Koban Justice

No pics, but a hilarious story about something me and my friends saw last night while walking to the movie theater.

There is a small Koban (police) box right on the south side of the station in Mito, and as we were passing it we noticed some cops out and about. One of them had a camera, and a few had a couple buckets of water for god knows what reason. Like every weekend night, there were obnoxious bikers cruising by and revving their lawnmower-size engines to try and get some attention. Typically, these guys honk and rev their way through red-lights and everyone stops for them because they don't want to cause an accident. Cops don't do anything about it, because it's more dangerous to chase them than it is to leave them go.

By the time we got up to the platform we realized they were trying to organize and stop a Yanki biker (with the spikemullet and everything) who was being a jackass cruising around the roads near the station to try and pick up chicks.  The guy did a few loops around a median, swerving between lanes as a cop car slowly followed behind with the lights on. The biker knew he could get away at any time and was just messing with them so that all the people on the platform could watch.

We kept looking back at the cops hanging around the Police box. What are they planning to do with that camera. Why are they hiding behind that sign? And what is the bucket of water for? There not really going to.... there's no way that they could.... could they?

It took a minute, but eventually the biker stopped and picked up a girl from the side of the road. I imagined his pickup line: "Hey baby, wanna run from the cops with me?" He immediately takes the next right turn and cruises by the police box where the cops were waiting for him. One of the cops quickly jumps out from behind the sign, runs into the 4 lane road with the bucket of water and nails the biker right in the face, splashing water everywhere over the biker, the girl, and their crazy-beautiful anime hair.

I guess the dude split afterwards. Never before in Japan have the cops provided so much justice.

Fujita Wedding

Congratulations, Yasuhiro and Misa Fujita! These two tied the knot on the 10th of September, though I'm only writing about it just now. Years from now, when I look back on my trip to Japan and I  contemplate the progress I have made, I'll remember this, and my friendship with Yasuhiro, as one of the most defining moments of my year. 

Showing off the rings

The wedding took place at the beautiful Mito Plaza Hotel, which was home to both the small, sun-lit chapel for the ceremony and the hall for the reception. While it was mostly conducted in familiar, western-style, there were some noteworthy differences. It started in the Chapel outside of the hotel, which was more like a large glass ceiling-ed gazebo surrounded by trees. In a short twenty minutes up on the platform, Yasu and Misa said words, kissed, and traded rings in far too familiar fashion- similarly to other weddings I've been too, Japanese babies apparently like to cry at weddings too. The ceremony was beautiful, and I found myself wondering how much money the venue had to have cost. 

Our group: Joel, Hirono, Tony, and Ben. 

Then again, cost is where the Japanese wedding traditions are the most apparent. Yasu and Misa don't have a lot of money, yet a venue like this, especially in Japan, would cost a significant amount. However, it's not the bride's father, but the guests, who end up paying for the wedding. In order to be accepted into a Japanese wedding reception, a guest must provide a donation at the door, usually an amount set by the bride, for each person. These are wrapped in special money envelopes with the name of the giver on the outside (which I tastefully forgot and instead chose to stuff my donation in a standard 3 dollar wedding card from the station). Sometimes, the wedding cost is dependent on how close you are to the Bride and Groom, with family members sometimes paying double what friends would or more.

Here, Yasuhiro walks around in his Hakama, waving to his guests, while his new wife traces his footsteps  from behind with her head pointed toward the floor the entire way. 

Yasu and Misa changed outfits a few times during the reception. My favorite was when they entered in traditional garb. Yasuhiro wore his stunting black Hakama and carried a large folding fan, while Misa shuffled behind him in her Geta sandals and Kimono. We were served an amazing seven courses before the night concluded, including something with a taste I've never experienced until now, foie gras. The dishes included, in this order, are as follows: Foie Gras on French Toast; 10 types of Sashimi; salad served with corn soup; three types of seafood and prawns; A dish with cuts of beef, pork, and chicken; a dessert spread that included sorbet, marble cake and fruit; and last but not least- pound cake.  There was no dancing afterwards, not that I expect anyone would have wanted to after that kind of spread. Instead, people were invited to an after party rented out at a club in downtown Mito a few hours later.

