still able to have fun. We had Jaja-men, a special type of noodle found in Morioka. Quite good. We also ran into a ton of other JETs at the restaurant, which was really cool to see.

Afterwards, we went to an asobihodai. Like a tabehodai, where it’s all you can eat, and a nomihodai, where it’s all you can drink, an asobihodai is an all you can play (I coined the term myself, add it to the Japanese dictionary, pronto!). We paid $15 to play as many arcade games and sports as we wanted for 90 minutes.

You know what this means.

Taiko! Batting cages! Airsoft rifles! Soccer, volleyball, archery, badminton, sniper shooting games! It was too much, it was not enough! It was pure bliss with massage chairs mounted with flatscreen TV’s that we didn’t have time for because we were having too much fun elsewhere. It just didn’t last long enough. They did give us free claw-game tickets and 20 coins for playing stuff though. It was a huge maze of free stuff begetting more free stuff, just to keep us in the building. We probably stayed an extra 45 minutes to an hour after we originally planned on leaving. It was such an insidious plot on their part! Well, of course we’ll try to win the stuffed snoopy. 20 coins? Why not try and win more? At one point near the end, I remember looking everyone in the eyes and saying “we have to go, or we’ll never leave.”

And go we did, driving back to Hach. Seth and I didn’t want to end the trip though, so after dropping Tina and Natalie off at their houses, we went to a ramen shop. It’s an interesting thing in that, when Seth gets tired, he talks a lot more, whereas I talk a lot less. Regardless (or, irregardless if you want the extra syllable, [irregardless of which you like, I prefer to use regardless]), we had the most interesting conversation about God. His background as the son of two ministers was a really cool backdrop to the conversation. I won’t go into the details for obvious reasons, but it was really cool and I’d welcome a return to that conversation.

I like being able to write like this. It means you, the reader, are stuck in my solipsis, where my thought process actually make sense because you can　sort of see it working. Ugh, remember when I try talking this way in normal face to face conversation? It just doesn’t come out the same, or come out at all.

Ah, I didn’t mention the Friday night of that weekend! I was invited to a dinner at one of my karate co-students (not sure how to word that) house. His family was so friendly! We stumbled along in Japanese, and everything went well until I asked where his brother was that I saw in the pictures. It turns out he passed away a few months ago…please take a moment for them and their family.

Aside from that quick issue, we jumped back and had a great conversation. I didn’t expect them to keep me so long, so I felt terrible when I told them I had to go to my friend’s birthday in Nanbu. They walked me into the train station, and watched me buy my ticket. Sort of awkward, but ok.

I made it to Matt’s house from there. That family even gave me a gift of 2 nihonshu’s (Japanese alcohol) to give to Matt. We watched Alien 2, and I got their late so I missed the potluck, but it’s ok. Matt, Seth, Joe, Laura, and I went to a bar afterwards. It was only the coolest bar ever. The owner was so chill (and, get this, he doesn’t drink), and the patrons were quite friendly. Too friendly, in fact. The Japanese guy on my right was sniffing our drinks and almost took a taste of mine!

Joe then showed us the Resident Evil bathroom. Complete with windows just waiting for zombie dogs to jump through, the safe room with typewriter, and stairs that we can’t go down until we get the hexagonal key.

Afterwards, we got in a taxi and headed back to Matt’s house. Before going to sleep though, we decided it would be really cool to play his electric drum set upstairs (while some people were sleeping downstairs…), at 3 in the morning. It was cool, you could change the sounds and everything. Luckily no one downstairs woke up, so everything was good.

So, that’s what has been going on with me lately, shoot me some comments and tell me what is happening with you.

T-Day

Happy Thanksgiving, family and friends.

As you know, Japan doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Blasphemy, right? Well, for those of us who live in a country with a Plymouth Rock (and perhaps a few too many field-trips to Plymouth Plantation, and by “too many,” I mean one), Thanksgiving is an integral part of our culture.

On Thanksgiving Night, which I shall now designate at T-Day, I got Seth, Melissa, Helen, and Nick to come to my place and make the trek to KFC, the closest thing we can get to a traditional Turkey Dinner. Funny thing about Japanese KFC, due to cultural differences, they don’t have mashed potatoes, nor do they sell huge buckets of chicken. A “Family Meal” is 6 pieces of chicken and 2 packets of fries. Yeah, I paid the price for it and was still hungry afterwards. KFC is apparently synonymous with Christmas in Japan, because they had a registration list, and the Colonel’s statue was bedecked with a red suit and plenty of Christmas cheer.

