1.28.2004 - Yeah, you found my site. What, you want a cookie or something?

Inspirational stuff. This was a birthday present from Dave and Clare a long long time ago, thanks guys!

Got my first international visitor recently! Whoo hoo! Uh, international visitor who isn't living in this country. Uh, international visitor who doesn't live in the United States either. Uh, or something.... Anyway, good to know that I'm getting the proper UK exposure that I deserve.

Speaking of proper international exposure, an incredible job was done by some of the JETs in our prefecture last Saturday, when we took the interprefectural soccer tournament by storm and became champions of Shikoku! Sweet ass job guys! Gotta love the sweet girl on girl action too. Yet another reason why our prefecture's so great. I like claiming credit for things that I didn't directly do, but reflect well on me. Go American economy, largest in the world! And since the building of this economy was dependent entirely on me, I can take great pride in this fact. Of course, this only applies to things that praise me. Go America, largest ecological footprint! All because of me! Oh, wait....

I finally went outside and took a picture of my apartment building, so now you can all have some vague idea what the joy of being me is like. I live on the third floor, on the far right apartment. The first and second floors are mostly taken up by the cram school, where I get to see my students toil away after the regular school day ends. My barber's also on the first floor. Ah, convenience. With any luck I'll actually remember to take photos of my place so I can give an incredibly cheesy tour of my apartment (I have no idea why, but people are requesting it). I continue to be amazed at how long it takes me to do any kind of mundane task around here. I've been cleaning my place since Sunday, mostly because I'm extremely lazy and find distractions to divert my attention for hours on end. In fact, updating this journal is also an excellent distraction (not that I'll be getting off my butt for anything productive today anyway). I'm also amazed at the amount of dust my apartment can produce in a few days, I probably swept and vacuumed about 3 pounds of dust off my floors today. I therefore expect it to remain dust free for another 12 hours or so. Soon I may not even be embarrassed to have people I know see the place. Or sit on the floor of my place.

And now, since I'm bored, time for a random quiz! First person to post the correct answers in the comments section wins an absolutely free "Country Maam Chocochip Cookie Caramel" from my cookie stash. They have to come pick it up though.

1. What Bar is this? a. Turf b. Cheers c. SY d. Sela Sol	2. What city is this temple located in? a. Boston b. Kyoto c. Osaka d. Sapporo
3. What was this guy eating before he passed out at 9 AM? No hints here, just a little too easy..	4. What Junior High does this cute dog live near? a. Seiseki b. Atago c. Hijikawa d. Niiya
5. This guy is: a. Will, and he's drunk. b. Will, and he's not drunk. c. not Will, and he's drunk. d. not Will, and he's not drunk.	6. These girls go to ___________. a. Ozu Higashi Junior High School b. St. Catherine's school for the overly happy c. Yashiro Junior High School d. Matsukaya Junior High School

Tom loves it when he gets (a)

1.23.2004 - Pimping ain't easy...

Today's Engrish brought to you by the Honai town Circle K:

Hmmmmm, homo sausage. I don't think I feel the need to ever try it. Not that there's anything *wrong* with it....

So, mid-year conference was today and yesterday up in Matsuyama. Despite me being sick, I still managed to have a good time. Not a good enough time that I'm still up in Matsuyama partying unfortunately, as I have completely lost all use of my voice. You'd think that would shut me up, but here I am typing away anyway. I woke up to get ready yesterday at about 6 AM only to find that it had snowed outside! Sweet! I go outside to take a picture and notice that it snowed all over the clothes that I had hung out to dry yesterday. Not so sweet. Still pretty funny though.

I finally got to meet a lot of the other ALTs in my prefecture, since I wasn't able to meet them at the prefectural and nationwide orientations that I never attended. As much as I like the people around me, it's nice to hear other Americans talking. Americans other than Will. Reassures me that my country still exists or something. And that there are other people out there who speak American English. As for the presentations, a few of them actually gave me a few new ideas, and revitalized interest in some of the things that I can do for my kids. For starters, I plan on trying to stay later at some of my farther schools just to increase my presence in front of the students, and get to know them better. It's easier to be interested in what's being taught if you think the teacher's cool. Plus the street cred can't hurt. Don't want to get killed in a bike-by while I'm walking around the wrong part of Ozu.

