This morning, maybe the best example of Japanese amazingness displayed itself. First, I'll tell the story of my trip to school yesterday.
Since Take and I went out for sushi the night before, I did not have leftovers from supper to eat for lunch. This means, I either stop at Lawson (convenience store) and get Onigiri (rice balls) or I buy a school lunch. Since I was hungry for おにぎり(o-ni-gi-ri), I decided to go to Lawson and get a couple. Since it is very close to school, there is almost always at least one student that I run into whenever I go to Lawson.
So I get to Lawson and they have a many choices for おにぎり, and of course there is something in the middle of the rice balls (either fish, vegetables, eggs, or meat) and since I can't read Kanji, I usually just pick a couple randomly and eat whatever is inside. This has made for some interesting lunches in the past, but since a student was right next to the おにぎり I decided to strike up a conversation with her. なんはおいしいですか？ (What is delicious?) I asked. This is about the extent of my Japanese knowledge, so she replied with something I couldn't understand, so I just started pointing at random おにぎり and asking her if she liked them. She ended up pointing to two of them, so I thanked her, bowed a few times, bought the おにぎり and was on my way to school.
Now flash forward to this morning. I get to school and as soon as I take off my shoes, put my helmet in my locker, and look up, there is the student from Lawson yesterday, yelling "トーマス先生！” (Tomasu-sensei), and running down the hall. She gets to me and hands me a sheet of paper and says "read this please!" It was handwritten in excellent penmanship and said:
You bought onigiri in convenience store.
I gave a proposal to you.
I feel uneasiness.
If you don't like sea tangle?
I would make the wrong advice.
I am sorry.
And then at the bottom was translations for all of the onigiri at Lawson!
Now I was shocked. I guess one of the types of onigiri that i bought was sea tangle and she was very worried about me not liking it. This poor girl took time out of her studying (big tests next monday tuesday wednesday, so students are at school until like 7:00pm studying) to write me this heartfelt note. And she probably lost some sleep thinking to herself "oh I made that poor foreigner hate Japanese food forever." And on top of it all, she went through the trouble of translating 11 different onigiri for me on the bottom of the letter.
All of those thoughts ran through my mind in 4 seconds as I was struggling to find the right words to say to her. I pretty much just said "no no no, it was very delicious, thank you very much for helping me!" And she seemed relieved and bowed a lot and thanked me. I don't know what she was thanking me for, maybe for enjoying the delicious food that she pointed out to me? Either way, it was awesome.
In the interest of full disclosure, the other onigiri was some sort of fried pork shavings. It was extremely delicious, and now, thanks to her translations, when you visit I will be able to pick out an onigiri that you will enjoy!
Also, one more thing to note: one of the onigiri is "dried bonito shavings." I did not know that bonito was a type of fish. For anyone that has ever taken spanish, they know it is a pretty fish, but not only is it a darn good-looking fish, it is also delicious when rice is wrapped around it.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Why Not Drink Coke?
So I'm really bad at remembering my water bottle, and whenever I forget my water bottle at home, I go to the cafeteria to buy a drink from the vending machine. Each time this happens, it creates a nice mob of students who are all very interested in seeing what crazy foreigners drink. Of course, the students point to the Coke and are like "トーマス先生！ coke!" And expect me to get the only drink with Roman letters, but I never get the coke. They are always super confused. They ask; "Tomasu sensei, why not drink Coke?" and I reply, "In America, I can drink coke, in America, I can not drink Black Boss Coffee - decaffeinated and desegregated, for the equal opportunity executive suite." They usually just give me a head tilt and look at me like "what the heck are you talking about?"
Although I feel like I do need to point out; I rarely get the coffee, I usually go for the tea or Pocari Sweat, but the label on the coffee is awesome..
Although I feel like I do need to point out; I rarely get the coffee, I usually go for the tea or Pocari Sweat, but the label on the coffee is awesome..
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Badminton
So I go to badminton club and it is very interesting. Every day after school, about 85% of the students participate in a club. This club becomes something students take great pride in. For the badminton club, this is no exception.
Each day starts out with a hour and a half training session followed by an hour and a half of drills. During club, no games are played (this holds true for basketball club too, and pretty much every sports clubs, they mainly do drills and very rarely play games). So any student wanting to play an actual game of badminton has to wait until about 7:00 pm (school gets done at 4). After a few games, it is not uncommon to see students leaving at 8:00pm every day. In fact, when I leave at 7, about a third of teachers and students are still at the school.