This program was so cool to see.

At the end of the night The amount that I paid for attendance was not important, especially considering how well I was taken care of. Everything was perfect, from the presentation of the staff and the atmosphere at the wedding, and even the service. Waiters would trip over each other to refill our glasses with beer when they got halfway empty, and when they missed a queue, a family member from another table would spring to action and introduce themselves with a bottle tipped in our direction. Even the parents of the bride and groom personally introduced themselves to us, and family and friends alike were all very welcoming (despite our affliction). 

One of many amazing dishes. 

Also, at the end of the night as the crowd was filtering out, I got a chance to show off some of my skills with children. I was introduced to one girl who was maybe 4 or 5, and I asked her about the animals she likes. She was pointing at different colors around the room, and before I knew it a bunch of people were standing around watching, clapping and smiling for the girl when she she learned a new word in English. One mother handed me her child over someones head, as if to say, "Please! Please! Do my baby next!". 

The after party was great, but the wedding itself is something I'm glad I didn't miss. I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I could, even though I didn't any of the toasts or speeches during the reception. 

Mito Komon Festival

Last month, right before the Obon vacation, Robin came to visit me in Japan. It was great to see her and to finally have some company from back home; after she left I really started to feel like I was ready to go home. While she was here, she got a chance to go to one of the things I've been looking forward to all year-- the Mito Summer festival.

The festival is called the Mito Komon Matsuri, named after the feudal scholar and leader Tokugawa Mitsukuni, who dressed up as a commoner to better understand his people. The name Mito Komon, was actually more popularized from a TV show that has been making new episodes in Japan since-- wait for it-- 1969! Regardless of it's origin, the Komon Matsuri is the largest festival in Mito, which, kicked off by a huge fireworks display on Friday night, continues three days until the end of the weekend. Finally, I thought, this is a chance to see a ton of Japanese culture I hadn't had the chance to experience.

To be honest, the festival started out as kind of a bust. I spent the Friday night fireworks display fuming to myself at Amity while Robin and my friends got to see the whole thing down at Senba lake. My 7:00 PM student (wisely) skipped class, leaving me with nothing to do but listen to the crashing bass of the fireworks while watching the people outside smile and laugh with each other as they headed to the lake in their cool summer yukata. Despite all the things I resent about my job, such as long hours or absurd Japanese business customs, that night had to be, by far, the worst. What I originally wanted to get out of coming to Japan was to be a part of a new and exciting culture, and at the time, missing the fireworks was the first situation where Amity was tangibly holding me back. As I listened to the sounds of the fireworks and watched the people walk by outside, I thought to myself about all the things I wanted to do while I was here but hadn't. Whether it was learning Japanese, traveling, or just watching summer fireworks, I thought to myself, "this is life, passing me by while I'm working at Amity."

Don't be fooled. I wasn't actually here.

Two nights later and Sunday was finally here. During the festival, the main road on the north side of the station was completely closed off, as parades of floats (carried by people) walked up and down Mito for hours. The first thing I noticed (besides the traditional masks, songs, and dances going on in every direction), was the complete lack of containment everywhere. People were allowed to walk around in the street, right in front of the parade. It felt so much more alive and interactive than the parades back home; you could just walk up to a float and high-five the kids standing on it without being corralled off into the side of the street. Just about everything you'd expect from Japanese tradition was present, like Taiko drummers and goldfish scooping games, as well as a few you wouldn't expect, like the Tokyo Rockabilly Club that flash-danced in the street to Greece Lightning and the rest of the soundtrack for a whopping 5 hours.

Goldfish catching game. Gotta catch that goldfish before the paper net disintegrates!