And of course, after spending the day learning how to better the youth of Japan through English education, Matsuyama was ripped up in typical ALT fashion, with some assistance by the JTEs cool enough to join in. American-Canadian internationalization in the form of wrestling matches in the middle of the shopping alley. And of course, drinking and dancing. Good times.

During my travels, I even managed to find a beer that's the perfect size to get Sam drunk:

Man, comments are sweet! It makes me feel like people actually read this thing!

And seeing as I got a plug from Brian from U of I, turnabout is only fair. You can see his live journal here. He's a first year JET from Hyogo-ken, and we both went to U of Illinois together. There's a fruity picture of him in an earlier update from this month.

Feel free to leave a

1.21.2004 - Getting sick sucks

Today, I write part of this missive to you from the train on my way home to Yawatahama. Today's school (Hijikawa) is the farthest that I have to go to, the return trip takes me about two hours. I didn't help that they kept the station doors open today, so it was about 4 degrees in the station. Plus they did some heavy construction about 10 feet from where I was sitting. Today is the last day I will go to this school this academic year (the school year ends in March), I'm going to miss the third year students. These are the kids who left me birthday greeting and presents on my first day! Hijikawa is the only school I have where I am the only ALT teaching them, so they especially seem like they're *my* students. Good luck guys!

Hey, leave me a note!

1.20.2003 - I love it when you call me Big Sensei

The picture is nowhere near doing justice to the beautiful scenery.

Now that I'm actually getting a fair amount of non-native English speakers reading this site, I should probably be a little more discreet in what I post here. Don't want to shock the kiddies. Or maybe I should just up the difficulty of the vocabulary I'm using, or switch to ebonics or jive when criticizing. Like today's coffee. Yo, that shiz was wack. Fosho, it be coo and all dat they gave me the hook up, but it gots to be having the flava, you know what I'm saying? If I ran this joint, it wouldn't be wit none of this instant crap. Uh.... fo shizzle, dizzle.

So I got the moves put on me by one of my first year students yesterday. She was making use of all of her first year English vocabulary, I was "super cute" and "very handsome" at the same time. I give her an "A" for effort. It's good to know that if I were twelve years younger I would be popular. Of course, then again, if I were twelve years younger I probably wouldn't appear to be nearly as godlike as I do now. Oh well, if only I could shift the compliments from women up the age scale about ten years, things would be a lot more ego-intensifying. While I'm on the subject of things that I won't be getting, I wouldn't mind having a nice BMW, a higher income, and an oven.

Mmmm... higher income. I've calculated it out, and figured that while my income is a little higher here than when I was working two jobs back in Champaign-Urbana, I'm putting away much less money. That's what I get for constantly making weekend trips out to places, and buying tons of things for my apartment. I don't seem to be alone in the broke department, however. With a couple of months ahead of me with no huge trips planned, maybe my income will actually exceed my expenses! Then I can make student loan payments and pay off credit cards (Thanks for last month's bill payments Mom!).

I saw a link off of Fark yesterday to a site for waiters in the food industry, which shows all of the incredible crap that they have to go through, and some of the interesting stories that they have. Check it out: The Stained Apron, if you've ever been a waiter before, there is so much stuff there to relate to. Though I can't condone the insertion of bodily fluids into anything being served to people, I can definitely empathize with the incredibly crappy sitations that servers are often put in.

