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

Fantavista!

Hello again!

Wow, two posts within 4 days, how lucky you are. Well, let's dive in, shall we?

Last night (Sunday Night) was the Towada Fantavision Festival. I'm not sure what part of it was in Fantavision, but it was very fun. When we got there, we did the most important thing, eat some food. Then, we began to enjoy the festival. We ran into Paul and his girlfriend, Maki, there by surprise, so they joined us for awhile.

The first thing we did was sled. They had a small hill set up with lights and snow steps. It was wicked cool! We raced each other, and taught Natalie (a Singaporean who hasn't done much pertaining to cold weather) and Paul (who is afraid of going fast and can't ride a bike- on account of fear, not for lack of trying this year) how to sled. It was so much fun.

Then.

So, there was a small group of American children, probably from the military base. Well, these kids thought they were cool enough to race me. Now, you might not know much about me...well, hopefully you do if you are reading this, but I think it's really fun to make (fun, not anxious or dramatic) mountains out of molehills. So, when I heard this kid say he was THE BEST. I had to turn around and enlighten him on the truth. He claimed he could flip will sledding. I told him I he could flip all he wanted, ain't no way he's getting in front of my sled, I'm winning no problem-o. Tina's mom was there (she's visiting for the week) and she helped the kid out, telling him that I was as fat as an elephant. It didn't matter, I could take all of their trash talk and dish it back. I knew I would win, and no 5 year old, or Tina's mom would tell me otherwise.

So, we got on our sleds. The epic sled race of 2009 was going to begin. Now, my track record wasn't the best, I'd lost to Tina but won against Maki, but I was feeling confident that I could take a 5 year old. So, we climbed on our sleds. Tina jumped on the back of mine because we were going to make it a doubles race...but the kid was sooo cocky that he didn't need another person on the back of his.

"GO!"

Wind was rushing through my hair and face. It was cold, the snow stinging my eyes. I could barely see. Was he in front of me? Was he actually going to take me down? What about my pride? How will I ever look my future children in the eyes?

We made it to the bottom and saw the kid had slid off of his sled. VICTORY WAS MINE.

We got a picture with him, and I'm looking forward to getting it up here. In my victory pose.

And that is how I (we?) beat a 5 year old in a sled race. Maybe I shouldn't be so proud....

Onwards!

After the epic race/battle, we slid into an igloo that was also an ice bar. It was cool. In both senses of the word. I got a ginger-ale since I was driving. After we finished our drinks, we threw the glasses (because they were made of ice!) against the wall of the igloo and went our merry way.

We went our merry way to the banana boat. Which drove us around this cool snow track. It felt like we were on a watertube or something. It was wicked fun!

Then, we had to drive the 2.5 hours back.

Saturday, we actually tried to go to the festival, but they close one of the routes during winter, and when we got to the gate, we instead decided to go to Ogata and eat some Horse as our Valentine's dinner. It was actually pretty awesome, and the place was hoppin'. Who knew, Valentine's dinner at Ogata.

Oh, it's time to get it off work, so I'm going to end here. Have a great day you all.

Hello my faithful friends,

You may have noticed that I didn't reward you with a blog entry last week. For that I am really and truly sorry. On the upside, you are getting one right now. In fact, you should be reading it just as you are reading this sentence! Lucky you! I am promising you right now that I'll get back to the weekly updates. We just pinky-swore, which makes it eternal.

Oh me? Well thanks for asking, I'm fine. The reason I haven't written anything is because any time not studying Japanese is time that I am not learning Japanese. And I've gotten really motivated to learn it that much quicker. I am finally able to quickly do some tense changes in my head and make it sound almost fluid, so I'm using that to motivate myself forward.

Some things that have happened.

My car and I...not on the best of terms. He seems to think that it's cool to randomly break disks and leak oil on my breaks. He then, this week, also thought it was cool to run out of his "Shaken," which is a required thing in Japan to allow you to drive your car. It's sort of like a bi-yearly check, except it costs around $1200. Yeah, between that and the break problems, I'll be spending the equivalent of 1600 USA, AMERICAN, BONA-FIDE, 100% REAL, IT'S COSTING ME A LOT, dollars. But hey, I'm not angry. Much.

