An Okinawan Friday night

On Friday night I went back to the Okinawan place that my former co-worker took me to. I had been meaning to go back but had been afraid to return by myself since my Japanese is so terrible. Most sensible people, therefore, would conclude that on the next trip I took someone else who could speak Japanese fluently, but in fact I took my new co-worker who knows NO Japanese besides konichiwa- hello, and kampai - cheers, two important words, but they can only get you so far. When we got there we barely made it through the door, because the tiny little restaurant was packed and there was nowhere to sit. As we stood in the doorway trying to decide what to do next, some people noticed us standing there and kindly moved down to make room for us to sit. As we walked in I literally heard the word "gaijin" float around the room, everyone seemed so surprised to see us.

As we went to sit down I wasn't sure if the people who had moved over were going to acknowledge or ignore us, but to our delight they initiated conversation. Of course, the first question every foreigner gets in Japan is always "Where are you from?" after establishing our respective nationalities we will usually explain that we're English teachers and it goes on from there. Our neighbors were so friendly and inviting, they shared their food with us and even bought us drinks at one point. They spoke very little English, so I had a great opportunity to practice my Japanese and I was actually able to understand some of the things they said to me if they spoke slowly enough. The woman sitting next to my co-worker told me in Japanese that her childhood friend had been from England and I actually acted as a translator to tell my co-worker what she said, that was pretty awesome. One guy, an incredibly drunk university student, came down to our end of the table just so he could talk to us. His English was no better than the others' but he and my co-worker seemed to hit it off and they chatted for a while about sports and music. The mama-san, owner of the place, also came over to say hello. She recognized me of course and gave us a sliced dragon fruit to share.

This Okinawan place has lots of regulars and you can tell who they are based on their bottles of alcohol. All along the wall of the restaurant are shelves with decorated bottles, the bottles have the names of the owners written on them in gold and silver and many are decorated with charms and little figurines like you'd see on a key chain. When people finish off the bottle they just refill it and put it back on the shelf when they leave. Several of the people we were sitting with had their own bottles with little cartoon characters dangling from them, leave it to the Japanese to make even drinking cute.

My co-worker and I stayed until about 1 in the morning, but since we had to get up for work the next day we eventually decided to call it quits. We told our new friends that we will return next Friday, so both of us are really looking forward to that. We are both thrilled to have somewhere fun to go on a Friday night that is only a five minute bike ride from our school. The Mama-san also charged us very little for the amount that we ate and drank, so saving money is always a plus too! I wish I had found out about this place sooner, but now I will definitely have to take advantage of it.

Jam (and jelly) packed week

I know it's been a little while, but these last couple of weeks have just been so jam packed that I have not had the energy to actually sit down and write about them. I woke up a little earlier than usual though, so I'll do my best to fit everything in before I have to go to work.

So last Saturday our new teacher arrived from England. He seems like a really nice guy and he appears to be very excited about working with us at Takashimadaira. He arrived at our school the same day that there was going to be a huge fireworks exhibition so I invited him and the sub-teacher helping him with the transition to come watch them with my students, Jenn, and me. None of my students actually showed up so it was just the four of us. We climbed to the roof of our school and had an AMAZING view. The fireworks did not start until about 7 pm, but there had been hundreds of people milling around the streets in Yukata (traditional Japanese robes, sort of like lighter, cheaper versions of kimono) since about 4 pm, so we knew that the riverside where they were actually being held would be packed. The fireworks were spectacular and there were ones I'd never seen before, including a few in the shape of Hello Kitty's head... the whole stereotype about the Japanese obsession with Hello Kitty is not too far from the truth. The show lasted for two hours, when it was over we tried to find an izakaya to get some drinks at but they were all packed and you couldn't get in anywhere without a reservation. It was so extremely strange having so many people in my neighborhood since usually it's so quiet and empty! We ended up getting some food and drinks at Sukiya, a chain beef bowl place down the street from where I live. Afterwards the guys took the train back home and Jenn stayed over at my apartment where we stayed up late and watched Terms of Endearment like the true girls that we are.

We slept in the next day and then got some sushi for lunch. I went to the welcome / farewell party for my co-workers after that and it was a lot of fun. A bunch of of students came to the party and some of us went out for karaoke afterwards. We had a choice of two karaoke places in the area and we ended up at the one that I hadn't been to before. Really though, most karaoke places look pretty much the same on the inside. We ended the night with my amazing choice... Living on a Prayer - Bon Jovi, best group karaoke song ever, it's true.

