chronicling my adventures in the inaka!

I wanna hear every beat of your heart

2011-05-18T21:56:00.004+09:00

Word on the street is that Delta Airlines is selling ridiculously priced tickets from the U.S. to Japan for $600, round-trip and non-stop on their website. I thought people would get whammied in hidden costs and taxes/fees, but many people have checked it out. It's legit, folks. Honestly, that is a deal if I've ever heard one. I spend two or three times (if not more) as much to go home each year. I realize that the rationale behind this is to help stimulate the economy because most of the traffic is leaving Japan, but if you're not afraid of a little radiation (I'm totally kidding, I'm perfectly safe over here) come visit! I'll be in Japan this summer and have some vacation time, so this would be the perfect opportunity.

Happy to report that I am still running. Collarbones aplenty! It's the perfect running weather right now, at least when it's not raining. There are days when I'm running and I don't know how I will ever be able to leave Japan.

I cleaned out nearly a thousand emails from my inbox today, clearing 400MB of space. It's strange seeing years of your life in that neat little inbox in Gmail. There are many messages I don't think I will ever erase, but never read again. Some that I will read over and over, even if they make me cry. I don't follow the "don't ever look back" philosophy. I need to know where I've come from in order to see where I want to go. I've come a long way in these past few years. The only way to know that I have is to look back at where I used to be.

My good friend and fellow SKJ buddy is doing a talk at TEDxTokyo this weekend. This is big news, not only because I'm a bit of a TED nerd. Out of all the "media coverage" we've gotten, this might be my favorite. Squee!

GlobalGiving

2011-04-19T20:10:00.003+09:00

If anyone out there is actually reading this and would like to cross off a good deed for the day, please donate to the Tohoku Kids' Project.

Today is bonus day, which means donations will be matched. Your $5 or $10 turns into $10 or $20 for us to use in helping kids rebuild their lives. Good things!

Visit our GlobalGiving page here. Thank you times a million bajillion trillion... do you get the gist of what I'm sayin'? :]

Follow the sound that's shootin' outta your crown

2011-04-18T21:22:00.002+09:00

Today, one of my students asked if he could write his show and tell speech about his penis.

...Does this reflect poorly upon me as a teacher? He also spent most of the class asking, "Do you know penis?" I try not to indulge them (for example, let out an exasperated gasp whenever I hear the f-bomb dropped) because I don't want to encourage or reinforce the behavior. I said I didn't know, smiled and went on my merry way, and I heard the little guy commenting on my watermelons. A day in the life of a teacher, hey? As long as you observe from afar, buddy.

It's probably something very obvious to other people, but it took me almost three years to finally realize. When I first came to Japan, I thought it was ridiculous that the school year ended in March and started again a week or two later in April. Where were the three months of vegging, putting off reading assignments for the fall and epic vacations? That last part is a bit of a moot point because I am still talking about Japanese people, who work such incredibly long hours, it's a bit scary.

It's all about beginnings. As I was riding around these past few weeks, with the sun shining and flora in full bloom, it dawned on me - April is the beginning. Spring. Life. New. It was as if all of these words popped into my head in those comic book speech bubble things. KAPOW! It's spring, you biotch! With all that has been going on, the change of scenery was very much appreciated. New little babies are at my school now. While innocent and cute now, I'm sure they'll be talking about my melons soon enough. I'll enjoy the respite while I have it.

I finally went on a little bike excursion this weekend after my run in an attempt to photograph what was left of the sakura. I would say half of it is gone and the half that's left isn't anything to write home about. There was a barbecue along the river for someone's birthday when most of it was pretty, but I still was figuring out how to use my camera then. By that, I mean learning how to take pictures at night that actually show things! I also really need a stinkin' tripod in order to take decent night shots. Damn, my nervous hand!

I'm going to Tokyo this weekend for a meeting with our sister NPO on the project. It's ridiculous that I get to work with people like this. Check out their TED talk. There are other exciting things that I am not at liberty to share just yet, but there will be good things to report from the ground soon enough. Cliffhanger!

Also, I really like the new TV on the Radio album. Listen to it.

This time, baby, I'll be bulletproof.

2011-04-11T20:50:00.004+09:00

I almost hesitate to say this because I fear it might blow up in my face, but I may have become addicted to running. I suppose it's a culmination of many things - earthquake/tsunami, volunteer efforts that invariably led to the 5toSurvive 5K run, and wanting to better/find myself again after the breakup - that have brought me here.

All I have to say is that I can see more of my collarbones and I have never been as thrilled!

I'm trying to pace myself so I don't get injured or burned out. It's so difficult because all I want to do is capitalize on this motivation. I know it won't last long. Even when I ran cross-country in high school, I wasn't this enthusiastic about running. I ran a total of 13km (about eight miles) this weekend, so I'm not even going to the gym today. For the sake of my ankles and knees, I've got to be smart about this. It doesn't seem like much for extremely fit people, but it's a big step for me.

We went down south for the charity 5K run yesterday. A good fifteen or sixteen of us participated in the actual run and a few came out in support. It was an overall good day. The weather was phenomenal, the company was good and we were all out there for a great cause. It's sakura viewing time in Japan, so parks and open spaces are mostly occupied by families now. In a society that has people working until eight or nine in the evening, it's nice to be reminded of the human element. And that deep down, we all love fried food.

We had a moment of silence for all those people who had lost their lives or were still suffering in the northeast. After a nice huddle and "GANBARE NIPPON!" (good luck/keep on fighting, Japan!) we lined up. Around 3:30, we were off on the run. There are some pictures on Facebook. My friend Brett made a playlist for me. Of course greats like "Danger Zone" made the cut. (It's even more funny if you know him, because Brett did this amazing yo-yo routine to that song during the talent show last year.) There was a steep bridge that we had to go up and down twice because we were basically doing 2.5km one way and just coming back. That crap must have been at a 50 degree angle or something, I swear. "The Final Countdown" came on as I was approaching the bridge for the last ascent and I just thought, "Oh hell no. I can't beast it up this thing right now." It was much more funny to me at the time, possibly due to delirium. I told Pete I wanted to sprint the last 100m while listening to that song, pretending that doves and crap were coming out of my sleeves, a la Gob from Arrested Development. I also contemplated bringing a yo-yo to honor Brett. Thanks, homie.

I am also a bit ashamed to admit that one of my "power songs" is "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry. Don't ask because I have no idea. During a 7K run, I was completely knackered around 5K, but that song came on and I didn't want to keel over after all. Actually, I kept going for another 2K. It was really strange. One that I am less ashamed about is "Do the Astral Plane" by Flying Lotus. Can we really choose what inspires us to run like hell?

I didn't leave work until later than usual tonight. It rained for most of the day, and I was seriously afraid that would kill all of the sakura that had only appeared a few days before. I don't need to go down this road, but today, I drove on Sakuradori (Sakura Street) to make sure. Phew! They're still there. Still waiting to be photographed. I hope they'll hold out until the weekend. I've gotta put the new camera to use and there are many kilometers to be run.

Yes, it is weird to be using kilometers instead of miles, but this is one bandwagon that the rest of the world is on, y'all.

Yesterday, life (by that I mean a bird with mega intestinal problems - poor little guy!) took a giant crap on my car. Today, it rained and everything has been washed clean. There's a metaphor for something in that, right?

I have to bring something for a show and tell demonstration for class tomorrow. I think I will bring Sprocket!

But my mind is made up and I'll never let you in again.

2011-04-06T23:55:00.000+09:00

I don't even know where to begin, aside from the fact that it has been almost two years since I've updated this thing. A lot has happened, but in light of recent events, that's kind of an understatement.

A few months ago, I went through a terrible breakup and was pretty wrecked because of it. It's really funny because the last post was just the beginning of the damn thing. Honeymooning and all of that, I suppose, which is the best because it's the most delusional part. I even started another blog to pour out my miserable heart to, because I was so ashamed of what I had become. I didn't even feel like I was myself anymore, otherwise I would have just terrorized you all with loads of emo bullshit here. One post in and I was already tired of listening to myself. I hate to think of what my poor friends endured for months.

I'd like to say that I learned loads of life lessons and discovered so many things about myself, but I still feel it is too soon after to actually know. I have made changes (eating better, getting more exercise, surrounding myself with good friends instead of hermiting) so my outlook continues to improve. I'm not completely jaded, but I am not so naive now as to think that love will trump all. My apologies Paul, John, Ringo and George, but you need a lot more than love to make a relationship work.

It hurt like hell, but I'm glad it did. That means I really invested myself and I don't ever want to half-ass a relationship. I will never let giving myself wholly to someone (who I think is worth it at the time) become a negative thing, even if that person isn't. You get all of me or you don't get anything. Famous last words of a girl who loved "too hard," as my students would say.

Maybe I have learned a few things?

Earthquake and tsunami. They sure happened and although I am unharmed, it is not fair to say that I am unaffected. I have devoted myself to volunteering and helping with relief efforts since March 11th. Some say that it has gone to the point of bordering martyrdom, and I have not taken to that very kindly. I'm going to do what I can to help and involve others who want to help because that's how I deal with situations like this. I honestly feel like it is not the time to sit and be scared of what may or may not come: it's time to mobilize and do something good.

At one point, I actually wondered if I was missing a secret memo that others were getting. It was the only explanation because I was too calm about the whole situation. If anything, my family being crazy stressed me out more than anything that was being reported on the news.

I still get daily phone calls from my mother telling me to make sure I wear a face mask when I step outside or burn my clothes basically because of the radiation, but I'm still trucking along. Luckily, she's been able to channel that crazy into something productive lately. Without her, I wouldn't have raised nearly as much money for the charity 5K I am running on Sunday. This is one thing I'm proud to say I got from my mama: the ability to care so deeply for others. And for that, I will never be sorry.

And so it goes.

I'm not unfaithful, but I'll stray.