After making it back to my place, we opened our meals, and had a round of what we give thanks for. Then, it was time for Superbad. I love this movie, it makes me crack up every time I watch it. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it has a lot of rough language, and it’s based around very small grains of truth for males who have gone through the American public High School system. Poor Helen, our proper British/Kiwi friend, she had to preserve her image and blocked her head between her knees to stop the horrible sounds coming from my computer monitor.

So, that was last Thursday’s small Thanksgiving celebration.

We had a much more normal Thanksgiving at Weldon and Crystal’s (a married couple) on Saturday. They had all of the usual fixin’s- turkey, mashed potatoes (which yours truly made), cranberry sauce, etc. etc. We even played football in the schoolyard nearby.

My team, team Turkey Awesome, won the game! With 2 touchdowns, and a third on the way (until the security officer came by and kicked us out), we were clearly the victors.

Afterwards, we returned to their house and watched Starwars (Episode VI, aka the best one), played Jenga, Uno, poker, and the Midwesterners split up and played their alien “Euchre.” Yeah, I don’t know either, it has something to do with cards and being from a geographically unknown region. Yours truly won poker. After edging out the early Kiwi menace (Tina), kicking out the Kentucky Fried Southern leader (Eric), and surviving the great Singaporean drought (Natalie comes in and, in 1 hand, reduces all of our money at least by half), I made it out in the end with all of the money, $36 to be exact.

Sunday, I did a lot of nothing. Which is just what I needed after a busy day and week. I slept late, cleaned, ran some errands (which included filling up my precious kerosene, and getting a terrible haircut), and met up with Paul for dinner at Gusto.

This week, on Tuesday, after Japanese class was Matt’s birthday. Not only was it Matt’s birthday, but a new generation of game has been born. After assigning people around to me positions in my currently fictional, soon to be non-fictional, world takeover, I named someone the Pompadour of Pies. Well, this quickly turned into an all-night game, where each sentence had to have at least one word that started with the letter P. Yours truly was also the unofficial winner (even though this game has no “winners” per se) of this game. Perhaps, one my say that I was the paragon of pithy p-words, a prodigal player proliferate with positively perfect performance. Purple. I can’t wait for next week’s letter.

This week’s entry was brought to you by the Japanese word “marumarumaru.” Because nothing gets your Japanese teacher rubbing her upper chest (not oppai, get your mind out of the gutter) like the word “marumarumaru.”

2 Weeks' Worth Laundry List

Ok, because I missed last week's entry, I'm just going to do a laundry list more for my memory than for your entertainment. Sorry about this, but there's just too much to write and not enough time for me to study Japanese if I write it. So, without further ado.

Two weeks ago Saturday (15th):

• Went to the salmon festival in Oirase with Tina and Natalie. We had salmon nabe with special miso sauce. Afterwards, we walked around all of the cool salmon-inspired things.
• We met up with Grahame, who was working the festival.
• I caught a salmon with my bare hands in the salmon-catch. Afterwards, I paid 300 yen and they cut and cleaned it.
• Existential crisis about killing an animal, don't get me started again.
• We went to the sports store, then my apartment, and met up with Erin.
• Off to Gonohe! We pick up Seth and drive to zazen meditation in Shichinohe.
• We get there right on time, meditate, and have an awesome meal afterwards.
• Back home!

Sunday (16th):

• That fish-market in Hachinohe for lunch.
• Home Center Sunday/Pia Do/Yamada Denki for various shopping stuff.
• French dessert cafe for pre-dinner dessert.
• Yakiniku place for dinner.
• Home to begin the Week again

This past week was the Mid-year seminar. Thursday I got on the train with my supervisor, ran into the other Hach JETs, and seminar'd it up.

My supervisor decided to get a hotel as far away from the seminar as possible. So a 45 minute walk in the snow later, we made it to our hotel. In order to get to the talent show that night, I walked the 45 minutes back to the main street, near the ASPAM building.

The talent show was awesome! I played waiter for a little bit, getting drinks out to everyone. Hands-down, the best talent of the night was Sam dancing to Daft Punk. He wrote the words on his clothes, and by the end of the song, he was moving in a synchronized motion and the words on his body matched with the words in the song. There was a katana demonstration as well, and, the 2nd best talent and best auction for the night was the Rokkasho crew. Normally, their performance wouldn't be so good, but conditions were perfect. It was the end of the night, people were drunk, including the performers, and something crazy had to happen.