Not so much during the work week of course, but I did go out to my kaiten sushi (revolving sushi) place with all my co-workers for the first time! I was very excited to bring them there and they all seemed to enjoy it. It was the first time I ever sat in the booth section at the back of the restaurant since I'd never gone there with so many people.

On Saturday I went to what I thought was going to be a party with Jenn and some other people, but there were actually only 4 other people there, one of whom I really don't care for so much. I was exhausted because I'd gone out with a friend the night before and ended up missing my last train, so I'd gotten very little sleep as a result. I was very relieved, therefore, when we called it an early night and Jenn and I went back to her place to crash. We got up the next morning and went to Enoshima for my now ex-co-worker's Sayonara Beach Party! It was a little bit cloudy and not too hot, so in my opinion good beach weather, nevertheless I still got a bit sunburned even while wearing sun block. I also was stung by three jelly fish! I'd never been stung by a jelly fish before in my life, so I guess they wanted to get their revenge. They were impossible to see in the murky water and they hurt a lot! I had a huge red welt on my back and two smaller ones on my arm and leg, all of which are still visible on my body two days later! Despite the jellies, I still had a fun time and we went out for Italian food afterwards so it was a nice ending to the day.

Yesterday I went indoor rock climbing with my friend Eimilly and her friend. It was a lot of fun and I definitely want to go again at some point. Granted, my arms feel sort of like they're going to fall off today, but I've been stretching them and that's helped. Well, time for work now, hopefully it will be another fun week!

Dragons and dolphins and bugs, OH MY!

Oh my goodness, I can't believe that July is already over! Time could seriously not be going by any faster! Last week I handed in my official letter of resignation and I know that the next 4 months are going to whiz right by so I'm already starting to anticipate "the end" of this adventure. Speaking of which, my co-worker just finished his last day with our school yesterday! He's going back to university in England and we're getting another British guy to replace him this Saturday. I'm going to miss my old co-worker, as he's very cool and he helped me a lot over the last eight months. Last night after work he took me to this awesome Okinawan restaurant about a five minute bike ride from our school. We ate SOOO much food and we each had multiple drinks, but because the owner knows him she only charged us each 1500 yen (about $15)!!! It was great and I tried a few new foods. The first food was this really unpleasant and bitter vegetable called Goya mixed with eggs, tofu, and spam (the latter were nice, just not the Goya). The other new food was an awesome looking fruit called Dragon Fruit, the skin of "the dragon" is bright pink and scaley... the name is fitting, right? The inner flesh is what you eat, it's white with loads of little black seeds and it comes right off the peel. The dragon fruit was good, it had a rather subtle taste, but I was mainly just excited to be eating something that was A) Very exotic and B) Named after a mythical creature! I was particularly happy because my co-worker told me the owner said I was welcome to come back, she said this to him in Japanese, but she gave both of us gifts of some canned beverage as we were leaving and walked us out. I do plan to return, though I'm a little nervous since, unlike my co-worker, I can't speak Japanese, but now I have even more of a reason to practice and someone nearby to practice with at least a little bit.

My awesome dragon fruit!

On Monday I went to yet another fun and interesting place with Jenn, Tokyo Dome City! This is a large complex with a big dome where baseball games are played, restaurants, shopping, a spa, and an amusement park! Of course, Jenn and I came for the amusement park. We expected that we would have a good time, but the park totally exceeded our expectations. It had an absolutely amazing roller coaster. This coaster had huge drops, freakishly scary turns, and towered high above the buildings of Tokyo. What was the coaster named? The THUNDER DOLPHIN... because god knows nothing is scarier than a noisy porpoise. We rode the Dolphin three times and also went on a number of other rides multiple times because there were virtually no lines. The price was really good and the park is only 25 minutes from where I live so we are definitely going to return to TDC. I also would like to see a baseball game there, because while I'm not really a fan of baseball normally, I've heard that baseball games in Japan are really spectacular mainly due to the ecstatic fans.

Posing with some cartoons

Help?

The THUNDER DOLPHIN!!!

This Saturday there is going to be a really big fireworks display on the river near my school. Since I teach until 8 and the fireworks (hanabi - flower fire) start at 7, my students and I are going to go watch them from the roof of my school and then I'm going to walk over to the river once my students leave. I've invited Jenn to come watch them too since on Saturdays she teaches in Ikebukuro, which is not too far away from Takashimadaira. On Sunday we're having our farewell / welcome party for my old and new co-workers so it should be a somewhat busy and eventful weekend... just 2 days to go!

