It’s all Monkey Business Around Here!

Happy Halloween!!!

As luck would have it, my supervisor found a gorilla mask and furry hands somewhere in the bowels of Sugihara. Being the excellent example of internationalization that I am, I donned said costume and ran around scaring the bejezus out of my unsuspecting students. I LOVED IT!!! And I suspect they did too.

It’s been quite a productive weekend for me. Friday was the JET Halloween party. $40 for all-you-can-drink (or as the sign said “free drinks” – um, hello, not free if I have to pay) for SIX hours. I didn’t last the whole time, as some of my posse weren’t feeling to hot, so we retired early. I had a great time! Ended up in a bathroom with Louise (I’m not sure why), partied with random Japanese folk, some stranger licked my ear, and I managed to lose most of the decorations sewn on my costume (and I have no idea how – LOL). As you can see below, I was a Christmas tree and along with my fellow JETs, we were the four seasons. Click here to view all photos from the party.

Saturday I had to work and I do not recommend having to work after the JET Halloween party. But it was the Chorus Festival / Cultural Day at Sugihara – so there I was at 8:15 and cursing the gods of culture. I made it thru the day’s events: PowerPoint presentations; exhibits on landmines, Cambodian culture, nasty food you can eat in the event of a catastrophe, ect; and the piece-de-resistance – 2 hours of singing. I got to be a judge and it was almost impossible for me to stay awake. My only hope is that they didn’t catch me sleeping on camera – guess I’ll know when I catch the concert in reruns on one of my eight TV channels. Overall, it was an interesting day – which I’ll get to repeat next Saturday at Yatsuo. Only there I am more involved – I have my own spot on the bulletin board.

Sunday I got my craft on at the clay doll workshop at the Toyama folks craft museum. I paint two little clay dolls (as gifts for some peeps back home). Then I headed to Favore to do some xmas shopping for the family. I purchased, for myself, THE SOFTEST blanket in the world. Almost makes me want to forgo pjs at night – but I say almost – LOL. Pre-birthday celebration for Tiffany’s birthday.

Monday I did not have to work (if we work a weekend – we always get a day off the next week). I headed to Gokayama with Stephen to check out the World Heritage Site there. Interesting stuff – click here for photos. Got to make my own paper at the washi factory (I love all the crafty stuff around here). Celebrated Tiffany’s 23rd birthday again with dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I had possibly THE BEST sweet and sour pork in the world!!! Tiffany had me in tears as usual. She said “food was the train to her heart and with that birthday dinner, I was on the Shinkansen.” LOL Very glad she and I ended up in the same Podunk backwater town!

So the best news this week is that Friday is a national holiday (Culture Day) so I have a three-day workweek. The bad news is – I have to work Saturday – culture day at Yatsuo. I am still trying to figure out what genius would ruin a perfectly good long weekend!! Oh well!!!

Advertisement: I’ve posted my BFITWWAS’s blog to my links. Jessica has joined the club and has some pretty funny posts!

Travel Advisory: Danielle is a cheap ass!

Who ever thought traveling in this country was going to be cheap (oh yeah! that was me) is on CRACK! In reality - Toyama is Michigan and Tokyo is Florida and it is the same price to travel between the two here as it would be at home! Cost me about 200 bucks round trip to get to Tokyo (and that's the overnight bus going and the fast train coming home). Where is Megabus when you need it? Since I am taking the overnight bus, I'll be getting into Tokyo at the butt crack of dawn with 7 hours to kill before Angela arrives at Narita. I maybe scoping out a nice bench to nap on at the airport. It's only slightly cheaper to get to Kyoto (about Y16, 000 RT). Seriously, folks, if you aren't related to me by blood and you want to see more of Japan then the backwoods of Toyama - you are going to have to do it solo (and a JR Rail Pass is a MUST). I will be happy to provide a nice pallet to sleep on, some Coco Krispies in the morning, and the best places to see in Kyoto and Tokyo (cause I have been there already - and they are pretty cool). But that is going to have to be it. Now if you are interested in visiting any of the following countries: Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Viet Nam, India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia, Bali, Singapore, Russia, South Korea, etc… You know were to find me!