After rowing themselves onstage with their makeshift didgeridoos , they proceeded to sing "didgeridoo" into their cardboard tubes. They actually had some cool sort of thing going. Then, the missing Rokkashite (that's what they call themselves) showed up, hitting a small drum-thing and making tribal screeches. It was weird. It was quirky. It was hilarious.

They then auctioned themselves (for the night was both a service auction and a talent show). Of course, when you are drunk, you'll say many things. "We will build you an igloo. Then, we will cook you a 4 course meal inside the igloo, while we play a movie on the ceiling of the igloo. We will find penguins and populate the igloo for your enjoyment. We will do this all shirtless and singing."

How much does such a believable feat go for? 900 dollars. Yep, a group of 4 bought them for 900. Yeah.

Speaking of which, yours truly got $250 for karate and massage lessons.

Afterwards, I then proceeded to walk the 45 minutes to the hotel and passed out.

Friday (21st)

• Went to more seminars.
• Went home.
• Exciting eh?

Saturday (22nd)

• Met up with office at 8:30 for the trip.
• The first drink was popped open at 8:37 AM, and they continued to drink on the bus during the entire day.
• We arrive at a museum of things. Yes, you can tell how much I like old pottery, especially when my only explanation is 亜非ンジャ　(these kanji may not load on your computer, and I just typed them randomly, so I have no idea what they mean).
• Teppanyaki lunch.
• Walk up to an old temple area. I saw a 1000 year old mini-temple made all of gold. It was wicked cool.
• Back on the bus for more drinks and a drive to a museum of an old school near Sendai.
• Over to a really nice hotel.
• Do I really need to onsen with you guys? Ugh, I'll hide in the corner.
• Change and just in time for the main event. Drinking dinner and a set meal.
• Everyone is getting plastered around me. This is sort of funny.
• You guys are pretty cool, and now that I can speak basic Japanese, this is sort of fun.
• Ah, the 1 guy makes a fool of himself at the karaoke. No, Tanaka-san, I will NOT sing for the office! Stop asking me.
• Bedtime? No, not yet, it's time for us to see a chinese acrobat show! These middle and high-school girls are really talented. I didn't think humans could do such things, I'll try and put a picture up.
• Bedtime yet? No, time for us to get Ramen.
• Bedtime yet? No, time for me to walk around the hotel and see what there is. Hint, not much at all.
• Bedtime, how about now? No, I went to room 1411 to watch the guys play Mahjong, drink, and smoke. I felt like one of the guys. You know, the deaf and mute one who just sits and does nothing.
• Ok, finally bedtime. Oh wait, these rooms hold 5 people on futons. And, my supervisor snores.

Sunday (23rd)

• Let's wake up before the sunrise and see it rise beautifully!
• After breakfast, it's time to leave...only to go to the shark marketplace!
• Ok, goodbye shark place, and now, to the sake distillery.
• Woohoo, lots of sake and a good lunch at this olde-fashioned place. Very cool, but wow, you guys really like to drink.
• How much do they like to drink? Enough to go to the winery right after the sake distillery. Yep. I did buy myself a nice bottle of wine afterwards though.
• Ok, you all found out that I'm going to a jazz concert afterwards and might not make it on time. I really don't want to cause a fuss, so please, stop offering to drive me when we get back, I'll just take the bus.
• Ok Tanaka-san, thanks for the ride. You have a really cool family.
• Hey, Jazz concert, very fun.
• Hey, I could still go for a few drinks, you interested? Yes? Ok, if you say this is a good pizza place, let's go!
• Taxi, please, take me back to Shiriuchimachi post-haste!

Monday, the day off:

• Went with Paul for all you can eat Yakiniku. We got our money's worth.
• Random errands, including changing my tires.
• Cleaning, trying to pry myself away from the piano.
• Oyasuminasai.

And now to study Japanese.

Dracula, Bowling, the Surprise Enkai (Beef), and Okonomiyaki

So I taught with flamboyant Dracula today. Aside from the fact that his English sounded like Dracula, he carried himself in a vaguely vampiric and effeminate way. He also had shaved the hair off his hands, I could tell from the hand-stubble. Japanese people are really hairy, so I could understand his desire to do such a thing...but don't let the stubble grow out. I think it's a common feeling that a 5 o'clock shadow should only be on your face.

