Let's try this again!

I've been living in Japan since summer '06, and for the first while I kept up this blog, but about a year and a half ago I stopped writing. So, I think it's time to get it going again, and I'll do my best to keep at it! 頑張ります！！

At the moment, I'm back home in Dartmouth for the holidays. It's nice to be home, but there are alot of things I'm missing about Japan, and I'm feeling a bit of reverse culture shock. And winter shock!! It rarely gets below 0 degrees in Taki, Japan, and I've only seen snow once! Meanwhile it's about -10 with snowstorms in Dartmouth :(

But the food!!!! There are so many things I used to eat here that I can't find in Japan: donairs, cheese, falafels, poutine, cheese, bread that's not white, anything my mom cooks, cheese... not to mention I haven't had a Christmas dinner for the last 2 Xmases (I was in Vietnam the first year, and Thailand last year). Most of the above aren't exactly healthy...

Some things to look forward to reading about: trips around Japan, Hong Kong and Korea; running the Tokyo marathon, and whatever else I feel like writing about this year:)
For now, happy holidays everyone, and check back in the new year!!

-Erica

Matsusaka makes the news

Japan may be a relatively safe country, but often when crimes do happen, they are STRANGE!!
One of the first crimes I heard about after coming to Japan was an old man who got angry at some teenagers who were hanging out outside his house being loud. He came out with a samurai sword and killed a couple of them. Now Matsusaka, the city where I teach once a week and spend alot of my time, has made it into the news for an even stranger crime. Pretty sure these are not my students:)
Edit: The link that was here previously is broken, but it was about a group of high school kids who kidnapped a schoolmate, kept her captive in an apartment, cut off her thumb and cooked it in curry before she managed to escape! Really scary and bizarre!

My new favourite country

Philippines

Please click on the picture above to see the rest of my pics from this trip.

I've gotten a little behind in my blogging, and since my last post I've travelled overseas twice, but I'll start with my most recent trip while it's fresh in my mind. During Golden Week (April 27- May 7) I went on a volunteer trip with 10 other ALTs to the Philippines. We went with Habitat for Humanity to build a house for families who can't afford to buy one. We flew into Manila, arriving late at night, and left early the next morning for Naga city in Bicol, where we would be working and staying. Our first impression of Bicol was the airport, which had been hit by a typhoon (in November?!!) and was still missing part of the roof, among other things.

Wating for us at the airport were our co-ordinator, Leo, and some local volunteers, ready to pile us all into the jeepney, our mode of transportation for the week.

After settling into our cottages, we were off to the local university for an info session. We learned more about the project, and I was saddened to hear that in Bicol, about 70% of the people live below the poverty line. We also visited a finished habitat site where there were people living in the houses, including tons of kids who were ready and eager to pose for pictures

That night, we had a welcome dinner, where we got to know the local volunteers a bit better. We saw our first glimpse of their musical talent, which would entertain us throughout the week.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to a waterfall to go swimming and then some hotsprings to relax. It was a great day:)


We started work on Monday. The houses are made of brick, so our job consisted of carrying bricks, carrying water, sand, and gravel to mix with the cement, mixing cement, laying bricks, filling holes with cement, and digging a hole for the septic tank.

TO BE CONTINUED....

St. Paddy's Day in Ise!!

I wasn't really expecting St. Patrick's Day to be a big thing here, and actually, most Japanese people haven't even heard of it, but apparently there is enough of a foreign population (and Japanese people who are interested in all things foreign) to have quite a few events in celebration. The one closest to me was a parade/party in Ise. The Irish ambassador even came down from Tokyo (he was really cool; later he bought the bar I was in a round of drinks).

I showed up at Ise shrine shortly before the parade was due to start, only to discover that we WERE the parade, not spectators. I was given an "Irish dancer" costume and told I should dance at the front of the parade.

Of course I agreed (the Guiness helped me get in the spirit).

The parade consisited of many drunken foreigners in green/costume walking around Ise.

We also had a troupe of baton twirlers who performed to, well, it sounded more like marching band music than Irish music.

We did have an Irish band as well though, which was what I was dancing to (pretending I knew how to dance like an Irish dancer, which I don't).

This was the laziest parade I've ever seen, let alone been in, and there were very few people watching us, although I do think we turned a few heads of people who didn't know what was happening. After the parade and some food, there was an official party at the cultural centre, where we drank more (guiness on tap!), were taught how to do an Irish folk dance, by cute little Japanese ladies,
and were given Guiness merchandise. It was a really fun celebration:)

MASSIE renunion and USJ!!