All of this practice pays off obviously. When I was student teaching at Evansville, I challenged a few of the baseball players to a match and none of them scored even a single point on me over the course of about 6 games. Here, the top half of the boys and the top 4 girls can all score in the double digits. I've only played 4 of the kids in 1v1 (after club) and am still 4-0, but one of the students lost by a score of 21-17. I will definitely be beaten by the end of the year. Or maybe not, but if a student has a good day and I have a bad day [which never happens :)] they could take a game.
But anyways, first badminton practice finishes and the kids form a circle, the coach of the badminton club (who speaks very little English) talks for about 5 minutes while I stand there and I have absolutely no clue what hes talking about. Finally, as I start daydreaming, he stops talking and there was a second where I got an uneasy feeling like everyone was watching me.
I snap out of my staring at the floor and everyone is staring intently at me. I'm thinking to myself "omgomgomgomg what did I do?" I look to the coach and he looks back at me and thinks about a proper English translation for the what he just said. Finally he just says..."advice?"
Now, my command of the Japanese language right now is pretty similar to the command that a bronze level Starcraft player has over a large army. I have a good idea of what I want to say, but what I actually end up saying usually isn't quite right. (A quick example; I spent my first month here asking people "nan de hirugohan tabemashita ka?" which I thought meant "what did you eat for lunch?" and I only received blank stares and people walking away from me. Finally, my supervisor said, "Why did I eat lunch? Because I was hungry." Finally it stuck me that I had to say "nan yo hirugohan tabemashita ka?") So of course, 20 kids staring at me, I didn't want to make a fool of myself and say something bad. So I was just like "eto eto (Japanese thinking word, instead of "ummm") zenbu josu desu!" Which means, "ummm, you are all very skilled."
Each day starts out with a hour and a half training session followed by an hour and a half of drills. During club, no games are played (this holds true for basketball club too, and pretty much every sports clubs, they mainly do drills and very rarely play games). So any student wanting to play an actual game of badminton has to wait until about 7:00 pm (school gets done at 4). After a few games, it is not uncommon to see students leaving at 8:00pm every day. In fact, when I leave at 7, about a third of teachers and students are still at the school.
All of this practice pays off obviously. When I was student teaching at Evansville, I challenged a few of the baseball players to a match and none of them scored even a single point on me over the course of about 6 games. Here, the top half of the boys and the top 4 girls can all score in the double digits. I've only played 4 of the kids in 1v1 (after club) and am still 4-0, but one of the students lost by a score of 21-17. I will definitely be beaten by the end of the year. Or maybe not, but if a student has a good day and I have a bad day [which never happens :)] they could take a game.
But anyways, first badminton practice finishes and the kids form a circle, the coach of the badminton club (who speaks very little English) talks for about 5 minutes while I stand there and I have absolutely no clue what hes talking about. Finally, as I start daydreaming, he stops talking and there was a second where I got an uneasy feeling like everyone was watching me.
I snap out of my staring at the floor and everyone is staring intently at me. I'm thinking to myself "omgomgomgomg what did I do?" I look to the coach and he looks back at me and thinks about a proper English translation for the what he just said. Finally he just says..."advice?"
Now, my command of the Japanese language right now is pretty similar to the command that a bronze level Starcraft player has over a large army. I have a good idea of what I want to say, but what I actually end up saying usually isn't quite right. (A quick example; I spent my first month here asking people "nan de hirugohan tabemashita ka?" which I thought meant "what did you eat for lunch?" and I only received blank stares and people walking away from me. Finally, my supervisor said, "Why did I eat lunch? Because I was hungry." Finally it stuck me that I had to say "nan yo hirugohan tabemashita ka?") So of course, 20 kids staring at me, I didn't want to make a fool of myself and say something bad. So I was just like "eto eto (Japanese thinking word, instead of "ummm") zenbu josu desu!" Which means, "ummm, you are all very skilled."
Monday, September 20, 2010
Cooking
Another Aomori JET (Steven) was cooking the other day and came upon this:
"Chicken applies the taste in the switching making to the under off as big as the unit massaging sake and the soy sause [sic] and crowding."
What they were trying to say was....I have no idea.
"Chicken applies the taste in the switching making to the under off as big as the unit massaging sake and the soy sause [sic] and crowding."
What they were trying to say was....I have no idea.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Random Differences
There are too many differences between Japanese and American culture to list them all, but the ones I find very interesting are:
1) Japanese people do not shake their head to mean "no," they wave their hand in front of their face.
2) Japanese do not point to their chest to signify "me." They point to their nose. When I point to my chest, my students are like "why is he pointing at his chest?" When my students point to their nose, I'm like "why are they pointing to their nose?"
3) Japanese people do not play tic-tac-toe.