The funny thing about Dracula is that he's a great teacher. He was extremely energetic, and it was so infectious that the kids were rapt with attention. They actually enjoyed learning English. Hell, I would too if my teachers were like him.

Sidenote: There’s a woman who came in to speak with one of the administrators in my office, and her 1 year old child is wearing a pair of pants that say “relish” on the butt.

Now I’ll recount what I did last weekend, both for my own record-keeping and also for your enjoyment.

Friday night I went with a friend to buy heating things for my apartment. Right now the inside of my apartment is pretty cold, and it will only get colder. I’ve already broken out the electric blanket for my bed, but now it’s time for more drastic measures. I already own a heating carpet, and soon I’ll be buying a kotatsu heater. A kotatsu is a table with an electric heater underneath it. You put a blanket or futon on top, and then climb on underneath. Even though it only heats the bottom half of your body, it is a great, low-cost way to stay warm in under-insulated apartments. Friday night I bought some plastic wrap made to cover your windows, adding another layer of insulation. Since there are 2 huge windows above my bed, I really needed the insulation.

Ok, enough about me being cold and trying to protect myself. After buying winter things, we went to a Ramen shop for dinner, and then bowling down in Downtown Hach. At the bowling arena, Tina, Wade, Paul, Erin, and I had a battle of fate! The strikes and spares were flying, the points were climbing higher and higher. But alas, at the last frame, only two remained, me vs. Tina.

Now, I’ll give you an insider’s look at my strategy. See, when things get close, such as in this baseball game, I sell my soul to the devil (or any other pagan god/demi-god that pops into my mind) in order to secure my victory.

Funny thing about the devil and his sense of humour*, I lost by 3 pins! Game 2 was a little better and I won by a good margin.

*Please note my British spelling of humour, which is about a million times better than your pitiful spelling of “humor.”

After the epic bowling, we were at a loss of what to do. Where shall we go? What should we do with all of our spare time? Karaoke? Nah. Izakaaya? I can’t drink because I’m driving. Arcade attached to the bowling alley? Sweet as*. I only played the best game ever, the Taiko drum game. There was a 4 player shooting game that we tried as well, with huge fake assault rifles and a terribly stereotyped American Army backdrop, but Taiko was the best. Oh, and also the purikura.

*Please note my use of kiwi slang “sweet as.” In the words of my flatmate from New Zealand, who happens to be kiwi as: “It’s not `sweet,` it’s `sweet-as.`”

Unfortunately, the building was shutting down, and it was time for us to go home. I dropped everyone off and slept very well that night.

Saturday I had a surprise enkai (office-party). The head-boss is leaving, and this lunch was a good-bye party for him. Why was it a surprise? They didn’t tell my until Friday afternoon. Thanks guys, I guess brevity’s your thing (10 yen to anyone who guesses the movie that’s spun off from). Not quite proper use of brevity, but I wanted to include it anyways.

So, at 12 we got into 2 cars and drove to Takko town, famous for it’s garlic and beef (check my earlier post of the garlic and beef festival I went to). We went to a yakiniku restaurant (you grill your own slices of meat with your pals) and began to drink our beer, wine, sake, all while eating some of the best, tenderest meet I’ve ever had. There was also some surprise meat there too, like the cow-tongue and something from “the inside of the body, like the stomach.”

Speaking of surprise beef, I was turning over some slices of beef (with my chopsticks, of course) and flame spat up, which caused my to fling the slice (keep in mind these are all bite-sized, chopstick friendly slices) into the air. Where else does it land but my vice-principal’s lap. Despite the shock and horror on my face, my vice-principal only looked at it through his beer goggles, and in a big voice said “BIKURI GYUUNIKU!” (SURPRISE BEEF!). If only he ate it, then it would’ve been the single most hilarious thing I’ve seen in Japan.

After the enkai, we daiko’d it back to Hachinohe, and I walked to my apartment. At this point, I just collapsed on the bed. I woke up an hour later, just in time to meet up with Seth and drive to Ariel’s birthday dinner. At this point, I felt sort of sick from stuffing myself with the beer and beef, but I went ahead anyways.

