droppin' the hbomb

Playing Catch-up Part I

2008-10-20T22:25:00.025+09:00

Okay, I took a long hiatus, and I don't really have an excuse. I've been busy, but hey aren't we all. So, I thought I'd finally sit my butt down and post some pictures for you all.

I'll start with pics from my and Kristin's trip to Kyoto in June. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to be back there, it really felt like I never left at all. The people of Kyoto are so friendly (in stark contrast to people of Niigata, who are all very shy), and of course the temples, shrines, gardens and homes are like the photos found in fine Japan-themed coffee table books. I definitely have to go back at least once before I leave Japan for good.

We stayed in an excellent hostel right in Gion, which is exactly where we wanted to be. The study abroad program we both participated in three years ago took place in nearly the same location, so that's where all the natsukashii (nostalgic) places are. The hostel owner was a cool, young Japanese guy with a proper Austrailian accent who really liked to have a good time. One night he went out with us to an izakaya (like a restaurant) and a bar that we often frequented back in our college days. Another night, he invited three of his friends over and we all had a takoyaki (octopus balls) party. When I go back I will definitely plan to stay with him again.

And now for the best part:

Yasaka Jinja!!!! 超〜懐かしい

Omikuji (fortunes) at Yasaka Jinja

Beautiful Maruyama Koen. I have SO many good memories of this place.

The famous cherry tree in Maruyama.

Chillin'

The path to the Yoshimizu! Again, tons of memories (this is where we stayed on our study abroad trip).

Again, the Yoshimizu.

The entrance gate to Kiyomizu dera (temple).

I will always be in love with Japanese design.

The three-tiered pagoda at Kiyomizu.

Hand/mouth washing station #1. Interestingly, there were multiple places to wash throughout the temple. Perhaps the farther you go in, the more you have to wash?

A much cooler washing station. The proper way to wash is as follows: You take the ladle in your left hand and pour water on your right hand. Then switch hands, and with your right, pour water onto your left. Then you put a bit of water in your right hand and wash your mouth, being sure to spit OUTSIDE of the water trough. Finally, the remaining water in the ladle is poured down the handle to clean it, before it's returned to its place.

Definitely the coolest washing station of all. Here, each waterfall represents a different wish. One brings good luck in finances, one good luck in love relationships, and the other intelligence.

Another part of Kiyomizu.

A lovely garden in the temple.

The sun sets on Kiyomizu-dera.

Some adorable puppies that Kristin and I spied from the street. Just because they're cute.

Yo, Check it out yall.

2008-08-29T12:10:00.002+09:00

I am alive! I apologize to those few people who still check this thing (is anybody out there?) for not writing in so long. Truth is, as my Grandfather used to say, I've been busier than a one-eyed cat watchin' two mouse holes. But busy in a good way. In June my favorite lady Kristin came to visit, and we went to all of our "natsukashii" places in Kyoto, then spent a dreary, mostly not fun day in rainy Osaka. I also had the pleasure of showing her around my current home, Murakami. You should ask her yourself, but I think she liked it.

Then, I stayed at the home of one of my English conversation students for 3 weeks. Her name is Hiroko Suzuki, and she is the most amazing cook ever (well, at least she is tied with my real mom and my Japanese mom, Masami). Her husband is also a really nice guy. He barely speaks when he's not drinking, but luckily every night he gets toasted on an ample amount of sake, so we ended up having some pretty interesting conversations. It was great Japanese practice for me.

Next I went home, which was the highlight of my Summer. I can't express how good it felt to see my family and friends again, to eat a burrito the size of my head while indulging in as many free refills as I like, and to be able to read EVERYTHING around me. Holy crap, I can read this entire menu, and moreover I know what every dish is! Talk about refreshing. The trip was entirely too short, and I apologize to those of you who I didnt get to see. I'll be back at Christmas to be in my other favorite lady's wedding, so hopefully I'll see you all then :)

A week after I returned to Japan, I went to Tokyo to attend Japanese school and basically just take a nice long holiday. Nice thing is, my Board of Education let me take "training leave" for it, so I didn't have to use a bit of my paid vacation. It was a lot of fun to be in the city, which couldn't be more opposite from where I live now. I got to experience all the "city" things I've never done before in one of the biggest cities in the world (is it the biggest? I don't even know...) Taking the packed train for 40 minutes every day to school, shopping in all the famous Tokyo stores and malls, staying out at a club until 5 am -- things that are not an option out here in the extreme inaka. I also did a homestay there with a really cool family in Asakusa. My host father, Yosuke, is the stage manager for Ayumi Hamasaki, and last year was the SM for EXILE. I know this means nothing to you gaijin readers, but it's basically the equivalent of being the SM for say, Britney Spears and N'sync. My host mom, Yumi, used to be a sound engineer, so she met Yosuke through work. They have an adorable 2 year old daughter named Mai who I completely fell in love with. She called me "oneichan" which means big sister. The whole family was great about making me feel at home, and again, it was great Japanese practice.

Now I'm back in Murakami. Classes have started and I'm back to the same old same old, though it's really nice to be back. I'm not a city girl, and I was ready to get back to the rice fields, sea and mountains. Also, after the whirlwind of this summer, it will be nice to settle back into a routine.

I think I'll do a seperate photos post, where I'll just string all my pictures in one big post and maybe (if you're lucky and I'm bored) I'll put captions with them. I wouldn't look for that until next week, though.

Back to celebrity gossip blogs, the guardian.co.uk and my other various distractions for boring work days. I love my job!

wtf

2008-05-21T15:48:00.002+09:00

I went shopping for pants for work yesterday, because I hate all of my work clothes. I found some pretty nice ones that fit well and cost only 30 bucks. Said pants are a size LL. In Japan, I am a big girl. Definitely a first time experience.

THAILAND!!

2008-05-09T20:23:00.041+09:00

Two weeks ago I had the awesome opportunity to go to Thailand at but a moment's notice with my buddy Keisuke. I went from not expecting to go anywhere for Golden Week, to deciding I'd jet over to Bangkok for a few days, literally about 2 weeks before I left -- which is coooool. Hopefully I'm rich one day and can do that sort of thing all the time.

Thailand is beautiful in practically every way. Its tropical, so outside of Bangkok everything is green and lush. Every aspect of the city itself was completely unplanned, so it spreads in every direction, including up, like the yeast on an overgrown agar plate (sorry for the nerdy science reference). I loved the unplanned verve of the city, it made every corner, even the dirtiest most secret ones, seem full of life.

As usual, I'm gonna let the pictures do most of the talking, cause I suck at that anyways.

95% of the population of Thailand is Buddhist. As such, there are a lot of temples, and for each temple theres a giant Buddha. Its sort of insane.

This is the first temple we visited, Wat Arun. Tons of stray cats apparently call the temple home, and the monks even feed them.

Thai architecture is extremely different from Japanese architecture. In Japan, clean lines and earth tones rule. In Thailand, its as if a crayola box vomited on everything. In a good way.

Me and Keisuke, actin' a fool.

Monks in training sitting next to us, whose tranquility balanced out our shenanigans.

Wat Pho is the oldest and largest Buddhist temple in Bangkok. It is home to more Buddha images than any other Bangkok temple and it shelters the largest Buddha in Thailand, the Reclining Buddha. Buddha in the reclining position is said to represent the Buddha's transition to Nirvana.

Buddha toes.

Next up, the Grand Palace.

The interior walls were covered in insanely detailed murals that according to our tour guide are repainted every year.

Repainting. I wonder how many times they have painted that exact wall?

Our tour guide, named Ramin. The tour was for Japanese, so the trip ended up being insanely good Japanese practice for me since no one immediately around me spoke English.

This is a Buddha in the prayer area at Wat Pho. Worshipers can purchase gold leaf sheets to attach to the Buddhas image while praying. I guess making the Buddha more gold increases the chances of your prayer being answered?

Crazy detail.

That day we went to the most amazing Thai buffet in a fancy restaurant in Bangkok. I haven't stuffed myself like that in a long time.

Yes, I have now ridden an elephant!

That trunk must be heavy...

This is Wat Mahathat, at Ayutthaya, about an hour outside of Bangkok. Ayutthaya was a kingdom that existed around 1350, and apparently it rivaled European cities such as Paris in size and wealth. It fell to the Burmese in the 18th century.

Of course, the famous Buddha head, overgrown by a fig tree. This image is revered because it is said the Buddha was sitting under a tree when he reached Nirvana.

After a meal of Thai-style shabu-shabu, we went back to Ayutthaya to see it lit up at night.

In a boat on our way to the floating market, also about an hour out of Bangkok.

Another giant Buddha we saw along the way. I'm telling you, they're everywhere.

The night market. Ahhhhhhh. This is a market that is open until 12pm every night. They have everything, but specifically they have hippie dresses as far as the eye can see. In my heaven, there will be a beach, and some mountains, and the Bangkok night market right in between.

On the last day I went to a spa and had a THREE HOUR SPA TREATMENT for about 100 dollars. I got the works, they bathed me, gave me a Thai massage, did a facial treatment, manicure, pedicure, and washed my hair. I would go back to Thailand just for the massages, any day.

I'm not a huge fan of nail art, but my nails were AWESOME after she was done:
Tropical flowers are definitely the best kind...

Thailand is beautiful. I'm definitely going back and next time I'm hitting the beach. The end.

The Great PNG Post

2008-04-06T15:20:00.077+09:00

Ahhhh. It's good to be home. Honestly coming back into modern first-world civilization has been a bit jarring, but I'm adjusting quickly. For those of you who may be lost, I just spent the last two weeks in the country of Papua New Guinea, quite literally in the middle of nowhere in the jungle (and on the beach). The purpose of the trip was to see firsthand the building of an elementary school that we funded with money raised from performing the musical. I'm not sure I can yet sum up the experience into words, I'm still digesting a lot of what I saw and did. I can say though that it was a pretty eye-opening experience. I can also say I will never again take indoor plumbing for granted.

So, I'll give you all a photo tour.

Getting to and from PNG is a chore. I took a 1 hour train to Niigata, where we took a bus to Tokyo, which took about 5ish hours. We then hopped on a plane for about 7 hours to Port Moresby, the capital. Then we hopped on another plane to Lae, only about a 1 hour flight. Upon arriving at the Lae airport, we had a little mini welcome ceremony.