4) Nor do they play paper-rock-scissors. However, they do play a game very similar that follows the same idea called Janken.
5) Nobody knows what Starcraft is. This makes me a little sad.
6) There are several foods that are very common in America that are not present in Japan. Worth noting: skim milk, peanut butter and granola. Also, your choice for cereal is: sugar flakes or cocoa flakes.
7) When Americans count with their hands, they start with a fist, and raise 1 finger, usually the pointer, then the middle finger, then the ring, then the pinky, then the thumb. When Japanese count, they start with all five fingers extended, then fold in the pinky, then ring finger.
8) People who work in customer service are so happy.
9) In America, people extend their fingers and then clench a fist to say "bye bye" In Japan, it means "come here." This has probably caused a few confusing situations.
1) Japanese people do not shake their head to mean "no," they wave their hand in front of their face.
2) Japanese do not point to their chest to signify "me." They point to their nose. When I point to my chest, my students are like "why is he pointing at his chest?" When my students point to their nose, I'm like "why are they pointing to their nose?"
3) Japanese people do not play tic-tac-toe.
4) Nor do they play paper-rock-scissors. However, they do play a game very similar that follows the same idea called Janken.
5) Nobody knows what Starcraft is. This makes me a little sad.
6) There are several foods that are very common in America that are not present in Japan. Worth noting: skim milk, peanut butter and granola. Also, your choice for cereal is: sugar flakes or cocoa flakes.
7) When Americans count with their hands, they start with a fist, and raise 1 finger, usually the pointer, then the middle finger, then the ring, then the pinky, then the thumb. When Japanese count, they start with all five fingers extended, then fold in the pinky, then ring finger.
8) People who work in customer service are so happy.
9) In America, people extend their fingers and then clench a fist to say "bye bye" In Japan, it means "come here." This has probably caused a few confusing situations.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
The last 5 minutes.
So I have been talking a lot about granola to my coworkers. Nobody has eaten it and I keep saying that it is my favorite food. So Mikami-sensei (三上先生) found some グラノーラ (gu-ra-noo-ra) and gave me some. It definitely did not look like the granola bars that I am used to in the states, but I promised them that Heather was bringing some so they will be able to taste the difference.
So anyway, I eat it all up, and another teacher, who has been on my case about granola (Katsurahara-sensei) comes in and was like "oh granola!" and Mikami-sensei tried to give her a pack of granola bars too.
(this is when the story gets fun)
What proceeded was a good old fashioned humble-off. Mikami sensei and Katsurahara-sensei were dead locked, each wanting to be more humble than the other. Katsurahara-sensei denied the offer of granola bars at least 10 times before Mikami-sensei finally just put the bars on her desk and walked away. Not about to lose the battle, Katsurahara-sensei dug through her purse and found a chocolate bar that she had brought for dessert for lunch. She proceeded to chase down Mikami-sensei and offer him the chocolate bar. However, he was determined to win the battle. Mikami-sensei refused the chocolate bars another 10 times before finally, Katsurahara-sensei literally throws the chocolate bar at him and walks away.
I'm going to have to to call it a draw.
So anyway, I eat it all up, and another teacher, who has been on my case about granola (Katsurahara-sensei) comes in and was like "oh granola!" and Mikami-sensei tried to give her a pack of granola bars too.
(this is when the story gets fun)
What proceeded was a good old fashioned humble-off. Mikami sensei and Katsurahara-sensei were dead locked, each wanting to be more humble than the other. Katsurahara-sensei denied the offer of granola bars at least 10 times before Mikami-sensei finally just put the bars on her desk and walked away. Not about to lose the battle, Katsurahara-sensei dug through her purse and found a chocolate bar that she had brought for dessert for lunch. She proceeded to chase down Mikami-sensei and offer him the chocolate bar. However, he was determined to win the battle. Mikami-sensei refused the chocolate bars another 10 times before finally, Katsurahara-sensei literally throws the chocolate bar at him and walks away.
I'm going to have to to call it a draw.
複数形
My entertainment for today: going around asking people what 複数形 means in English. So far, everyone has said "pearl." And I'm like "Nooooooo..."
For the record, 複数形 means "plural."
For those who don't know, the Japanese have no sound for L and R so they find them very difficult to pronounce, just like a native English speaker has a difficult time pronouncing らりろれる (ra ri ro re ru). So when I show them the kanji, they try to say plural, but it is very difficult.
Yes, I know I'm going to hell for this.
But for what it's worth, they keep asking me how to say "old" (furui) and I am terrible at pronouncing "ru" so they always have a good laugh when I say "free" instead of "furui."