For those of you who don't know, there's a program at my uni, Mt A, called the MASSIE program, which brings Japanese students from KGU in Kansai over for 4 months to study english. They get paired up with Mt A students for roommates and conversation partners. During my last summer at Mt A, my roommate Jenna and I each had a MASSIE student, Akemi and Shoko, respectively. I also had one in the fall, Eri. I've kept in touch with all 3, and visited Eri and Akemi in the fall, and this past Saturday there was a reunion in Osaka for all the MASSIE students who were still around. Of my 3, only Akemi could make it, but it was great to see everyone else again and meet new people to reminisce with about Sackville:)

After the reunion, I went back to Akemi's house to stay the night. Her mom had bought a new English translation book in anticipation of my visit, so she was prepared with new hostess phrases. She's such a sweet person, I was really happy to see her again. It was great to see her dad and grandma again too. :) Saturday was Hina Matsuri Day, which is a holiday for girls. As children, parents buy their daughters these extravagant doll sets and set them up every year before March 3 on a set of stairs (usually with a red carpet). These sets start at about $1000, so not exactly Barbie. The sets MUST be taken down by the end of March 3, or the daughter will have a late marriage, which of course, no one in Japan wants (if you aren't married by the time you're 25, you're called "Christmas cake" : no one eats Christmas cake (a Japanese tradition) after Christmas Day b/c it gets stale).

On Sunday, Akemi and I went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka. For some reaon, even though it was a weekend, the park wasn't as crowded as I expected and the longest wait we had was only about an hour. We went on the Spiderman ride (AMAZING!!), Jurassic Park (FANTASTIC!!), Back to the Future (retro 3D??!!!), E.T. (my childhood fave) and Terminator 2 (almost fell asleep). And we shopped of course. It was alot of fun, and such a beautiful day!! I was walking around in a T-shirt (in MARCH!!) and STILL warm! Even when we got soaked on Jurassic Park, it felt like summer b/c we dried off so quickly. I feel like winter didn't even happen this year, right from fall to spring.

My birthday in Japan

I'm a lazy blogger

Ok, back to my trip. So we spent 2 and a half days checking out the temples in Siem Reap. My faves were Ta Prohm,

Bayon

and of course, Angkor Wat.

This was over Xmas eve and Xmas day, so there was even a moment where we sang christmas carols from the top of a hill with a temple on it. I think we were the only english speakers, but some people recognized jingle bells and chimed in. It was great. On the third day, our Osaka friends moved on, and Linh wasn't feeling well, so I was on my own in the temples. Unfortunately, I lost my pass, and while the guard at one temple was nice enough to let me in with Linh's pass, when I tried at a second temple I almost got detained/fined. Luckily I was able to talk my way out of it, although I didn't get to see any more temples. Bummer. We flew back to Ho Chi Minh the same day, and early the next morning we flew to Phu Quoc Island, a little slice of paradise.

On Phu Quoc, we claimed spots on the beach and basically didn't move for 3 days except to swim, eat and get massages ($3/hr!!). It was great. We mets lots of cool people there, including a swedish guy we went for drinks with one night, a group of japanese people there with an ALT, and two couples that we spent the last niht with, one from England and and American couple living in Shanghai.

The last day of our vacation was spent shopping in Ho Chi Minh for everything we had been eyeing the whole trip. Then we began the long journey home. We had a 24 hour stopover in Beijing airport, and since we arrived late and hadn't been able to confirm our day trip to the Great Wall, we were stuck in the airport all day. Finally we got to Nagoya on New Years Day, and when I got back to my apartment later at around 6pm, I slept for a solid 20 hours. I was wiped out. Great trip!!

My Winter Vacation

Well, I've been back for awhile, but pretty busy with class and other, more fun diversions, and as a result am just getting to this now. Even so, it may take a few sessions until I've said all I want to about my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. In a word, it was amazing. Let me elaborate.
So, as I've said before, I went with my friend Linh, a fellow JET living in Shizuoka. Linh was born in Ho Chi Minh City, but moved to Canada when she was two. Only her immediate family left Vietnam, so she still has many relatives living there, some of whom I had a chance to meet.
We left Japan on December 16th, and during our layover in Beijing that day, we completely changed our plans for the trip. Until then, we had planned on going north, but as we had heard stories of the less than perfect weather there at that time of year, we decided instead to stay south, and include Cambodia in our travels.
We spent the first three days in HCMC, and stayed with Linh's aunt, uncle, and 3 male cousins. The only one I could really talk to was Chad, a couple years younger than me, with pretty good English. I felt kinda bad about not being able to communicate with the rest of the family, especially since they were being so kind to me, so I bowed alot (they don't really bow in Vietnam, but it's what I do here when I can't express my thanks, so I hope the meaning got through). The first day was Linh's uncles birthday, so we took them all out for dinner, and then sang happy birthday to him on stage!