2009-10-26T22:43:00.002+09:00

August
I've always known that I had certain weaknesses, but, OMG, this boy I met in Tokyo had the most beautiful round eyes I have ever seen! Also, he is so pale and skinny he's like a walking advertisement for a yet-to-be-made Vanilla Pocky. To top it off, his analysis of the potential benefits of the use of Socratic questioning in pre-school pedagogies as a means of engendering positive growth throughout the Piagetian stages of cognitive development was spot on! Also, dare I lick the icing from the cake before sharing, he spoke a little German to me!

Ich bin schmitten!

September
I had to go to work on a Sunday because of my sports festival, and Round Eyes offered to make me breakfast. I threatened to cut him, and he backed down. Don't mess with a Cali girl! Wait, maybe he was trying to be nice.... meh.

My birthday was this month too. Zachary got a bunch of people together at Starbucks without warning me. I think I may have to cut him.

October
ZOMG! I saw a baby today!
Actually, I saw lots of babies. Elementary visit! Weeee!
One of the little boys asked me if I'd marry him.
It was so adorable.
I threatened to cut him.

---

That's my life for the past two or so months through the eyes of my silly friend, Zachary. If any of you tells me he did a good impersonation of me, I will most definitely cut you. :]

I suppose some of y'all have duly noted my silence. Thanks for not being fair-weather followers! I appreciate the prods and (ahem) stern reminders to scribble something here. It's not that I've been lacking content; I've been lacking the motivation to sort out my thoughts and compartmentalize everything into neat little paragraphs using what people call words. What they say about sadness being a better muse is completely true - I am infinitely less interesting when I am happy. Leave it to me to turn being happy into a bad thing, right?

So where were we?

My second year has started off swimmingly. There are still many babies to play with and potentially steal. There are still grannies who ask me waaaaaay awkward questions about things that grannies should not be concerning themselves with. There are still good days when I never ever want to leave Japan, much to the dismay of my mother. There are still bad days when I want to just pack up and go home after this contract year, if not sooner. Basically, life is still the same. The only thing that has changed is that I can no longer blame bad decisions on not knowing better. I do know better and it sucks. :] Oh, the first year privilege...

I turned 23 in Japan. That was kind of exciting. I asked for nothing special to be done, but Zach managed to gather some people to Starbucks and ambush me. Nice to know that a girl's got some super friends, though. I am now the proud owner of a lot more Rilakkuma paraphernalia. Lawsons be damned, THAT RILAKKUMA CUP WILL BE MINE! I am seven points away. I have never eaten so many cream puffs in my life. I fear that I will turn into one soon.

The typhoon that blew through a couple of weeks ago was nothing more than a glorified rainstorm. There was a bit of wind, but not enough to warrant closing down the schools. By closing down the schools, I mean the students were allowed to stay home, but the teachers still had to come in. Apparently we are expendable. Oh, and some teachers also had to drive around town to make sure the kids weren't cavorting outside on their day off. I wouldn't have been so worried if everyone hadn't been making such a big ruckus about it. I actually had sort of a typhoon emergency kit ready and all. If you think about it, that is totally stupid because if a bad enough typhoon did hit (I live on the sixth floor, what up!) the last thing I would need is bottled water and some crackers because I'd be... you know, drowning and dead. Well, I take that back. Maybe if there was a life boat prize inside the box of crackers. I wouldn't put it past Japan, y'all.

There was news about President Obama coming to Japan, but being too busy to come visit Obama City in my dear prefecture. I ate all those cookies with his face on them using chopsticks that had his face on them while drinking sake with his face on the bottle in vain? Sigh.

I'm currently waiting on my 1/4 Japanese, 1/4 Mexican, 1/2 French godbebe to come out and say hello. With all those fun things mixed up, she's sure to be quite the looker, hey? Because she is Mia's child, though, she is taking her sweet time with beauty sleep. That bun needs to come out of the oven already.

What Zachary is referring to in his faux-post about Vanilla Pocky/Round Eyes is that I met a boy. Or that a boy met me? Whatever. We met each other. I'm not going to get into it because I'm pretty sure he reads this, so it would be a tad bit embarrassing? Wait, maybe I should put this thing on lockdown so I can really give y'all a piece of my mind about him. We'll save that for another day. Maybe I will be awkward and dedicate an entire post to talking about my boyfriend. Ooh... yes, giiiiirl. I said boyfriend! I like cliffhanger endings, anyhow.

No, my mother doesn't know yet. Goddess help me when I do tell her, though. It was nice knowing you?

Hello, I love you, won't you tell me your name?

2009-08-02T23:08:00.002+09:00

Tokyo. Yokohama. Orientation. Yokohama. Tokyo. Orientation. In that order. I've been busy!

Tokyo was a blast. It surprises me how "small-town girl" I've become. I guess living in the boonies and being surrounded by rice fields will do that to you. Being crammed into a train or bumping elbows with people while walking down the street is definitely not something I'm used to anymore. As they say, though: once a city girl, always a city girl. I loved being able to hop on a train and just let it do the navigating. Not having to drive was rather liberating. I almost forgot what it was like to be surrounded by tall buildings.

I spent most of my time in Tokyo in Shinjuku and Shibuya, but I stopped by Harajuku for a bit on a Saturday. Big. Mistake. To stop there on a weekend, at least. For one, it was so crowded that I wasn't able to see any of the nutty fashion that Harajuku is known for. Secondly, it was so crowded that police officers were outside of stores, holding people and letting them in the stores in droves after some trickled out because there were just too many people. That turned me off from doing a lot of shopping. I just didn't want to deal with it. I did a lot of walking that day and got pretty painful blisters on my feet, which changed my sightseeing plans a bit. My fault for only having my Rainbows with me, I suppose. I know you're super jazzed to hear about my gnarly blisters, hey?

My roommate from second year, Kathy, graciously let me crash at her place in Yokohama. I would commute from Tokyo to Yokohama, which was about a 35-40 minute ride on the train. It was good to see her again (in Japan of all places!) and explore the area at the same time. We went to Chinatown and had super delicious food. ...Actually, most of this trip involved eating and spending money, hahaha. Oh well, I suppose that's what vacations are for. She has made me a fan of frozen yogurt (literally, putting cups of yogurt in the freezer) so I've been eating a lot of that lately. Yum.

I also saw the 30 meter tall Gundam statue thing in Odaiba. That was rather neat. I used to help (and by this I mean hand him the tiny ass pieces to put together) my cousin assemble Gundam models, so I mainly went for him.

My whole purpose for going to Tokyo was to promote Smile Kids at orientation. It turned out to be pretty successful. People were jet-lagged and not all that interested at first because they probably thought we were gonna solicit money/try to sell them things. As soon as most heard "orphanage visits" though, they were immediately engaged and were completely stoked. It was really encouraging. I think we reached out to a lot of folks who are going to (hopefully) start up visits in their own prefectures, so I am excited to see what happens in the coming days.

Then, I met up with the new people in the first group who are coming to Fukui. It was exciting to meet the fresh faces and get to know them a bit before everyone else does. We went to a Christian-themed (read: it was dark, had statues of Jesus and crosses everywhere) and sang karaoke. Weeee!

After Tokyo, we came back to Fukui and there was Fukui-specific orientation for the new people to attend. I helped out with some gender talks (although I didn't really have much to contribute, besides being the token Asian foreigner, wooo!) and block stuff. Blah blah blah.

It's hard to believe that exactly a year ago, I was in their position. Even the bus ride back with them was a bit bizarre. Showing people around and answering questions has made me realize how far I've come and how much I do actually know. Whether or not I stay another year (after this one) is anyone's guess. I know that I'm not going to be able to do everything I want to, even if I do stay ten more years. I'm okay with that. All I know is that I've just started to settle in and get the hang of things, so I'm very happy in my decision to stay. :] I can only hope that the new kids will have as much of a wonderful time as I did, and will continue to. Year two... ready, set, go!

What up, number thirty?

2009-07-21T12:12:00.003+09:00

Top 100 universities in the world.

Some graduate schools I'm looking into for a masters are on that list...

Guess I better look to apply to other schools. D'oh. :D

Have love will travel

2009-07-12T00:19:00.000+09:00

Third grade student (equivalent to the ninth grade in the states): "Would you like to sleep with me?" AWKWARD. Yay for practicing those target phrases though, kid.

I really appreciate weekends. It's the only time during the week that I can wake up at my leisure and enjoy breakfast (that isn't of breakfast on-the-go caliber) while reading CNN.com. And riding my bike around, but not worrying about being presentable for work is nice, too. Rainy season is upon us, but I try to take advantage of the clear days to ride around. Since it is so damn humid, girlfriend gets sweaty. It is not attractive in the least.

I played with the kiddies at the orphanage today! I got owned not only in drawing, but in origami as well. I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure being good at origami is encoded in Japanese DNA. Those directions are complicated and not very clear, okay? My brain doesn't function that way.

I've felt a little disconnected. That's what happens when you're over 5,000 miles away from people. It's been a struggle for me this entire time to not let it affect me too much. And it truly is something I struggle with every day. What, I can't attend that event that I was invited to via Facebook? Oh man, those pictures of your graduation look awesome! Such a shame that I couldn't be there. Wait - free concert?! Getting to see Brandon Boyd up close and personal? Sorry, I know you're going through a rough patch, but schedule a time with me so we can talk about it, despite the sixteen hour time difference... It comes with the territory (quite literally) that I can't be there for everyone at anytime, but knowing that still doesn't make me wish I could any less.

I'm going to Tokyo in two weeks to help promote an organization that I am involved with called Smile Kids Japan. It was started by a fellow JET and I was fortunate enough to be involved. It's about helping people set up orphanage visits in Japan, like we do in our prefecture, to spread the smiles. Volunteering at the orphanages as been the single most rewarding thing I've done thus far in Japan, so if I can do anything to help others experience the same, I'm all for it. Which includes getting Winnie to send me 600 Dum Dums to bribe people into coming to talk to us at orientation. (Thanks, Winnie!)