For the record, 複数形 means "plural."
For those who don't know, the Japanese have no sound for L and R so they find them very difficult to pronounce, just like a native English speaker has a difficult time pronouncing らりろれる (ra ri ro re ru). So when I show them the kanji, they try to say plural, but it is very difficult.
Yes, I know I'm going to hell for this.
But for what it's worth, they keep asking me how to say "old" (furui) and I am terrible at pronouncing "ru" so they always have a good laugh when I say "free" instead of "furui."
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
First Earthquake!
My first experience with an earthquake was quite the event. I'm not gonna lie, I always wanted to feel what a real earthquake was like. But after experiencing my first, I hope it's my last (although it won't be).
It was a 5.8 on the Richter Scale at it's epicenter and closer to a 4 or so in Noheji, but it was enough to send books flying from their shelves. I apologize for the crappy video, but I think the lack of image stabilization on that camera adds to the earthquake experience.
In hindsight, it wasn't that bad at all, but when the entire school started shaking around me, I definitely freaked out. I stood up right away and was about to run for the exit, but I figure my co-workers had been around plenty of earthquakes in their lives, so I just followed their lead and sat there.
So yea, that was my first earthquake, it happened right during the middle of classes. Teachers paused for about 30 seconds while the school held on for dear life, then as soon as the shaking stopped, they went right back on with their lessons.
It was a 5.8 on the Richter Scale at it's epicenter and closer to a 4 or so in Noheji, but it was enough to send books flying from their shelves. I apologize for the crappy video, but I think the lack of image stabilization on that camera adds to the earthquake experience.
In hindsight, it wasn't that bad at all, but when the entire school started shaking around me, I definitely freaked out. I stood up right away and was about to run for the exit, but I figure my co-workers had been around plenty of earthquakes in their lives, so I just followed their lead and sat there.
So yea, that was my first earthquake, it happened right during the middle of classes. Teachers paused for about 30 seconds while the school held on for dear life, then as soon as the shaking stopped, they went right back on with their lessons.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
5 day vacation
Just got back on the internet after a 5 day break. It's crazy how little I think about the internet when it's gone, but then as soon as it's available to me (at school), I feel like something missing just reentered my life.
But anyhow, I got to spend 3 days in the biggest city in Aomori (Aomori City). It was really nice to get out of my small little town of Noheji. I got to experience things that I haven't seen since Tokyo (giant arcades, anime/manga stores, busy streets, incredible restaurants [although there are plenty of awesome restaurants in Noheji]).
Of course, the thing that I most look forward to when I go on trips is sampling the food. So I will talk a bit about the food. First, the breakfast at the hotel was amazing. Seriously, maybe my favorite breakfast ever. They had a Japanese side and a Western side. I frequented both sides plenty. It had awesome seafood/rice/soups and of course Aomori's specialties, scallops and apples. I had more apples in the last 3 days than I had in the last 3 months. Apple picking season is about a month away, and when that happens I hear you can get 5 giant, delicious, juicy apples at the store for 1 dollar. Right now they are about a dollar per apple. I can't wait for the apple harvest!
The first night we went to a very delicious Indian restaurant and I ordered garlic curry and naan bread. It was amazing. The next night was Korean food, I had never had the stuff before, but it was awesome. Videos to follow.
Other than that, Thursday night was awesome, 3 other ALTs (Melissa, Anne, Mike and I) went on a hunt for All-Fruit cookies. We went to about 15 conbinis (gas stations without gas pretty much). There is a type of japanese cookie called All, and they have cookies such as All-Raisin, All-Apple, All-Pineapple, etc. Now they are all delicious, but we were on a hunt for All-Banana. I enjoy banana flavored things and I had never had them before. Our 4 hour search came up semi-successful, we were able to find All-Raisin cookies (still delicious) but unable to find All-Banana.
Aaaand oh yea, the whole reason I was in Aomori City, the JET orientation. That was good, I got a few teaching ideas, but for the most part it was aimed at people who had never taught before. In any case, good weekend. Next weekend is zen mediation at the temple! I can't wait!
But anyhow, I got to spend 3 days in the biggest city in Aomori (Aomori City). It was really nice to get out of my small little town of Noheji. I got to experience things that I haven't seen since Tokyo (giant arcades, anime/manga stores, busy streets, incredible restaurants [although there are plenty of awesome restaurants in Noheji]).