Overall, the experience was second to none. We ate great food, ranging from fried octopus balls to pickled cucumbers (which are quite different from pickles, suprisingly). Even better, Robin managed to win at least one of everything from every carnival game. I don't have a link to a better set of pictures, so I'll include a few more on here. Enjoy!

Pretty Girlfriend

Me and Yuuta. I see this student everywhere!

The view from above. 

Sanpatsu

I finally broke down and got a haircut in Japan today. I went to this small, family owned barber shop on my street just because I walk by it almost every day. "Toyoda" and his family live above the barber shop, and I managed to see everyone in the family today while I was there. First, grandma preps me in the chair and powders my neck and gives me some coffee, all without even asking me anything. After that, Dad (labeled on his business card as "artistic designer") cut my hair after I showed him some photos of how it used to look. I tried describing to him that I wanted it shorter in certain areas and longer in others, but I think he kind of had his own idea of how I was going to look because he didn't really pay much attention to it. He was really funny, though, and tried to make small talk with me about the Nadeshiko soccer team's game against the USA, or how different areas of Japan pronounce things differently.

The introduction continued when the junior high daughter and her friends came in to ask Dad for money, which he obliged. He introduced me to them, and they giggled and laughed as they second-guessed their English pronunciation skills. After the haircut, Mom came over to give me my shampooing and straight-razor touch-ups. First, she massaged my entire face, neck, and head for about five minutes, then surrounded my head in a hot towel to open up my pores. I was amazed at how artistically everything was done during both the haircut and the grooming; after the shampooing and rinsing, she used 4 separate clean-white towels to gently blot all the water from my hair and face. Then, Toyoda came over to give me a 10 minute hair-brushing  and blow-drying so much that every follicle of hair managed to lay in the right place for his design.

I felt bad only spending $25 on such a stellar, 80-minute haircut, so I decided to show them the American practice of tipping and gave them an extra 500 yen. In the end, I feel I look a little like Yu Yu Hakusho, an Anime character with extremely symmetrical hair, but it was a cool experience nonetheless.

I promise you, each hair is equidistant from every adjacent hair.  Thank you, Japanese Perfectionism. 

Japanese Beeru

It's really late, but I can't sleep and Ross asked for info about all the different beers. It turned into a review, so I thought I'd post it here.

Like in the US, there are a few major brewing companies. 4 to be exact. They are Kirin, Sapporo, Asahi, and Suntory. Most of their flagship beers are really good and pretty strong, ranging from about 5-6.5% on average. My favorite and most commonly on draft at restaurants is probably Kirin, and it's one I had back home as well. Typically because eating out in Japan is about serving each other before yourself, If you order a bottle of beer in a restaurant, you will get a giant bottle big enough to pour for three or four people.




What's really common in cans, however, is the Happoshu beers. These have lower malt percentages so they are technically not qualified to be considered beer according to the tax laws, and instead qualify as liquers or something like that. Because of this they are much, much cheaper at the conbini than all the other beers. Instead of 2.50 per can, you're paying only about half that. Because they are still stronger than American beers, I really have no problem drinking them. Lots of people who I've met are British, and apparently living anywhere in the UK makes you a beer snob, so a lot of these guys won't drink the happoshu. Asahi Clear and Kirin Nodaguchi are the best, though the one uses soy protein and the other uses liquer to up the alcohol content.

This next one, Yebisu, is one of my favorite beers because they serve it at the Gaijin bar here on draft. Remember, all the restaurants and bars really only have one draft beer-- but if they are really, really westernized, they may also have Guiness on tap too, but that's about it. I also like Yebisu because he's the god of fat people and fishing, and is the namesake for the character Ebisumaru (which as far as I can tell means circle-ebisu, or round-fisherman).

And of course, last but not least, there are microbrews. There are tons here, and most of them are sold by the bottle and have really flashy decals so that you pick them up and think, "wow this looks cool." If you ever get the chance to drink a Hitachino's Nest Beer, do it! It's made only about 15 minutes away from my place and is extremely popular with this area. I have had their Weizen, but at about 5-6 dollars a bottle it's not something I like to drink everyday. I've heard rumors of some places like ITap carrying their beers back home, and I'd be excited to see if it's true.