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This probably says ALOT about my sense of humor - and I don't know if that is good or bad - but this commerical can make me laugh on the worst of days!!! I LOVE IT!

When your feeling low and the fish won't bite

You need a little David Hasselhoff to put things right!! This man has NO SHAME - and for that he is a god in my book!! For another exciting video check out this video

I love the smell of Bounce in the morning!

There is nothing better then opening up your mailbox and being greeted by the smell of sunshine and happiness!!! Thanks mom for the second batch of dryer sheets. On a whole, it’s been a good mail week – 6 letters/postcards in two days – WHOO HOO!
Someone anonymously posted that they want the haps in Japan (I know who it was - smiley dog lover), but I’ve avoided the blog arena for the last few days cause I’ve been in the mood to VENT about some of the kindergartners posted to Japan with me and I don’t think this is the forum to do that. However, I’ve had my therapy session and the moment has passed. So what have I been up to………

Well, last Friday I fell, or rather stepped, into a gaijin trap – and NO I was not drunk – I was completely sober – just not paying attention. I narrowly avoided injury, just a small scrape on my knee. Thankfully, it was dry – or I’d have had one very wet pant leg. I do feel I have been officially christened a member the the Foreigner community now though - and I can relate with my drunken sensei now - LOL!

Saturday I attended a Sumo wrestling match in Uozo. Interesting stuff! I couldn’t stop myself from taking picture after picture of the wrestlers and their butts!! It’s was too good to pass up. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed so I could get up close and personal with the sumo dudes. These guys are MASSIVE – one dude’s foot was the size of a small frozen chicken. This event will be extensively covered in the next newsletter.

Yesterday was my third Japanese lesson and I am pretty sure I am never going back. The reason is two-fold: I hate it and I received my Clair Japanese Language correspondent package at work today. So I think I am going to devote myself to the self-study and who cares if I can’t correctly pronounce the words??? At least my brain will still be a solid mass (Japanese class makes it melt into a mush of hurt).

I think I may have mastered my Hello Kitty keitai charm addition – but I spent A LOT of money to do it – LOL. I have all but like five prefectures (47 total). The Okinawa HK is a pineapple – I LOVE IT. Still, damn the convenience stores and their little toys!!!

YOU SUNK MY BATTLESHIP!

Had a REALLY great lesson with my ichi-nensei (7th graders) at Sugihara. We played Battleship with the grammar point of ‘Do……?” and “Does……..?” These are my wild and crazy kids and they were asking to play the game again!!! I was on such a high after that class – especially since it’s with one of my more difficult teachers (difficult meaning he doesn’t speak much English – makes teaching interesting). I feel that we will be playing a lot of Battleship in the future!

There's a Tear in My Meatloaf

I think I see a pattern forming here - really good or really bad school lunches = post to blog. Today was a GREAT lunch day - bread, piece of cheese, HOT soup (a rarity around here), salad, potatoes and what the Japanese classify as a hamburger patty. We'd call it MEATLOAF! Is it odd that food I wouldn't normally eat in America is cause for celebration here? It was oishii!!! And to top it off, someone went to Canada and we all got a maple leaf cookie as omiyage.
On a different note, today I experienced my first real bout of homesickness. I called home to wish Morgan “happy birthday”. She’s SEVEN – the age of reason - if you can believe that! If this were the Middle Ages, she’d probably be engaged to some old geezer by now. Anyhoo, the fact that I couldn’t be there for the Ceaserland party (and crazy bread) really bummed me out. I spent a few minutes hiding in the uber-toilet, drying my eyes. I’m over it now – but I think Christmas and my birthday are going to be a bitch. May need a carton of sake from the conbini– LOL.
Gotta jet (hehe – punny). ‘Lost’ marathon with Lani and James. God bless you Dad for keeping me up-to-date with my shows!! Rove you!