Of course, the thing that I most look forward to when I go on trips is sampling the food. So I will talk a bit about the food. First, the breakfast at the hotel was amazing. Seriously, maybe my favorite breakfast ever. They had a Japanese side and a Western side. I frequented both sides plenty. It had awesome seafood/rice/soups and of course Aomori's specialties, scallops and apples. I had more apples in the last 3 days than I had in the last 3 months. Apple picking season is about a month away, and when that happens I hear you can get 5 giant, delicious, juicy apples at the store for 1 dollar. Right now they are about a dollar per apple. I can't wait for the apple harvest!
The first night we went to a very delicious Indian restaurant and I ordered garlic curry and naan bread. It was amazing. The next night was Korean food, I had never had the stuff before, but it was awesome. Videos to follow.
Other than that, Thursday night was awesome, 3 other ALTs (Melissa, Anne, Mike and I) went on a hunt for All-Fruit cookies. We went to about 15 conbinis (gas stations without gas pretty much). There is a type of japanese cookie called All, and they have cookies such as All-Raisin, All-Apple, All-Pineapple, etc. Now they are all delicious, but we were on a hunt for All-Banana. I enjoy banana flavored things and I had never had them before. Our 4 hour search came up semi-successful, we were able to find All-Raisin cookies (still delicious) but unable to find All-Banana.
Aaaand oh yea, the whole reason I was in Aomori City, the JET orientation. That was good, I got a few teaching ideas, but for the most part it was aimed at people who had never taught before. In any case, good weekend. Next weekend is zen mediation at the temple! I can't wait!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Last minute lesson
So today is my last day of work for the week. Wed-Fri I've got Aomori prefecture orientation. I was supposed to teach just 2 classes today, 1st and 3rd period. I get done with 3rd period and I'm like "awesome! 5 day weekend ahead of me!" Then another teacher comes up to me as I'm cranking open my anko/pan/strawberry jam lunch and says "Tomasu-sensei, can I have a favor?" I'm like "of course" she's like "can you teach my class next period." Now when I say next period, I mean class starts in about 3 minutes, and she is a 2nd year teacher (I teach first years.) So I'm like "ummm...what do you want me to teach them" and she's like "oh whatever you want, thanks."
So I walk to class, the bell rings as I enter, all the students stand up, and I'm just thinking to myself, "ok what the heck am I going to do for the next 50 minutes?" As the students are standing there staring at me (they stand at the beginning and end of every class, I usually say something, either 'good morning' or 'thanks for being good today' they bow and sit down). So I ended up playing some Beatles songs, having them guess missing lyrics, we sang 'mary had a little lamb', and played a little relay game where they had to write lots of words.
Good times.
ps. should have internet in my house in about 2 weeks! boo yea!
So I walk to class, the bell rings as I enter, all the students stand up, and I'm just thinking to myself, "ok what the heck am I going to do for the next 50 minutes?" As the students are standing there staring at me (they stand at the beginning and end of every class, I usually say something, either 'good morning' or 'thanks for being good today' they bow and sit down). So I ended up playing some Beatles songs, having them guess missing lyrics, we sang 'mary had a little lamb', and played a little relay game where they had to write lots of words.
Good times.
ps. should have internet in my house in about 2 weeks! boo yea!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
This Past Weekend
Friday
So the weekend started out excellently. One of my fellow teachers invited me over to their house for dinner. The thing was, she doesn't live near a train station so my traveling abilities were very limited.
So there's a bus that takes me really close to Take's house, but I didn't know when it left, how much it was, etc. I casually asked my teacher about what time I should be at the train station. Flash forward about 5 minutes and there are 7 teachers huddled around this giant map of bus times and locations and they are all speaking in Japanese so I couldn't understand them, but they just kept talking. It was really the most amazing thing ever, seeing everyone drop what they were doing, getting together, and finding the answer to this random guys question. Every teacher is extremely busy, but they all made sure I knew exactly when, where, and how much the bus was going to be. The prices weren't listed on the giant map, so there was a few minutes of everyone sitting at their computer, madly typing away on yahoo search, trying to find out exactly how much it would cost for me to go to Shichinohe. Finally, one of the teachers ended up calling the bus company, talking for 5 minutes, and getting me the exact info. I really expected them to just say "i think it comes around 7 and 1000 yen should be plenty" but instead they said (after 10 minutes of 7 teachers working together) "the bus leaves at 18:52 right across the street from the south entrance of the train station and it costs 880 yen.
Japanese people are so thorough and awesome.
I caught a bus to Shichinohe (kinda big town near Noheji) and another ALT (Takefumi, he speaks fluent Japanese and English, his name is pronounced Tah-Kay, but everyone calls him Tah-ka) picked me up and we went back to his place for a little bit. I saw he had some rolled oats, and he was nice enough to sell me a giant bag (like 4 pounds). So now I will be able to make my favorite food: Granola.