Stressin' it out!

     Today I had a parent observation lesson with four students and their parents. The kids had a ton of fun, because they got to run around and play with props while speaking English. Afterwards, they were begging their moms to stay, so I knew they had a good time. All of the students by the end of class could recite the entire question and answer series without help, so it was clearly a successful lesson. In the parent comments, two of the parents wrote that while the lesson was fun, it should be more about studying and less about playing games. I would have agreed, too,  if the kids weren't 4 years old. There isn't even a table in the classroom at this age.

My job is so hard, and this country is so unforgiving! But with that said, I feel even worse for my students. I can't imagine what the deep psychological effects of living in this country for a long time are. Most of my students leave home at 6:30 a.m. and after clubs and cram schools they don't get home until about 9 or 10 at night. If they are lucky, they are able to finish their homework on the train or in between classes. They tell me that if they study hard they will be able to get a good job and be happy, but I don't remember ever seeing any happy businessmen. On Friday nights, you might be convinced that the hordes of businessmen are having a great time, but in reality it's a cultural requirement to go out with your boss after a long work-week. Lower ranking members of the office have to serve and treat the higher-ranking ones, which if it's anything like my office work parties, it's awkward and forced, with thinly veiled cliques. It's like nobody is allowed to control their life and pleasure here; well, except for the Yanki's I guess.

Here's to hoping that I can try and change that, at least for a few kids.

'tis the season.

     I walked outside yesterday morning into a nasty, gray-sky day. It looked like it was going to rain, but the wind was blowing so violently that an umbrella would have been useless anyway, so I continued without one. Then, I heard the sirens. "Are those voices?," I thought, and I wondered what they were saying in Japanese. Naturally I assumed was a warning of some kind; what if the weather was getting so bad that the announcement was urging people to evacuate? Do they even have tornadoes in Japan? I looked for other people so I could see how the natives were reacting, but nobody was on the entire street. "Strange," I thought, as I found myself drawn to the rambling of the horns in the direction of the station. The speaker was very monotone; whatever he was saying, this was not a festival. The walk was about a mile, yet the horns sounded clear as day. In the distance I saw a large crowd of people, and I imagined the imperial Big Brother of Japan, loading buses full of willing passengers unsure where their government was taking them. To my surprise, upon reaching the crowd I noticed group of four old men in suits, standing atop a self-painted van, speaking to the crowd. They wore sashes adorned with their credentials and had a few news-teams recording their speech. I should have known; it's political season.

I definitely agree with Mr. So-and-So about that one point.

     Apparently in Japan it's legal to drive around town with a giant megaphone on the roof of your van and spout political nonsense. It makes me weary to think that there is a country with a more invasive campaign strategy than the United States, but Japan seems to be doing a pretty good job of intruding every half hour when they drive by in the cars again. The only other images I have of these mobile-audio propaganda machines is among the plighted countries going through revolutions, like in the movies about Nazi Germany. Sure, today, the Japanese people are probably saying, "please vote for better education funding!," but I imagine tomorrow it could be something along the lines of, "Find those Gaijin! They must be turned in to the police!"

3 Months in

Gamba-ppe, Ibaraki's slang for Ganbatte (Good luck)

When I look at my time in Japan it feels like I've just arrived, and yet at 3 months, I'm 1/4th through my contract already! I don't update this blog enough, and I never find the time to stop and appreciate my situation; the last thing I want is to finish my tenure here without a lot of great stories and details about Japan. So much about my life has transformed so rapidly, that I feel that I've done some things I never would have tolerated back home. Also, I enjoy lists. The following are things, after only a few months in Japan, that you'd be surprised to find yourself doing;