The first couple days we hung around the city, going to markets, hanging out on Backpacker's Road (where all the foreigner's hang out), and had a photoshoot!!
On the third day we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which are tiny tunnels built during the Vietnam war, that stretch from HCMC to Hanoi in the north. We crawled through a 100m section of the tunnels, which was cool, but it was pitch black, small, and stiflingly hot. Our tour guide for this visit was Mr. Binh, a bitter old man who had worked for the Americans during the war, and thus been cast as a traitor and sent to a "re-education camp". He was also just a little prejudiced against Americans (which he called all the foreigners) and their "fat asses". When I came back I learned that Doug had also had Mr. Binh as his guide. On our way to the tunnels, we stopped at a "handicapped handicraft factory", where they tried to take advantage of our consiences to make us pay 4X the price for crafts that we could get at any market in town. Linh and I didn't fall for it, although we did run into another JET that had been in our group from Ottawa, who we hadn't expected to see. It was cool to catch up with her.
We made our way back to HCMC and went to the War Museum with some people we had met on the tour. Mostly just alot of pictures of people affected by Agent Orange, and of other war atrocities. It was incredibly disturbing, and after seeing the reconstructed "Tiger cages" (prison cells used for torture) we'd had enough and left the rest unexplored.
On the fourth day we went to Mui Ne, about 3 hours east, on the coast. Mui Ne is full of beach resorts, and famous for it's sand dunes. We booked a jeep tour, and our driver Kim, took us to a fishing village, where we saw the round boats they use close to shore, a red canyon, where I broke the only pair of sandals I brought :( , and the sand dunes. The white sand dunes were really cool. Just lots of hills of sand. When you're on them, it looks like you're in Egypt. There was a small boy renting out a sled so that you can slide down the steepest hills. It looked a little scary, so we made another tourist do it first, and then we had a go. The hill was really steep and ended in water, but the sand stops you well before you reach the bottom. I actually wished it had been a little scarier. Oh well. We then went to the yellow sand dunes, which were nice too, to see the sunset.
The next day we headed back to the city for the night, and then it was off to Cambodia on a 2 day boat tour along the Mekong River that we had booked. I now know that $22 for 2 days (including hotel and food) may be cheap, but you get what you pay for. We completely missed all the nice sights of the Mekong that you see in pictures (small tributaries with overhanging vegetation), and were herded like sheep from boat to boat to bus to boat, and so on, for an exhausting 2 days. We ended up in many different tour groups, with many different guides, and at some points didn't even have anyone with us who spoke English. Nobody told us what was happening, and when we got to the border, our guide took all of our passports and the money for our visas, and got off the boat. We were all worried that we wouldn't see him again, but he was there at the border when we arrived, thank God.
We got to Phnom Penh at about 6pm, grabbed a quick supper, and jumped in a "taxi" with a couple english teachers from Osaka that we had met. I use the term taxi loosely here. Our driver was a relative of someone who worked at the guest house that we had been dropped off at. He drove like a madman, swerving past any other cars we came across, and completed the 5-6 hour drive to Siem Reap (according to Lonely Planet) in about 4. When we arrived at the guest house we had called ahead to, they told us that they didn't have rooms for us (even though we called ahead), but then they kicked some people out, and we took their rooms. I think the people they kicked out were probably relatives who were staying there for free, and since we could pay, we had priority. They didn't clean the room before letting us in though, and poor Linh's bed smelled like smelly old man. (She even sprayed her sheets with bug spray for a more pleasant scent.)

My first backpacking trip!!