After hanging out for a little bit, we went to one of my coworkers house. She happens to live in a temple. She treated us to a very traditional Japanese meal with lots of fish and rice and other things that don't have English names. It was all made with a generous amount of deliciousness.
Then her brother, a Buddhist Monk, took us out for a night on the town. I went to my first Japanese bar, although it wasn't so much of a bar as it was a lounge. We sung karaoke and since Take and I were the only ones that spoke English, I was treated to a good sampling of Japanese music, and it was excellent. Also, they don't really know how any of the songs I sang were supposed to sound, so I kind of get a free pass on my terrible singing abilities, which is awesome!
So we get back to the teachers house at like 1am after having been treated to a feast and a night on the town, and waiting for us on Take's car is a bunch of Onigiri (Rice balls), bananas, leftovers from the feast, natto, anko bread, and other goodies. The night was absolutely amazing and they refused to let Take or me pay for a thing.
The trip back was also pretty interesting. When you call for a taxi from a bar, two people arrive in the taxicab. One person drives you in the cab home, and the other person drives your car home. Pretty snazzy.
Saturday
Saturday had the starting of an average day and then it quickly took a turn for awesomeness. We woke up and ate the leftovers from the previous night (delicious), played some Wii, and didn't really have any plans until the night. So at like 10am, Take wanted to get his car checked out [there was a wire hanging down from the steering wheel] and then he wanted to do some phone shopping. At this point I had no interest in getting a phone.
We get his car fixed, head to the cell phone store [AU] and start looking. Take quickly finds a very good deal (free phone, 20 bucks a month if you sign a 2 year contract, free incoming calls). So I didn't have a phone and was like 'dang, that's a really good deal' so I ended up buying the same phone as Take. Sweet.
I could write about 5 pages on how awesomely we were treated during the buying process, but suffice it to say that the cell-phone-selling-people were amazing, and when we left every employee in the store, even the ones who hadn't helped us, stood up and gave Take and me a 90 degree bow. Unreal.
Then we went for lunch at Kappa Zushi, a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant of deliciousness, and got tons of sushi and more (yes they do have cooked fish, soup, and other stuff).
Then it was off to my first experience at a 100 yen store. (the equivalent of a dollar store). It was awesome. I can't really explain, but theres a clothes section, a school supply section, an electronics section, a toy section and everything is a dollar! I have no idea how they can sell so much for so cheap.
Then the whole reason why I went to Shichinohe in the first place, the AJET welcome party. I got to hang out, eat hot dogs and hamburgers for the first time here, and meet about 30 other JETs in Aomori. It was an amazing time.
Sunday
You'd think my weekend couldn't get any better. But you'd be wrong. Woke up early, got back to Take's, stopped at a convenience store for breakfast (onigiri, bread stuff, anko, ice cream, bananas, leftovers from Friday).
As we're eating, Take was like "do you want me to take you back to Noheji or do you want to stay and be in the Shichinohe festival?" Obviously, I chose to take part in the festival. Take and I walked to the temple at Shichinohe that is on top of a giant hill and overlooks the city. I should say at this point, that neither Take or I knew anyone there. Take eventually ran into a teacher he taught with 2 years ago, but for the most part, we were just two random people standing around at this temple not knowing what to do. Of course, I was the only white guy there, and there were several old people that were no more than 5 feet tall, so I got stared at a lot. Finally, one person just grabbed us and lead us up the stairs to the temple. They pulled out a uniform that was 3 sizes too small (I wear size 31 shoes in Japan, the biggest they had was 28, but they were fine) and I got all dressed up in traditional Japanese clothes and was treated to a giant lunch.
We got herded into a car and driven across the town to a shrine that held the spirit of the temple we were just at. The spirit only comes out 3 days a year during the Fall festival and it was our job to make sure the spirit got back to the temple safely. So Take and I were 2 of about 20 people that had to push this massive Ark-of-the-Convenant style thing that weighed hundreds of pounds and was home to the spirit.
We push it around for about a mile or so and they tell us to stop, give us all the drinks we want, then start back up for the home stretch...pushing the massive Ark up a very steep hill to the top of the town. After a good 2 hour parade walking route, we were back in the temple and not really sure what was going to happen next. Since it was getting kind of late on a Sunday, I thought the weekend was about over. I was wrong.
They told us to wait around for about 20 minutes, and then we got to worship at the temple. Sweet. (meditation is actually awesome, if you've never tried it, that is a shame, it is so relaxing and refreshing. But of course being from America, I thought I was always way too cool to waste my time sitting around looking like a fool. I'm glad I gave it a chance).