And here we are exhausted and looking pretty darn wrecked, but happy:

We then piled onto the van you see in the pic and drove 45 minutes to our hotel for that night. All together I was in transit for over 24 hours.

After napping for about 3 hours, our guides took us to a mini sort of zoo in Lae, which was pretty cool. We got to see some cool animals in their natural habitats:

We also got to hold a black python. Look, ma! Look what I found!

We ate a picnic lunch of sandwiches at the zoo, and included in the lunch was a variety of fruit, including these wonders, known to the people as "Rumberton." You peel the outside spikey skin and then use your teeth to scrape/suck off the inside fleshy goodness from a rather large seed.

I must say, PNG has ruined fruit for me forever. A banana that has ripened on the tree is in a completely different universe from the crap that the grocery store tells us is "bananas." I stuffed myself the entire two weeks with fresh pineapple, mango, guava, starfruit, rumberton, coconut and oranges.

This is a female cassowary, which is an emu-like bird native to PNG.

And the creature no PNG zoo can go without -- an outrageously giant croc. This one was nearly 20 ft long. The zoo keeper stuck a stick in the cage to rile the animal, and I must say it was pretty impressive.

You've been warned:

The zoo also had a lot of nice birds, including some awesome talking cockatoos.

The next day we got up bright and early and took a 6 hour boat ride down the coast to our final destination, the villiage of Saigara in the Waria Valley. We took two boats with an outboard motor, one for us and one for our stuff. This is a photo I took of the other boat. One of my favorite guys, Sam, has his hands up.

A beautiful place for a rest stop:

We stopped and had another picnic lunch on a small island. It was crazy beautiful. Tsuneo, our one Japanese team member is pictured below (this was his 5th year going to PNG).

My hair, towards the end of the journey was almost as epic as the journey itself.

Then, we were given a proper Saigara welcome:

With of course a lot of dancing:

The elementary school kids for whom we built the school:

The flowers and butterflies of PNG are like something out of dream.

Fiona, chillin' with the kids.

This is Yahwehjah, aka Yahweh. Isn't she beautiful?

And my homeboy, Kamowah.

We had quite a bit of downtime in Saigara, so we did a lot of goofing off. Here is Fiona, of the Shetland Isles, in rare form.

And because I simply must share this with the world, her Louie Armstrong impression.

We went to see the mobile lumber mill one day, which was pretty interesting. Mobile mills are more ecologically friendly, as they don't require clearing large portions of forest to build a stationary mill and they allow you to choose which tree you'll use and then fell it in which ever direction is least damaging to the forest around it.

Me and Yahweh, and the mill site.

Sam and a view of the Waria river.

Deep into the heart of darkness:

Maybe dark isn't the right word.

On our trek back from the mill, we got a little thirsty. Sam turns to the young man beside him (maybe 17 or 18 years old?) and suggests he get some coconuts for us. He then scales a 40 foot coconut tree and knocks a bunch of coconuts down. This took him less than 3 minutes.

A big spider next to the river. From back legs to front legs he measures about 7 inches. He is also smaller than the huntsman spider I got to know quite well, who liked to chill in the girl's outhouse.

One of the many giant grasshoppers that were everywhere.

One day we went down to the villiage in Saigara and watched the ladies make grass skirts and the woven bags that EVERYONE in PNG carries called "Billems." Here are the ladies making the skirts:

Useful feet:

Making yellow dye for the skirts.

Adorable children.

Can't have too many pictures of those.

Coconuts.

Dancing in the night.

Cool stick bug.

Definitely cool.

After a week in Saigara we went to Bau village, which was right on the beach. We of course were welcomed again with bright costumes and dancing.

This is the guest house we stayed in at Bau. All open air, so we sleep under mosquito nets.

Possibly my favorite picture, because it sums up Bau so well.

Hermit crabs where EVERYWHERE on the beaches. I loooooved the things, so I was always picking them up and toting 'em around with me.

One day at Bau we took the boat to a small satellite island and went snorkeling in the reefs and had a picnic lunch. Snorkeling was definitely my favorite part, and I plan on investing on a snorkel and flippers in the near future and doing it as much as possible.

The island:
Little man dressed up to greet us to the island (one or two families have houses on the island).

Me all war-painted up (its mud that was put on my face by an old native when we arrived).

The island was definitely my favorite place.

The next day we presented school supplies to the children at a school near Bau. They in turn presented us with gifts of beads and billems.

This is one of their teachers, explaining one of the rituals.

We also paid a visit to the school at Toyare, where the team built the classroom pictured below last year. We brought school supplies and were treated to a dance.

On the last day (Thursday) we went back to Saigara for the dedication of the beautiful classroom we built!

Singing the Papua New Guinea national anthem. Notice the Japanese flag also flying!

Uniformed cuties.

Our farewell from Saigara celebration. More beautiful dances.

And the final goodbye from Bau.

Everything is still kind of a blur at this point, and I am currently still running on 3 hours of sleep I got Friday night and a 2 hour nap I took today (it is now Sunday, almost 8PM), so I apologize for the short explanations and lack of eloquence. All I can say right now is that the entire experience completely blew me away, and that the beauty of the country and the kindness of the people there is something that can never forget. It feels really good to make the world a better place. :-)

神林はきれいだよね〜

2008-03-17T11:06:00.018+09:00

I've got a crapload of stuff to upload, which I am going to attempt to do all this week. First, I'll share with you how freaking gorgeous it is where I live. Even though it rains/snows a lot, that doesn't at all subtract from the beauty.

First off are some pictures I took around Christmas of last year. No snow yet...

The silver building is "Paru Parku" (Pal Park), which is where I teach my eikaiwa class (adult English conversation class).

Next up is a pond in Kamihayashi called 大池 (Ohike). In winter, a buttload of swans from Siberia descend on the Murakami area. They particularly like this pond, and they've learned that its the spot to get a free meal -- on weekends the place is packed with people toting bags of bread.

Again, so those pictures were all taken around Christmastime. A mere 3 or 4 weeks later, however, someone flipped the switch:

And holy crap, did it snow...

大池 again, this time with snow.

Cooooooooooooome and geeeeeeeeeeeeet iiiiiiiiiiit.

I think this is what the person who invented the word "cluster@#$%" had in mind...

Probably my favorite thing about where I live is that I am equally far from the mountains (pictured earlier) as I am from the beach. Takes me 10 minutes or less by car to be at the Japan Sea, 20 or so to be in the mountains on my snowboard.

日本海 aka the Japan Sea. The tetrapods are used in many places throughout Japan to prevent erosion.

Awashima, a little island off the Murakami coast.

Another lovely shot of the Murakami sunset. You can never have too many of those.

So, I will finish this post by saying you all should come and see it for yourself, cause these pictures really don't do it justice.

Long Overdue Tokyo Post

2008-02-14T17:15:00.022+09:00

As I stated in a previous post (oh, over a month ago now) I went to Tokyo for New Years. Now, New Years in Japan is a GIANT deal. Its the biggest holiday in Japan (kinda like Christmas in the States), and so theres a lot going on at this time of year. Strangely enough, however, Tokyo is much emptier at this time of year than normal. This is because Japanese people go home (wherever home is) to spend New Years with their families, which means there is a mass exodus out of Tokyo. So imagine these pictures 10 times more crowded, then you've got Tokyo.

We started off by checking into our capsule hotel in Shinjuku. Capsule hotels are a Japan-only phenomenon. Check out my sweet capsule:

Basically its just enough room to lay down comfortably. Theres a big communal shower/bath/sauna (I of course stayed in a ladies only place), and you get a locker to keep your things in. It was a cool experience, and I'm glad I did it, but I'm not sure I would again. Although, it was crazy cheap (about 40 dollars a night, which is super cheap in the heart of Shinjuku).

Next, we were starving, so we (Richie, Troy, Steve and I) stopped for some sushi. Put me on the record as saying Niigata sushi blows Tokyo sushi out of the water. That's right, I said it.

Later we did some exploring in Shinjuku, and found a little shinto shrine tucked away in a back alley. That's one of the things I love about Tokyo. One minute you're surrounded by lights, noise and hostess clubs, and the next you're in a quiet spot looking at an ancient shrine or temple. Its really cool to see such opposites coexist.

Foxes are the messengers of the gods, so this shrine had multiple fox statues. The thing tied to his ear is an omikuji, or a fortune. Everyone at the New Year pays for a little omikuji, which will tell you what your luck will be like in money, work, family, love -- everything. After you read your fortune, you can either take it with you, or leave it at the shrine in the hopes that the gods will either make your fortune come true (if you got a good fortune) or keep it from coming true (if you got a bad fortune).

Omikuji close-up.

We then headed off to the famous Shibuya to check out the busiest intersection in the world. It doesn't look so busy here again because Tokyo is sort of empty (by comparison) at the New Year. Still a cool sight to see.

We ran into this dog and it's old man in Shibuya. The dog's name is Love (Ra-bu in engrish), and as you can see it could RIDE A FREAKING BICYCLE. The dude would hold out some food and the dog would pedal up to get it. Someone get this dog an agent.

Day 2 got started a little late, especially since I somehow managed to lose my bra between my locker and the shower that morning (the only one I brought). So I made a morning trek to the local skivvy shop to get something new. Let me just say now that Japanese bras suck. They are all really cutesy (covered in lace, ribbons, beads -- not my style) and retardedly padded. I found something that would work at least for the next couple of days, but that ended up rubbing me raw in a few places. I cant wait to go back home to shop so I can find clothes that will actually fit me.

After wandering randomly for a bit we headed to Meiji Jingu, which is possibly the most famous shrine in Japan. At the new year literally 100's of thousands (if not millions) of people stream through this shrine to do something called hatsumoude, or the first shrine visit of the new year. Meiji jingu is not the only place to do this. Any shrine will do. But Meiji is probably the most popular. At the shrine, people basically pray that the next year will be a good one, and they give donations to the gods. These donations can be in any amount, but 5 yen and 50 yen coins are especially good luck. Theres a special area fenced off, and people throw their coins/bills there, where the monks make the rounds and pick up the dough. I literally saw more than a few 1 man yen bills, which is roughly equal to 100 dollars, so some people really fork it out.