Only 2 more days and then I'm off to Vietnam!! I'm so ridiculously excited I can't stand it. It's so hard to think about work right now, when all I can think about is what I should pack and where we should go. But I still have 3 classes and kumon lessons tonight, so must concentrate!
We still don't have anything concrete planned for Vietnam, but it looks like we're going to go north to Sapa, where there are secluded tribal villages, to do some mountain trekking and see how tribal people live. It'll be cold up there, so along with my beach wear I have to bring winter clothes:( But it sounds like it'll be worth it. I've seen amazing pictures. We're also heading to Halong Bay for a boat tour. There are some amazing rock formations to see there, and delicious seafood to eat:) Our last stop will be a four day stay on a beach, maybe Phu Quoq Island, which sounds like an unspoiled tropical paradise, with $3/hour massages, delicious food and beautiful scenery. Maybe a little shopping in Ho Chi Minh City, and our trip will be complete!
Anyways, I'll be back in January, hopefully with amazing photos and fun stories to share, so I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!!
Love

Stupid gaijin moment #4

So my Japanese exam was on Sunday, and I went with a girl who was taking a different level than me. She planned out which trains and subways to take in order to get there, and I followed along. It wasn't until we were almost at the university that we realized that I had been assigned a different test site, in a completely different part of Nagoya!! There were so many times that I could have checked and still made it in time, but by the time I checked, I was an hour away from where I was supposed to be and the test was starting in 20 minutes. Needless to say, I missed the first of the three sections, but I went anyway and sat the other two parts. They weren't nearly as hard as I had expected, and had I had a little more time to study, I think I would have done well. However, missing the first section I would have had to get almost perfect on the rest of the test to pass, which I'm sure I didn't. Ah well, there's always next year. Next time I'll know to check my test site:)

300 kanji in 3 days

So I had the bright idea of signing up for a Japanese test when I first came to Japan. There are four levels, 4 being the easiest, 1 being the hardest. I decided to sign up for level 3, thinking that I could already pass 4, and with some studying could probably pass level 3 by December. Well, the test is on Sunday, and man am I regretting that decision. I'm barely through any of the material (not that I haven't been studying, but reviewing level 4 stuff took longer than I thought), and out of the 300 kanji (chinese characters) I need to know, I had still only learned about 100 by the beginning of this week. So, now I am attempting to learn the remaining 200 kanji in 3days. (I started yesterday). Doesn't help that I agreed to go bowling/drinking with some teachers from my school tonight and to an all day mochi (japanese rice cake) event tomorrow. Might have to pull an all nighter, ahh I feel like a college student again. Wish me luck!!

Stupid gaijin moment #3

Hasn't been long since the last one. Hope this isn't a trend. This moment wasn't really caused by me being foreign; I could've just as easily done it at home, but the solution would have been SOO much easier in Canada, where I speak the language. Last night I discovered just how far my car can go on empty. Not very. I almost went to the gas station by my house after school yesterday, but you have to make a right hand turn out of it, and there was alot of traffic, so I decided to wait until I had to leave for Japanese class. When I tried to leave, my car wouldn't start. First time I've ever run out of gas. I walked to the station in hopes that it would still be open, trying to form in my mind how I would get across that I needed gas. Keep in mind, I don't even know how to say "gas" in japanese, so it would have come out something like this: "gasu o irimasu. watashi no kuruma wa ie de arimasu." I need gas. My car is at my house. (I think.) Which probably would've gottena blank stare. Luckily, since I was already late for class, my Japanese teacher called me to see if I was coming, and I kept her on the line and asked her to talk to the gas lady for me and explain my situation. The gas lady (she's like 80 and tiny) drove me back to my car and put gas in my tank for me. She was so nice. You can't tip in Japan, so I'm going to bring her a present later today. Anyways, I finally made it to class, and now I know my car doesn't ride on fumes for long:)

1st run-in with the cops

Not as bad as it sounds. On my way home last night there was a roadblock. The police were pulling everyone over. The cop who asked me to roll down my window was female and very nice. This was lucky because I had forgotten to grab my IDP (international driver's liscence) when I switched purses. She said a bunch of stuff in Japanese and looked at me expectantly, and even though I understood the gist of what she said, I replied, " Sorry, I don't understand." (In english of course.) And wouldn't you know, she spoke english! Thankfully, she didn't seem to be aware of IDPs and was satisfied with my Canadian driver's liscence. Just in case the next time I don't get such a nice cop, I'm gonna answer in french and really throw them for a loop.

You know how difficult it is to get Beaujolais Nouveau at home? (Well, maybe a few of the fellow wine snobs reading this might.) They sell it for one day and it's a mad rush to the liquor/wine store? Well, lo and behold they sell it here too, even in Taki-cho, but my supermarket ordered so much of it (and I'm pretty sure that there aren't that many wine drinkers in my town), that when I went at almost midnight yesterday, there was still enough to last me all year and then some. Apparently Japan is the place to be in November. And here I thought I'd have to give up good wine when I moved to Japan.

