Long Overdue Tokyo Post

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

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.

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

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!!!

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

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

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.