Here Richie celebrates Shinto. These are the torii at the entrance to the shrine.

And here is the front entrance gate. Notice the pictures of the mice next to the radishes. This is the year of the mouse (its mouse in Japan, not rat), so you see mice everywhere.

Before you enter the gates shown above, you have to wash your hands and your mouth in a fountain nearby to cleanse yourself. you wash your hands first, then your mouth (by putting a little water in your mouth and spitting it out), then you clean off the handle of the cup thingy by running the remaining water down the handle. There's a lot of ritual here.

A nice pic of Steve, Troy and I in front of the main building at Meiji. In front of this building is where everyone throws their money.

This is the awesome view upon exiting Meiji Jingu. So, you have to walk a little ways into the woods (about 5-10 minutes) to get in and out of the shrine. While you're there, you can't see the city at all, and its easy to forget you're right in the middle of Tokyo. I really like how in this picture you can see the giant skyscraper through the traditional torii.

Later that evening we had shabu shabu back in Shinjuku. Shabu shabu is this brilliant Japanese food that basically involves boiling veggies, meat and seafood at your table, dipping it in sauce and chowing down. It doesn't sound thrilling, but trust me, it is. Below is proof of just how thrilling:

After hopping around the city to quite a few places, we ended up at a famous club in Roppongi, called "Gas Panic". Roppongi is the only place to go in Tokyo on New Year's Eve, cause as Tokyo is pretty empty, thats where ALL the foreigners go. And oh my gosh, it was indeed a ridiculous sea of gaijin. Had there been a fire in this club, we all would have died. No question about it.

Here Steve rocks the afro and the finest white-man dance I've ever witnessed.

And here I am, shakin' my thang. Dancing is funnnnn.

For the most part, I didn't take pictures for the rest of the trip, but we mostly did a lot of sitting around on our butt/eating delicious Tokyo grub/going shopping in Harajuku. Yes, that's right, it rocked. Best. New Year. Ever.

I am famous in Niigata

2008-02-14T17:08:00.002+09:00

So the musical was in the main Niigata newspaper, the Niigata Nippon. They took photos at the Murakami show and even interviewed me (in Japanese I might add) after the show. The basically just asked how I felt about the show (I said I was very nervous, but very excited and happy to be doing it), and they asked if any of my students came to see it (yes, they did), and the usual questions -- where do you live, where do you work, how old are you, etc. Here is the awesomeness: see for yourself. :-)

My sweet sweet children.

2008-01-22T14:37:00.000+09:00

Today's post is brought to you by the letter D, which is the grade many of my third year students will receive on their reports. And the letter H, for hilarious, which is what these reports are. Grading them has been a chore, as in many cases I have had to completely rewrite every sentence in the report. Not to fear, however. There were definitely a few students who clearly put a lot of time and effort in, and it shows. Those 3 or 4 students will get A's. The rest are not so fortunate, but I do not love them less. In fact, I love them more. How could I not love them when they give me this:

"My Dream" by Jenny

Hello, everybody! (everybody is written phonetically in katakana above the english word)
My Dream it say you. It was very difficult..."the young Boy don't fool around!" It what to sey strong or easy? What do you think? I want strong think. My Dream it was some sixty years ago. I watching TV sey quietly nevr soon in animation world. "Yes---, juse like is anime dream!" Then I am say you become think. This dream will very wonderful. The world only my dream. Thank you very marche.

"Mudgaurds Ar Needed" by Jaime

Hello everyone. I would like to talk about mud gaurds in a bike. The are very important. Having no mud gaurds can be a problem. For example, my friend Kei has no mud gaurds on his bike. So when it was a rainy day, a lot of mud hit his face. I think he is poor. But interesting. Like this, it is very troublesome if there are no mudgaurds, It is awkward. Next is, It is troube to other people. When I went to go back home, mud hit people behind him. So mud gaurds are needed for other people. He should put them on his bike for the people around him. But only he has no mud gaurds, Mud gaurds are for oneself and for others. So I treasure using my bike. Everyone, cherish your bike, cherish all things, too. Thanks for your attention.

I have no idea how to correct the first one, cause I have no clue what she is trying to say. And the second one is just hilarious. "I think he is poor. But interesting." My students and their broken engrish make my job so awesome.

Where Oh Where to Begin

2008-01-04T21:17:00.001+09:00

Sorry for the long hiatus, folks. I've got a new camera now, so this is gonna be a picture-heavy post, which is far more interesting than my blabbing anyways.

So Christmas here in Japan was a little weird for me. Decorations and carols can be seen and heard everywhere here during the season, but it just didn't feel like Christmas at all. I think this is mainly due to the fact that for the first time ever, I wasn't home for Christmas. Instead, I was at work. Yes, work. Not to mention, Japanese Christmas involves eating "Christmas cake" and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yes, you read that right -- people line up at KFC to eat a bucket of the Colonel's greasy goods. wtf?

Anywho, in an attempt to get the Christmas season off to a good start, I decked out the English bulletin board at one of my schools with American Christmas info. More importantly, though, I painstakingly made the most kickass Christmas tree and Snowboard Santa ever. See evidence of awesomeness below.

I think Santa deserves a closeup.

It says "Kanno Chuugakkou" (Kanno JHS) on his snowboard.

I also had the opportunity to spread some Christmas cheer to my Sentaku English class (elective English class) and Hirabayashi JHS. This class is absolutely my favorite, so I spent an ungodly amount of time making gingerbread cookies for our Christmas party and assembling gingerbread houses for them to decorate during the class -- and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was also fun to introduce everyone to gingerbread, something which very few people here have even heard of (interesting and surprising for a place that likes ginger so much). Anywho, here's the results:

I made a billion little gingerbread men and women, and a few bigger ones, which I decorated for each of my kids and the teacher (7 in all). Those are their English names if you're wondering.

I built two houses to decorate, so I figured it would be fun to divide the students, and have the boys decorate one and the girls decorate another. Here are the boys whilst decorating...

And the girls (I helped since there are only two of them).

The boys hilariously hideous finished product. It doesn't look so bad here, but you should have seen it in person.

And my ladies' "cho kawaii" (super cute) house. Girls win, as usual.

And a final close-up of the finished products.

So next on the list of things I must cover here is snowboarding, which I have done a lot of lately (I'm going again tomorrow, yay!!) Conditions over here are amazing, and I'm getting better every time I go, which rocks. Here are a few pics of the fun I've been having:

Kazuya rocks dayglo like no one I have ever known.

Look at all that snow, ya'll.

And look at all those cool people in front of those mountains... (I'm in burgundy)

Now look at this picture and tell me Masa is not absolutely adorable.

So in Japan, there are monkeys that live in the mountains. Every single time I ride in the mountains, I'm constantly staring out the windows hoping to catch a glimpse of the critters. Well last time I went boarding, it was my lucky day. Literally about 1 minute before spotting this giant monkey family I said something to the effect of "where are the freakin' monkeys?"

And my favorite:

They were so freaking adorable. There were a couple of babies as well.

So I just got back from Tokyo where I spent 4 days around new years. I have quite a few pics from that, though, so I'll devote a different blog post (soon, I promise) to that. Check back soon!

Pictures!!!

2007-11-05T15:33:00.000+09:00

So, as you all know, my camera is broken. This really sucks, because I can't take pictures of anything thats going on (and a lot has been going on lately). Thanks to my dear supervisor Iyobe san, I have a couple of pictures of myself in a fall kimono taken this last Saturday. Iyobe came to my house around 9AM that day (not too pleased about that, but I got to wear a kimono, so I got over it quickly) and dressed me in one of her kimonos. Japanese women have different kimonos for summer and for winter, and as its getting chilly here now, the weather and the season calls for winter wear. She dressed me head to toe (which takes a while -- about 20 minutes). I got to wear the special shoes this time too, which I didn't get to do when I wore the wedding kimono in Kyoto (see picture to right). They were her own shoes though, and as 90% of women here have child-sized feet, I looked rather ridiculous cramming my honkers into them. It worked out though.

In a slightly related note, while bowling last week I discovered I have the same size feet as my MALE friend Kazuya. This makes me sad.

Here I am, looking lovely and ready for fall:

Full-length. Notice how my two smallest toes hang off the side of the shoes. It was just as bad in back...

After Iyobe san had dressed me in my finery, we went to a park in Murakami (I can't remember the name) that has a few old samurai houses inside. In one of the houses, a tea ceremony event was being held, meaning that at various times throughout the day, people could come take part in a tea ceremony in the house. It was really interesting and many ladies were there in kimono.

I'll give you all the quick and dirty on Japanese tea ceremony. So, it is a practice that originally came from taoism, and basically it is supposed to relax you. Guests sit around the perimeter of the room, seiza-style (this means on your knees. It really hurts after a while). The guest of honor enters first, and is in one corner, next to where the tea will be made. The host sits on the other side of where the tea will be made -- so in the opposite corner as the guest of honor. The honored guest chats with the host, and always asks where the tea comes from and who prepared it. A different person altogether prepares the tea. The tea preparation is a very precise process. It is like a dance, you basically memorize the steps, and do it the exact same way every time. While the tea is being prepared, other servers bring out okashii, or sweets, to the guests. What sweets are served depends on the season, so for fall we had beautiful deep-purple colored sweets made of azuki, which are sweet red beans. Each person in attendance has these tissue-paper like sheets that they place their sweet on (there is a whole ritual to receiving the okashii and eating it properly). After eating the sweets, the tea (ohcha, or green tea) is served, and again, theres a whole ritual to properly receiving and drinking the tea. One of the parts of the ritual is after you lift your cup, you have to turn it three times to the right using your right hand. I'm not sure why this is the case, but its how you do it. For those of you who haven't had Japanese green tea before, it has a very distinct, strong taste. And the flavor goes perfectly with the sweets. Anyhow, thats the gist of it. Theres more ritual and chatter at the finish of the ceremony, and then everyone files out.

As annoyed as I was at having to get up early, I really enjoyed the experience. I love old Japanese ladies, they're all so sweet. They were all amazed that I came in kimono and sat seiza-style for a full half hour! Eventually (once my Japanese improves a bit more) I might like to take tea ceremony lessons. I'd like to really floor the old ladies when I actually make or serve them their tea.