Beautiful Autumn in Nara

I had a pretty interesting weekend. Took the train to Nara on Saturday morning to meet up with Akemi, a Japanese girl who I met at Mt A. She took me to Saidaiji temple, where we went to a tea ceremony. This temple is famous because the bowls that it uses for it's tea ceremony are gigantic!! It was very laid back because it was so funny to see everyone attempting to drink out of these huge bowls. Hard to be serious. After the ceremony, a 91 year-old man whom Akemi's father knows, took us on a tour of the buildings around the temple. He has been going there to worship for 25 years, so he knows it well. He explained alot of the history, statues and architecture, and it was to Akemi to translate what she could into English so that I would understand. (She did a marvellous job:))

We then went to Yakushiji Temple, another famous temple in Nara. Here I found out my fortune. There is a box containing many small envelopes. You take one in exchange for 200 or so yen (~$2), and read the fortune. If it is a good fortune, you can tie the strip of paper to a rope with many other people's fortunes. Mine was good, although it told me that I should work harder, so I tied it on.

I met Akemi's family over dinner, and they were so nice to me!! I really enjoyed spending time with them, and her mom even made me pinky swear to come back again!!

On Sunday, Akemi and I went to Osaka Castle (really more of a museum now), which was really interesting, and beautiful. The highlight of the day was when I got to try on battle gear and pose for pictures. You should've seen the crowd gathered to watch me make a fool of myself. It was awesome!!

We also saw Tsutenkaku Tower, which is surrounded by streets with small shops, only most of the shops were closed!! When Akemi asked a shopowner why, he said that the sons of the families that owned them didn't want the shops, so they had no one to run them. Only about half, or maybe less, of the shops there were open. It gave the area the atmosphere of a ghost town.

Finally we went to Namba, a fashionable shopping/ dining district in Osaka. We shopped for a bit, had dinner, and then it was time for me to head back to the country. I'm not sure why, because I think Taki is at around the same latitude as Nara (don't quote me on that), but the leaves have changed colour there and are beautiful in red, yellow and orange, while almost everything here is still green:(

Borat gets 2 thumbs up!!

For those of you who haven't yet watched Borat's new movie, "Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan": watch it. I couldn't wait for it to come to DVD (no chance of it coming to theatres here, Japanese people would definitely NOT get the humour), so I downloaded a handicam version, and even with the less than stellar quality it was hilarious.

Not too much has happened in the last little while. I bought a sofa and loveseat, because I'm tired of sitting on the floor and I got jealous of my friend who has couches... but they won't be delivered for another two weeks. My apartment is getting really cold, and I'm dreading the winter. It's actually still pretty warm outside: 20's during the day, maybe 10 or so at night, but there's no such thing as central heating, so what you get outside is what you get inside, making for cold nights. There are a few substitutions for central heating though. The one that I might start using tonight is called a Kotatsu. It's a table with a heater under it. You put a blanket over the table, and then the table top over the blanket, and you sit with your legs under the blanket. Very common in Japan to use sit here while eating mikan (clementines). Incidentally, my agriculture students have their own farm, so I get mikan very cheaply:) Another heating option is a kerosene heater, which apparently will heat my whole apartment, but also stink it up, so I'll have to air it out frequently. For now, I'm not using anything, but I did buy a huge furry blanket to cuddle under:)
I'll have more exciting things to write about next week since I'm off to Nara to visit a Japanese friend this weekend (Akemi, a girl who came to Mt A for 3 months), but for now, I'd like to leave you with an excerpt from a book I'm reading which was written by an American living in Japan, about the many problems he has faced over the years. (Japan: It's not all raw fish, by Don Maloney)
The following are the rules of the road in Tokyo as he sees them, although I'm pretty sure that most of them apply down here in the country as well. The bold comments in paranthese are my comments).