Did you get your free Slurpee today? I'm sorry, but I can't help associate your glorious birthday with a convenience store.

I still remember the first time I met you, which isn't very common for me. I always forget how and when I met people. You picked me up to go to a Mars Volta concert and for all I knew, you could've been some crazy axe murderer. I wasn't too far off. ;] I also remember how you told me you hated hanging out with most girls, which made for a fun car ride! Somehow, I weaseled my way into your life and we became fast friends. I spent senior prom hanging out with you and Mike because my mom wouldn't let me go. Then I went off to college, and you threatened to tell my mom if I ever did anything bad. I guess in retrospect, that made you a good friend. At the time, that just made you a total narc. You're like my big sister, which was really important for me to have during those last uncertain teenage years. You never treated me like a kid and always made sure I knew what I had to say was worth listening to. And that I should believe in myself. That means a lot. I still don't appreciate you making fun of how I say certain words, though.

Happy birthday, Mia. I'm so excited to meet my Japanese-Mexican-French goddaughter when I come home! Shit, she is gonna be one diverse baby. (Your child will probably be better than me at origami. Sigh.) And as you have done with me, I will spoil her silly and love her to pieces. Here's to many more birthdays together, no matter where we end up in the world. :]

We were young and innocent then

2009-07-07T22:39:00.005+09:00

Guess who got their Japanese drivers license last week? Hint: it wasn't Sprocket. :]

I was so excited that I called my mama and woke her up at like midnight California time just to tell her. She wasn't as thrilled as I was, obviously, and she thought I had been driving illegally this entire time. Good work, Ma.

I won't go into too much detail, but as with most things that involve dealing with bureaucracy, it was a pain in the butt to get my license. I realized that the suckitude of DMVs transcend geographical borders. Really, they suck anywhere you go in the world. I had to go there three times - once to just turn in paperwork, once to take the written test and fail my driving test, and again to take the driving test and finally get my license. And that's less than some people, so I guess I should be grateful for the nightmare being over.

My friend's dad went with me when I had to turn in paperwork. They specifically told me to bring a person who could speak Japanese. Unfortunately, this meant that I could not play the dumb foreigner card and just kind of shrug my way through stuff. They asked me a bunch of random questions, which frustrated my friend's dad a bit. At one point, he asked them why they were asking me such retarded questions, despite the fact that I am a legitimate teacher with the Board of Education. It was kind of hilarious, but I was mostly hoping that he didn't piss them off enough for them to not give me a license. Anyway, my favorite question was: when you took your written test, were the tables arranged in a circle or square, and how many people were around you when you took the test? How is that relevant at all to me being a good driver now in Japan? Lovely.

Right now, I'm all about spending time with people near and dear to me before they leave Japan for new life adventures. I'll get emo and post about that later, though.

I've been trying my hand at this reading thing. You know, words on pages in something called a book? Maybe. I'm trying to read before bedtime, so if nothing else, it'll help me fall asleep faster. Yay, literacy!

Sunday funday, meaning I was at home and ate ice cream. Weeee!

2009-06-21T20:55:00.006+09:00

It's 29ºC with 76% humidity and it will only get worse. Please hurt me now. I want it to be winter already, when I can put on layers as opposed to sweat off my skin. I don't even want to ride my bike around because it's so hot, and I love zipping around on that thing. That says a lot, my friends. I miss dry heat. :[

I put in my vacation request for December and it was approved! I have yet to buy my tickets, but it will cost half as much as it did last year. Hey, more money to spend on food, I say. And I will definitely be eating my face off. ...Wow, there is a lot of shedding of body parts in this post. Sorry?

I went down to Obama yesterday for a first-year barbecue and beach bash. Except there was less beach bashing and more barbecuing. Mmmmm, barbecued chicken. My mama would be proud of all the cooking I did! It's really beautiful down south, and I'm a bit sad I don't travel down there more often. There are so many gorgeous beaches down there. Summer is the time to take advantage of them, even if I will want to fling myself into the ocean and never come out.

I went to the store today and saw two mangoes for almost ¥3000. Seriously? I don't think I will have any desperate moments like I did last year with the ¥250 peaches. (And that was only because I thought I might fall off Mt. Fuji and couldn't die without having some delicious peaches in Japan!) I just can't bring myself to spend $15 on a mango.

The banana did not fall far from the tree.

2009-06-14T01:00:00.002+09:00

I've had to call my mom at least once every two days to check in, just so she knows I haven't fallen in a ditch somewhere. While I was in the hospital, I had to call her every day, even though I told her the same exact thing each day.

That woman cracks me up. Sometimes, I realize why I am so ridiculous. I got that shit from her.

I've probably mentioned it before, but it's not like I read my own blog, so hell if I remember. When I first got to Japan, my family always checked my Flickr account and commented on how I was never in any of the pictures. (...Really? You've seen me for twenty-some odd years, so you know how I look. However, you don't know what Japan looks like. Get over it.) It was like they thought I didn't exist. I would call them every once in a while, but it was like I was held captive somewhere, so they could still hear my voice, but they never saw me. And some other person was uploading pictures and sending emails on my behalf. So today when my mama called me, she kept asking why I hadn't sent her any pictures.

And she told me that my aunt told her to tell me that she was going to Vietnam at the end of July. And that I should come over. And that my aunt would probably pay for a lot of my shit. But my mama only told me this a few weeks before because she forgot. If I would've known sooner, I would've budgeted for that trip. Thanks, Ma.

When I called her yesterday, I told her I was going to Hong Kong for my birthday. Plans changed.

Mama: Don't go to Hong Kong. Or anywhere, for that matter. You might get hamthrax. They are at level six! You should just stay in Japan.
Anna: Good, I'm not. I'm going to South Korea instead where I could potentially be bombed.
Mama: Okay, as long as you don't get hamthrax.

Basically, I love her a lot.

I will start doing this more often, I promise. I am terrible with birthdays.

2009-06-09T21:47:00.009+09:00

Yay. I finally have time to sit down and breathe today, so time to tell y'all a story.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Anna.

...Of course this story is going to be about me. Are you daft?

Anyway, Anna was hired to become an RA in this crazy building called Dykstra. She met lots of weird people. They were overly excited and talked about this silly thing called "D-Luv" and pretty much shit sunshine and rainbows. Needless to say, it was not her crowd. One of those people tried to add her on Facebook, but she had set her profile to private so no creepers could have access. This was almost a friendship deal-breaker. Then, Anna found out that the creepy stalker girl was also going to be on Orientation staff with her. And then Dance Marathon. And then her margarita pong team. Various trips to Vegas, late-night adventures to Westwood, excursions on a roof that shall not be named, and many random chats and D-Luv notes later, that girl turned out to be one of her most wonderful friends from college. And now she's in Africa, making her own tortillas and spending $35 on Jose Cuervo. The light at the end of the tunnel is that they will be reunited in December and live happily ever after (or however long their shenanigans/adventure will last). Oh, and in that happily ever after, lots of Mexican food will be involved. The best part is that this story is far from over.

Okay, I think I missed a few details here and there, but I am a bit delirious right now.

Happy birthday, Courtney! You are truly an inspiration. :] We're both a bit far from home now, but I wanted you to know that I think of you. I don't pray, but I always hope that you will safely return to us soon. It would be totally okay if you took a detour to Japan, too. I'm just sayin'.

I can do the frug.

2009-06-08T23:05:00.005+09:00

It's funny to me that the end of the year is in December, but it always feels like things are over in June/July. Why is this so? I'm sure there's some answer that dates back to medieval times, but it seems so discombobulating now. I suppose the years of schooling has reinforced this weird schedule.

It's a bittersweet time right now. On the one hand, I'm glad "summer vacation" will be here soon. On the other hand, that also means that many of my friends will be leaving soon. These are the people I came to Japan with. The people who I talk to on gchat every day at work who keep me sane. The people who I run into at bars, restaurants, shopping centers, and Starbucks. I've been spending most of my time saying farewell to friends and preparing for the arrival of new ones in August. And the cycle will begin anew.

The emperor of Japan was in our fair prefecture this weekend. I didn't get to see him, but a few of my friends saw his cavalcade (thanks, Mike) drive by and he waved back to them! He was here to plant a tree or something, I forget the reason why that's important. And I think there was a huge celebration going on to honor the 50th? 500th? anniversary of some ruins nearby. Obviously, I am very knowledgeable about these events. They pulled out all the stops for the emperor here. I saw new police cars and a helicopter for the first time in Fukui. (I never see aircrafts flying overhead here. I didn't mean that I have never seen a helicopter in my life.) I was told that the months of road construction we had to endure was so that the emperor would have a smooth car ride while he was in town. I guess there are still perks to being a figurehead, hey?

I had a really great day today. I don't say that very often concerning work. Today was just one of those days where everything clicked. It was never "in the plans" for me to become a teacher, but days like this make me want to reconsider because I can see how rewarding it is. My students were responsive and cooperative. Each and every one of them genuinely seemed to be enjoying the lesson. Kids who generally don't say a peep to me were super comfortable in approaching me, even joking around with me. It just makes me all warm and squishy inside. I do have to give credit where credit is due. I think they just like me because I have a jar of herniated disc matter sitting on my desk. Does that make me the cool or freaky teacher? I vote a bit of both.

I brought my nurse friends cookies the other day. The first thing they asked me (after how I was doing, of course) was, "Where is your cat?" The part that cracked me up is that they accompanied the question with gestures that resembled cradling a baby and throwing a football in the air. I really love that people know about my stuffed animal, ask about him, and treat him like an animate object. You have no idea how happy that makes me. Makes me feel like less of a tool, being a 22 year old grown ass woman with a fake cat friend.