Ok, since we are on cars, we'll also talk about Japanese drivers. Their faults are many, but there are a few things I will laud them for. First of all, I think there are no safer drivers to be found. Ok, now onto the "Cultural Differences." One thing they do is run red lights consistently. If it's yellow, it means speed up. If it just turned red, it means, speed up more. Not only have I seen drivers go through just-turned-red lights. BUT, I've also seen drivers go through red lights that have been red for awhile, if they don't see anyone else coming from the other way. Next up. They will stop their cars and put on their "triangle lights" (ok, I can't remember the name of the lights that you press, they have a little triangle shape on the button you have to press, so henceforth, they are triangle lights), and then talk on the phone. Oh, and this is in the middle of any street or freeway. If it's a one lane road, they'll put on the lights and try to pull over as much as possible. If it's two lanes...well, you're stuck behind them until you can get one lane over.

You think it's over. Nope, not yet. They are incapable of turning at more than 10 km/hr (and note the kilometer, which is equal to 1.6 miles). This means that someone turning ahead of you will come practically to a stop before turning. This can be frustrating to the driver who is not used to stopping for a simple right turn.

Phew, ok that feels good.

So, I've noticed something interesting in my classes. In America, when you raise your hand for the answer, that's all you do until the teacher picks on you. In Japan, apparently you scream "HAI!" (YES!) at the same time you raise your hand. It's even funnier in America-Class (ok ok, English Class, whatever), because they teachers all make them say "YES!" and assume that is exactly what we do back home. It's really funny.

Ok ok. 5 minutes until work gets out, and what else can I type.

The snow festival in Sapporo was a lot of fun. There were ice sculptures maybe 4 storeys tall and extremely detailed. They had sculptures of ever anime/manga/cartoon character ever. They even had a 4 storey tall Disney 60th Anniversary sculpture. It was the place to be. We drank warm sake on the snowy, cold nights.

On the ferry ride back (yep, we took a ferry there and back), Weldon, Crystal and I, the unlucky 3 who couldn't get nenkyu so we could go skiing at the world famous Niseiko, made new Japanese friends. A pachinko-addicted construction worker and his stylish brother who worked for some company. If only I could describe the...aura of these 2 guys. They were very friendly. They also spent...I'm still not sure if I believe this, but the translation is correct...the equivalent of $6,000 US on a bar with 8 of their friends. Ok, when you break it down, it's not as ridiculous at 600/head, BUT, that's still 600 per person! Not to mention, there are places that are "all you can drink" for just 20-30 US dollars.

Ok, time to get off work. Maybe if you are lucky, you'll get another little update this weekend. Flattery might work...

-Greg

Coquelicot, because that was the first word that jumped into my head

Hello Friends,

Here is the quick update of my past week.

Last Friday night, I went to Erin and Crystal's karaoke birthday party! It was wicked fun. We ate dinner at Palki and then moved onto karaoke. Seth, Tina, and I got there late because we were shopping for snowboarding stuff at Xebio. The karaoke was cool, but I'm not a big fan of singing in front of other people, so that took awhile and some drinks.

Last Saturday I went to Okunakayama, a small mountain, where I tried to practice my snowboarding abilities. Unfortunately, the ground was pure ice, so I didn't really get to learn anything, I was more afraid of how much it hurt to fall down (a lot...even with pads). It was not fun, and I was more frustrated that I didn't get to learn anything. Ah well. After that, those of us who left early (most of us) went to an onsen on the way there.

This was perfect for after a day of snowboarding. Warm water, good food...you can almost pretend there aren't any naked old people. Almost.

Sunday I went to a wind ensemble concert with many of the Hachinohe JETs. Their Japanese coworker was playing. I ran into one of my teachers at Nosawa...he seems to be pretty big into the band scene in Hach (awhile back I went to his jazz concert). Afterwards, we went as a group to see the newest Bond movie. Some of us, including yours truly, dressed up. Unfortunately, we weren't told of this until the night before, which really wasn't ideal even though people knew we wanted to dress up. Regardless, it was still good. I didn't think this movie was one of the better Bonds though. I thought that the camera was too much like in the Bourne movies at times, you know, way too shaky and not revealing enough of the action during the action scenes. It didn't ruin the hand-to-hand scenes, but that car chase scene at the beginning was just watching a few blurs moving around objects we couldn't see. I understand the theory behind the camera-work, but I think it's a case of theory versus practicality.

So, that was my weekend. During the week, I just had the usual. Teaching et al. My shower was fixed though, which is awesome! I can now shower in my apartment, level up!