I suck

2007-10-29T23:03:00.000+09:00

I suck. I will write a proper post in the next day or two. I swear. Stop doubting me.

In other exciting news, I am Alice in the Niigata charity musical! I'm really excited about it, it should be tons 'o fun, although I have a crapload of lines to learn, which sorta sucks. I already don't have much time for studying nihongo, and piling this on top of things isn't going to help that problem. I need to stop sleeping I think. Or become a hermit. Those are my only two options. I can sleep when I'm dead.

Thriving on Kyuushoku and Sushi

2007-10-11T10:45:00.000+09:00

At this point I can finally say that I'm settled into my new life here in Japan. This place feels more and more like home every day, and I'm beginning to wonder what on earth I would have done with myself had I not been accepted into the JET program. Now that I think about, I'd probably still be running western blots and searching endlessly for a Strad-beta antibody that actually works. No offense guys, I miss you all in the lab. I do NOT, however, miss taking out the biohazard trash every other day.

Weeks here are pretty regular and normal, weekends are always fun. Due to my awesome schedule, the work week flies by pretty fast, and the weekend is here in no time. I spend most weekends going to either Shibata (yo we gon' roll up in the shiiiiib) or Niigata city (then we bouncin' to the Niiiiiiig), where most of my friends reside and party. This next weekend I'll be heading to Joetsu which is in the southern part of the prefecture to audition for the Niigata ALT charity musical. For those of you who haven't heard about this, basically every year the ALTs in Niigata put on a charity musical all around the prefecture to raise money to build schools in Paupa New Guinea. What rocks about this, is that at the end of the musical run, everyone on the musical team actually goes to PNG for two weeks to build the schools. I've heard, though, that after only a day or two of building, the ALTs are usually so in the way of the contracted workers who actually know how to build a school, that they're usually asked to just play with the kids. What's more, my predecessor, Deccy, got to take "volunteer leave" to go for the two weeks, so he didn't have to use any of his paid vacation time! (We only get 20 days a year.) You can all expect me to play the same card...

So yeah, life in Japan rocks. Sorry I don't have any sweet pictures -- my camera is broken and I've already spent an assload of money on snowboarding gear, so I've got to wait a while before I purchase a new one. I look forward to getting one though, as Japan has some of the tiniest digital cameras the world has seen.

At the request of a few of my dear readers, I will now take some time to explain how life for me here is different from living back home. I will begin with school life, since its something I have to deal with every day. As you can probably imagine, schools in Japan are pretty different from schools in the states. First, the physical differences.

1. Students and teachers in Japan all wear indoor shoes inside the school, and separate shoes outside. Because of this, there is always a large genkan or entrance at the front of the school, full of cubby holes and lockers to store the students' and teachers' outdoor shoes. Students also remove their indoor shoes before going into certain rooms, including the computer lab. Japan is really funny about shoes -- no one wears shoes inside the home and often people wear separate slippers in the bathroom (you have house slippers and bathroom slippers). But at school, there is only a distinction between inside and outside footwear.

2. Nearly all kids ride their bikes or walk to school. There is no school bus -- I've only ever seen elementary school students riding in buses, and even then, I think they may have been going on a field trip. Most elementary school students walk to school in groups or go with mom by car. Which reminds me of another interesting difference between Japan and America -- Japan is a safe place. Parent's don't worry about their kids walking 15-20 minutes to go to school, cause they know nothing is gonna happen. I feel safer here than I ever did in the US.

3. JHS kids in Japan don't change classes. Instead they stay in the same room and the teachers move from room to room. There is also usually a lot of time between classes, so kids often goof around or go to the teachers room to talk to one of the teachers during that time. I'm not sure if this is also true of highschools or not.

4. There is no air conditioning in summer, and only space heaters in winter. This explains the pit stains I have in every picture of me at school.

5. There are no "janitors." Instead, the students clean the school for 15 minutes every day. There is a groundskeeper, who mows the grass and keeps things in working order, but you'll never see him with a broom or a trashcan.

6. All the students (and the teachers, including myself) eat Kyuushoku, or school lunch, every day. In Japan, school lunch is free (for the students) and surprisingly delicious and healthy. I only pay a mere 300 yen or something ridiculously cheap every day, so I save money AND get the vegetables that I badly need to eat more of.

7. Student interaction in class is really different here too. Students here DON'T ask questions during class. The teachers, always without fail, ask if the students have any questions, but the response is always the same -- dead silence. Also, there are some kids in Japan that are so debilitatingly shy that they literally NEVER speak. Making this even weirder is the fact that the teachers don't expect them to speak, so they don't have to say anything in class. There is one student in particular at Kanno JHS who just straight weirds me out. She will speak in a whisper to a few of the teachers, but not all of them, though she still comes to the teacher's room between every class and just sort of stands over different teacher's desks, watching them do whatever they're doing. She stares at me sometimes, but I just do my best to ignore her... Maybe I'm being closed-minded but this sort of behavior just doesn't make sense to me (nor do I feel the need to cater to it).

8. Sometimes random salesman come to school and try to sell things to the teachers. This one is particularly weird. It's not like random teachers pushing avon or tupperware, this is actual salesman, in suits, soliciting things in the teachers room. This is apparently normal. One day at Hirabayashi JHS a guy came with 3 racks of dressy clothes and was actually selling work attire in the teacher's room. It was soooo weird.

9. Japanese kids are weird. Period. Summer vacation is only 1 month long, but they will still show up at school every day at like 8 in the morning to hang out with friends or go to optional(ish) club activities. I've never seen anything like it.

10. Japanese kids are very close to their teachers. In fact, many of them are probably closer to their teachers than they are to their parents. A fellow ALT named Joel told me that his first year here he taught at a somewhat delinquint highschool in Niigata city. That year one of his students got arrested for shoplifting. Apparently, when the kid was given one phone call at the police station, he called his homeroom teacher, not his mom and dad. This, again, is completely normal.

Hmm, I'm pretty sure that's all I can think of for now. If I think of something else outstandingly weird, I'll be sure to add it. Or, if you have any questions, just post 'em in the comments section. Hannah OUT.

New Things Make Mama Happy

2007-09-30T15:27:00.000+09:00

September has completely disappeared on me, I don't know where the time has gone. Every week goes by pretty quickly for me, thanks in part to my awesome schedule. Mondays I start at 1:15 and usually teach at one of five elementary schools in the afternoon. After I teach I go home and grab a bite to eat, then I go to Pal Park to teach my adult eikaiwa class. I'm usually done around 8:30. Tuesdays and Wednesdays I go to Hirabayashi JHS, with an Elm. school visit on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday and Friday I go to Kanno JHS, with an Elm. school visit on Friday afternoon. Because I do something different every single day of the week, I don't really get bored (at least not yet), which definitely rocks.

My weekends go by incredibly quickly (too quickly) as well. Every weekend of September I've gone into Niigata for shopping and/or going out with friends. I should probably cut back, seeing as its a little expensive to commute back and forth on the train each week, and I seem to have a nasty habit of spending way too much money every time I go. Between shopping, restaurants and bars, its easy to drop $150 at every go.

Which brings me to the point of this newest post: the wonderful things I spend my money on. First off, I bought a beautiful beautiful snowboard:

The Rossignol Zena all-mountain freestyle board. Yesssssssss. Sick board with killer graphics. I can't wait for it to snow!! I also purchased some beautiful black Sessions pants and dark red Sessions jacket, both of which will facilitate some serious steezin' on the slopes this year. I put up a pic once I have the whole ensemble (still need goggles, gloves, etc.).

Second, I NOW HAVE A CAR!!!!!! Behold:

The Hannahmobile!!!!

This beauty is a 2000 Subaru Pleo. It's whats known as a "k-car" here in Japan, which means that its under a certain weight class, so it gets to wear a flashy yellow license plate, which saves me a ton of money come time for yearly car tax payment and car inspection (two things that can cost literally THOUSANDS of dollars here). I love the car. Its extremely tiny and thus super easy to maneuver. Its definitely taken some time to get used to driving on the left side of the road and being seated on the right side of the car (I still often walk to the wrong side of the car to get in). On top of all this, the car has a stick shift, so I'm now shifting with my left hand which totally blows my mind. Another plus -- the car is super cheap. I pay about $150 dollars a month, which includes both the car payment and my insurance. This leaves me more money to spend on snowboarding gear and various crap I probably don't need. I love this place :-)

Pictures to Fill the Holes in Your Heart

2007-09-13T22:32:00.001+09:00

Okay, so again, I suck. I've been super busy and/or exhausted over here, so I haven't taken the time lately to let y'all know how things are going, which is a travesty. So, to make it up to you I have posted 19 pictures so you all can see for yourselves how wonderful my job/life is in Japan.

To get things started right, let's begin with a bit of Engrish:

Mmmmm. Tasty Goo.

Moving on to more meaningful things, I'd like to announce that school is wonderful so far. I have somehow duped my kids into thinking I'm actually cool, which I'm guessing is going to last all of a month. I'm eating up every bit of the attention though until my time is up. The elementary school kids will always think I'm cool though, which absolutely rocks. They ate up every bit of my powerpoint introduction and laughed at all the right places. God I love little kids and their immature sense of humor (the only kind of humor I can generate). Here are some of my 6th grade cuties:

JHS also started out well. I really like my kids and I think they'll be fun to work with. The third years are getting into that "too cool for school" stage that everyone hits in 8th grade, but they still seem to like me since I'm (duh) totally awesome.

Here I am in action, molding their young, malleable minds to my will. Muhahaha. Unfortunately the second picture was taken during the one slide in my presentation that didn't work (due to the computer at school running an ancient version of powerpoint). Oh well. Check out my sweet outline of NC, best state ever. That outline took me about 10 minutes to complete.

This boy is adorable. I don't know his name, but he follows me around and tries to talk to me in the most unintelligible, fast, slurred Japanese ever. I never understand him, but he still always tries. I've gotten to where I generally try to avoid him. Is that terrible? I'm not sure...