D'Arcy and I ordered stuff from a foreign foods store. I am really surprised I didn't cave sooner. A four pound jar of peanut butter, Nutella, and taco seasoning... what more could a girl ask for in a package, really?

Terrible/Perfect

2009-05-27T18:48:00.007+09:00

I love Facebook. How else would I stumble upon gems like this?

"The small rain storm snuck up on us like a young lad's premature ejactulation. [sic]" Rather accurate, as the rain and intense wind was completely unexpected. It would've been boring if I had just said it like that. See? Always looking out on how to better entertain you folks.

I went back to work today. Tomorrow will be five weeks to the day after the surgery. I'm cleared to sit on my ass until the middle of June, but I am feeling fine. Thanks to my "quick" recovery, I was able to go back to work earlier. Oh, and I've also decided to start typing like an adult. Hope you don't mind.

Going back to work wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. People actually noticed I was gone! My students seemed happy to have me back, so that was encouraging. Life is normal again.

Good job, California. Way to let Iowa kick our ass.

Hope y'all have been hamthrax-free. They really are going apeshit (wrong animal?) about it here. A lady I know spent $300 on masks to send to her family in Kobe because the stores were all out. Everywhere. People were prohibited from going into the Kansai area (Osaka, Kobe, etc.) because that's where the outbreak was. Friends who visited the states during spring break had to be quarantined (like straight up don't go out into public unless you need food because you're about to starve) some even had to report daily to their school or the prefectural health center. Insanity. Of course, my mom still worries about it from the other side of the ocean. "Which side of Japan are you on again? ZOMG THE WEST?! THAT'S WHERE IT'S CONCENTRATED. Don't go out and definitely make sure you don't have fun. That's how most people catch the swine flu."

...You know, more or less paraphrased. My mom really does talk like that sometimes, though.

This entry is going to be a bit shorter than normal (insert the collective sigh of relief here) because I'm on the hunt for a bike. I'm determined to be more active. Not going to take for granted being able to touch my toes again. (By the way, I can now! Squee!)

Oh, and depending on whether or not my cousin is getting married, I may be home for a bit during the summer. Why something like that is still up for discussion is beyond me. Shotgun wedding, what up? More power to her if she can plan a wedding in two months. That just means I'll have to be a bridesmaid. Hmm... maybe I should magically contract hamthrax...

I think it's funny that the new teacher likes to discuss lesson plans about English class in Japanese. Oh Japan, I really do hope our love affair will never end.

back to blac--I mean, blogging.

2009-05-08T21:29:00.000+09:00

coming to you live from the hospital (stolen wireless is my friend) on my last night! five roommates later--one of whom sounded like Darth Vader when she slept--I get to go home tomorrow. I haven't been outside in over two weeks. I feel like an animal in captivity. I actually got a bit of motion sickness when I was pushed around in a wheelchair cause that's the fastest thing I'd been on in a bit. after a week of being confined to my bed, yeah, you bet being in a wheelchair made me feel like I was zipping around. weee!

basically, I'm alive. that kind of negates all other fears I had, but you know - the risk of paralysis was pretty gnarly, too. other than my back being sore where they operated, I am completely pain-free now. and that's really freaking nice to be able to say. about damn time, hey?

the surgery itself was fine. you know how on TV, when someone is wheeled down to the operating room, all they can see are the fluorescent lights passing above them? it was totally like that. they anesthetized me, said good luck, and I woke up with a sore back and tubes sticking out of me. one of which was a catheter. it is weird not knowing when you pee!

there is a less than one-inch scar on my lower back (there goes my lower back tattoo aspirations) from where they removed all the herniated disc matter. I have it in a jar. it has kind of withered away and absorbed the liquid it has been sitting in, but it kinda looks like brain. it's amazing to think those damn little pieces of faux-brain had been causing me so much pain. I'll post pictures somewhere. for a week after surgery, I was stuck in bed. I wasn't allowed to even sit up. after that, I was allowed to move around with the assistance of a walker. then stitches were taken out and I abandoned the walker and wreaked havoc on my own two feet. :]

my hospital stay was actually quite pleasant. I'm a bit sad to go, which is weird to say, because I won't be able to see my new friends every day. my doctor and the nurses are amazing people. (doctor is married with child... sigh.) my vocabulary has expanded to include obscure medical terms that I will probably never use again. but to their credit, the nurses did try really hard to communicate in a way that I would understand. it's nice to know my Japanese doesn't suck that badly.

it's not sad and sterile here like hospitals in America. there's color and art and general liveliness. which reminds me: I still need to sneak into the baby center. I will have to do that before I leave tomorrow. a lot of people asked me about the food, which isn't bad at all. it's like my school lunch. it looks and tastes like an actual human made it each day, as opposed to being reheated or from a box.

I don't know what I would've done without my trusty buddy Sprocket. he brought joy to many people. I am not just saying this. I walked around the floor with him, throwing him up and down. old ladies came up to me to pet him. the nurses loved him. not only was I the weird foreign girl, I was the weird foreign girl who liked to make her stuffed cat do somersaults in the air. not a bad way to memorialize myself.

what continually surprises me is the kindness of strangers. it's not surprising in the sense that I think everyone is an asshole and is incapable of being nice, but I'm surprised by the frequency in which I've benefited from it. my host mom works with a bunch of my friends' host parents, who used to work with this lady who is a pharmacist in the hospital I am staying. needless to say, she had no idea who the hell I was before all of this. however, she visited me all the time and brought me snacks and a pretty necklace. all she knew about me was that I was a foreign girl who sorta knew her former colleague. that's it. and she cared more about me than people who I've known for months now.

the people who I have known for months and did care, I will appreciate forever. or until I leave Japan. whichever comes first. I would not have been able to stay sane without them. there were only so many books I could read, man. I had someone visit me every single day I was in the hospital, which was a lot of days. I got drawers worth of snacks, books, DVDs, text updates on the outside world, a stuffed animal, coloring books... gosh, all kinds of stuff. I got packages from friends who aren't in Japan filled with French goodies and reading material. most importantly, I got companionship and knew that people cared about me. I am a lucky, lucky girl. honestly, thank you so much to everyone who so much as sent me a text message or email to ask how I was doing.

naturally, my mom called me every day, even though I gave her the same update every day. she warned me about the swine flu. I mean really, I'm in a freaking hospital. don't you think this would be the best place to be if I did somehow contract the swine flu? my silly mother.

I'm supposed to take it easy for another two weeks or so. I can't return to physical activities for three months (!) which basically means I can't do anything that will put stress on my back. normally I would just say screw it and do whatever I wanted, but there is a window of recurrence. like hell I want to do all of this over again, so I am going to sit on my ass like I've been told.

I can kick higher and harder, and run faster now. yes, that's a threat. :] as Elton said, the bitch is back!

line up for the dance, yeah, bring those fancy pants

2009-04-08T21:53:00.004+09:00

where do I begin?

spring break was quite eventful. Leslie, who I've been friends with since middle school (gosh, that makes me feel so old) visited. it was so wonderful! it felt like I had a roommate again and helped squelch some loneliness. and if I were to have any roommate, it would be her because she's suuuuuper chill and considerate. I cooked and she did the dishes. it was like we were married or something. it worked well. :] it felt like a really long time, but in actuality, it flew by.

we spent the first few days at an English camp up in the mountains. it snowed. ...at the end of March. it was very cruel. a few female students commented on how awesome my boobs were. that was a bit awkward. scratch that, it was really awkward. after that, I had to go into work for a few days to say goodbye to teachers who were being transferred and visit the hospital a few times to iron out some things. if it were anyone else, I think they would've cut me, but it was Leslie and luckily she is an extremely patient person.

[a little background on this, as if you are dying to know. the Japanese educational system is all about sharing the wealth. whether it be good or bad teachers, everyone gets shifted around. if you're a new teacher, you're eligible to be moved every three years, or every seven years if you're a teacher with more seniority. regardless, everyone gets moved at one point or another. also, you aren't notified of whether you are being transferred until a day or two before spring break. which is at the end of March. guess what! the new school year starts up in April, so you have about a week to pack up your shit and start all over. I've heard this is to minimize complaining - it's so abrupt that people just don't have the time to try to contest the transfer.]

two of my favorite non-English teachers were transferred because they had maxed up their time at the school. they were the ones who consistently made an effort to speak to me in English and were friendly overall, so I was very sad to see them go. this is not to say that the other teachers aren't friendly. everyone is nice to me, but these two actually tried to get to know me.

other than that, Leslie and I stayed pretty local. we were limited by my ability to travel because I am old and decrepit and because of our wallets, so it kind of worked out for the best. I showed her the best of Fukui! ha, and that's not saying much. Tojinbo (suicide cliffs) and Eiheiji (temple) and Obama (self-explanatory) ...oh my! would be sure to wow the pants off of anyone, right? there were random other places, but I can't remember. I guess the main part of it was showing her what life in Japan is like for me. she got to meet a lot of my friends, so it was a weird melding of social circles.

sakura (or cherry blossoms) are in full bloom now. we had a hanami, which is a flower viewing party, while Leslie was here. unfortunately, some random cold front came in and not much was out yet. :/ I finally found out why Sakura-dori (Sakura Street) is called that. I have never been so excited to sit in traffic during rush hour before in my life. on Sakura-dori, there are cherry blossom trees about every ten feet apart. it is just lined with beautiful flowers. I will try to take pictures, but I don't think it will do them justice. it's not that I was depressed or doom and gloom over winter or anything, but seeing the blossoms makes it so easy to be happy. I'm sure the sunlight and warmth helps a bit, too.

just so all my dear readers will be informed, I am having surgery at the end of this month. it is time to rid of this pesky injury once and for all! it was quite an ordeal to figure out all of the red tape and bureaucratic crap, but it is done and RELIEF WILL BE MINE! :D I will be in the hospital for something close to a month, thanks to excessive Japanese hospitalization, so I won't have access to the internets. don't think I'm ignoring you, I am just not able to respond. if you really need to reach me, I reckon you're smart enough to figure out a way.