1)  Speaking in basic, plain, Japanese-coddled English to fully competent English speakers. Everybody I've met here does it, and the longer I'm in this country the less I find myself using big words or complex sentence patterns. After 8 hours a day of speaking in the most basic tongue to students and coworkers, it's difficult to switch back to the old vocabulary for some other Americans. Sometimes it's simple changes that make me sound dumb, like using "[subject], do you know?" instead of "have you heard about [subject]?" Another example is that every question must be asked with the keyword as the last word, inflected with enough stress to indicate a query, such as, "At university.... what did you study?" instead of "what did you study at university?". Typically you have to make this inversion for the Japanese students because they often can understand the beginning and the end of a sentence, yet fill in the middle; the second question would often register with them as "what... university." Needless to say, you just sound silly when you do it to someone who was a born and raised English speaker.

Look at that weirdo wearing the man-purse!

2) Buy or wear something you used to think was extremely gay. In my case, it was a small leather bag I could keep my personal items in. A man-purse. Japanese people are obsessed with bags and trinkets that they can individualize, and the same applies for the guys here. My theory is that because everyone walks everywhere here, you can't just keep your stuff in your car, and going sans-bag would be more of a hassle. It's super effeminate, but it's nice to have something to help carry my wallet and stuff. This rule, though, also applies to wearing bright neon clothing, hanging little stuffed animals off your cell phone, and getting really strange hats.

A traditional Japanese lunch. 

3) Start using a coin purse. Coins here are big! They take up a lot of space, and because the smallest paper bill is around 10-12 dollars in value, you'll be carrying a large amount of change at any time and unlike in the US you can't just throw them on the ground. Without a coin purse, these things will muck up your wallet and cut up the bills inside. Also, paying with change is really useful; there is rarely sales tax on things here, so very often you'll be able to pay in exact change.

A 20-minute special of a Panda fighting a Koala, MMA style.  In poor form, the koala paid off the ref and wouldn't make the count. 

4) Lose all respect for television. The other day at prime-time there was a super-live, commercial free showing of the Women's Doubles Ping-Pong championship. There were maybe 15 people in the crowd as 4 women played best-of-seven, 11-point games for three hours. Also, When you watch sports on the news, they will often show highlights of the Japanese players in the MLB. One time, I watched a replay of Ichiro dropping a ball in the outfield in a Mariners game five or six times, and yet the news didn't even say the final score of the game.

Golden week coming up...

A week from today (Friday through Friday) is Golden week. It's a week where almost everyone in Japan has a week off and it'll be my first chance to really get out and explore some of Japan. I'm thinking a Tokyo adventure is in order?

I really do want to go see Akihabara. It's supposed to be the capital of Japanese nerd-dom, complete with 12-story electronics stores, multi-level arcades, anime and manga cosplayers on a daily basis, and an AKB48 concert in the DonkiHote (wall-mart on lsd) every single day. The town even has a Robot store; I have to go there.

Back in Mito and "O" Hanami

After a three week vacation, I'm finally back in Mito. This is the first time I've been back to my apartment since the Earthquake, Lucky for me, the Cherry Blossoms were still in season.

Cherry blossoms line all the water in Mito

I didn't get to relax long before I went back to work, but Thursday I was lucky to spend a beautiful day in Kairaku-en with the cherry blossom trees and my gaijin friends. The Japanese literally call it O Hanami, or literally, "flower watching". Before well respected or revered words, the Japanese put an O to show respect for the historical significance of the item, such as O Gohan (rice), O Sake (delicious sake), or O Hashi (chopsticks). Hanami follows the same rules, where the Japanese sit together in nature and contemplate the beauty of Spring. Foreigners, however, traditionally use Hanami to take advantage of the great weather and lack of public drunkenness laws to get wasted.

Joel at Senba Lake

Our camping spot

The Shiba dog Tora, meaning Tiger

The Cherry Blossoms are beautiful, but the weather in Japan during this time of year is some of the best I've ever encountered. It's warm with a cool breeze, and not a cloud in the sky no matter what day of the week it is. As I rode my bicycle along the lakeside, lined with Sakura trees, a gust of wind would blow hundreds of tiny flower petals into the air and I was able to ride through them like they were snow. The sights and smells were amazing; It's hard to believe that this city was wrecked only a month before.