This is the bingo game the kids played after my self introduction. Some of the words in katakana include Franklin Street, Michael Jordan, the Beatles, concert, Daft Punk, basketball, Raleigh, and reggae. Nice.

I had to work this past Sunday, because both of my JHSs had Taikusai or Sports Day. Basically its like elementary school field day, except that students are divided into teams and compete against each other in different relays. Sports day is a really big deal here -- even high schools hold them and families come out to watch and at times participate.

On Saturday I was really annoyed that I had to get up early Sunday morning to go sit in the sun all day. But much to my surprise, Taikusai turned out to be really fun. I wish both of my schools hadn't held the event on the same day, cause I only got to see half of each, so I missed some of the cooler games.

Kocho-sensei (Principal) addressing the students. He was my partner for one of the relays, and although he's in his 60's, hes faster than me. :-(

The event started with a cheering competition. Notice the well-balanced, beautiful stage picture. My students are perfect.

The PTA played the largest game of tug-of-war I've ever seen.

A four-legged race is much harder than three.

My favorite game (the name of which escapes me now) involved the boys climbing on to each other's backs, and having to grab the headband of the other team. The boys really loved this.

This relay involved the students running from either side, and grabbing as many tires as possible and taking them back to their "home base" line. Different size tires were worth different points.

After the games were done at Kanno JHS, a closing ceremony was held and awards were given out to the winning team and the star players. Then, the kids released paper balloons (which are friendly to nature) into the sky with their wishes written on them. Apparently, if towns people find the balloons they will write to the school, and pray for the children's wishes to come true. This was so sweet I nearly cried...

And for the finish, more Engrish from home. I have nothing but love for these beautiful people and their liberal use of the English language. I hope all of their dleams come tlue :-).

My Sincere Apologies to My Dear Fans

2007-09-03T21:25:00.000+09:00

Hello all! I'm sorry the posts have been non-existent for the last week and a half. Not to worry though -- I have not fallen into the jellyfish-infested sea. Last week was just really busy. And when I wasn't busy, I was really lazy and sat on my butt (or laid on my butt in my futon, as the case may be). Anywho, this past week was really quite fun, as I had my first enkai, or "office party" as we might call them back home. Basically, this is a party you have with your coworkers which involves eating a lot of delicious and expensive japanese food and drinking even more delicious and expensive beer (or sake, whichever you prefer). You never pour your own drink, someone always does it for you. After they pour, you reciprocate. What results is an eternally full glass of beverage for all involved. Needless to say it is a wonderful time. I wish I had pictures to show you, although I was hesitant to take any, as I've heard from other JETs that the rule at enkais is generally "What happens at the enkai stays at the enkai." After the official enkai we went on to nikai (2nd party) at the local karaoke spot. Very fun, but I'm sad to report that Japanese people don't know as many English songs as Westerners assume. I figured they know tons, but they really don't. At least people in the inaka (country) don't appear to. Which brings me to my next point, I need to learn a few popular Japanese songs, stat. I guess I'll start with SMAP. It's as good a starting point as any, in this pop-infested pit of saccharine sound.

I also had my first eikaiwa (English Conversation) class tonight with about 10 adults at Paru Park (this giant sports complex in Kamihayashi). I think it went well, although I did most of the talking, which I need to remedy. I didn't have a good idea of where to start, given that I went into this with no knowledge of my student's speaking ability. Now that I've met them, I have an idea of where to begin, although I've also realized that challenging each one of them is going to be a bit tricky. A few students in the class are very good at speaking, while others are literally just beginning. I'll have to figure out how to successfully teach both simple grammar points (which I think will be good review for the high-level students) and more advanced grammar in the same class period. I want everyone's English to improve!

Okay, sorry for the short post, but I am exhausted and I'm ready to write out my Japanese self-introduction (which I will present at Hirabayashi JHS tomorrow) and pass out. I promise I'll update y'all on my progress later this week. kthxbi.

Prettiest Tapestry Ever

2007-08-23T21:05:00.001+09:00

Just wanted to upload some pics of my pretty tapestry and demonstrate for you all how brilliant and crafty I am. The closet in my room does not have a pole on which to hang clothes, nor does it have a place to put one. There's also a shelf that divides the closet exactly in half, so if one wanted to somehow install a pole, it would really be of little use. So, my apartment came with a metal, wheeled thingymajig that clothes can be hung on. Said metal thing is really ugly, and I hated having to look at my clothes hanging on it everyday. I've been thinking about how I could cover that corner of the room since I moved in 3 weeks ago, and every idea I could think of was somehow impractical. Curtains would be too expensive and a pain to install, and I couldn't find large enough quantities of really pretty cloth (I'm sure its here somewhere, though its probably not cheap...). As soon as I got home from Sado and set my new tapestry down next to the ugly metal hanger, it clicked. The tapestry is the perfect size and I'm glad I'm able to look at it every day. I originally thought there would be nowhere to hang it in my house, cause all my big open wall space is covered. Killed two birds with one stone :-)

My clothes are all back there...

Every square is different. I instantly fell in love with it when I saw it.

My First List of Things About Japan that Confuse Me

2007-08-21T22:03:00.000+09:00

Decided not to go to STS9 tomorrow, cause it was gonna be too much of a headache and was gonna cost me quite a lot. Which is one aspect of life in Japan that makes absolutely no sense to me. Traveling within Japan costs A LOT, regardless of how you do the traveling. Shinkansen (bullet trains) are really fast and convenient, but that also makes them super expensive. To give you an idea, a one-way ride from Niigata City to Tokyo, which takes around 2 hours, costs over $100*. The same one-way bus ride takes 5 hours and costs around $50. Surprisingly, driving can be MORE expensive, cause you'll pay about $100 dollars in highway tolls, and you've got to pay for gas/a place to park when you get there. It confuses me why Japan would make it so expensive and difficult to travel around the country. Wouldn't you want people to be able to travel easily, so they'd travel more (and spend more money...)? Many JETs have told me it's actually cheaper to travel to Seoul, Korea for a weekend than to go to Tokyo -- and Seoul requires a flight!!!

*No worries for those of you who want to visit. As a foreigner, you can get a JR rail pass before you come, and ride almost all the shinkansen for a flat (pretty cheap) rate. So COME VISIT ME :-)

Which brings me to another mind-boggling aspect of Japanese life. In Japan, ATMs are not always open. In fact, they all close every day around 7 PM, and the ones that DO stay open (which are usually in convenience stores) charge you for using them after hours and charge you if the ATM is not for your bank, which they're usually not. As if it couldn't get any more retarded, ATMs are often closed on holidays. WHAT? Is there a tiny Japanese man inside the machine who requires the day off? Now, I understand not leaving the bank open, but the ATM? Again, wouldn't it make sense to leave it open 24 hours, as this would encourage people to spend hard cash (always a good thing)? I feel sorry for the poor salaryman who doesn't get off work till 8 and can't get hundreds of dollars out to spend at his favorite hostess club. Cause you know, like most places in Japan, his favorite hostess club doesn't take plastic.

Lastly, another aspect of Japanese existence that I fail to understand is the practice that some stores have of playing the exact same annoying song OVER AND OVER AND OVER again literally all day. Two stores in particular are especially bad about this: Uoroku grocery store and K's Denki electronics store. Kristin, you think the 20-song Old Navy soundtrack is bad? Try listening to the EXACT SAME annoyingly upbeat Japanese song featuring children's voices all day. I don't know how the workers do it. But I now have a theory about what causes the ruthless killings that occur here every once in a while. Those songs would drive anyone to a murderous rage...

Okay, done questioning things I will never understand. Hannah OUT.

Hippies Abound

2007-08-20T17:13:00.000+09:00

Most of you are probably aware that I went to Sado island this past weekend to see the Sado Island Earth Celebration. For the weeks leading up to this I couldn't stop buzzing about how excited I was to see a hippie-laden festival done Nihon-style. Well folks, I got exactly what I wanted -- plenty of tyedye, half-naked people brown people and patchouli.

I didn't go to Sado until Saturday, due to the fact that I wasn't able to make it to the last ferry out of Niigata City on Friday. So Friday night I went out with fellow Murakamians Joel and Eric to check out the mini Tanabata festival being held in town that night. The Tanabata is a Japanese star festival which celebrates the meeting of the lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi, two stars which during the rest of the year are separated by the river that is the Milky Way. Different people celebrate it based on different calendars, so August 19th was a smaller celebration. The giant celebration is July 7th, and is held all throughout Japan.

One of the 10 or so floats that was decorated by, and served to represent various areas of the city.

More floatage.

After walking down the street a ways we spotted Chris and Sean (two other Murakami JETs) in a garage chillin' and drinkin' with some Japanese locals, so we stopped to say hey. It was the perfect spot, because as all the different groups from each area of the city came by, they'd each stop to perform a dragon dance in front of our garage that looked insanely tiring. Ended the night playing darts at the darts bar and hitting the sack relatively early in preparation for Sado.

I woke up earlyish Saturday morning to travel to Niigata City so I could catch a ferry out to Sado island. The car ferry takes about 2.5 hours to travel the distance, and its a lovely ride. I'm mostly gonna let the pictures do the talking:

A small chunk of the lovely Sado. A large portion of the island is completely uninhabited and covered in trees -- i.e., hippie heaven.

Japan's cleaner, friendlier equivalent of Shakedown Street. I bought a number of excellent things, including the most beautiful tapestry ever and a tyedye dress. I was even more pleased, however, when the seller of said dress unwittingly put my new treasure in the most striking paradigm of postmodernism:

Damn that's deep...

Adorable nekkid hippie children were everywhere. I kept wanting to take pictures, although I didn't want to be that creepy gaijin. I found this cutie sleeping in the back of a shop though, and snapped when no one was looking.

The Shinto torii mark this place as sacred.

The steep, lovely climb to the stage.

Proof that I was, in fact, on Sado island decked out in paisley. That's the stage behind me. Sadly, no photos of the performance were allowed.