people look at me funny when I tell them my mom isn't coming to Japan for my surgery, like she is some horrible mother who doesn't care about her only baby. I get even weirder looks when they find out I told her not to come. a) I'm a grown ass woman, so my mom doesn't need to come all the way out here to babysit me and do what the nurses would do anyway, b) my mom being here isn't going to make the surgeon perform any better or worse, so whatever happens would've happened anyway, and c) it's not like I'm going to die. this is a fairly straight-forward procedure (it would be done on an outpatient basis in the states) and I have the utmost faith in my doctor. (last famous words?) don't worry, he speaks fluent English and studied/practiced in the states? either way, I am very excited to be able to run again, or touch my toes, at the least.

so thank you in advance to my friends in Fukui who I will be relying on for visits, goodies, and listening to me bitch and moan because you will actually be here. sucks for you! thanks Sprocket for agreeing to be with me for the entirety of my hospital stay (cuddling is part of the deal.) thanks Richa, for being my #1 best Fukui buddy and promising to bring me whatever I want! thanks Zachary, for lending me books like "Flat Stanley" and the sad melty snowman book and trying to be my #1 best Fukui buddy, but you are still currently hovering around #4. thanks Nicholas, for promising to sit at my bedside and make me a vest out of hemp, which will probably itch like a mother. thanks D'Arcy, for begging Tom to pack his yummy toast into a to-go box in two weeks and being my girlfriend on Facebook, which has confused my extended family in Switzerland. thanks Elissa, for already promising to bring me sweets and hugs. thanks Kristen, for being my bff and bringing sunshine into my undoubtedly sterile and boring hospital room. thanks Julie, for promising to bring me soup or give me a massage or sponge bath if I need (what a perv.) thanks Steven, for being so awesome with Japanese and helping me communicate with the hospital so I don't get my spleen taken out or something. thanks Claire and Mere, for wanting to take a day off of work to be with me during surgery and be my mommies. thanks supervisor, for calling the entire world to figure this out. but most of all, thanks to Melissa, who is dealing with all of this shit from the frustratingly slow administrative end and the one who has to call my family if something bad happens. which it won't.

I know I am leaving out people and I don't mean to, but just know that I feel very fortunate to have such a great support system and so many wonderful friends here. I will probably bring my computer, so I will be able to blog about daily happenings in the hospital and post them when I have internet access again. don't worry, you aren't going to miss a single gory detail. :]

I feel like I just won a Grammy or an Oscar and I am thanking everyone but God, my parents, and all the little people? and I am really loving the parenthetical references today, hey? (shut up, I know you think it's annoying, but I don't care.)

over and out.

this totally warrants its own post!

2009-03-13T14:22:00.004+09:00

I am going to be a godmother! what up, suckas. still not really as cool as being named after me, but I'll take what I can get. ;]

you can say hello to my little friend in November or December. ...wait, is that from another movie? whatever, who cares. I'm gonna be a godmama! squee.

<3

there's always something more you'd wish he'd say.

2009-03-10T23:49:00.006+09:00

newsflash, y'all.

I may have found my future husband. however, he doesn't know this yet and he happens to be a Zen Buddhist monk. story of my freaking life. all is fair in love and war, hey? apparently, monks are allowed to get married and have families here, so I wouldn't be commiting some cardinal sin. phew!

last, last weekend, I did an overnight stay at a temple. this temple is one of three things guide books deem worth mentioning about Fukui. three things! do you see why I have to go elsewhere all the time for some kicks?

Eiheiji is pretty known in the Soto/Zen Buddhism world. it was a watered-down experience, but we still got a teeny taste of what it was like to live in the temple. the smell of incense reminded me of home. it was so wonderful, that I was compelled to buy boxes of incense to light in my apartment. the meals reminded me of what my grams used to eat because she was a vegetarian and our temple served similar dishes. the food rocked, by the way. I would eat that stuff every day if I could. having to go to a bunch of temples as a kid, this stay brought back lots of memories. did you know that I have been (the Buddhist equivalent of) baptized and that I have a "blessed name" that was given to me by a monk? in Vietnamese, it translates roughtly to "peaceful heart." it makes me chuckle because I, of all people, certainly do not have a peaceful heart. I sure fooled them! ha!

lights out was at nine p.m. we got our asses woken up at four a.m. for zazen. this is when you sit in the "lotus position" and meditate for extended periods of time. and by this I mean something in the realm of 30 - 45 minutes. we did a practice-run the night before and it didn't seem that bad, but coupled with sleep-deprivation, it was a little difficult. it was a challenge both mentally (to not fall asleep or let your mind wander) and physically (it was just painful for me to sit that long because of my injury/getting whacked by the priest). our guide priest carried a stick and walked around during zazen. he whacked anyone on the shoulder who was slouching, closing their eyes, or just not trying. ...I thought monks were supposed to be non-violent? :/

you're supposed to put your hands in the gassho position, which is just putting your hands together as if you were going to pray, whenever a priest walked behind you. I thought you were supposed to gassho until they walked past you. some guys in our group asked what you had to do if you wanted to be smacked, and apparently that was it - gassho when a priest walked behind you with a stick. I missed that memo. first of all, we were facing the wall, so how the hell was I supposed to know if he was carrying a stick or not? the priest tapped me on my shoulder and I was sure I would get smacked. he was nice enough to tell me that I could relax my hands. I guess he figured I wasn't the kind of person to "ask for it" and holy shitballs, my heart skipped a beat. it is no joke when someone gets whacked. you can hear it resonate in the hallway.

not that I'm so much more enlightened now, but it was a good grounding experience. I wouldn't really consider myself religious, even though my family is Buddhist. I think I'm more of a spiritual person. they didn't tell us about the normal crap like, "do unto others..." but that daily living is like a practice. everything should be done intentionally, from not being wasteful or being mindful of what you put in your body. it was a nice reminder that the small things--the things that you can control--count, too.

my third year students are graduating next week. some of them are only taking their high school entrance exams (yes, they have to do that here) this week. I will really miss a bunch of them. I asked my supervisor what the attire for graduation is and she told me to wear all black. literally, I should wear black pants, a black shirt, and a black jacket. oh, but I could also wear pearls if I wanted to. no better way to dress for a celebratory occasion, no? I suppose I will be mourning the death of my students' childhoods? I'll drink to that.

by the way, I started reading fmylife.com at work the other day. I was so excited to have something else to keep me entertained so I wouldn't have to actually do productive things like study Japanese. and because schadenfreude rocks! today, it was blocked because it contained "adult/sexual content." fml.

breakthrough!

2009-02-22T23:05:00.006+09:00

all this time, my tush had been unjustly suffering.

my friend Corey pointed out today that my toilet is special. it has a seat warmer function! weeeee! crazy Japanese inventions ftw! had I known about this earlier, I would have been more willing to go potty during the night. I mean, it's winter and it's cold, alright? this is awesome! maybe I will just grab a book and sit on the toilet, even if I don't have to potty at all. :D

yes, I am excited about a warm toilet seat. what is my life?

let's be more than this.

2009-02-20T13:29:00.007+09:00

there was an earthquake earlier this week. it originated from my little prefecture, too! it was something like a 5.1 magnitude quake, but obviously, I am alive and well. it happened close to seven, literally a few minutes after I had woken up for work. I was still in bed and everything just shook. I don't think any guy will be able to make my bed rock like that. heyooooo... :] I called my mom to do pro-active damage control before she could hear it somehow on the news (if they cared to report about an earthquake in Japan in the boonies) and she told me to come home. hahahaha. how did I move from one earthquake zone to another?

there are times when I am so free at work (usually around the students' exam time) that I have to fight the compulsion to beat my head against my desk. there are days when I am literally scouring the internet for shit to read. my predecessor learned about the Cold War on wikipedia at work. doesn't that say something? work flew by today because I was having such a great time grading exams. doesn't that sound weird? I had a good time grading things? once again, I would like to share with you some gems from my students. they really do make my life so much better.

"I want to go to America. And go to live of Slipknot."
"Onother country basketball player color is very black."
"I want to try to use gun.
Because we can't use gun in Japan.
I am going to use many guns.
I have used gun in TV games.
But it is very danger.
When I use it, I think must very careful."
one student kept spelling "country" as "cuntry" and that just made me giggle.
"I want to go to America.
I want to watch WWE of game.
WWE is wrestring in America.
I like Triple H in WWE Superstars.
I love WWE."

and one that takes the cake: "I was impressed with that Obama became president of America. He is African-Mexcan. African-Mexcan has never became the president."

WHAT THE HELL.

I mean, I can't believe I didn't see the resemblance before! me being Spanish, Obama being African-Mexican... a match made in heaven, I reckon. I have no idea how my students find the worst things about my country to like. the worst. Slipknot? WWE? the right to bear arms? what about things we are proud about, like McDonald's, Starbucks, and Circle K? oh wait, those are here, too...

I think in some cultures, I may be considered married to a sixth grader. during one of my visits, a student told me he had made me some rings. it was actually really sweet. he insisted on putting them on my fingers. I'm all blinged out. and taken, apparently. awesome. I smell an annulment, a la Britney Spears fifty hour marriage, coming soon.

I've decided to come home during Christmas, mainly because Court will be back! if I went back in August, I wouldn't see anyone until the next August, when I come back for good. delaying my trip home until Christmas will make the last few months a bit more bearable. and a bunch of people will finally be old enough to drink by then. weeee!