We finished the evening at a Korean Barbecue place. These places, called Yakiniku, have hot grills in the middle of the table where you can grill all sorts of raw meat and vegetables, and offer an all-you-can-eat Tabehodai for about 20 dollars. We would have combined it with all-you-can-drink, but the restaurant informed us that nobody in town was offering it, in reverence to the earthquake victims.

My Japanese friend, Yasu, laughed when I made the mount Fuji out of an onion like hibachi chefs at Shoguns do back home. He said that he's never seen that done before; who would have thought?

Status update

I'm posting this on my iPhone so forgive me for any weird spelling mistakes.

After three days in mito with no water, no food other than brown rice, and rotating power, I decided to ask the Amity to put me up at the Honbu (or headquarters) in Okayama where I trained. They accepted an Erica decided to come with. I had to take a bus to get out of town, since mito train station was closed and ibaraki airport demolished, but after a few stops we found a working train station and took the Shinkansen the rest of the way. The first few towns we saw the old familiar earthquake damage, including 30-40 car lines outside the gas stations and paper signs in the window of all the convince stores. Grocery stores that were open had lines of people wrapped around them, and I'm assuming by now their food has long run out other than the government sanctioned rice and water bags.

As we travelled further west, we saw less and less stores closed. After passing through Tokyo everthing seemed like normal life in japan, an after getting off the train in Okayama station I felt like the whole thing never happened. It is still filled with giggling schoolgirls who buy heart shaped waffles and late businessmen literally running back to work in their suits. The annex is like a skeleton apartment, but a hot shower and a full size bed felt great after all the travelling.

Where do I go from here, I wonder. Nobody has any idea when the school is open, and it seems like Japanese business etiquette is to run all decicions by the head head boss. The only reason I'm here in Okayama is because I asked to be, a
nd some great trainers helped push the word on to the higher ups. But the same beurocracy exists about reopening the school. Is there an official date? Will I still be getting paid? The biggest pain is that I'll probably get a call one day saying, "head back! School opens tomorrow." I would be happy to be home and working, if the city was, of course.

Earthquake 2011

I was walking back from lunch at this restaurant down the street from work yesterday when the earthquake hit. I didn't even notice it at first, but when Erica stopped me from walking under the overhang of a building nearby, I noticed this big locked freezer thing next to me shaking uncontrollably. It wasn't til a few seconds later when the ground started shaking pretty violently. We ran out into the street with a couple of pedestrians nearby and held on to each other, which didn't really help much. We were falling all over each other like you would if you stood up on a moving boat, but even worse was that I couldn't tell which direction the waves were coming from to try and keep myself from falling.

Eventually we had to squat down and just watch people flee from outside the buildings. The building I was originally under started to collapse, and a man ran out from underneath the overhang just as it came crashing down. Other people ran out of their apartments and offices screaming and crying; most of the people I talked to said it was the biggest earthquake they had ever felt. Afterwards, the damage to the sidewalks and the buildings was pretty severe, and sewage pipes burst and flooded water at almost every corner. Tons of people took refuge in the park until the news said it was clear to find shelter. For about 24 hours Jonan, my neighborhood of Mito, didn't have any power or water. I wish I would have taken more pictures.

We ended up sleeping at Amagai-Sensei's parents house in the country. They took great care of us! They gave us warm towels and cooked us curry and rice on their gas-powered stove. The house was gorgeous and since the power was out for miles and miles it was the first time I've seen that many stars since I was in Wyoming about 10 years ago. Overall it was a blessing, considering everyone else went to the high school and took shelter in the gym with hundreds of other displaced people. The tremors happened all night, but it was still much more comfortable than being at home. It's about 11:23 p.m. here now, about 33 hours after the big earthquake and we're still getting tremors every half an hour or so. Supposedly there have been about 125 small earthquakes since the huge one, over a dozen of which have been 6.0 or greater (a 6.0 earthquake on land could kill a ton of people, luckily for Japan all these earthquakes are taking place off-shore). 