Saturday night's concert consisted mainly of two long sets. The first was Zakir Hussain and Dilshad Khan, both from India. Zakir is considered to be the best tabla drum player in the world, and after seeing his performance with Khan playing the sarangi, I second that opinion. Kodo, performers of the world's most physical drumming on the bass-laden Ō-daiko (great drum) and hosts of the Earth Celebration for the last 20 years, played the next set which was nothing short of amazing. As if they weren't already totally badass, the drummers and staff live and train on a 25-acre commune on Sado island and have put on the EC every year that they've been there. According to wikipedia, Kodo once once ran from the finish line of the Boston Marathon onto stage for a performance! I've heard they're also ninjas by night.

After the concert was over, back down the hill on the main road, some locals were playing drums, flutes and shamisen. Hundreds of people were milling about and dancing the Sado Okesa dance. The dancing lasted over two hours!

Locals playing the shamisen.

A small O-daiko.

Hundreds line the streets to do the Okesa dance.

A guy doing the Okesa dance in traditional yukata and hat.

I uploaded a video I took of a chick doing the Okesa dance for ya'll. Sorry it's not vertical -- I don't have Quicktime Pro and don't want to pay for it in order to rotate the video.

We (other JETs and myself) camped out on the beach that night. Despite the fact that I had sand in every nook and cranny of my body, I had fun being out on the beach beside a big bonfire. Also, I saw more stars that night than I've ever seen in my life and had a perfectly clear view of the Milky Way. Nearly every time I looked up I saw a shooting star without even trying. I think I made over 15 wishes.

Now, a few pictures of my favorite JETs, for good measure.

Richie, my favorite Irishman. Rich, your face really does look like the bandanna monster here.

Errol and I sharing a very meta moment.

Sunday I basically spent all day travelling back to Murakami since that involved a number of bus rides, ferry rides and train rides. The festival was really fun, and I definitely plan on returning next year, hopefully when my Japanese is better and I can converse with the earth people easier.

In other news, I think I've decided to skip out on the Metamorphose festival next weekend on the Izu peninsula. For those of you who haven't heard me constantly yap about it, its an all night electronic music festival just south of Tokyo that this year will feature one of my favorite groups, STS9. Just traveling there and back would cost OVER 200 dollars, and I've still gotta buy a ticket, a cool t-shirt/art, food, etc. (in that order). However, all is not lost! STS9 is playing a show in Tokyo Wednesday night, so I'm gonna ask my supervisor tomorrow if I could have Thursday off. If they say yes, I'll ride the shinkansen to Tokyo Wednesday after work and ride a bus back on Thursday. I'm a little concerned about asking off work this early in my JET career, although its not like I'm actually doing anything either. My days are filled with sitting at a desk, studying Japanese and surfing the internet. Gaaah my life is so hard ;-)

Beaches, Britney and Beutification

2007-08-15T17:03:00.000+09:00

The last five days have been incredibly sweet. Why? Well, days 1 and 2 were Saturday and Sunday (weekends are always sweet), day 3 was prefectural orientation in Niigata city (I got to see some favorite Niigata peeps), and day 4 and 5 (Tuesday and Wednesday) I didn't have to go to work! So I've basically had a 5 day break which rocks. Saturday I did some much needed shopping in the shopping mecca of Bandai in Niigata city. Basically Bandai is a shopping area covered in department stores of the 8-story variety. Bitchin'.

So sometime last week fellow Murakamian Katrina asked me if I'd go hang out with her and a Japanese fellow she met at last weekend's Niigata party and one of his friends. I said yes, as long as all involved understood this was not a "double date," at least not on my part. So the plan was to meet them at the train station (we thought they were coming in by train) and then figure out how to get to the beach since neither of us knew how. Luckily, said boys drove their tricked-out kit car with GPS to the station, so technology all-father lead our way.

We decided to simply drive up the coast till we found a suitable spot to hit the beach. Now, keep in mind two things: one, Japan is a volcano-formed island nation, so in our area, theres not necessarily a lot of "beach" since the mountains run straight into the ocean. Two, next weekend the jellyfish are coming, and apparently its an assload of jellyfish. This being the case, EVERYONE is going to the beach this particular Sunday, because it's their last chance to swim without fear of stinging Scyphozoa. So we had to ride for a little bit before we got anywhere with relatively open beach.

As we're riding along, I notice that the song on the radio is really familiar, but I'm not sure why at first. I listen more closely. Then it hits me, this horrible sound belongs to only one person. How could I have not recognized it? -- Britney Spears has a distinctly god-awful voice. The reason I had not recognized her squall at first is because this particular song (I believe it's called "I'm Not a Girl" ) was some sort of remix. Okay, Britney's on the radio. Okay, boys aren't changing the station. Sad, but whatever. Katrina and I share a laugh and continue on our merry way. Roughly three to four minutes later, however, I notice Britney hasn't left us, and we've moved on to "Overprotected" remix. I incredulously leer at the car radio. Nope, this ain't a radio station. These two guys, ages 23 and 27, enjoy rocking out to Britney. In fact, they enjoy it enough to spend money on a CD in order to do so. Oh God, what is this place? This kind of thing truly makes my soul hurt.

My ability to laugh at the situation paired with the breathtaking scenery helped my immense Britney-induced sadness fade. We ended all the way up in Sanpoku, a gorgeous little beach town at the north most part of the prefecture. And when I say gorgeous, I mean it...

That's Katrina and the J-boys above. We frolicked for 3 or 4 hours, then headed back Murakami way.

When I returned to my house Sunday night, I had a notice in my mailbox that the mailman had been by to drop off some packages my parents sent. I had been waiting very impatiently for these packages to come, so I was stoked that they made it but a little bummed that I hadn't been home to receive them. Of course the notice is in Japanese, so most of it I can't read, but I turned it over and found a phone number to call for "assistance in English." I call the number and talk to a very nice Japanese woman who speaks really good English. I cut straight to the chase and ask her "where should I go to get my packages tomorrow?" She says, "um, they'll be at Murakami post office. But, can you tell me if there is a circled or boxed-in number on the ticket?" I look... "Yeah, it's a 16." "Hold on a moment." I get the Japanese version of hold music which is very upbeat and extremely annoying. After about 20 seconds, she's back. "Will you be home tonight between 7 and 9pm?" "Yes, I will..." "I'll contact the truck driver and get him to deliver it."

WHAT? It's SUNDAY! I was shocked that the post office operated on Sunday at all, let alone as late as 9PM!! But not only did they deliver it to my house that night, I got the packages 15 minutes after I got off the phone with the lady! Damn, THATS service!

These precious packages contained my decorations for my house. So, I spent the rest of my week off deckin' out my house. Here's the pimpin' results:

Entryway.

Kitchen.

Kitchen sink.

America Love!!!!

Living room.

Living room 2.

My room. Not much different, but got rid of the god awful pink curtains.

Besides getting the chance to decorate this weekend, I also ended my time as a hermit by buying a bike and a keitai (cellphone). Now, to make you all jealous...

This beauty is the DoCoMo Foma d903i, in "Summer" turquoise. Its way cooler than any phone you chumps can get in America. 3.2 megapixel camera, mp3 player, wireless internet connected (with an awesome browser), GPS so if I get lost I can find out exactly where I am (or where the nearest 7-11 is), Japanese-English dictionary, and million other features I haven't figured out yet. It doesn't have TV or double as a Nintendo Wii remote (features found on other, fancier phones), but it slides out Matrix-style and is TURQUOISE. I love this place.

Around Town...

2007-08-12T21:03:00.000+09:00

Sorry for the severe lack of posting over the last week. I've been very busy with work and I'm still getting settled in (lots of paper work :-( and lots of shopping :-D). I've also, unfortunately, been pretty terrible about taking pictures (who knew??), so I still don't have any pics of my workplace or of my coworkers, but I figure I'll wait till school actually starts before I begin snapping. The kids here are on summer vacation now, although strangely enough many of them still go to school. Its really confusing, and I'll admit I don't entirely understand what's going on. I asked the Kyoto-Sensei (vice principal) at one of my middle schools, and she explained it as such: the kids have all of August as summer vacation, but they go to school in the morning for certain clubs (which are required) and in the afternoon they can choose to go to prep classes for the coming semester. A surprising number of students stay for the prep classes, too. All this week I helped teach English classes at Kamihayashi Chugakko (middle school), and we pretty consistently had at least 20 kids in each class. So, kids in Japan basically don't have summer vacation, and they seem to like coming to school. Weird. Teachers and students alike are always shocked to hear that Americans get 3 months off in the summer. I'm sure this is correlated with the fact that kids in America are over 2 years behind kids in other industrialized countries in math ability. Hmmmm...

Anyways, I've had a bit of time to wander and explore in my fair town of Murakami, and so far I like what I see. I've really only seen the south side of the town, although I plan to buy a bike on Tuesday so the north side should be much more accessible. Let me tell you about a few of the gems I found on the south side:

This is the first sweet place I found, a used record store called Beatnik. The awesome Jimi Hendrix poster immediately caught my attention, and I knew I had to see what was going on inside.

This is Natsu, the owner of Beatnik. He spoke a little bit of English, so between my broken Japanese and his crappy English we pretty much had things covered. The record selection in the store was stellar, and the records were all in beautiful condition and perfectly packaged (each one neatly stuffed into a plastic sleeve and labeled, all in alphabetical order and organized by genre). Natsu DJs in Niigata City on weekends, and he had some turntables set up in the store. We had a nice conversation about music, and I told him I really like reggae. Notice the sweet dub record he's spinning and the excellent pose he struck for me when I asked to take his picture...

A little further down the street I hear more reggae music blaring. As I get closer to the source, what I discover is:

SOUL. What I found inside was an awesome dude named Junichi (the owner) and a whole lot of Rasta stuff and day-glo art. Needless to say, I immediately fell in love with the place. The art was amazing, and upon talking to him I found out it was all done by friends of his. He called one of them to get a price, and the artist is apparently willing to sell for about 5000 yen (about 45 bucks). When I get paid, I'm definitely going back and buying some stuff to add to my collection. :-) Interestingly, later that very night I went to a party in Niigata city with a few other JETs from Murakami, and the bar the party was held at was also covered in the exact same artist's day-glo work!!