Dance Marathon is this weekend. good luck to everyone involved! will someone please teach me the morale dance when I get back? it pains me not to know. I'll just have to do what I remember of the past few here this weekend. always a good reason to pull out the sprinkler moves!

and we're all gettin' hosed tonight

2009-02-16T22:53:00.007+09:00

in the course of twelve hours, I've seen it go from cloudy to rainy/hail, and snowy to sunny. Japan is nuts.

poll time! so I can't decide whether to go home during August (maybe) or Christmas break again. either way, I will have to go home sometime again before I return for good next year (...possibly :/) or my mama will fly here and personally slap me to the next election. the first person I asked was Aaron, but seeing as how his answer was, "COME HOME TO MEEEEE!" I don't think that was a very objective opinion. there are pros and cons to both options, but I thought I could push up the Thailand/Vietnam/Cambodia trip to August and go home during Christmas, if only for sentimental reasons. what say y'all?

I never thought I'd ever say this, but there is a Spice Girls song that perfectly describes a major part of my life right now. ten points to whomever can guess what it is!

freaking a, I can't wait until my hair is long enough to donate. it would've been by now, if three inches hadn't unnecessarily been hacked off. :[ I have this overwhelming urge to chop it all off. I'm ready for a change. ...yes I can and all that.

frolicking in the snow, with no place to go.

2009-02-14T12:50:00.007+09:00

Mia is the most wonderfulest person in the world. my box came this week and it was filled with all sorts of goodies. I think I have the entire southern part of America's cornbread mix supply and enough flax seed to keep me tootin' happy until I leave Japan next year. not that anyone has to send me stuff in order for me to miss and appreciate you, because being way out here has definitely made me realize that anyway, but it definitely excites me to no end when I get stuff from home. thanks again, sister! :]

I'm just going to get it out of the way and say something. no, I didn't find the ice sculpture of President Obama; therefore, I was unable to lick him. that was about the only disappointment of the trip, though. I had an amazing time. great friends, great food, great ice sculptures... what more could a girl ask for?

I learned a few things on my way to Hokkaido. the most important one being that if you don't know whether or not you get seasick, you probably shouldn't drink copious amounts of alcohol. I was not the happiest camper for the ten remaining hours of our first nineteen hour ferry ride, and I wasn't sure if it was due to seasickness or being hungover. lesson learned. the ride back was much more pleasant, thanks to the company of my friend (and now complicated girlfriend on Facebook) D'Arcy, and our not-so-spontaneous dance party.

let's see... it was quite an ordeal to get there. we had to take a bus down to our port city to take the ferry, only to take another bus before we were able to reach Sapporo. there were lots of wonderful ice sculptures, yadda yadda, but you can see all of those things in my pictures. pretty much all I did this trip was eat, and boy, was it glorious. the ramen up there really is something else. I mean, butter and corn ramen sounds disgusting, but it was super tasty. Hokkaido is famous for its dairy products? which is funny to me because it's the coldest area in Japan. I mean, I expect cows to be frozen yogurt machines, instead of milk-producing thingers. I had Mexican food, with the obvious Japanese twist, but it still did the trick. the night before we left, a bunch of us enjoyed a hundred minutes of all-you-can-drink beer and all-you-can-eat lamb at the Sapporo Beer Garden. I mean, coming from a girl who doesn't really eat red meat all too often, it was delicious. the dipping sauce for the lamb made the dish. it was made from pure angel blood or something. mmmm. not sure I could eat something like that all the time, but it was an experience that only Sapporo could provide. so naturally, I had to capitalize on that.

there was also dancing! and it was so much fun! granted, I was a few Long Beaches and tequila something or other drinks in, but it was so much fun! I taught the bartender how to make a Long Beach and he was super excited when a fellow Californian ordered one. who knew I was a fan of house music? Alice and I definitely made fools out of ourselves. we did the robot, grapevine, shopping cart, and she taught me a dance from the UK. big fish, little fish, cardboard box. make me show it to you next time I see you. it will turn even the clumsiest dancer into Fred Astaire. however, I highly suggest you do this in groups to prevent looking like a dumbass.

I forget what else happened, but that's what I get for waiting a few days to update. I expected Hokkaido to be a lot colder, but it wasn't too bad. the snow was perfect packing snow, so there were more than a few snowball fights. I actually wouldn't mind living in Sapporo. of course, being there for more than a few days would probably make me lose all motivation to go outside.

oh, and not that anyone ever comes back to check, but I do reply to comments you leave on my blog. I'm not ignoring you or your witty comment, I promise!

I'm not really that superstitious, but I wanted to stay in all day yesterday just to make sure I stayed out of trouble. nothing happened, even though I went out every now and again. and I don't know if Friday the 13th is worse than Saturday the 14th. regardless, there is a birfday celebration today (happy birthday, Leslie!) and we are going to karaoke. nothing better than kicking back a few too many mugs of beer and belting out your favorite anti-love song.

happy valentine's day, whatever that may mean to you.

how I'm longing for this love affair to finally start.

2009-02-06T13:22:00.020+09:00

it was my mommy's birthday on Monday. I sent her flowers, because I'm a terrible child and can't be at home to celebrate it with her. it made me really happy to hear how happy she was that I remembered to call. (before you get on my case, I remember every year.) last year, as I was literally down the street from my house to surprise her, she called to semi-yell at me for not remembering it was her birthday. needless to say, she felt like an asshole when she saw me. it was great. :] happy birthday, mama!

Mia! your package is waiting for me at the shipping center. squee! thank you so much! <3

it makes me chuckle when I think of how brutally honest kids can be, even repressed Japanese ones. inevitably, they will turn into adults who suck their teeth and never tell you anything the way it is. for example, "it's basically impossible, you idiot" in English "ah, that's a little (difficult)..." in Japanese. don't get me started on the suggestive, "maybe you should..." when in reality it is, "you better get a move on, asshat." but I digress. my third years graduate at the end of March. as an activity, they basically had to write yearbook messages to each of their classmates. I was forced to think back to my middle/high school yearbook writing days (shudder) and recall what popular messages were. well, "have a nice summer" may not cut it here, cause these kids are scattering all over the place for high school. however, the students fared well on their own. there were a few very touching messages. these are among my favorite:

"You are very small and black."
"You should get thinner."
"When you played soccer, you looked cooler."
"I hope you can become a butler." [the student had used the word "steward" initially. what the hell?]
"You will have a bald head."
"I hope you don't die."

I had to stop and remind them that these were supposed to be positive messages. oh, kids and their angst.

as annoying as surveys and chain letters are, I've really enjoyed this "25 random things" that has circulated on Facebook. it has been fun reading about people, and having people read about me. bet you didn't know I started drinking at age five, hey? it's been a downward spiral ever since.

I went to the post office after work and literally did about forty takes at the car next to me. I thought my eyes had deceived me, because I thought there was a baby alone in the car. I tried not to be creepy and staring in case there was an adult in there. well, unfortunately, I thought right. honestly, woman, if you are going to leave your child in your car, at least lock your fucking doors. I know this is Japan, but shit. you're lucky I didn't steal that cute bundle of baby drool just to teach you a lesson.

I am absolutely obsessed with The Bird and The Bee's latest album. my friend Elissa introduced me to the song "Love Letter to Japan" and it's infectious. how long will it be before this song is available for karaoke, you reckon? I have listened to only The Bird and The Bee for a few weeks now. it's getting a bit ridiculous.

before I leave you for a few days for the great white north, and by that I mean Hokkaido... I would like you to nominate me for the Darwin Award if my tongue does get stuck. please?

誕生日おめでとうございます！

2009-01-27T23:48:00.002+09:00

first and foremost, I wanted to say tanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu! to my favorite Winnie. (yes, even over Winnie the Pooh!) that means happy birthday. :] my little baby is all growed up. over the years, you've been my roommate, my resident, fellow band geek, and concert buddy. most importantly, though, you are my best friend. I'm so very sad that I can't be there when you have your first legal (ahem...) drink on your special day. please know that if I could, I truly would. however, I still blame your parents for not having you closer to Christmas break because we could've celebrated while I was home. ...I'm just sayin'. like I've told you before, remember to eat before you drink, have lots of water before you go to bed, and get freaking tanked. hope you don't develop alcohol aversion from puking too much on your 21st birthday, because we are celebrating big time whenever I come home. I love you!

---

I really enjoy lazy Sundays. I didn't get out of my pajamas on Sunday until four p.m. it was amazing! the weekends go by so fast. these five day work weeks are killing me... sorry, sorry. I've been spoiled by three-day weekends. you'd be surprised by how many random holidays there are in Japan!

I really miss Dance Marathon. getting all of these Facebook notices for events that I can't go to kills me. if I were anywhere in the continental U.S., I would've flown back for the event in a heartbeat. however, being across the Pacific and having a job makes things a little more difficult. I miss wearing my bright ass highlighter shirt on campus. dare I say it, I might even miss flyering a bit. I miss being a part of an organization that changes lives. other than encouraging my friends who are dancing or are on committee, I can only offer financial support from where I am. please do the same. donate! $8 can buy a shot to help prevent the spread of HIV from a mother to her child.

if not now, I will try to guilt you into donating to me next May when I try to go to India to build houses. don't worry, I'll get you one way or another on this quest of mine to make a difference. insert maniacal laughter here!

speaking of mothers, mine is quite funny. it was Chinese New Year on Sunday and my mama called to see how I was celebrating it. of course, being the wonderful human that I am, I hadn't even remembered it was Chinese New Year. she asked if Japanese people celebrated Chinese New Year. I wanted to tell her to ask me that again a few times, but I don't really think she would've understood what I was trying to get at.

last week, at one of my visiting schools, I had a chance to talk to another English teacher who drops by every so often. more often than I do, at least. she's an older woman from the Phillippines who is married to a Japanese man. out of nowhere, she asked me if I was Spanish. "what are you, exactly?" is also a rather eloqunt way of inquiring, no? I mean, I'm pretty used to it because I've gotten everything under the sun. people have asked me if I am Filipina, Thai, Korean, even Japanese, but that wasn't the surprising part. I said my usual half-Chinese, half-Vietnamese spiel. to this, she responded, "oh, half-Chinese! that's why you look Spanish!"

did anyone else get that connection or am I the only space cadet here?

tastes like America (fuck yeah!)