After my self-introduction in class, I usually answer student's questions about anything. As you can imagine, that can lead to a lot of interesting questions. Today was a brilliant example. The young 3rd grader- we'll call him Timmy, in the vein of his strong desire to learn English- asked "Why do Americans have big noses?" How do you answer that? How was I supposed to answer? "It's genetics, kid." I wish I could have explained. But, I was just left saying "wakaranai- i don't know."

Ah, that brings me to another point. For those of you who might not have realized this, Japan is a country where 98 percent of people DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH. This includes the younger generation. It is not like some European countries where "everyone speaks english" even though it is not the main language. Old or young alike, in Japan, (almost) NO ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH. Hence, they are kind enough to offer me a job here. And, being the charitable soul that I am, I am kind enough to take it.

Another short one, again, mostly for my recollection. I hope you had a good week, and good luck next week. Hopefully the next post will be longer and more involved.

Also, still no godzilla, I must've scared him when I first landed in Tokyo.

Greg out.

I passed my coworker walking home from the office tonight at 10:17pm. Yeah.

Uninspired Post Written by a Tired Worker on Friday

Good evening,

So, another week has passed, and here you are, reading my blog, wondering, "what could Greg have possibly done this week?" Well, you came to the right place, 'cause I'm here to tell you.

Last weekend was fun. What did I do...uhhh

Ah yes, now I remember. Friday night I went to Wade's place to hang out with him, Paul, Tina, Natalie, and Erin. It took me about an hour to drive what should have been 30 minutes, but I'll get into my "Japanese-drivers" rant soon and spare you now. We played Left 4 Dead until the girls arrived, and then we watched Batman: The Dark Night. Wicked fun, and it was my first time seeing Wade's place. Afterwards, we hung out for awhile, talking and eating Wade's Starbursts.

Saturday we had lunch at the Viking (all-you-can-eat) Yakiniku place. I'm pretty sure I covered our table's tab, I had huge bowls of meat, and was still eating long after everyone else had finished. Afterwards, I did some errands- Yamada Denki (the electronics store) and so forth, the gym, and then went to Paul's house to hang out that night.

I got there and we played some more Left 4 Dead. Then, Paul, Nick, and I, met up with Tina downtown, and went to see......Paul's girlfriend! Yes, Paul (or Po-ru San, as he is called at school), has a Japanese girlfriend. He has been reluctant to introduce us to her, but we were finally able to convince him to take us to the ramen shop she works at. We went to the shop, ordered some ramen, and tried not to be stereotypical Gaijin fools. So, we were able to look at his girlfriend, but we were unable to actually speak with her until we paid for our meal. It was really only enough for a quick (my name is blank, I'm from blank), but still, it was good just to see what she looks like.

We headed back to Paul's, played some more vidja-games, hung out, and then went home our separate ways.

Sunday I cleaned my apartment and skyped. Seth came by that night and we cooked dinner (beef and broccoli) and played some RE4. We also moved my piano into my heat room, and, wow, suddenly I've been practicing again. I feel bad for my teacher, who had to endure my not-practicing for so long, because my piano was in one of my cold-rooms for awhile.

I suppose I should explain to you "heat room" and "cold room." They are pretty self-explanatory, but, my "heat room" is comprised of my kitchen, living room, and bedroom. These rooms are all within range of my heater, and I close the doors to the non-heated areas to keep the heat in. It works quite well. The "cold rooms," are those not heated by my heater, and therefore are useless to me except for the occasional run to the bathroom.

Wednesday night, Paul hosted a movie night at his house, and we watched the movie "Old Boy," which I highly recommend. It's a Korean movie. The only part I cringed at was when the main character eats a live octopus, and you can see the tentacles squirming and sucking all over his face. Even when the character falls face-down on his plate because he "passes out," the tentactles are still all squirming outside his mouth. Since I already hate that part of octopi, I was engrossed- I had to watch it, but it's something I could never do. It was so delightfully freaky that I had to watch. Unfortunately, the disc skipped about halfway through, so I still don't know what happened to the guy! NO!

We also played Mario 3, which is only the best game ever invented. I either scared or impressed people with my insane (read: encyclopedic) knowledge of the game and all of the secrets in all of it's levels. Either way, we almost beat the game that night.