To those of you who haven't been waiters, it's almost impossible to comprehend some of the shit that we have to take from people with a smile on our faces. Being a waiter is a great way to get in touch with every single level of society, and it amazed me when I first discovered how incredibly kind and how incredibly disrespectful some people can be. You get some incredible idiots out there who think that because they dine at a restaurant that they are invariably superior to the people who are taking the orders. Or that they are somehow more intelligent. Riiiiiight. I found it funny that many of the people that I worked with were a great deal more educated than the diners. Honestly, it's an experience everyone should have at least once in their life. Seeing things from different viewpoints helps give a greater understanding of things as a whole, and provides a good tempering of stereotypes and biases. I would have to say, above all else though, best part of the job would have to be the people you work with. Waiters are some of the most vibrant, outgoing people around. Mad ups to all of y'all in the C-U OG!

In commemoration of my nanpa sareta adventures at Matsukaya JHS yesterday, I leave you with some older Xmas pics I took there which have been dregged from the depths of my hard drive:

1.14.2003

Initial plans to go to onsen town Beppu were quickly changed when we got invited up to Hiroshima to do some sightseeing with friends. On Saturday we went up to Matsuyama to see the sights, and in the process saw a couple bars and a dance club. At least in Japan I know that I'm not the worst dancer on the floor. Refreshing.

Hiroshima consisted of a visit to the extremely depressing atomic bomb musuem, in addition to the surrounding nightlife. For me it was the third time, for everyone else the first. Nothing like the incredible suffering and waste of life caused by atomic weapons to cheer a guy up.

The nightlife side was interesting though. Things were fairly quiet throughout the evening until we finally decided to start heading home at around five in the morning. The elevator we took downstairs decided it wanted to stop about 8 inches above the ground floor, where it took 3 bystanders, 2 police officers, and about 8 firemen to get us out. First we pried the door open enough to call for help until the bystanders came by. Then they called the police, who called the fire department. And all in all, it only took one small key to open the outer door. Next time I'm taking the stairs.

1.10.2004

So here's a recap of my week for all the interested parties. I'll even try to include pictures, though I have been having some troubles with that so far (seems like images like to show up larger than actual size in my browser. Weird).

Ready, here we go. SUPER MASSIVE POST!

12.29.2003 - Day 1 - Matsuyama

I spent most of this day with neighbor Ms. Maki and her man Mr. Taka. Since they were heading back to their hometown of Matsuyama, they generously offered me a lift over there, and hung out with me the entire afternoon keeping me company! We went and saw Last Samurai, then went to dinner and visited an onsen. A great start to my vacation! Side note: The Last Samurai was much much better than I was expecting it to be. The addition of actual skilled Japanese actors, and what appears to be a more thorough researching of the cultural and historical background of the times led to an experience that was not as degrading as most Western depictions of Japan in film. Instead of the usual painful attempts at fluent pronunciation of Japanese (ala Kill Bill), Mr. Cruise's lines were kept intentionally simplistic, in a much more believable manner. All in all, a well recommended film by myself.

12.30.2003 - Day 2 - Kobe - Osaka

Day two was spent in lovely Kobe, where I started off in Chinatown while waiting for a fellow student from U of I (my only alma mater link in this country!), Brian, who's now a first year JET like myself in Hyogo-ken. My observations: American Chinatowns could pummel the crap out of Japan Chinatowns, at least the Kobe one. Of course, I like American Chinese food, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about. All I really know is that I want some sesame chicken and steamed bbq pork dumplings next time I'm back in the States.

So I met up with Brian after Chinatown, and we went up to a mountain park on the North end of Kobe that gave a great view of the city, and shared the pros and cons of our respective locations. Tough call on who wins. His easy access to all the major cities in Kansai is partially made up for by his non-flushing, Japanese (read: squatting over a hole) style toilet. And the large number of bars and friendly ALTs in my town is counterbalanced with there being no single women in my town under the age of 35, and the massive amount of money that I had to spend to make my place livable. And me being a jerk. Or something like that.