Let's Ditch This Place

I am officially an evil person!! As I was leaving school today, I heard a noise behind me in the parking lot. When I turned to see what is was, I saw two tennis shoes with legs attached sticking out of one of the 2 foot deep irrigation ditches next to the school building. My immediate thought was one of the crazy kids had fallen in while goofing off. I ran over to see if the person was okay. Imagine my surprise when it wasn't a kid, but one of my senseis!!!!! The sensei seemed embarrassed but okay. No visible injuries. The sensei scurried back into school. What makes me evil is that I have been laughing ever since about the fact that one of my senseis FELL into a ditch!!!! What makes it even more interesting is early today, I was pondering if this very sensei liked a little drink every now and then (faintly smelled of the sauce - could have been yesterday's natto). And then the sensei FELL into a ditch - and it's not like it would be that easy to fall into this ditch. Oh god, I am still laughing..... Now every time I see this person ......... Oh well, laughter is good for the soul :-).

Natto such a good idea!

Well, it’s been a few days since the last post and of course, it would be food that finally inspires me to write. Yesterday, I was privileged to try a Japanese staple, natto. What is natto you might ask? In my words – small pinto-looking beans, covered in tacky glue, which smells a bit like Bailey’s Irish Cream, and resembles snot when you try to eat them with your chopsticks. You eat this delicious food on top of your rice (which, in my opinion, is a great way to ruin good rice). In reality, natto is fermented soybeans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natto). You are supposed to mix it with soy sauce before dumping it on your rice, but that just increases the snot-like consistency and I couldn’t do it. Danielle eating her natto was the entertainment at Sugihara yesterday – they were much amused at the faces I made every time I picked up some natto with my chopsticks and snot tendrils followed – it was disgusting. I had natto strings hanging off of my nose!!! Still, better then the fish that came with it – LOL.

In other news, I attended my first yoga class at Windys last week. Sitting on a yoga mat, staring into wall to floor mirrors, surrounded by Japanese folks is quite an eye opener. I never realized just how big-boned I am – forget fat – I am just massive compared to these people. And about 1/10th as flexible. I felt a bit like Jabba the Hut surrounded by Ewoks and therefore had Star Wars in my mind the whole time. Picture Yoda, my yoga instructor saying, “Downward dog do you must!!!”, but in Japanese of course. It was hard as hell, but I’ll be going back, if for nothing else then to provide amusement to the other members of the class. And to get my 10 minute, 100 yen, chair massage.

Last weekend was another three day weekend – Sports and Health day national holiday. So I attempted to make the most of it.
Saturday: Discover Toyama Tour 2006 – hung out with some Japanese folk who want to speak Eigo with foreigners. Met a giggling 19yr old from Bangldesh (why did he keep laughing?) Went to a Buddhist temple for some Zen mediation. We meditated for 10 minutes – during which I was fully aware that a monk was walking around with a big stick and someone was going to get whacked with it. Luckily, it wasn’t me. Also visited the 500 buddha statues (very cool) which rumor has if you touch one of the heads and it warm, one of your ancestors resides there. I can report that none of my relatives’ spirits live in Toyama. Located the Toyama clay doll museum where I can get my craft on and paint some clay dolls and let my inner 5 yr old out.

Sunday: Up at the natal cleft of dawn for the Tonami Skyfest and the possibility of a ride in a hot air balloon. Unfortunetly, due to crappy weather (crazy rain from the distant typhoon) this was cancelled. So back home to take a nap! Dinner with R&T at an Italian restaurant that looked and felt A LOT like Denny’s and sells a 1500 ml bottle of wine.

Monday: 2-hour drive thru the Japanese Alps to Takayama for their Autumn festival. One of the three most famous festivals in Japan (check that off the list). More festival food – WHOO HOO! Very cool floats that are pulled around town by a team of men. Takayama is in the Gifu prefecture, so I’ve added 5 more Hello Kitty keitai charms to my collection. The drive home sucked as it’s a 2-lane highway all the way and there was construction and festival traffic and spooky plastic construction workers waving flags – I’ll try to get a picture next time.