Continuing past SOUL I wandered into what is called "Old Town" and found some truly beautiful places. Like this pretty road:

And a Shinto Torii that marks this place as sacred:

An entrance to a Buddhist temple:

And ancient refurbished Samurai houses:

I continued walking through Old Town for a bit, and soon found myself in a little shopping district full of various tiny shops. I was looking for a birthday gift for my mom, and knowing she likes dishes, I decided to look through a few tea shops. The very first one I stepped into I was warmly greeted by the cutest obaasan (old lady) who immediately sat me down and poured me some delicious tea. She was very interested in me, wanting to know where I was from and what I was doing in Japan (and especially why I was in the inaka town of Murakami). Her granddaughter spoke a little bit of English, so she called her and her two friends out to help translate.

The people in this town are crazy nice -- it reminds me of the south. Which is why, at least so far, I haven't felt a bit lonely or scared. Sure, I get pangs of sadness when I think about the people and the places I miss, but this experience is showing me that wonderful people worth having in your life are all over the planet.

Konnichiwa, bitches!

2007-08-05T18:38:00.000+09:00

Hey ya'll. First just wanted to bring it to your attention that I added photos of my hotel room in Tokyo to the post before last.

Now I'll get to describing my beautiful new home in Murakami City, Japan. My first few days here have been nothing short of awesome. The people I work with are all so kind and wonderful. I've been told by many JETs that I have inherited one of the best BOEs (board of education) in all of Niigata, which I now know to be true. The first day I was here, Ms. Takenouchi and Ms. Iyobe drove me from Niigata station to the Kamihayashi government building (where the BOE is located) to introduce me to everyone who works there. Ms. Takenouchi is and English teacher and the Vice Principal at one of the JHSs I'll be working at (she speaks excellent English) and Ms. Iyobe is my supervisor (she speaks no English). That afternoon and the following day, they also took me out to a fantastic sushi lunch, took me shopping at a store equivalent to a small version of Wal-mart, took me grocery shopping, helped me apply for my alien registration card, and open a bank account. When I got to my apartment, I found a brand new futon, sheet set, towels and rice cooker waiting for me. I don't have the time or space here to fully convey how incredibly kind and giving these people have been to me. But I feel so very blessed. I'll post pictures of them at some point soon.

So now onto my apartment. Its a small place, just a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and sitting room, but it's more than enough space for me. All of these pictures are pre-decorating, so the place still looks pretty bare. Hopefully I'll get my packages from my family sometime this week and can begin making the space my own. I'll post more pics after I get it all set up.

Let's start with the outside:

Now, the kitchen. This is the first room you walk into when entering the apartment. That window looks out to the front.

Closer view of the stove, etc.:

Fridge and storage. The entrance to the apartment is to the left.

View of bathroom door from the entrance.

Bathroom. Thats my washer to the left. No dryer :-(

Turning left, you find the shower/tub room.

Here's the deep tub:

Turning right, you find the toilet room:

View of the other side of the kitchen. The door on the left goes to the sitting room, the one on the right to my bedroom.

My bedroom. Thats my futon on the tatami-mat floor.

Sitting room, complete with tiny leather couches, coffee table, and TV. The doors go to the balcony.

And finally, the view from my balcony, looking right.

That's about all for the apartment. Like I said, tiny, but more than enough space for little ol' Hannah. Next time I'll post my photos from around town. Until then, sayonara!

Tokyo Orientation: Part Deux

2007-08-04T17:07:00.000+09:00

The morning of the first day of orientation (Sunday), I woke up around 4 and was completely unable to go back to sleep. So, around 6 I got up and got dressed, and headed out into Shinjuku to have a look around. I was also on a mission to locate the object of my heart's desire for the past two years -- Mr. Donut, makers of the best damn donut in the world. For the past two years there has been a sweet, donut-shaped hole in my heart that only the fine "Misdo" could fill. Seriously, Mr. Donut puts Krispy and Dunkin' to shame. SHAME!

I luckily had navigated the entirely Japanese-language Mr. Donut site before I set out, and so I had an idea where two stores should be located. Took about 20 minutes to get to the first one by foot, and sadly it was closed because it was located in a department store. BTW, department stores in Japan have everything. Usually a few floors toward the top (many of them have 8-10 floors or more) house a bunch of restaurants, and the basement floor is often a giant supermarket. It took me about 10 minutes to walk to the next store. Lo and behold...

MR. DONUT. Pay no mind to the pictures of hot dogs and other "growing food." Growing food should never be eaten at Mr. Donut. I cannot express how elated I was to have successfully found the donut Mecca. I was nearly in tears.

Here's a pic of the donut I ate. In case you were wondering, it was effing delicious.

I got back to the hotel with plenty of time to get ready. The first part of orientation, which merely involved meeting the other new JETs in our prefecture didn't begin until 10. When I arrived at the giant conference room where this part of orientation was held I was floored by the number of people. I wish I had taken a picture now in hindsight, but I hadn't thought ahead enough to bring my camera with me. There were about 1500 JETs at this first orientation (there's a second orientation going on right now, with about 1200 new JETs in attendance). After meeting each other we listened to a couple of speeches made by various Japanese government officials and CLAIR officials, the organization that runs the JET program. All of this was ridiculously boring, and I had to fight sleep. After I finished lunch, I took the opportunity to go up to my room and sleep for 4 hours, skipping a number of other speeches. I asked around to be sure I didn't miss anything, and everyone assured me I would have been asleep either way. I'm glad I chose to nap in my boxers in the comfy hotel bed instead of napping whilst sitting up in control-top pantyhose.

Upon waking I got ready to meet the other JETs in my prefecture in the lobby to go for "nomihodai", or all-you-can-eat/drink. Basically, you pay a flat fee (in this case, 2500 yen) and get to drink (beer, mixed drinks, soda, whatever) and eat (mainly snacky finger food) however much you want for a certain amount of time (two hours). Luckily the place our prefectural advisor took us also had karaoke. Here we are bustin' it out:

No! Scott is definitely not drunk.

Despite the par-tay, I got to bed surprisingly early that night, around 1AM.

The next day the teaching workshops started at 9AM, so I woke up bright and early at 7 and got ready so I'd have plenty of time for breakfast. The breakfast they provided had a lot of options and was really tasty, so I tried to fill up (I always fill up on free food). The workshop that morning was pretty helpful. It was led by a JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) and her ALT (which is what I am -- an Assistant Language Teacher). They went over how to make lesson plans and generally what to expect in the classroom. After that workshop was over I met my good friend Matt (Nunnelly-san) to explore Shinjuku a bit and get some Ramen. Matt and I were in Japanese together at Carolina, and he's the only person I knew at orientation. We found a really cool hippie shop with some awesome clothes (all of which were unfortunately too expensive for me), and a tiny alley that housed nothing but yakitori shops:

We found a Ramen shop and ate some exxxxxxxcellent Ramen. Folks, THIS is what REAL ramen looks like. This is not the best picture because I ferociously dug in as soon as they brought it, but you get the idea:

After the delicious ramen, we made a stop at Mr. Donut. I meant I was gonna fit as much Mr. Donut in as possible before I left Tokyo in case there wasn't one in Murakami City. Unfortunately, I've learned there isn't one in Murakami, but there are plenty in Niigata city (I'm going there tonight!!!!! MisDo here I come!!!!)

Once we got back to the hotel, I went to a short workshop for female JETs. Most of what they said was pretty common sense, but it was good to hear anyways. They explained what happens when you go to the gynecologist in Japan, which was pretty amusing. God I hope I never have to make that trip while I'm here...

That night I decided to stay in and take it easy. A few people from my prefecture planned to go out, but I was too pooped and still a bit jet lagged. I went to sleep around 9:30, which was nice. Now that I think about it, its probably been 5 years since I've gone to bed that early. Heh.

The next morning our prefectural group set out for Niigata. We rode a double-decker shinkansen (bullet train) to Niigata City. At the station I was met by one of the English teachers I'll be working with, who speaks excellent English, as well as my supervisor and another office worker at the Board of Education, both of whom speak no English whatsoever. At this point I said good-bye to my fellow JETs and made my way to Kamihayashi with my new bosses. My trip to Kamihayashi and Murakami City will come in a later post, though, so keep checking in!

Watashi wa Murakami-Shi ni imasu!

2007-08-02T21:52:00.001+09:00

Sorry sorry sorry for the severe lack of posts to the blog. The last week was nothing short of crazy, and as such I could barely find time to sleep or eat. I'm really tired right now, but I'm gonna try my hardest to describe Tokyo orientation without leaving anything out. I'll get to describing my new home, Murakami City, in a later post.

Saturday morning bright and early I arrived at Jackson-Hartsfield airport in Atlanta to prepare for an 11:05 flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. The first flight took about 2 hours and was pretty pleasant - I had a window seat and enjoyed looking at the scenery from above. The view brought me to realize how much I love America, and how much I'm going to miss it for the next year. I spent most of the flight listening to my ipod, and I couldn't help but listen to all the songs that have come to define this summer for me (Keller - Freaker by the Speaker, Donna the Buffalo - Each and Every Direction, Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel). I was definitely sad to be leaving, but I was equally if not more excited for what lay ahead. I happened to sit next to two pretty cool kids on the flight, a girl named Taylor and a guy named Richard. Richard graduated from UGA, is into a lot of the same music as me and is also a self-described "fest-head." I was sooo glad to find someone with similar tastes!

We had a very short layover in Minneapolis before taking off for Japan. I'd really like to visit Minneapolis someday, from what I saw it looked like a really nice city. It was covered in a surprising number of trees (for a city), and looked very beautiful and quaint from above. After about 45 minutes in the airport we boarded our plane, which was absolutely huge (2 floors, held over 400 passengers!) I was a little disappointed with the plane -- I had heard that NWA is one of the nicest airlines, but this particular plane lacked a lot. No screens in the seat in front of you, so if you could even see the screen at the front of the cabin (which I couldn't), you were forced to watch their horrible movie selections, which included "Wild Hogs" and some movie starring Ice Cube and the guy from Scrubs. I luckily had saved my 40th anniversary Rolling Stone specifically for this journey, and I spent most of my time on the plane reading it fervently. In fact, I read the entire thing from cover to cover. I've now decided that I want to read the biographies/accounts of my favorite bands of that era (the beatles, pink floyd, the doors, grateful dead). I'm not sure though if I should start with bands I already know something about, like the Beatles, or if I should start somewhere new, like the Grateful Dead. I haven't heard a lot of Dead music, so it would be kind of cool to experience it for the first time while getting the back story as well. I'll have to think about this....