Afterwards, I went to the onsen with Erin and Tina, since my shower is broken. Oh, funny thing about my shower...it's broken. Actually, not so funny. I've been going to onsens almost every night. So, we went to Gokuraku, an onsen close to their area, and the best one in Hachinohe. We got post-dinner dinner there, and then onsenned. It was good, and on the drive back, Erin turned 27!

Last night was boxing with Matt and Joe. It's always wicked fun, and I can't wait to box again. Matt bought some pads and gloves, so we practice at Body Park in Nanbu. It feels really good to hit something and practice martial arts. I just want to go again.

Here's one from the past. At one of my middle schools, I asked a student "What three foods do you like?" His answer:

"I like cheese. cheese- cheese- I like- umm...cheese, i like-chee-cheese, and...eto...cheese, cheese..." This literally went on for a good 4 minutes, until the teacher had to interrupt and say "how about ramen and tempura?"

"...ramen and tempura..." Ok. Well, it was much funnier when I was actually there.

Somehow I've gotten the newkid to smile at me, like we are sharing this inside joke. I don't know what the inside joke is though, and I'm not sure what he means when he briefly smiles at me. Best case scenario, he is observing me to make sure that I am worthy of receiving his 10 billion dollar check...now! Guess not yet. Worst case scenario, he is smiling sadistically, thinking about how I won't figure out he's an axe-murder until later tonight. I'm hoping for the former.

Regardless, I think this is a good move forward. It means that, perhaps, he is less afraid and more willing to...not be afraid(?).

Ah, this Monday I went to Shorenji Kempo, that karate class I've been taking, and I told them that I was quitting. It's sad, but true. I'm not learning much, and it's just not that fun or practical.

Hmm, what next? What else? This weekend is here. I'm going to Erin and Crystal's joint b-day party and karaoke. Should be good. Tomorrow I'll be snowboarding at Okunakayama. That's about all I've got planned for now.

I forgot to mention that I just came back from calligraphy. I was supposed to write a wish (in Kanji) on a piece of paper in Japanese calligraphy. The English teacher wrote out my wish (for happiness and health for my family), and I practiced a few times before getting on my knees (which hurts, fyi) and calligraphy-ing it. Unfortunately, on my official run-through (on the official paper and everything), I wrote in the wrong order. Ms. Kamiyama came to the rescue, my wish was changed from happiness and "health for my family" to "I wish to be a safety-driver." Not a bad rebound, I daresay. Now, this anzen unten hito is going to sign off. Work is done for the day and I'm going home.

Good luck, and please, be a safety driver.

First Post-Korea Pre-Next Week, After "Adult Day" and Snowboarding Post

Welcome back, everyone.

Sorry to have deprived you of my blog posts for so long, I had quite a great winter vacation. I’m back from South Korea! I forgot to mention that I was going to South Korea in my last blog post. So here is your late notification, I’m going to South Korea. And I’m back, safe and sound. It was an amazing trip, from December 16th to December 30th. On the 30th, I arrived back in Tokyo, and stayed there until the 1st. There’s so much to write about, and so much that I did. I'm going to avoid that for now, because knowing the way I write, it will take the rest of this week just to get it down in the blog.

Instead, I'll catalogue the interesting points of what has happened since I've been back in Japan, and try to do Korea later, in my free time.

So, there are two new office workers. There's an 18 year old male who I'm sure I've complained about before, and will continue to complain about now. And there's a 19 or 20 year old female who just recently joined us after the winter vacation. Let's explore their role in the office.

First, the female, because her job seems much more understandable that the male's job. She has a binder. From this binder, she reads and types things in the computer. Sometimes, she'll copy things at the copy machine. This is the extent of her job. Oh, I almost forgot, she also has the privilege of turning the lights on and off in the morning and at lunch time, lucky her! On account of her actually doing something, I'll let her off the hook of my criticism. Also she will actually speak more than 2 words to me, that also counts in her favor.

Ok, let's get started with the guy. I don't know where to begin. Actually, I know exactly where to begin. I'll begin with his favorite activity, sitting in his chair and doing nothing. Yep, in an office where sometimes a coworker will close their eyes for 10 minutes during the middle of the day and do nothing, he manages to make them look hardworking. He'll sit in one position, look around with those alien-shaped eyes (Note: I am not making fun of the asian almond-shaped eyes, which are totally cool and fine by me, I am solely criticizing his poor genetic make-up when it comes to facial features). Sometimes he'll stare at the clock. How do I know that he's staring at the clock? Because it's directly behind him, and he has to turn his body 180 degrees to stare at it. For extended periods of time. Every once in awhile, he'll staple something, which I'm sure is the highlight of his day. One time, he was in the lobby, and I spoke with him. Sorry, *to* him. Here was our conversation:

"Hello, how are you?"
silence
"Where did you eat lunch?"
"Upstairs"
"Oh cool, what did you have?"
alien-eyed look
"A bento-box (Japanese traditional lunch box thingey)?"
"Yes."
"Ok, well, I'll see you later."
Silence, possible UFO transmission back to the mother ship.