Dinner was at the one and only Bon. Only four of us were able to go that night, so Seth, Erin, Ariel, and I were there. We even got the comfy kotatsu table on the first floor, which I’ve been eyeing ever since I’ve been to Bon. We had a lot of cool conversation, and I’m really glad I decided to go, because after awhile, I began to feel a lot better. Just in time for Kappa’s delicious seafood everything stew.

Afterwards, we went to a café, hung out for awhile more, and then returned to my apartment to eat Seth’s home-made pumpkin pie. It was really fun, and the heating carpet came in really handy for keeping us warm.

Sunday there was a big lunch at an Okonomiyaki place called Teppei. Now, I have an unhappy past with okonomiyaki. I hate mayonnaise, and I also hate the brown sauce they put on top of the okonomiyaki. Why did I go? Because at this place you can make your own okonomiyaki (that’s a bitch to type, by the way), sans mayonnaise and brown sauce. For once it was actually tasty! Afterwards, we also played a party game that Jin-sensei just happened to have in her purse. You have to use lacquered chopsticks to move 10 beans from one bowl to another.

Our get-together was only supposed to be lunch, but it ended up turning into an all-day affair. After lunch, we got dessert at the food-court in Pia Do. We were there just talking for a long while, and when we realized it turned to dinner time, we all decided to go together since we happened to be together. Gusto, which was right around the corner, was our target. By this time, the huge group was pared down to only Erin, Ai, Jin-sensei, Nick, Oliver, and Ai’s friend. It was really fun, we got tables next to each other and continued on talking and hanging out. Finally, 8 hours after the start of our lunch, we all headed home. I cleaned the apartment a little bit, played a little piano, and went to bed, not even thinking about the fun I’d have teaching with Dracula this week.

Yesterday, I was a few minutes late to my school in Negishi. I felt really bad about it! I know, it was only a few minutes, but still. Usually on the schedule I get, the put on the time I should arrive at the school in order to go over the lesson plan. I guess this school put the time that the classes started, so I had to jump in while the class was already moving! Ack. It ended up being ok though, the students were wonderful, the teachers were understanding (at least, to my face, I’ve heard that they way they are to your face versus what they actually think are very different things, but since I never get to saying anything but what they present to my face, I suppose that doesn’t matter so much), and the principal and I talked for a good hour (in English!) after I was officially done at the school. I felt much better

Remember last week when I was telling you about the sweet potatoes? Well, I guess my role as a farmhand has spread out to other schools too. I have officially learned how to thrash soba seeds and harvest rice after it has been cut (this was at Herai, the best school). It was really fun, I learned something new and I got a chance to bond with my students.

Well, that’s about it for the highlights of the past week. Have a great week yourself, and I’ll update you soon.

Tokyo

Good day.

This past week was great! Obama won! I haven't lost all of my faith in Americans now. I also went to Tokyo with Grahame last weekend for the 3-day weekend, which was amazingly awesome. I wish I could be there right now...Ah well. Here, let me tell you all about the weekend.

We took the Shinkansen on Friday at 7, and we arrived at Tokyo Station around 10. I actually just came from Seth's mini-birthday get-together at an izakaaya near the station. Anyways, in Tokyo, we somehow managed to get to Akihabara, aka geek-kingdom, and wandered to our capsule hotel.

Wait, capsule hotel? What is that, you may ask? It's a cheap hotel where your "room" is actually a 2x3 meter capsule. Coffin, if you like. I actually didn't quite fit, my legs were just a little too long for the capsule, but I managed to make it just fine. When you are ready for sleep, you pull down this little window shade at the entrance of your capsule. The capsule itself includes TV, Radio, and a fire alarm. The Japanese sure know how to make efficient use of space.

So after checking in, Grahame and I decide to go out on the town in Akihabara, see the sights, so to say. Well, the sights in Akihabara are all closed at night. (funny side note, they are also all closed in the morning, seriously, Akihabara must only be open between the hours of 3 and 4). So, instead of the electronic epileptic seizures I was expecting, we found a 24 hour ramen shop and called it a night.

The next day we got up bright and early to see all of the sights in Tokyo. We got our breakfast at a burger joint outside Akihabara station. Burgers in Japan, they’re like, well, burgers…made in Japan. They’re just not quite right ever. So, I’ll correct my first sentence, we had burger-like food for breakfast.