"First of all, never observe the posted speed limits. The numbers on those signs are obviously put there by the same people who put the numbers on the "Suggested List Price" tags in discount stores back in Cleveland. The only difference is that you divide the list prices by two; you multiply the speed limit numbers by two." (There are however, speed traps, with signs that warn you that they're coming up, so learn the kanji and slow down momentarily. Speed tickets here run up to $1000 plus a day in court and driving lessons.)
Do observe very carefully the "No Right Turn" and "One Way" signs. But, never miss an opportunity to make a U-turn, no matter what the signs say. (I can't read any sign, so I ignore them all, ESPECIALLY the no U-turn ones... I think.)
At an intersection, never stop for a red light unless it has been red for at least five seconds. And never, NEVER stop for a yellow light. Once you have stopped for a red light, don't wait for it to turn green before you take off. As soon as you spot the light turning yellow for the cars crossing in front of you, go. (Since cars don't stop for yellow- or red- lights, the latter rule is one I don't follow. I do, however, abide by the former rule.)
If you are planning to turn right at the next intersection, be certain to get into the far left lane. Once securely all the way over to the left, turn on your right turn directional signal and cut across the traffic. (Do this all the time- usually by accident though.)
You can almost never find a curb-side parking area on "No Parking" streets like Roppongi. There are always other cars already parked there. Simply double park." (Note: you can park anywhere as long as you put your hazard lights on.)
"If you are trying to pull out from a side street into a busy thoroughfare, don't wait for a break in the traffic. Simply put up your hand, the back of it facing the side window of your car. Wave it back and forth- doing a slightbow at the same time- and pull out. Answer any horn-blowing by blowing your own.
When you are fortunate enough to find a street with two lanes or more- like Aoyama Dori- don't ever stay in one of those lanes for more than half a block.. Keep switching.
Every time you do stop in traffic, pull on your emergency brake. If it's night time, turn off your headlights. Everybody else thinks you've parked there, and you catch them well off guard when you speed away. (Haven't seen this yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.)
Remember that trucks, buses and taxis in Japan always have the right of way. If you don't believe this, try to take it away from one of them. (On the other hand, ambulances and police cars with their sirens on don't have the right of way. Often I'm the only one pulled over to let an ambulance pass... Remind me to drive myself to the hospital if I ever need to go (knock on wood).)
Pedestrians have the right of way inTokyo only if they are already in front of your car. If they're not already in front, you must do everything you can to prevent them from getting there- even if their hand are up or they are carrying that little yellow flag. (It really should be a white flag.) (This is particularly annoying when you are the pedestrian, however I'm not nearly as passive as most Japanese, and I make the cars stop for me.)
No matter why the car in front of you has stopped, blow your horn at him. And keep blowing it until he moves. Do not exhibit patience under any cicumstances. (This must be a big city thing. I think I've only heard a horn once since I got here. And I don't know what mine sounds like.)
Move your eyes around all you want, but always keep your head pointing straight to the front. If you turn your head, the drivers on either side may think you see them edging in on you and keep coming. If they don't think you see them, they might not. (I even have a special mirror in my car that allows me to see my passengers without turning my head. Didn't realize why till I read this.)
During rush hours, especially, always block intersections. After all, if you let the cars enter form side streets, your street will become even more crowded.
Those general rules above apparently apply to everyone. There is one rule for foreigners only: In the event a policeman takes issue with you over any infraction of the traffic rules, you must never admit to him that you speak one word of Japanese no matter how much you've spent for language lessons. You might try just repeating "Gomen nasai," (I'm sorry) but never any other Japanese. And, if he speaks some English, don't answer except by telling him over and over that his English is magnificent. (We call this "playing the gaijin card" and even the Japanese people I know have told me to do this if I ever get in trouble. Apparently it works, unless you look asian and they don't believe that you don't speak Japanese, like my friend Doug.)

Thanks for reading:) Later.

Caffeine high

Hey, it's Wednesday night, I'm sitting at home, and I drank waaay too much coffee tonight, so I'm writing because I'm bored. Not much is new, although I did find a fun detour on my way home from school in Ise today. I stopped at the mall, which is home to a real coffee shop(with non-fat lattes, yum), and lots of nice stores. I bought an awesome hoody that I've had my eye on for awhile now. It says SWE (I think short for sweden) and a picture of a crown, and then it says, in small print: "Life in the forest in Europe was enclosed by the abundant vegetation and the animal and was vivid." My 1st Engrish!!! Had to have it b/c of the Swedish reference. I also booked my trip to Vietnam today !!! Well, the flights anyway. I'm going with a cool girl from Ottawa, who lives in Shizuoka (another prefecture) and we're going for about 2 weeks, and spending New Year's Eve in Beijing. I'm so excited I can't stand it!! Definitely not helping with my restlesness tonight. Ok, can't think of anything else worthwhile to write, but at least that ate up a little time:) Later dudes.