Sushi in Zushi and other marvolous things

Yesterday I went with Jenn and Ivan to watch a beach concert in Zushi, one stop away from Kamakura. One of my students is a FANTASTIC musician (T-cophony) and he was performing, so I wanted to see him play his guitar. Unfortunately, the map he sent me was kind of terrible and the beach was farther away than we'd anticipated so we got there late. My student was opening for the other bands so I was freaking out that we'd miss his performance, luckily we made it in time to see him do his last few songs so I was very relieved. The rest of the bands were really talented and all of us had a wonderful time. This was my first time going to a beach in Japan and the one in Zushi was lovely. It was lined with rolling green mountains and the water was absolutely perfect. None of us brought our bathing suits but we waded a bit and decided to come back on a Monday sometime in August. The beach was very crowded and while the majority of beach goers were Japanese there were also a lot of guys from the U.S. military soaking up the sun. I think that there's a military base not too far from that area so I wasn't too surprised to see them there. The beach is lined with little open air bars and restaurants and at one point when we stopped to look at a menu, a big military guy noticed us gawking at the words (we were trying to make out the katakana) and helped us out by calling the owner over and asking in Japanese what food was available. The military guy's Japanese was very good so we were pretty impressed, especially since members of the military have a somewhat negative reputation for not taking much interest in learning the language despite being stationed in Japan.

(this is Zushi Beach - I took the pic from someone else's blog)

On the subject of learning Japanese, I was somewhat unhappy to learn that last Friday was my last Japanese lesson since I only get six months worth. I will do my best to practice what I've already been taught and build up my vocabulary. I'm still pretty terrible about speaking and I get really nervous whenever I try to communicate in Japanese, but I have started being able to sometimes pick out bits and pieces of conversations that I hear, so that's kind of cool. When the military guy asked what there was to eat at the restaurant I realized that I actually understood what he asked, in fact, I probably could have asked it myself. The problem a lot of the time is that I forget the words when I actually need them and also understanding whatever the answer is, but I actually understood most of what the restaurant owner said on this particular occasion.

This week will mark 8 months that I've been living in Japan. I am required to send a letter by Thursday informing my company of whether I plan to renew or resign at the end of my contract in November. While I do plan on going home to America at the end of this year, it was a much more difficult decision than I had thought it would be. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me that I might actually make friends in Japan who would be difficult to leave at the end of the year, turns out, I have. The thing I keep reminding myself of is that there are plans I have for when I come home and while I am so extraordinarily glad to be here in Japan, I am not so passionate about teaching and I know that there are other jobs that I am better suited for. Still, as a guy I met recently phrased it "I've caught the travel bug" and knowing that I have to eventually come home and quit exploring new places is not an easy thing. I have hopes for more travel and eventually a job that incorporate traveling into my duties, however, so I should survive. For now, I still have 4 months left to see new things and visit new places. I want to go to Hiroshima to see the Peace Park and Miyojima to see the floating torii gate and all the little deer (shika). I also plan to visit Nikko and possibly Okinawa, and eventually, once my contract ends, THAILAND! I am very excited about Thailand, I am quite sure it will be amazing.

Disney Sea photos and stuff

Hey guys, thought you might like to see some of the photos Jenn and Keisuke took while we were at Disney Sea. I've posted a few of my favorites here on the blog, but you can see them all at this website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16084122@N00/sets/72157606099994702/

Jenn also sent me a couple of videos, so you might enjoy those as well:

Riding a Gondola:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2889484648842417268&hl=en

Japanese Tower of Terror:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6310399271619019398&hl=en


Jenn and I being "perky" before the Aladdin show:

Keisuke and Cruela, possibly one of the funniest pictures I've ever seen:

Jenn, Aki, and I heading home on the monorail:

Hey Mickey!

The last few days have been really good and I've been keeping quite busy. On Friday I went down to Shimbashi, where Jenn teaches, and went to an izakaya (Japanese style bar/restaurant) with her and some of her students. They were all really nice and one of them worked for Phillip Morris, so when we sat down he reached into his bag and pulled out at least ten packs of gum and a few packs of cigarettes. Jenn and I don't smoke but we took some gum, I still have two packs in my purse. After the izakaya Jenn and I headed to K's Cafe, a little "American" cafe not far from where Jenn lives. We met up with our friend Dan to have some drinks in celebration of the Fourth of July. I had work the next day, but I decided to stay over at Jenn's apartment and then just catch the train back in the morning since I didn't want to have to rush to catch the last train that night. We hung at K's for a while and talked to some Japanese girls who kept asking us WHY? Why did you come to Japan? Why do you like Japan? Why is New York so great? Why? Why? Why? It got annoying because they kept asking the same questions (mainly those three) over and over. When we got back to Jenn's apartment it was so incredibly hot, I am so relieved that I have an air conditioner that actually works!

