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!

Bansai!

Testing the post size... so I might as well write a little bit about my situation.

My plane leaves for Japan Friday morning at 6 A.M.  I am both excited and terrified. I have training at the Amity headquarters outside Osaka for a week, and afterwards I'll be arriving at my new home in Mito, Japan. The official start of this blogg will be shortly after I arrive in Japan. Until then, wish me luck!

P.S. Not to be confused with Bonsai.