After breakfast, we met up with Mari near the Edo-Tokyo museum. It was great to see her again! It was also sort of weird, because I’m used to her in America, and now I’m seeing her as a Japanese person and my schema got all mixed up. Anyways, we walked around the area a little bit and went to…Mos Burger for lunch! Ok, so I’ve had “burgers” for 2 out of 3 meals so far.

After lunch, we went to the Edo-Tokyo museum, which was really cool. Old Japanese things (including swords) woohoo! If you check my pics on facebook, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

We had a great time there, and afterwards we took the train to Asakusa. Asakusa was wicked cool! There were huge Tori Gates and an even huger temple and shrine. But, between the gigantic tori and the temple were tons of street merchants and literally a sea of Japanese people. There was a cool machine that made azuki treats and you could buy them warm off the press. For those of you not in the know about Japanese desserts, azuki is crushed up beans. Yep. As they say in Japan, dericious. It’s actually surprisingly good, but I still lack the language to communicate that vegetables don’t constitute dessert.

So anyways, after literally swimming through Japanese people, we get to the temple, do a few little prayers (ok, how does it go again? Throw in money, clap twice, ring the bell, pray, clap again) and head out to walk around Asakusa.

There we ran into some ninjas!

We headed into a café to take a break and prepare ourselves for the night. It was good to recoup. It was also decided (thank you Grahame) that we would go to the one haven of America food, the one place in Tokyo where we knew we could get our cholesterol-laden, butter-covered, steaks with a side o’ bloomin’ onion: Outback. Yes, there exists one in Tokyo, in Shibuya (good nightlife-place) no less. So, up and at ‘em.

We got off at Shibuya, where we met up with Seth and Natasha (Mari’s friend who also happens to be a GW student. This is where Mari described to me the perils that await. “This one intersection, right here, see all of the people crowding around at the edge of each corner?”
“You mean the 5,000 people staring at us across the street?”
“Yeah, they want to be where we are standing, and we want to be where they are standing. This street is the human collision place.”
I stared across the street at the vast amount of black-haired people who, anytime now, were going to power-walk across the street, all aiming to get to where I was standing right now.

Gulp.

Then, the light changed! People were streaming everywhere! I tried dodging while taking pictures, my camera raised above my head like that over-eager student in your poli-sci class who won’t shut up. I bumped, smacked, and stumbled across the street. And then, it was over as quickly as it started.

We continued walking towards outback. And then I was told the dramatic story of the famous Docomo Dog (or Shibuya dog, I can’t remember).

“So, there was this dog that waited for his master everyday, and one day his master didn’t show up, and the dog still waited.” Thanks for the drama and the storytelling guys, I really feel the emotion.

Anyways, we made it to delicious Outback. I had the All-American half-rack of ribs and chicken; my two American compadres got steaks. Mari’s boyfriend, Toyo, met up with us there, and we had a great (American-sized portion, finally) meal.

With out bellies full, we headed out to see Shibuya nightlife. We were hustled on the street by some guy who told us he could get us all you can drink for 1300. So, we waited in the arcade 15 minutes and proceeded to the izakaaya for our nomihodai.

3,000? What? Nice try, izakaaya workers, we’re threatening to leave. Thanks for talking them down to 2,000, Mari. Ah, all you can drink for $20 for 2 hours, I can deal with that. Oh, and Dharma and Greg is playing (without sound) on all of the TVs around the izakaaya? Uh, sure.

So we had our fun at the izakaaya and called it a night. Seth and I planned on going to the fishmarket the next morning (it opens at 4:30 and closes at 8), but luckily it isn’t open on Sunday, which meant I could sleep in my capsule a little bit later.

Sunday, Grahame and I (Seth went to visit his grandfather) went to Harajuku, after our burger-breakfast, of course, to see all of the people dressed up. Sunday in particular, Japanese people dress up in crazy outfits in Harajuku. I wish I could explain why, but I can only tell you that I found the shops where they sell these outfits. I got a free hug from the people giving out free hugs, and then we had to go.

After some pictures, we headed to Tamanakobaba to see Waseda University’s school festival. Remember when I was writing earlier about Japan being really crowded. Yeah, this was the worst. I think it ceased to be people, and instead became some huge Nihonjin beast, and you had to edge your way over into the correct crowd of people moving in the correct direction in order to get anywhere. Grahame and I were suckered into buying some “tasty Japanese sweets.” Ok, remember a few paragraphs ago when I was writing that vegetables don’t count as desserts. Well, I haven’t spread the word far enough, because I had vegetable-mochi ball things with a small smattering of chocolate on top. We had a few funny looks from Japanese people considering we were all foreign and stuff, so we ate our candy and left.