On Saturday I worked and then that evening I went home and cleaned like crazy because James and his girlfriend were coming to visit and asked if they could crash at my place for the night/morning. Of course I said they could, but as usual my apartment was a complete wreck so I was scrambling to get things back to what normal people would consider a civilized standard of living. After I finished cleaning I got ready and just barely caught the last train to go and meet them in Shibuya for a night of clubbing. By the time they arrived at Hachiko (a dog statue that is the central meeting point of pretty much anyone who visits Shibuya) it was already 12:45 am and I was ready to go out, but they were hungry so I took them to the really good ramen shop down the street. Then we tried to find the club that James wanted to go to. It was called Nuts and though I'd heard of it, I had never been there and had no idea where it was. James had not written down the address and all he had was a picture of the map that he had taken with the camera on his cell phone. He refused to stop and ask for directions, we wandered around for over an hour, and we never found Nuts. At one point we passed a bowling alley and James half suggested that we go bowling instead. Needless to say, I was not fond of that idea. I had come out specifically to go clubbing and that is what I intended to do. Finally, I suggested that we head back toward the main part of Shibuya and just find a different club. This, however, was no better than being lost in the middle of nowhere because James and his girlfriend refused to pay a cover charge any higher than ¥1000. The standard cover for most clubs in Tokyo is at least ¥3000 and as usual, you get what you pay for. We ended up at a club with no cover called GasPanic. I hate GasPanic. I'd been there once before and I didn't like it then either. The guys there are really sketchy and I'm always being chased by either the one creepy guy that I really don't want to dance with or a Gaspanic employee trying to get me to buy another drink. I ended up just sitting down for the majority of the time because on this occasion the guy I'd been dancing with had started sticking his tongue out in such a provocative way that I'm sure had I opened my mouth to cough (or gag) he would have started making out with me within half a milisecond. Gross right? Finally we left, took the train back, and crashed at my place. The one plus of the night was I had barely drank any alcohol at all, I don't even think I made it through one can of beer, so getting up the next day was significantly more pleasant than my usual post clubbing wake up experiences.

That evening I went to my co-worker's little wedding party at a yakiniku place a couple of stations down. It was fun and while I was there I met a Filipino guy who's been living in Japan for the past 13 years. He invited me to a barbeque his friend was holding on Tuesday (yesterday) and also told me that his wife owns a summer home out in the country and invited me to come spend a weekend there sometime next month maybe. At the time I wasn't sure if he was saying that just to be friendly or if he really meant it, but on Monday evening I got a call from him asking if I still wanted to go to the barbeque. The time of the barbecue actually worked out perfectly with my schedule, so of course I said yes!

On Monday I went to Disney Sea with Jenn, James and his girlfriend, and two of Jenn's friends who are both Japanese managers for the company we work for. In Florida's Disney World there's the Magic Kingdom, MGM, Epcot, etc. In Japan there's Disneyland and Disney Sea. It is named Disney Sea because the park is literally built right along the coast and on one side of it there's actually a dam to keep the real sea from drifting into Disney Sea. The park is gorgeous and just like every other part of Japan, it's immaculately clean. We had a really fun time, there was just one little thing that caught me off guard. I experienced some pretty blatant racism... from Mickey Mouse! As we walked through the entrance gates we saw a bunch of the characters greeting people and I asked Jenn to take my picture with Mickey. I walked up to him and waited for him to finish having is picture taken with some Japanese women, but when my turn came he turned and had his picture taken with some other Japanese girls. At first I thought he just didn't see me, but after he did this several times I just gave up and walked away. Obviously, not having my picture taken with racist Mickey is not the end of the world, but it was a bit of a shock. I mentioned it to Jenn and she agreed with me, but we didn't bring it up anymore because we didn't want to offend the Japanese friends we were with. Overall it was a really fun time, and I am completely obsessed with the Tower of Terror, it's the best ride ever!!!!

Yesterday I went to the barbeque I mentioned before. The barbeque turned out to be on a lovely rooftop apartment right down the street from Tobu Nerima Station, the place I biked to last week. It was a really fun time and all the people I met seemed really friendly. The majority of guests were Japanese and we did our best to talk with each other, there were also a few English speakers there, but I was the only one who was not fluent in Japanese. I feel so embarrassed, or maybe even guilty, when I try to speak to Japanese people because while I AM studying Japanese, I know that I could be studying a lot more. What it basically comes down to is the fact that I'm lazy. Still, I am slowly making progress and chatting with people is very helpful because it helps me practice and remember vocabulary. In addition to meeting people, I also ate some really fantastic food. The woman hosting the party either owns or works at the yakiniku restuarant where I met my Filipino friend who invited me, so she is obviously a good cook!