12.31.2003 - Day 3 - Osaka - Kyoto

So, I woke up around 7:45 and had a whole morning to kill, so I headed to the US Consulate to get my passport renewed. Then, off to the famous Osaka aquarium. One of their star attractions is a 5m long whale shark. Cute bugger that swims around with a bunch of other fish that follow it. It only eats kreel and the like, and so is not one of the sharks that I worry would worry about when stranded at sea. This one was is apparently either a baby or a shrimp, as my neighbor has seen one that is 6 times larger. Unfortunately, most of my pictures didn't come out due to the low light, and I'm not sure if I'll figure out how to post .avi files, so I don't have a picture of it. Still neat though.

After the aquarium, I caught a train to Kyoto, where I checked into my hotel and immediately went to sleep for 7 hours. I then went got up to late to eat at all of the restaurants in my area, so I caught a train out to the center part of town and got my first Wendy's in months. Mmmmmm... Unfortunately I mistimed my return home and ended up celebrating new year in a Kyoto subway, instead of at Toji temple like I planned. Oh well, it was still an entertaining evening.

1.1.2004 - Day 4 - Kyoto

I started off at the incredible "golden" Kinkakuji temple, famous for its gold plating, and for it being burned down by a slightly crazy monk in the 1950s. And it most probably was some incredibly important person's favorite place. Or something. I just remember it for the gold, and the Yukio Mishima novel about the crazed monk.

Then it was off to "silver" Ginkakuji temple, famous not for anything silver as the name implies, but rather for its aesthetic beauty. A very nice raked sand garden and hillside view of the temple made the trip worthwhile. Supposedly the two temples together make a nice combination.

Following Ginkakuji was Nanzenji, which held a large number of temples, and a massive gate. The pilgrim waterfall in the area that I had wanted to see was closed, so after wandering the grounds for a bit I took off.

Finishing up the day was the Heian-jingu shrine, an amazingly huge shrine that is actually only 2/3rds the size of the original Imperial palace of the Heian period that it's based on. After sliding my way through twice the amount of people that are in my town, I made off the entry boulevard into the actual shrine. I did the usual praying for good health for the family, peace on earth, and all that, and got a fortune for myself. Unfortunately, being highly illiterate I couldn't actually read the fortune, I took a picture of it for more qualified people to translate later. The results of which I have recently found were that I stick to traveling east. And if I travel I shouldn't go too far. Hawaii it is then. Ha, good thing I'm not in Illinois or I'd be screwed. Also, I may get light colds, but I won't get deathly ill. I shouldn't study too hard. And, most importantly, I shouldn't get pregnant. After taking the picture, I did what everyone else around me did, and tied it up my fortune to a tree. When in Rome...

1.2.2004 - Day 5 - Kyoto - Nara - Osaka

Started off the day continuing the mad temple run, I went to Kiyomizudera temple, easily one of the most beautiful temples in Kyoto. Part of the temple is supported by several stories of wooden pillars, and it made for several great photos.

After that I headed off to the old Imperial capital of Nara. Despite the somewhat grand sounding title, I was kind of surprised by how the city looked kind of ghetto. Like the run-down kind of ghetto, not the "I'm going to get stabbed by a crack fiend for the 3000 yen in my pocket" ghetto. Subtle differences.

The park in Nara was very impressive. One of the first things I saw was the Koufukuji pagoda, the second largest in Japan (shorter than the one in Kyoto by about 5 cm). Lots of tame deer run around here, eating lots of deer crackers while being the subjects of countless photos. The really impressive thing here was the Toudaiji temple, which is the largest wooden building in the world. Holy crap it's big. The picture doesn't do it justice. And just like Heian-jingu, it's still only 2/3rds the size of the original. It also fittingly houses one of the largest bronze statues of the Buddha in the world, something like 400 tons.

After visiting Toudaiji I rushed back to Osaka to meet my friends from Ehime prefecture who were coming home from their vacations. We met some cool people, went to a club on the north side, and I crashed at Karine and Fred's hotel room. Good times were had by all.

1.3.2004 - Osaka - Kyoto

So after doing my best homeless impression in Kyoto, I proceeded to sit in my lovely homeward bound train for another 10 hours. Finally, home sweet home.

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