We met up with Mari for a few minutes since she had a huge chorus concert she was part of. After watching some terrible, terrible hip-hop groups try and dance, Seth made it to the University and the 3 of us watched some traditional Japanese dances, the band, and some overly ecstatic male cheerleaders.

On our slow way out from the festival, we stopped by and bought Waseda beer. It was ok, but perhaps a little too pale ale-ish. We sat down on the steps of a closed store to drink our beer, and all of the Japanese people walking by gave us 1 of 2 looks. The surprised “wow, what are they doing? Drinking in public is legal here, but I am so confused.” Or the “oh foreigners…” look.

So, walking with our beers in hand to the Tamanakobaba (haha, say that 3 times fast) train station, we got on the train headed to Harajuku again. We were hoping to see the temple there before the sun set, but we didn’t quite make it. So instead, we walked around Harajuku, seeing funny posters, weird people, and taking in the sites.

We got dinner at some really awesome British pizza place (are you getting the “anything but Japanese food” theme we had?), and then went to this wicked awesome Docomo cell phone building. They had prototype cell phones that could fold into boxes, could turn into functional drumsticks, piano keys, and guitars. They also had a game where you sat down in a chair facing a partner, and the chair vibrated with that person’s heart-rate, and you had to click a button on your chair when their heart beat while they were doing the same thing. Then the machine rates the bond between you and that person. Seth and I got “best friends,” but I was more interested in to know about that woman behind the counter, maybe next time.

Unfortunately, Seth had to take the night-bus home, so we headed to Tokyo station and went to an Irish pub, got some food or drink, and, on our way back to the station, were asked if we wanted a massage. No massage, thank you, we’ll just keep walking.

Grahame and I then headed to Shinjuku to check out the nightlife there. We passed by our Orientation Hotel…ah good memories Keio Plaza Hotel. We passed by some familiar places, just as we hit the actual downtown, it was time to catch our last train. How did we know this? The mass exodus of Japanese people all heading in one direction.

I do have one gripe. On the way to downtown, we saw a few foreigners harassing Japanese people. This one guy had something in his hand and then he’d get in the way of Japanese people who were walking by and show it to them or something. What the hell? 1) Why would you do that? 2) Are you mentally challenged? 3) What’s your problem? 4) I’m gonna go with mentally challenged. Really though, that’s a great way to reinforce all of those negative foreigner stereotypes they have here. Thanks, guys.

Ok, that ended our night. Now we're at day 3. Phew, almost done typing this.

We woke up in the capsule hotel and sadly had to say goodbye. I enjoyed my time sleeping in a coffin, but alas, back to expansive beds and big rooms for me. I actually met a Japanese guy who was living in the capsule hotel- he didn’t have a job and said it was the cheapest thing for him.

So, Grahame and I went to Harajuku to check out that temple. It was the awe-inspiring. I wrote about it in my first post, and this second trip there was no less amazing. In the middle of Tokyo, it’s just this huge temple and forested area. So awesome. Again, check my pictures to get the full story.

After this, we made our way to Tokyo Station, got our Tokyo Banana omiyage, and headed on the Shinkansen back to Hachinohe.

BUT there’s a little bit more!

The bathroom on the shinkansen has a window in it. It’s a one person at a time bathroom, and people can look at you and pretty much see what you’re doing. Luckily for me, it’s just my back they are seeing, but still!

So, we made it home safe and sound, and I didn’t want the weekend to end. But it did, and now I’m back in Hach.

But there’s more!

Some random things, sure, I’ll call it Random Japan, that happened I forgot to write about:

I was getting my gas filled up at a small gas station halfway between by home and my schools. A woman knocks on my window, so I open my door, and she gives me a bag of apples and runs away! I didn’t have time to ask her “what?” or say “hi” or anything. I don’t think she knows me, I was far away from places where people know me, so I’m just really confused.

I also got the chance to harvest sweet-potatoes with my students. Yep, I borrowed some boots, and after lunch we went out with the whole school and harvested sweet potatoes. Alright.

Ok, I will hopefully add pictures to this to flesh out the story. Have a great week!

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.