Things have really been looking up lately, so I'm quite happy about that. I was thinking about the months I've spent here and I realized just how busy I've been! I love the fact that more often than not I'm out doing stuff with friends or going to interesting events or places. During the week I tend to stick around my neighborhood, but on the weekends I'm out and about and I love it. I hope that life continues at about the same pace for the remaining time I have left here, if it does everything should be just fine.

(Please note the Minnie Mouse ears I'm wearing. In America you can only wear mouse ears if you're under the age of 10, in Japan females of every age wear them, so Jenn and I joined in the fun!)

A better day

This last week I struggled a little bit, nothing really major happened, but various circumstances just put me in a slightly less cheerful mood than I'm used to. I'm feeling better now though. This weekend I went and saw a play written and directed by one of my cast mates from Ring Round the Moon, some other people from my show were there, so it was nice seeing them. Then last night I met up with Jenn in Ikebukuro and we went out for Thai food. Jenn also had a pretty tough week, a lot more difficult than mine actually, so we spent a lot of time talking. Before we came to Japan, our trainer in Canada told us that a lot of people struggle after they've been in Japan for about 4 months because it's not so new and interesting anymore, so the excitement starts wearing off and people feel depressed. Jenn and I both decided that this is what's happening for us, it just took a lot longer to hit us than it does for most people. I'm glad it worked out that way, because it's rather easy now to tell ourselves, ONLY 5 MONTHS LEFT! That's really no time at all considering we've been here 7 months already, 7 months that seem to have flown right by! It's July for goodness sake, how did that happen?? Actually, I think another reason I was a little down this week is because this is the first time in 10 years that I am not spending my summer at camp. Obviously I knew this time would eventually have to come, but 10 years is a long time, it's longer than some of the campers have been alive, so not even being able to visit is difficult. I sent a care package to some of my friends there with all sorts of crazy toys and candy inside, so I hope they enjoy it. I also hope that it actually gets to the camp... whenever I mail anything from here I worry that it will get lost somewhere along the way.

In order to keep myself in a better mood it's essential that I keep myself busy. Since I don't actually teach any lessons until 6 pm on Tuesdays, I've decided to try and use those days for exploring. Last week I went out to Harajuku and visited Meiji Shrine, since somehow I had not actually visited it yet. Today I decided to ride my bike out to a train station called Tobu-Nerima Station. I hadn't actually been to this station since my first week in Japan and I was curious to see how long it would take me to bike there from my neighborhood. For those of you who came in on this blog after I first arrived in Japan or if you just forgot, I stayed in an incredibly awful hotel, called Weekly Mansion, during my first week in Japan. While I was there I had to take a train from the station near my hotel to Tobu-nerima Station, where I then caught a bus that took me to my school. During my first week, when I was still extremely disoriented, confused, and jetlagged, I accidentally got on an express train that went by my stop and took my straight into Ikebukuro. My hope for today was that it wouldn't be too long of a bike ride because then whenever I wanted to go to Ikebukuro I wouldn't have to transfer trains and it would be a little bit cheaper. It ended up taking me maybe 15 to 20 minutes to bike to Tobu-nerima, however it was slightly uphill on the way there, so it took a bit less time to get home. It takes me about 2 to 3 minutes to ride over to my local station and then about 25 to 30 minutes by train to reach Ikebukuro, so unfortunately Tobu-nerima is not really so convenient. What IS convenient is SETY, a 5 floor shopping center right across from Tobu-nerima, which I had completely forgotten about. I had passed it every day during my first week, but I never actually went inside, so today I decided to. In Japanese department stores the bottom floor is always devoted to food (gormet food) and then as you go up each level you find clothes, appliances, etc. SETY was similar except that it had a food court, a Starbucks, and a movie theater on top! I was particularly excited about the movie theater and went up to check it out. I didn't have time to actually watch a movie and I have never in my life gone to the movies alone, but perhaps in the future I'll make an exception. I was quite disappointed to find that there was not a single poster up for the Sex and the City Movie. Instead, Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda seem to be taking the stage, although neither of them are actually out yet. I was also surprised to see that August Rush was playing in one of the theaters, because it came out ages ago and I'm pretty sure it's out on DVD already in the states.

I think that's about it. This weekend I'm going to a party for my co-worker because she's going up to Hokkaido (northern part of Japan) to celebrate her wedding ceremony. The actual reason I went to Ikebukuro today was to get her a present. It should be fun and I'm sure I'll post about it sometime next week. Until then, take care everyone!