2009-01-22T21:25:00.005+09:00

thanks to my Soul Sister, Mia, I will be receiving a fatty box of goodies soon. I forget what the hell is even in there because I feel like I've asked for so many ridiculous things. most importantly, there will be mac and cheese, and the second, third, and fourth installment of the Twilight series. yeah, go ahead and judge. jerk. never mind that I just returned from America not two weeks ago, so it just shows how much she loves me! I can feel you judging still about the Twilight thing and I don't care.

I went into the city to pay for my Sapporo Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival) trip yesterday. I am really excited. Sapporo is in Hokkaido prefecture, which is the northernmost part of Japan. it is pretty much swimming distance from Russia, but I doubt Hokkaidoians consider themselves foreign policy experts. it is also the coldest damn place in Japan and February is the coldest month. who would've thought? if I don't die of hypothermia first, I hope to visit the Sapporo beer factory (knew that name sounded familiar, didn't you?) as well as a chocolate factory I've heard so much about. I will also lick the Barack Obama sculpture that will inevitably be there. will my tongue remain intact? stay tuned to find out!

what I was going to mention before I went into the Hokkaido thing is that I found out one of my favorite restaurants is closed! after I went to pay for the trip, I decided to drop by Kebab Box in the city. I never ate any kebabs, but they had this pita croquette sandwich that was pretty much made from angel wing dust or something because it was amazing. the outside of the place was orange and it was super tiny. it could literally seat maybe only seven or eight people max, but I loved going there. R.I.P., Kebab Box. I hope I can find this illusive truck of yours that I hear you work out of now.

I can't remember if I've ever mentioned this, but something reminded me of it today. the first time that I was ever on a public bus in Japan, the damn thing hit a car. I was on my way home from the city, before I had gotten my first car, and the bus totally hit a car that was pulling out of the hospital. nice place to get into a car accident, if anywhere, right? anyway, there were only two people on the bus because it was the last stop. as I got off the bus, the driver asked for my information, presumably so I could be called on as a witness later. given that my Japanese was worse back then, I put on my best "I'm sorry" face and told him I was a foreigner. the other passenger obliged and wrote down his name and number. this guy also helped me when I was stupid and couldn't figure out how much the fare was, so he will forever be remembered as Nice Bus Guy.

and now, to the obligatory comment about what happened in America this week! my students asked me what I thought about Mr. Obama today, and I told them that I am very happy he's my president. which is the simple truth, because it will be safe for me to come home whenever I decide to! then, they giggled cause they thought I said "present" so I said the word for president in Japanese. to this, they all gasped and giggled some more. I can't win with these kids. English or Japanese, I just can't win.

Winnie Week is officially less than a week away! squee!

I try to be as coy as I can, but I want to see your naughty bit

2009-01-13T22:43:00.008+09:00

has it really been that long since I've last posted? crap, sorry. I haven't really been motivated to write. since my posts are already so insane when I do want to write, I just couldn't subject you to mediocrity.

here I am, back in Japan. let's recap, shall we?

home was wonderful, which is good and bad. I couldn't see everyone I wanted to, but it was a shortish visit and would've been impossible. thank you to those who did make time to see me, who drove out at a ridiculous hour or let me crash at their place. I look forward to seeing you again, whether it be in America or Japan. :]

I spent Christmas with family, and new years with friends. a few of us went to a billiard bar thinger on new years eve. I randomly ran into a high school friend there, which is funny because we've planned to hang out a few times, but they all fell through for some reason or other. a few tips for the dudes out there. seriously, get out your pen and paper. I'll wait. okay. first, "are you here alone?" is not a good pick-up line. after receiving an answer of, "no, I'm here with those three guys," following it up with a sweep-her-off-her-feet response of, "are you lying?" isn't going to help your case any. also, "do you see that guy over there? isn't he good looking?" just makes you sound like a lazy wingman. that's all I'm saying.

I was surprisingly not that jet lagged, both going home and coming back to Japan. I kept falling asleep, Aaron, but it was because I was a teensy bit tired from the traveling! I got in at eleven the night before I had work. I went to sleep as soon as possible and woke up, ready to conquer some Engrish the next day. it was rad. taking cold medicine and passing out during a twelve and a half hour flight, but waking up for dinner and breakfast ftw! don't worry, I'm not abusing drugs. I legitimately had a cold. and I had some weird stomach bug again yesterday. only thirteen days into January and I have already been two kinds of sick! I'm gonna keep a tally.

that airport in Seoul is really something. it's more like a shopping center than an airport. I was too lazy (and it was too cold outside) to really do any exploring, so I hung out inside during my layover. there were brand name shops up the wazoo. Coach? sure. Gucci? of course. Salvadore Feraklsdjfklsdjf? totally. it was unbelievable.

back to my wonderful visit home being good and bad. I was so resolved to stay another year if I didn't hate it here. and I absolutely do not hate it here. I really, really like the life that I have in Japan, but it was so hard to get on that plane and come back. that really threw me for a loop. I have another four weeks to work out whether or not I want to stay another year. a lot of people are blaming the indecision on the winter blues, but it's more than that. I know family and friends will always be there, but I can't help feeling that I am missing a piece of myself here. I honestly feel guilty. apparently, my niece is using my pillow because it smells like me. hearing shit like that just breaks my heart.

anyway, I suppose it's time to look forward instead of looking backward, hey?

I have a shovel in my trunk. that bears repeating: I have a freaking shovel in my trunk. really? this is nuts. I need it to free myself from whatever snowy prison that will hold me captive. I had to shovel out my car this morning. I was late to work, oops. my parking spot is perpendicular to a little side street that they snow plowed. great, right? except for the fact that the snow that they plowed off the side street was piled in front of a row of cars, including mine! thanks, jerks. also, guess who hydroplaned twice on the way to work? *raises hand* my ever-present fear of driving into a rice field plagues me even more now. it is not an irrational fear, okay? damn those roads with no barriers and aren't important enough to be snow plowed. there are also spider-like (if spiders only had four legs... just imagine, okay?) sprinklers that spray water from the middle of the street. across bridges, there are things more like little faucets, shooting out water. it's like going through a fucked up car wash when you drive over a bridge. scary. I think it's warm salt water or something, because it would make no sense to spray regular water. it would just freeze up eventually and be even more dangerous.

I had to grade a bunch of workbook/journals today. okay, by a bunch I really mean like twenty, but they each had thirty pages or so of ungraded material that the teacher let accumulate. sigh! just as I was about to stab myself in the eye with my red pen, I found a few gems that I would like to share with y'all.

[prompt: please tell us about your dream!]

I want to be a president.
I want to drive a car.
I want to have a cat.

my kids sure do have amazing aspirations, no?

most of the other prompts were in Japanese, so I didn't really understand what they had to write about, but kind of guessed from what they did end up writing.

My favorite subject is English.
I enjoy English class every day.
There is an ALT [assistant language teacher] in my school.
Her name is Anna.
I like talking with her in English.

that made me want to cry a little. I think I did on the inside, and then watched a chick flick and ate a pint of ice cream on the inside, also. sometimes, this job is more rewarding than I give it credit for.

Merii Kurisumasu!

2008-12-25T02:12:00.002+09:00

I'm home and I'm a little overwhelmed.

I can read everything. I can understand everyone. I know what I'm eating. and it seems like everyone else is driving really fast.

in the end, it's the good kind of overwhelmed. I'm glad to be back home. what the hell, my space bar is sticking. ...sorry, thinking out loud. customs didn't take away my booze, so I successfully got my family drunk tonight. it was amazing. I will do it again the next time I'm home, except with more booze.

I had a layover in Korea. maybe it's just me, but that didn't seem like the most efficient route. whatever. I paid $7 for a can of Sapporo in the Incheon International Airport in Seoul. yes, they accepted USD. it was a bit weird.

I'm excited to see my friends. I'm excited to eat my weight in food! I miss Sprocket already, though. I left him in Japan because I didn't want to somehow lose him. cause I'm a dumbass and that would totally happen.

undoubtedly, the best present I could've given my mother was coming home. she cried when she first saw me. I know this is gonna sound a little fucked up, but I didn't know she missed me that much. wait, that still didn't come out the way I intended for it to. sham holiday as it may be, it does serve the purpose of getting most people together around this time of year, so I will appreciate it. Merry Christmas, everyone. who knows where we'll all be when the next one rolls around?

if you're in the greater Southern California area, have your people call my people and let's do the damn thing.

let's go on a livin' spree - they say the best things in life are free.

2008-12-17T21:28:00.007+09:00

proceed with caution. some serious Hallmark shit awaits.

the holiday bug has bitten off a part of what's left of my brain, I think. then again, I can't really blame it on the time of year because when a bunch of us got together for Thanksgiving and we had to go in a circle and say what we were thankful for, I said I was thankful for cheese. (that was for you, Winnie.) in all honesty, I am thankful for not having to endure the college-> grad school -> menial job path and form my own one-car driving lane here in Japan. I was placed at a great base school and ten really fun visiting schools. the teachers don't hate me and actually make the effort to speak to me with what English they know. or sometimes they are merciful and speak to me in simple and slow Japanese. I am friends with one of the English teachers at school and get along well with the other two. I am in a good location, being far enough from the city to be away from the bullshit, but close enough to drive to when I need a Starbucks fix. for the record, I only go to Starbucks when I get homesick and to knit on Tuesdays with a bunch of other JETs. yes, I said knit. I'm on my way to being an old cat lady. I have made a close group of friends who I love spending time with, who teach me new things every day.