Hopefully it goes without saying that I am safe from the Japan Earthquakes for now. The earthquake yesterday was a huge disaster here, and although the people of Mito are more inconvenienced than in danger, it was still one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me. The actual shaking of the earth was more exhilarating than scary, and because I didn't get any tsunami's in Mito my life wasn't a living hell for the last two days, but I still catch myself wonder, "what if the tsunami was off the coast here, and not Sendai?" So far the news is saying about 1700 confirmed deaths in the regions to the north, but only 1 in my prefecture of Ibaraki... It's kinda useless to, but it leaves me asking, "why not here?" Luckily, I live to fight another day.

Uchihara Mall

This last Monday was pretty rainy, so Erica and I decided to take the train to the big mall in Uchihara. The train ride was only two stops away so it only cost us a couple bucks each way. The mall was bigger than any of the ones in St. Louis, and surprisingly had a ton of stores for both guys and girls. Until now, I've noticed far more girls' stores than boys' stores in Japanese "departo"s.

    In every big Japanese shopping area, there is always a hyper-pink arcade area that is only for girls full of Purikura, or roughly, photo booths. After taking a photo with your group of 5 or more girlfriends (or one super reluctant boyfriend), you get to use a touch-screen with a bunch of sticker and color options to make yourselves look glamorous. Most of them even have options to make your eyes bigger or your hair brighter. Afterwards, the device spits out a few tiny stickers that you can cut up and stick on your stuff. With how good digital cameras are these days, the whole thing seems really silly. I of course, did it anyway.... the secret to looking cute is to put cat ears on everything.

The food court was very asian, save for the McDonalds, Mr. Donut, and KFC that were there. I ate at a place called Pepper Lunch which serves you a steaming hot skillet of steak and vegetables that are cooked right there at the table.

Japan is into the "collect 'em all" mentality more than I ever could imagine. Each one of these machines costs $1-2 and drops out a little trinket for you to play with, and each machine has 5-10 different guys you have to collect from it, meaning that if you really like a show or a character, you have to keep dropping in money until you have all the little key-chains or trinkets that you want. Anyone who learned about Japan by playing Shenmue remembers the two machines from the arcade that you bought useless items from.... well in Japan there are way, way more than 2 machines.

I ended up buying a over-the-shoulder bag for when I go walking or biking around town. In the US this would be considered a purse, and I would be gay. For now I usually have big coat pockets, but in the Summer I will probably need more storage space for beer or something. 

The mall was fun but dangerous. I kept seeing useless stuff I wanted to buy, and everything in the mall seemed so much more expensive than what I've seen back home. The belt-buckle below cost around 25 bucks! 

Status update

Full blown internet will be coming to my apartment on March 14th, but in the meantime I broke down and bought a cell phone. It's a pretty cheap plan that doesn't have much calling, but it does have unlimited emails. Emailing on phones is basically like texting back in the states, but it's more popular here because there are way too many different kanji characters for an SMS message. The good thing about that is that if you email me from any address it'll pop up on my phone instantly like a text. The address is a pain in the ass but until i find out how to change it its....

0uh42551326248m@ezweb.ne.jp


Talk to you soon!

For Dan Wilson and his recent engagement...

One of the most amazing things I've seen in any part of Japan was at the shopping arcade here in Mito...

In this game, the goal is to get really, really pissed and then flip over the table as hard as you can. You can pick all sorts of different scenarios (I picked teacher) and if you flip the table really, really hard the building you're in blows up and you can see a huge explosion from the distance. Classic Japan!

