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!