Then the fun began, after the quick worship service (a thanks for the safe return of the spirit to the temple) the festivities began. We cleared out the area everyone was just in, and tables were brought in, followed by enough food and drink to feed the state of Minnesota for 3 days. It was such a feast, and everyone there was sooooo nice and polite and did their best to speak as much English as they could. We ended up staying for about 4 hours just stuffing our mouths and chatting away with people we had never met before. Truly an amazing experience and something you would only find in Japan.
Then Valerie (another ALT from Shichinohe area) was nice enough to give me a ride back to Noheji (I dont have a car and theres no train to Shichinohe).
Monday morning
So I woke up from a very good sleep on Monday, all ready to start the new week. And of course, being an American, I was walking on the right side of the road [there really arent sidewalks in japan]. And a bird thought I would make good target practice so it dropped a bomb and it landed right on my shoulder. Yes, that's right, I was mistaken for a toilet. A bird shat on me. Talk about a proper ending to an amazing weekend. That bird made sure I was brought back down to earth. And the best part about it, is as soon as it pooped on me, it squawked really loud and flew away, as if to say "hahaha, see ya."
So I'm sorry this was really long.
tl;dr [that stands for too long, didn't read] - I had an awesome weekend and then a bird pooped on me.
Videos
Bird Poop on me
Video of the Weekend
So the weekend started out excellently. One of my fellow teachers invited me over to their house for dinner. The thing was, she doesn't live near a train station so my traveling abilities were very limited.
So there's a bus that takes me really close to Take's house, but I didn't know when it left, how much it was, etc. I casually asked my teacher about what time I should be at the train station. Flash forward about 5 minutes and there are 7 teachers huddled around this giant map of bus times and locations and they are all speaking in Japanese so I couldn't understand them, but they just kept talking. It was really the most amazing thing ever, seeing everyone drop what they were doing, getting together, and finding the answer to this random guys question. Every teacher is extremely busy, but they all made sure I knew exactly when, where, and how much the bus was going to be. The prices weren't listed on the giant map, so there was a few minutes of everyone sitting at their computer, madly typing away on yahoo search, trying to find out exactly how much it would cost for me to go to Shichinohe. Finally, one of the teachers ended up calling the bus company, talking for 5 minutes, and getting me the exact info. I really expected them to just say "i think it comes around 7 and 1000 yen should be plenty" but instead they said (after 10 minutes of 7 teachers working together) "the bus leaves at 18:52 right across the street from the south entrance of the train station and it costs 880 yen.
Japanese people are so thorough and awesome.
I caught a bus to Shichinohe (kinda big town near Noheji) and another ALT (Takefumi, he speaks fluent Japanese and English, his name is pronounced Tah-Kay, but everyone calls him Tah-ka) picked me up and we went back to his place for a little bit. I saw he had some rolled oats, and he was nice enough to sell me a giant bag (like 4 pounds). So now I will be able to make my favorite food: Granola.
After hanging out for a little bit, we went to one of my coworkers house. She happens to live in a temple. She treated us to a very traditional Japanese meal with lots of fish and rice and other things that don't have English names. It was all made with a generous amount of deliciousness.
Then her brother, a Buddhist Monk, took us out for a night on the town. I went to my first Japanese bar, although it wasn't so much of a bar as it was a lounge. We sung karaoke and since Take and I were the only ones that spoke English, I was treated to a good sampling of Japanese music, and it was excellent. Also, they don't really know how any of the songs I sang were supposed to sound, so I kind of get a free pass on my terrible singing abilities, which is awesome!
So we get back to the teachers house at like 1am after having been treated to a feast and a night on the town, and waiting for us on Take's car is a bunch of Onigiri (Rice balls), bananas, leftovers from the feast, natto, anko bread, and other goodies. The night was absolutely amazing and they refused to let Take or me pay for a thing.
The trip back was also pretty interesting. When you call for a taxi from a bar, two people arrive in the taxicab. One person drives you in the cab home, and the other person drives your car home. Pretty snazzy.
Saturday
Saturday had the starting of an average day and then it quickly took a turn for awesomeness. We woke up and ate the leftovers from the previous night (delicious), played some Wii, and didn't really have any plans until the night. So at like 10am, Take wanted to get his car checked out [there was a wire hanging down from the steering wheel] and then he wanted to do some phone shopping. At this point I had no interest in getting a phone.
We get his car fixed, head to the cell phone store [AU] and start looking. Take quickly finds a very good deal (free phone, 20 bucks a month if you sign a 2 year contract, free incoming calls). So I didn't have a phone and was like 'dang, that's a really good deal' so I ended up buying the same phone as Take. Sweet.