Tadaima ! Home in Mito

I've just completed my second week in Mito working at Amity and I couldn't happier for the weekend. During the week, the work at Amity is pretty tough and happens during some pretty rough hours, so I rarely get to see and do everything I want around town. My first impressions of the apartment were very good. I think the place is very nice and came supplied with just about everything I could have wanted, except for a dryer of course. They also delivered me a brand new futon set with bedding, pillows, and a super heavy comforter. It's a little firm but I sleep well and the super thick comforter is something I should have gotten a long time ago. The bedding, well, it's a little questionable....

I suppose it is worth mentioning that the apartment is lacking a coffee pot. Most people drink nothing but instant coffee here or get it from the vending machines that are on every street corner. Often when you buy drip coffee they are in pre-packaged boxes that make 2-4 cups maximum, so I think that might be one of the most difficult things to get used to in this country.

I'll go into more info on the job later, but here is a link to my amity's webpage. I have a little introduction blurb about three or four notches down. The guy teaching in the first picture is Kevin, the teacher I replaced. The age he's teaching now takes up about 3-4 hours of my day usually, and depending on how good the kids are they can be super fun or hard to wake up for.
http://www.amity.co.jp/school/hiroba/0814.html

Here is me and the Japanese teachers at my school at an Izakaya (sp?) for Kevin's going away. The place was a traditional Japanese pub mixed with private style Karaoke. from left to right is me, my manager, Kevin, Yuki, Rieko, Tomoe, Miyuki, and Takako. Notice all the different crazy food sitting around.

Until next time!

First Stop -- Okayama

This is a little late, but I'd like to make a couple of separate posts about my experiences so far in Japan, so first I'll talk about my training in Okayama City.

After arriving in KIX airport in Osaka-Kansai and meeting my fellow trainees, the lot of us were herded onto the train platforms and bound for Okayama. The train stations here by the airport were much more confusing than the ones at the Airport, and it didn't help that Japanese people at the stations always seem to be walking at about a thousand miles per hour faster than me and my luggage. In total, the trip would be about an hour and a half trip on two different trains. This was my first experience with the train systems and the Shinkansen, or Bullet Train, which for most of the way traveled at over 150 miles per hour.

After arriving in Okayama, with Jansen, Aubrey, Chelsea, Aaron, and my roommate Jason, we were free to explore the town for a few days before our week-long training. The city itself was great, and our location couldn't have been better. We were only a few minutes walk from the station, which is basically a huge hub of underground stores and international eateries including, among other notables, a French-styled bread shop, two McDonald's, and an underground mall that seemed to only have clothes for girls.

Later, we would explore the DoReMi mall, play Taiko Drum Master at the shopping Arcade, and eat at a super traditional Japanese Sushi restaurant. At no time during these events was I able to communicate with any local without the help of the Chelsae, Jansen, or Jason, who speak Japanese incredibly well.

Perhaps the most touristy thing we did was visit Okayama-Jo, also known as the "Crow Castle" because of it's black walls. While the real Okayama Castle was destroyed in WWII, the atmosphere was really cool and there were courtyards that had showed the outlines of how the castle used to be set up. There is even some of the original foundation left to see and explore. Inside, Chelsae, Aaron, and Aubrey were dressed up like traditional Japanese lords and ladies, however even though the attendant wasn't off duty until 5 pm, when my turn came she pointed to a sign that was supposed to inform us that she only has to dress 5 people per hour and that I would have had to wait 45 minutes for her to cooperate. Needless to say, we left. I don't have any pictures of the rest of the weekend, but we experienced some awesome Japanese drinking at a restaurant where we had to kneel on tatami mats while we ate fish, eggs, and other awesomely stereotypical food and chanted "Kampai"  with some elderly Japanese salary-men at the table behind us. This was definitely the highlight of the week.

Training was hard, but the trainers and the other trainees made it a pretty great experience. I don't really want to go into a lot of detail about it, but it is here we all learned that for most of our work at Amity will have us acting like an over-the-top kid's TV show host like Steve from Blues Clues (before he killed himself, of course). I'll go into more detail on that later, and my experiences in Mito so far. Later!