Am I being a little rough on him? Probably. Does it matter? Not particularly, he won't find out about this website and can't read English. I don't actually feel strongly negatively towards him, but I thought this might be entertaining for you, my precious reader.

So, anyways, onto this weekend. Saturday was Skype-athon day. I spoke with no less than 4 people, and even my old kiwi flatmate from when I was in NZed. It was really great to catch up, and that accent is pretty rockin'.

Sunday I went snowboarding for the 1st time at Moya Hills (or, for you Japanese speakers in the blogosphere, Moya Hiruzu). I drove down with Laura S, Karesa, and Eric, who never fails to crack us up, whether it's how he named his cat Apparatus Recreational Vehicle (I think he opened the dictionary to a random page) or some other story. We eventually made it through all of the snow to Moya, which was awesome. After we arrived, we got to our cabins and met up with everyone who stayed there last night.

Then it was time for night snowboarding! Tina taught me some of the basics on how to snowboard, and then I practiced on the beginner hill for the rest of the night. I got some of the basics down, and I was ready for the next day to go up the mountain.

That night we went to an onsen, cause that's what you do in Japan. I was in there with Wheldon, Seth, and Eric, when a random Chinese guy came up to us and started talking to us in English. That's the thing about Japan, and Korea I noticed as well, people randomly want to come up to you and talk to you because you are a) white or b) speak English. For some reason, a disproportionate number of them feel more confident when naked, and wait until then to talk to us.

After the onsen, there was a little mini-party in the cabin, they cooked spaghetti, salad, and other stuff for dinner. Everyone was tired from that day, though, so it didn't last too long. We went to bed around 1ish, and then got up the next day for more snowboarding, until 3 pm!

Snowboarding is a lot of fun. First of all, it's much easier to learn than skiing. People debate this, and some of the people who think incorrectly say skiing is easier, but it's not. I like feeling like my legs won't go in opposite directions and I'll end up doing an unwanted split. Also, being able to stop whenever, wherever, without going 10 yards of snow-plowing, is really nice. I went up the mountain a few times with Weldon, Crystal, and Eric. I had a really good time snowboarding, and I look forward to doing it again!

Afterwards, we drove home, and I threw some laundry in, hit an onsen because I think the pipes to my toilet might be frozen, and came back and crashed. I'll definitely be going to bed earlier this week.

Since there are no classes this week, I'm just sitting at the office all day, doing nothing. So, I have a lot of time reading, doing nothing, writing this, losing motivation to write and do constructive things, reading again, trying to do something constructive, and then leaving for home at 4:30. At times, I think I'd rather be in the Admissions Office, keying in new recruits, or indexing with music. Larry! Do you need help with anything?!

So, I've read two books since I've been back, and finished the first Japanese textbook. Woo!

Ok, Random Japan, random japan, random japan, what shall I write about? There's got to be something, anything I can think of. Hmm, things have become too normalized. Ahh! I don't think I've written about my shower yet. Let's do that.

Unlike you dirty Westerners, we here in Japan have 6 steps to turning on our showers. (Well, actually, to be fair, it's only my apartment, everyone else has a normal shower.) Anyways, here's how the elite do it.
Step 1: Turn on the water to the shower.
Step 2: Turn on the gas to the shower.
Step 3: Turn the handle around, while turning the other handle counterclockwise to about 10 o'clock while pressing down and holding, until you see a blue gas flame through the glass
Step 4: Wait a few seconds and slowly raise up the other handle. If the blue flame disappears, go back to step 3.
Step 5: Take the raised handle and twist it counterclockwise, further, until about 7 or 8 o'clock.
Step 6: Turn the topmost handle to the showerhead, and prepare for a nice warm shower!

So that is how I do it in Japan. You Westerners think you're so clever with your showers, but now I can see you realize how inferior you are. And I bet you have insulation in your houses and apartments too...such folly.

Till next time!