I could write about 5 pages on how awesomely we were treated during the buying process, but suffice it to say that the cell-phone-selling-people were amazing, and when we left every employee in the store, even the ones who hadn't helped us, stood up and gave Take and me a 90 degree bow. Unreal.
Then we went for lunch at Kappa Zushi, a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant of deliciousness, and got tons of sushi and more (yes they do have cooked fish, soup, and other stuff).
Then it was off to my first experience at a 100 yen store. (the equivalent of a dollar store). It was awesome. I can't really explain, but theres a clothes section, a school supply section, an electronics section, a toy section and everything is a dollar! I have no idea how they can sell so much for so cheap.
Then the whole reason why I went to Shichinohe in the first place, the AJET welcome party. I got to hang out, eat hot dogs and hamburgers for the first time here, and meet about 30 other JETs in Aomori. It was an amazing time.
Sunday
You'd think my weekend couldn't get any better. But you'd be wrong. Woke up early, got back to Take's, stopped at a convenience store for breakfast (onigiri, bread stuff, anko, ice cream, bananas, leftovers from Friday).
As we're eating, Take was like "do you want me to take you back to Noheji or do you want to stay and be in the Shichinohe festival?" Obviously, I chose to take part in the festival. Take and I walked to the temple at Shichinohe that is on top of a giant hill and overlooks the city. I should say at this point, that neither Take or I knew anyone there. Take eventually ran into a teacher he taught with 2 years ago, but for the most part, we were just two random people standing around at this temple not knowing what to do. Of course, I was the only white guy there, and there were several old people that were no more than 5 feet tall, so I got stared at a lot. Finally, one person just grabbed us and lead us up the stairs to the temple. They pulled out a uniform that was 3 sizes too small (I wear size 31 shoes in Japan, the biggest they had was 28, but they were fine) and I got all dressed up in traditional Japanese clothes and was treated to a giant lunch.
We got herded into a car and driven across the town to a shrine that held the spirit of the temple we were just at. The spirit only comes out 3 days a year during the Fall festival and it was our job to make sure the spirit got back to the temple safely. So Take and I were 2 of about 20 people that had to push this massive Ark-of-the-Convenant style thing that weighed hundreds of pounds and was home to the spirit.
We push it around for about a mile or so and they tell us to stop, give us all the drinks we want, then start back up for the home stretch...pushing the massive Ark up a very steep hill to the top of the town. After a good 2 hour parade walking route, we were back in the temple and not really sure what was going to happen next. Since it was getting kind of late on a Sunday, I thought the weekend was about over. I was wrong.
They told us to wait around for about 20 minutes, and then we got to worship at the temple. Sweet. (meditation is actually awesome, if you've never tried it, that is a shame, it is so relaxing and refreshing. But of course being from America, I thought I was always way too cool to waste my time sitting around looking like a fool. I'm glad I gave it a chance).
Then the fun began, after the quick worship service (a thanks for the safe return of the spirit to the temple) the festivities began. We cleared out the area everyone was just in, and tables were brought in, followed by enough food and drink to feed the state of Minnesota for 3 days. It was such a feast, and everyone there was sooooo nice and polite and did their best to speak as much English as they could. We ended up staying for about 4 hours just stuffing our mouths and chatting away with people we had never met before. Truly an amazing experience and something you would only find in Japan.
Then Valerie (another ALT from Shichinohe area) was nice enough to give me a ride back to Noheji (I dont have a car and theres no train to Shichinohe).
Monday morning
So I woke up from a very good sleep on Monday, all ready to start the new week. And of course, being an American, I was walking on the right side of the road [there really arent sidewalks in japan]. And a bird thought I would make good target practice so it dropped a bomb and it landed right on my shoulder. Yes, that's right, I was mistaken for a toilet. A bird shat on me. Talk about a proper ending to an amazing weekend. That bird made sure I was brought back down to earth. And the best part about it, is as soon as it pooped on me, it squawked really loud and flew away, as if to say "hahaha, see ya."
So I'm sorry this was really long.
tl;dr [that stands for too long, didn't read] - I had an awesome weekend and then a bird pooped on me.
Videos
Bird Poop on me
Video of the Weekend
Friday, September 3, 2010
Ganbatte
Today, being sports day, I told a student "kyo wa, ganbatte" (good luck today!)
the student replied "I'm fine thanks and you?" (this is how every student replies to "How are you")
the student replied "I'm fine thanks and you?" (this is how every student replies to "How are you")
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