Next weekend is booked too. The fun never stops in Toyama!!!

Sake to me!

Saturday night, I went to my first enkei (party) with some of the teachers from Yatsuo Jr High – WHOO HOO! When I first got to the restaurant I was like - Oh sh@t - this is a bad idea - having dinner with 8 people who don't speak English. So for about 15 minutes I was sitting there, laughing at myself (literally, I think the new math teacher may have thought I was a little odd). I also played Mystery Science Theater 3000 - making up conversations to the ones going on around me - LOL. Once everyone was there, they had me move seats and I ended up with the 2nd year Japanese teacher, 1st year fine arts teacher and 1st year earth sciences teacher - all men :-). Surprise, surprise - the Japanese teacher spoke the mother tongue (guess he’s been holding out on me) and the science teacher had a translator on his phone. The next three hours were actually quite entertaining. One of them asked me what Americans thought of George Bush's politics. I was like - are we really going to have this conversation with the equivalent of 250 words of English between the 3 of you and me with like 4 of Japanese - LOL. I was, of course, my diplomatic self. One tried to ask me about Hurricane Katrina, but I think they decided amongst themselves they couldn’t translate – so they had their own discussion – to which I added “That’s exactly right!” when they finished. They complimented me on my chopstick usage and taught me how to eat green soybeans out of the pod (I had one go rogue on me and land in the ketchup - thankfully only the art teacher saw it and he said it would be our secret - LOL). No one made me eat yucky food (shrimp with eyes) and I didn't have to drink beer - heehee. My watch died at 8:45 so I almost missed my 9:06 train – I had to make a mad dash for it.

OMG – people keep clipping their nails in the teachers room and it’s driving me CRAZY.

Sunday, I was invited to the “godfather” of Toyama, TT's, birthday party. At some point in the early days of our JET arrival, Lsan met this guy, whom she fondly calls her “Japanese grandfather”. Somehow, Lsan, Tsan, Msan and I were invited to his 72nd birthday party. So why do I call him the godfather? Well, Tsan coined him that last night as he continued to talk about his “contacts” all over the world. His cousin was the Japanese ambassador to China, he’s traveled to 58 countries (he worked for Holiday Inn), he speaks 6 languages and is the president of the Japanese/Russian society. So back to the party……. Unfortunately, for his guy, I have a very overactive imagination. And with his Russian connections, I was fairly convinced this party was a ruse to kidnap me and that someone was going to slip me a rufee and I’d wake up in some warehouse in Vladivostok. You laugh – but I have a pamphlet from the Toyama International Center that says in Japanese “I am a human trafficking victim, please call the Japanese police.” And if it’s come to the point that there is a flyer about it, I felt I should be concerned. I had this pamphlet with me and was prepared to stuff it in my underwear if I started to feel groggy. Alas, it was not necessary. The “party” turned out to be my three friends, TT, his wife and me. All four of us girls were like WTF have we gotten ourselves into. We sat around this guys dining room table while his wife fed us and he offered us numerous types of alcohol (from his travels). Msan and I samples the cognac from Armenia (NASTY stuff) and I finally settled on sake (as I hate beer and the other stuff was hard, hard liquor). We laughed a lot – at ourselves, the fact that a 72-year-old man was getting us drunk at 3 in the afternoon, all the food the wife kept feeding us, etc… Three hours and much food and sake later (it’s a Japanese tradition to always pore for other guests – therefore my little sake cup was ALWAYS full and usually to the brim) we made our escape. But not before we planned to hold my 30th birthday party there on December 15th – LOL. Trust me when I say – it’ll probably be a CRAZY time. In all seriousness, this guy is just a harmless, nice old man who’s benefited from nice people in foreign countries and likes to return the favor. Hell, he gave me one of his nesting dolls after I had mentioned my collection – so I love him – LOL. Nevertheless, I think I’ll keep the pamphlet with me just in case!