Stupid Gaijin Moment #2

It was only a matter of time till I did something stupid enough to write about. So, you know how if you use a cleaning product that has ammonia in it (like Windex) and a cleaning product that has bleach in it (like many bathroom cleaners) you make toxic chlorine gas? Now imagine not being able to read the labels of said cleaning products, and eventually giving up and buying something random. So, here I am in my bathroom last night, cleaning the sink after having cleaned the mirror, when my eyes and throat start to feel funny. Luckily I realized what I had done pretty quickly and wasn't exposed for long. And I had a friend kind enough to take me in for the night so I could air out my apartment.

Anyways, on to more upbeat news, Friday night was the Halloween party, and man did we look foolish. Halloween isn't really celebrated in Japan, so it's a pretty strange sight to see a huge group of foreigners in costume. First we went to an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink place to get nice and hammered before the party even started. I went dressed as Betty Boop, although more than a few people thought I was naughty Snow White.. haha. The party was lots of fun, and some people had some pretty interesting costumes (like Doug and Chito as construction workers/traffic directors- basically a useless job in Japan, the only purpose of which is to combat unemployment).

Bluce Lee strikes again!!

Another wholesome weekend, but this time in Kobe. Managed to navigate the trains to Kobe and met up with Eri on Friday night. She took me home and her family was so welcoming!! We ate dinner and chatted, and right away they told me to think of them as family while I'm in Japan.
On Saturday we met Sachiko, Eri's friend and went shopping. Shingo, Eri's bf, joined us in time for Chinatown, where we ate a tasty lunch, and checked out the Bruce Lee store, complete with statue (see above). Another friend, Mami, met us afterwards and we went to Kitano, an area that was settled by foreigners and where there are many western styled houses. We ate dinner at a restaurant here, which puts loads of garlic in most of it's dishes. It was delicious (and they have toothbrushes and toothpaste in the bathroom ). After dinner we drove up to this spot on a mountain that overlooks the city for an amazing night view. A very romantic date place, and there were tons of couples to prove it:)

On Sunday, Eri and I went to Osaka to shop some more. We also went up in a huge ferris wheel that gives you a really good view of Osaka. Not a pretty city though, Kobe was much nicer. Then I started the long trek home. It was a nice weekend, and I'm looking forward to more trips to see Eri and her friends in the future.

Now I'm in test week, so no classes (except tomorrow at Ise Manabi High) and on friday I get to go to Nagashima spaland, home of the world's fastest roller coaster!! Friday can't come soon enough:)

ALTs can now stay for 5 years..... sounds like trouble.

So, 2 of my classes were cancelled today, giving me time to write. For some reason my school enjoys radically altering the class schedule with little or no notice, so today Tamai-sensei and I were supposed to teach during 3rd and 4th period, but 3rd period was moved to 2nd period, and nobody told us. We only found out after 2nd period was over, so our students were up in the class, probably wondering where we were. Since they didn't get to have class, my teacher decided to give the other class study time as well (next week is test week). So I'm down to one class today, last period. I'm seriously going to fall asleep at my desk.
Anyways, last weekend I had the most wholesome weekend probably since junior high school. Friday night we just went to a friends house for dinner and drank wine (don't worry I didn't do that in junior high). Saturday I went to a festival a few towns over (and got a parking ticket:( I think they're expensive here too, but I won't know till I actually get the ticket in the mail. Completely Doug's fault, now I know to stop trusting him when it comes to stuff like that!! :P).
After dinner (at a really nice Italian restaurant), we came back and played pool and darts at a 24 hour internet/manga cafe (man were there some geeks there).
On Sunday, I had my first taiko performance in a festival in my town. I only played one song, but it went well, and I can't wait for the next time!! Plus my costume was hot:) I ate some weird things, like squid on a stick (not as delicious as it sounds), played a game and won a prize (actually I kinda lost , you know the skeeball game? but the boys running it told me I won anyway and gave me a prize). Went for my first run in about 2 months with a friend who wants to train for races too, and the 4k that we did was much harder than I remember. But I'm stoked about running now and went again yesterday, and it felt much better. Sunday night we went bowling (told you it was a wholesome weekend), the American kind with the 3 holes. I actually did pretty well, I think it's quite a bit easier than Canadian bowling.
Monday was a holiday here too, although I had no chance of finding a turkey, so instead I celebrated Thanksgiving by going to a BBQ and eating lamb. It's also still summer here, temp-wise, so it would have been weird to eat a turkey anyways.
This week has been pretty laid back... Tuesday's with Doug have become about us testing the limits of what we can get away with at work. This week we rented a movie and watched it with the american exchange student, Tyler, snacks and all. And since I didn't have any classes yesterday, I got to tag along on a field trip with Doug, Tyler and a few teachers from the school. Beat sitting at my desk all day killing time. We went to Ise, Shima, Futami (I know you don't know where any of that is, but it's along the beach and very beautiful). In Futami there are 2 rocks in the ocean that are tied together with rope, that symbolize marriage. They're close to a Shinto shrine and they hold festivals twice a year to change the rope. It was a nice field trip.
Today I'm off to Kobe, to stay with Eri and her family. For those of you who don't know who she is, she went to Mount A for 3 months and I helped her learn english. I'm really excited to see her again and meet her family :) So, I'll write about Kobe next time....
Ooh, I almost forgot about bunkasai. Bunkasai is a school festival that happens every year around this time. We had ours last Thursday and Friday. The students work hard on different displays, and performances, and then we have 2 days of no classes to check it all out. There was a talent show, lots of tasty food, tea ceremony, time to check out all the displays of art, history, etc, and they also brought in some musicians and comedians. It was a good time, I even got to make a glass bead (by melting glass and shaping it, although it broke so the teacher gave me one of hers, which was much cooler anyway), and dye a facecloth with japanese indigo dye. Ok, now I'm done.
Love.