After 13.5 hours and three horrible meals, we finally arrived in Tokyo/Narita. Luckily, my luggage made it (Richard and a few others were not so lucky). We quickly boarded a bus and were off to the hotel, which took about an hour and fifteen minutes to reach. At the hotel we received our room keys and a ridiculously large packet of information (little did I know how many books and pamphlets JET would unload on me before the orientation was through). I lugged my crap up to my room on the 34th floor (the hotel has 45 floors), and was pleasantly met by the nicest hotel room I think I've ever stayed in. Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:
The view from our room:
Annnnnd more view:

Within 3 minutes of arriving in my room, I jumped in the shower for a much-needed wash down (this was around 7:30AM eastern time, so I'd been in transit for about 24 hours). A few of us then went out into Shinjuku, the district in which the hotel is situated, and ate sushi for dinner and did a bit of window shopping. Around midnight I finally drifted into some of the deepest sleep I've had in a while - multiple Japanese anxiety dreams ensued.

More on the rest of orientation tomorrow - I'm about to keel over. Stay tuned!

So long, farwell

2007-07-28T12:51:00.000+09:00

It's finally here. Holy crap.

In a mere 8 hours I'll be saying goodbye to my parents, and entering Atlanta airport with 63 other excited, nervous and equally tired young people. 11:35AM eastern time I'll depart for Minneapolis, where I'll have a short layover before my final flight at 3:05PM to Narita airport, outside of Tokyo. We'll land at 5:05PM Tokyo time -- 4:05AM eastern time. God I hope I survive this...

The past days, weeks, months have flown by so quickly. All summer my departure to Japan has seemed so distant, so I never gave it much thought. It honestly didn't start to sink in until about a week ago, when I realized I was spending my final days in Chapel Hill, and that many of the people I was saying goodbye to I might never see again. Despite all this sadness, my final days were nothing short of perfect. Saw a beautiful OAR concert with Guinnie and Patrick on Sunday and one of the best SOJA shows I've ever seen with Guin, Alisa and Mike on my final night. What's more, I got to see everyone I wanted to see right before I left -- left no loose ends, which feels good. Endings are difficult, but closure always makes them a bit easier to swallow. I did really well with most of the goodbyes, very little crying was involved, mainly cause I know I'll see many of these people again. My one low point came when I said goodbye to my kitten and left my house in Carrboro for the last time. I love that house so much, and it wasn't until I walked out of it that it really hit me that I'm gone.

So, I'm on to bigger, maybe better (who knows?), definitely scarier things. I'm excited, I'm terrified. Either way its gonna be a crazy adventure, and I can't wait to share it with you all when I return (or WHEN YOU COME VISIT). I'll post again as soon as I get a free (and rested) moment in Tokyo, although it may be a few days. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so leave comments or drop me an email or facebook message -- my weary soul will need it! Love you all!

Get in on that Gnaw

2007-07-17T12:47:00.000+09:00

We're steadily closing in on my final week in Chapel Hill before I depart for Atlanta (on the 26th) and ultimately Japan (on the 28th). Its finally starting to sink in that I'm seeing some of my friends for the last time now, and that they may very well move away before I return in a year or two. Chapel Hill won't be the same when I come back, and neither will my friends, or myself for that matter. I find this thought pretty unnerving. I'm notorious for striving to maintain a comfortable, unchanging existence -- I've been known to put up with people's crap for far longer than I should so as to preserve a (usually false) sense of comfort. And now I'm about to throw myself head first into an extremely uncomfortable situation. I'm partly excited, because I know this sort of instant, extreme change will be good for my character. I'm also slightly terrified, because I know extremely abrupt changes are something I have trouble dealing with. Whatever happens, I'm certain I will come out of this experience an incredibly badass person.

Another down side to this whole moving business is that I have met so many awesome people in the last few months. That always seems to be the way with me -- as soon as I meet people that I really mesh well with, either I or they move on to something new. It happened pretty much every year of high school (I was friends with Seniors every stinking year) and now its happening again. I just hope I can stay in touch with everyone. You all know you can come visit me ANY TIME. Really. Please come visit me -- you'll have a free place to stay in Japan, so you'd be crazy not to.

Speaking of really awesome people, I met of number of them this past weekend at the All Good music festy in West Virginia. It's comforting to know that I can meet wonderful people anywhere and any time. All Good was definitely the most fun of all my festivals and concerts this summer (mainly due to the awesome company), and it was the perfect way to end my summer music circuit. When Sunday finally rolled around, I didn't want to leave, especially since I knew I might not see the incredible folks I camped with ever again. We talked about meeting up at another festival next Spring or Summer, and I certainly hope that happens -- I need to see you all again!!!! You all better keep in touch so we can make sure that happens.

Wanted: Spocket

2007-07-12T13:00:00.000+09:00

Both me and my good friend Damien have problems with losing things. We're notorious for absent-mindedly setting things down, and so we've discussed multiple times how utilitarian and wonderful it would be to have a pocket in your skin. It could be conveniently placed on the inside of your upper arm, so that things would less likely fall out. Always with you, you'd never lose a thing (like, ahem, one's keys). Patrick recently pointed out that it would probably accumulate a lot of funk, which is certainly a drawback. Think the pocket lint in your rarely-washed sweatpants is bad? Or the lint in your belly button that always has a slightly off odor (but that you still smell every time you pick it out -- you know who you are...)? Despite this, I still stand by the skin pocket (spocket?) I'm tired of losing everything important on my person within minutes of arriving anywhere. And a spocket is a heck of a lot easier than just paying attention.

As you can tell, I've spent my recent days pondering extremely eloquent things. I *do* have a lot to write about concerning leaving for Japan -- two weeks is all I've got left! But seeing as its well after my bedtime, I'm afraid it will have to wait.

Best. Summer. Ever.

2007-06-28T15:46:00.000+09:00

Okay, so I'm obviously neglecting this whole blogging thing. I have a few excuses, although none of them are really good ones. My primary excuse is that I simply have no clue HOW to write about what's going on with me -- I guess "straightforward, say what you mean" just doesn't seem to do my insides justice right now. I want some poetry, some gravity or something. Unfortunately I feel thats something I'm unable to execute.

So, in the meantime, while I'm figuring out how to say all the things I don't know how to say, I'll just say what I mean. Luckily, right now I have plenty to talk about. I just got back last night from seeing the Smashing Pumpkins in Asheville. Holy sweet Lord. Definitely one of the best concerts I've seen in quite a while. They played for 3 hours and 20 minutes with only a 10 minute break and covered a very good mix of songs, including lots of new stuff. One song in particular (one of my favorites of the show), Billy informed the audience had been written a mere two days ago! I think he's going through a "down" period right now, as a lot of his new material seemed particularly melancholy, very acoustic and paired down. Although, its not like Billy hasn't written about infinite sadness, so the songs may have seemed sadder simply because they are so new, and he hasn't had time to craft the instrumentation. A single acoustic guitar always makes songs seem more empty and lonesome to me.

I got a bazillion pictures of the beautiful Billy Corgan, as I was only about 6 feet from the stage, which I hope to upload soon. My buddy Alex brought his camera and did an AMAZING job recording most of the show -- both the video and audio are stellar. I hope to link to some of the recordings soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

This summer has been quite possibly the best summer ever. All I've done is hang out with my friends, go to concerts and festivals, chill with my family and go to work when I feel like it. The concert line up for my summer has been ridiculous, and is as follows:

Ratatat
SOJA
Asheville Music Jamboree (which included Michael Franti, Keller Williams, The Avett Bros., Donna the Buffalo, D.J. Williams, Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band, The Bridge, and about 15 more)
Abbey Road Live (playing all of Sgt. Pepper's, including a SITAR)
Smashing Pumpkins
Disco Biscuits/Umphreys McGee in Raleigh
STS9 Re:Generation (which will include FIVE sets by STS9, Benevento-Russo Duo, Dubconscious, Telefon Tel Aviv, and about 10 more)
AllGood (with moe, Keller, Franti, Claypool, STS9, Steel Pulse, Soulive, Lotus, B-R Duo, P Groove, the Bridge, SOJA and many many many more)
SOJA (my last night hangin' with y'all!!!)

*Sigh* If only every summer could be this awesome...

The Suspense Isn't Killing Me

2007-06-18T12:09:00.000+09:00

Welcome one, welcome all to my little corner of the internet. Here over the next weeks, months and possibly years you can read all my mindless drivel and keep track of my (mis)adventures in the land of the rising sun. I guess I should start out by catching everyone up to whats about to go down.

In six weeks time I will be moving to Murakami City, Japan where I will be living and working for at least a year and up to five years. Hell, you people may never see me again (unlikely, but possible). I am going as part of the JET program (Japan Exchange and Teaching) which is a pretty sweet program funded by the Japanese government. It will be my job to teach elementary and middle school children how to speak English so as to ensure that Japan will never face a shortage of incredibly broken, inappropriate sayings to put on signs and t-shirts.

Soooo Murakami City is in Niigata prefecture, which is on the west coast of the country. I'm right next to the mountains and the beach, which is pretty sweet. Even sweeter, I'm living within 30 minutes of two different ski resorts, so I plan on doing plenty of boarding in my free time, of which I will have a fair share seeing as I only have to work 35 hours a week. Although I'll be living in virtually the middle of nowhere, I'll be 1.5 hours away from Niigata City, the largest city on the Japan Sea coast and about 5 hours away from Tokyo by car/bullet train. This will be great for those inevitable occasions when simply nothing will satiate me but a Wendy's Classic Double with Cheese.

It hasn't really hit me yet that I'm moving to the other side of the world. I know its gonna happen, and I think about it on a semi-regular basis, but I'm not really counting down the days. In fact I'm not keeping up with how many days I have left at all, I rely completely on my dad for that information. Honestly, I don't think it will sink in until I step off the plane and realize that I understand very little of what's going on around me. Until then, theres a lot of partying to be done (and maybe a little nihongo benkyoshimasu) before I leave lovely Chapel Thrill. If you're reading this you probably know me, so hit me up before I go!