We won a game!!!

Best weekend ever! We went up to Nagano on Friday night (long drive by the way, about 6 hours). We meant to leave at 7pm, but due to many complications it was about 9 when we finally took off, and therefore almost 3am when we rolled in to the hotel. We were staying in a hotel with all the other ALT soccer teams from across the country, and it was loud. After a short night's sleep we were off to the fields, in our fancy new uniforms, bright and early. We played 3 games on Saturday, and actually didn't do too bad! We lost our first one, 1-0, tied the second (0-0) and then lost in penalty kicks, and won the 3rd 2-1 in penalty kicks. Saturday was my first soccer game ever, so I was pretty terrible, but I think I improved over the weekend, and it was alot of fun. On Saturday night we were tempted with a huge dance party with all the teams in our hotel. I bought ume shu (plum liquor) to drink and didn't like it, so I ended up trading drinks of it for many different types of liquor. A bad mix by the end of the night, to put it lightly. So much fun though. So we wake up hungover on Sunday and have to play another game. Running while hungover is NOT my favorite thing to do. It really sucked, but we lost, so it was our last game. Nagano was beautiful, we were on a ski resort (no snow though obviously) so there were mountains all around us while we played.

On Monday I had the most random night yet. After taiko practice I met up with some friends at an izakaya in Matsu. My friend Nigel has some friends visiting from China (they're Canadian, just teaching in China), so we were out for their last night in Japan. I drank 3 big ringo chuhais (apple coolers...sort of) in a bout an hour and then we decided to go back to Nigel's place to play darts. Drunken darts, what fun. Nigel made the losers (me and Doug) shoot whisky, and that was the end of us. When we got back to Doug's place, we (well, he really) decided to take us to a nearby bar and buy us Guiness. None of us could even drink half of it. Definitely the drunkest I've been on a school night. Luckily I was at Doug's school on Tuesday, and as we have our own office, and neither of us had classes, we napped all morning. Doug actually stretched out on the floor of our office and slept. Man I love this job. I watched tv on my computer too. Can't believe I get paid for this;)

Last night I started a Tuesday tradition. After getting back to Taki from Doug's school, I only have about an hour before Japanese classes, so the past two weeks I've been eating dinner at Kura, the local izakaya. The first time I went, the owner/chef sat down with me and explained everything on the menu for me (it's all in kanji, so even him reading it in Japanese to me is sooooo much easier than reading it myself). He's a really cool guy. So this time I get there, sit at the bar, and he shows me an english phrasebook he bought with phrases you need in a restaurant. So he's learning english to help me out, and we had a good chat in Japanese too. He asked me if I'm going to come every Tuesday, and I told him probably, since it's so convenient, and he's great to practice Japanese on. Gets me in the mood for class:) I'm getting really excited about speaking Japanese here now.... I'm alot less shy about it than I was when I first got here:)
Anyways, I'm out for now. Miss you:)