I have a mother who loves me, despite how many holes I put in my body or how much ink I decide to tattoo onto myself. (maybe that doesn't really count cause she doesn't know about most of those things...) family members who send me 2354523 emails to ask if I'm still alive because I forgot to check Skype for a few days. I have friends from home who will send me dark chocolate from France because I once bitched about not finding anything good in Japan. friends who treat my stuffed cat like an actual animate object because I do. friends who have written me emails every week for the past two years. friends who drunk dial me, despite a 17 hour time difference, just so I will still feel in the loop. friends who listen to be ramble on incessantly about the boy who broke my heart and never once tell me to get a grip or to stfu; rather, they often offer to inflict bodily harm upon the perpetrator, which I appreciate. friends who remind me that there is something out there bigger than all of us, by giving up the luxuries of running water and Facebook to volunteer in Africa. friends who tell me they love me and miss me when I need it the most. friends who are even more excited than I am that I will be home soon.

I don't forget these things. and I don't take them for granted, so thank you to all of you.

anyway. there is really no good way to segue into another topic, but I felt the need to torture you by making a long blog entry even longer.

I went to Kobe two weekends ago. it worked out well, because I tagged along with a friend who was talking the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) in Osaka and there was a luminary light thing in Kobe. I uploaded pictures, I think, so you can take a gander if you're curious. I ate beef in Kobe, but the jury is still out on whether or not it was Kobe beef. now, I know you are all aghast, but I think it would be foolish of me to holdfast to my values. who needs those? who knows when I will be in Kobe again? so I decided to eat some cow. however, as soon as I ate it, I remembered why I stopped eating it. moral of the story: Anna hates eating cow and will probably never eat it again, unless it's some other supposed best cow ever in a foreign country.

we went to an Irish pub in Osaka, where I met up with one of my old foreign exchange residents from when I was an RA. it was rad! I had fish and chips and cider, mmm. however, a bunch of old and pervish foreign men populated the pub. not that cool. watching their lack of game in picking up ladies? also not that cool. I also stopped in Kyoto and bought a sweet yukata/robe thing for myself and ate pizza. yup. I'm in Japan and I choose to eat pizza.

of course, I've waited until the last minute to do Christmas shopping. I feel all of this crazy pressure to bring back 764653543879890753 spectacular Japanese gifts, by virtue of the fact that I live in Japan. I recently bought a crap ton of sake from a famous brewery in my very own backwater countryside town. no joke, the Emperor loves this stuff and there is a sake whose nickname is "jawdropper" cause it's so jawdroppingly good. either customs will think I'm an alcoholic or that I will sell it stuff on the black market. either way, they can think what they want, so long as they don't confiscate anything. I will cut bitches for my sake. did I mention that this is two minutes from my school and five minutes from my apartment? sorry, I'm just excited my town is famous for something. I feel a little bit like Santa, carting presents and shit from halfway around the world to the children of America. and by children I mean my family and friends. same difference, really.

hot fudge sundae, the exchange rate is currently 89円 to the dollar. yatta! t-minus six days. catch most of you on the other side of the Pacific soon.

I'm not sayin' that I'm not breakin' some hearts tonight.

2008-11-29T23:12:00.002+09:00

as it were, my mother was right. mama knows best, I suppose? I'm not convinced she's psychic and had some kind of premonition, though. I was going to go to Thailand and Vietnam over break, but there is some shit going down in Thailand and I don't want to be caught in the crossfire. I would've flown in and out of Bangkok, where protesters have shut down the airport, omgwtfbbq. granted, it is still a month away and the turmoil could die down, but I didn't want to take any chances. it's a good thing we never got around to booking domestic flights, hotels, tours, and sort out visa stuff, because that would've been more money down the drain. I could've also just booked a flight directly to Vietnam, but it would've cost almost as much as a flight home and I want to visit both Thailand and Vietnam at once. I decided to cut my losses now and just go home. it made my mama really happy. however, it does make me feel sort of like a pussy to come home five months into my two year stint, but whatever. I feel overwhelmingly relieved to be going home, even though my wallet took a beating. I may as well have paid some man to carry me home on his back with that money. sobby.

it is raining and crazy windy outside right now. windy to the point where my balcony door is shaking and I can hear the whizzing through my vents. I'm keeping warm by sipping on a glass of wine. it's a nice and relaxing night. I love the weekend!

apparently, I was the only person on the face of the earth who didn't know about the Japanese blood type theory. as Kevin and Kathy pointed out via blog comments, the Japanese think that blood type correlates with specific personality traits. I still like my theory better, which involves blood-thirsty vampires, but it's always nice to learn something new.

while at one of my visiting elementary schools this week, I had to go potty, so I went in search of a restroom. I stumbled upon a handicap restroom, which meant there would be a western-style toilet. SCORE! I don't particularly hate squatty potties, but I try to avoid them when I know there are alternatives. after I did my thing, I guess I accidentally hit the, "oh crap, I've fallen and I can't get up" button because it started flashing red and a motherfreaking alarm went off. I opened the door to find a bunch of teachers, who were expecting to see a hurt student, but saw the bewildered and embarrassed English teacher instead. I apologized profusely and told them it was an accident. they were super cool about it. no harm, no foul. however, they went back into the teachers' room and said, "blah blah blah ENGLISH TEACHER" and started laughing. it was a bit mortifying. :[ note to self: never press any button that is red, even if by accident!

also, all of my elementary schools have this strange contraption. it's called the "intruder fork" and is a metal pole with a metal semi-circle attached to it. think triton, minus the straight middle segment. I guess you use it to keep intruders at bay, if one ever breaks into the school. I want to use it to poke students, but I don't think that would be kosher. it brings a nice mental image to the saying, "I wouldn't touch you with a ten-foot pole."

I am a little sad there are no decent shows going on while I'm home. what the heck? hanging out with your family over the holidays is way overrated. get back to work, lazy musicians! just kidding. I am way excited to go home, though. if you are free, in the greater L.A. area and want to hang out, contact me! email, phone, Facebook, AIM, courier owl... whatever works. I'll be home from December 23 to January 5. I'm not sure when I'm coming home next, so take advantage of this limited time offer! sorry, there is no money-back guarantee for a good time, though.

I've built you a home in my heart.

2008-11-24T22:14:00.007+09:00

within the span of two days, I'm pretty confident I spent almost half of my paycheck... which was just deposited into my account on Friday, mind you. this means I will have to be gamaning it up (being cheap/on a tight budget) for the rest of the month. granted, the bulk of it went toward bills, so it is justifiable. ($950 for car insurance... check. $100 for electric bill... check. $350 for car payment... check.) doesn't mean I like almost half of my paycheck disappearing, though. the good news is, now that I have paid off most of the big things, the rest of the paychecks can be saved and used to pay off student loans.

how is it that I am an adult again? when did this happen?

I didn't have work today because it's a holiday! it's technically called, "Labor Thanksgiving Day" but is more like our Labor Day than Thanksgiving, though. if I recall correctly, the Mayflower didn't dock in Tokyo Harbor, so... alas, they just happened to use the word "thanksgiving" as well. I love three-day weekends. most of all, I love four-day work weeks. makes it go by a lot quicker for some reason. I have three elementary school visits this week, so I will be tuckered out by those children, I'm sure.

I went to the orphanage yesterday. per usual, it was so much fun. I don't know how the staff does it day in and day out. then again, the kids probably don't treat the staff like jungle gyms. I made a new friend this visit. she kept climbing into my lap, would constantly put her arms around my neck for big hugs, and wanted to be held. of course, I was more than happy to oblige! she was really sweet. we bonded by throwing her baby doll around. :D also, the little boy who I've mentioned in another post from sports day totally remembered me and ran over to me when he saw me. that made me so happy. it's nice to see that we are making a lasting impression on these kids. I wish we could visit more often. my next visit isn't until January. :[ that's such a long time away from now!

the weather here has been incredibly nutty. so in the previous post, I was complaining about how it snowed and such. that lasted for about two days. then, it was beautiful and sunny and kinda warm. then, it started raining and hasn't really stopped since. what the heck is going on? it's like I imagined the whole snowing part.

while I was waiting for my tires to be changed ($250 for new snow tires... check!) I sat inside the warm lobby and flipped through a magazine, in hopes that I could avoid talking to people. :] there was this profile on a young bachelor, from what I could gather, and there was a box with his stats. it listed his name, birthday, age, hometown, likes, dislikes, etc. what was interesting to me was that his blood type was also listed. this is a huge thing in Japan, for some reason. when my kids gave a presentation about their lives for the cultural festival early in the school year, they also listed their blood type. I mean... I don't know why it would matter, unless you plan on using your partner or friends as a blood bank, but people here like to know! is it sad to say I'm not exactly sure what blood type I am? I suppose I should find out the next time I visit the hospital.

I'm in the process of trying to set up video chat with my mama. it's really funny, because she keeps asking my cousin Amy if she's video chatted with me or has seen pictures of me. my cousin's latest response was that, yes, she has in fact seen my pictures, but most of them are of landscape/I'm not in most of the pictures. it's like my mom doesn't think I am in Japan or something and needs pictorial evidence that I'm alive. this is also despite the fact that I have sent her pictures of me. my mama is so silly.

I'm going to miss Thanksgiving dinner with my family. we eat turkey every year and it is super delicious. it's pre-ordered from a restaurant, of course, because we don't like to bother with actually cooking the darn thing. since we are so Asian, the turkey is stuffed with rice! sigh. I am going to a Thanksgiving party on Thursday, so I hope that will help curb all of our homesickness. Amy is sending me a care package after Thanksgiving, and I can't even come up with cool things to ask her to send me. well, I guess mac and cheese is kinda cool... :/

I miss you. I probably don't say it enough, so I just wanted to let you know.

you rock my world, you know you do.

2008-11-19T19:13:00.007+09:00

this is what I woke up to:

twelve hours later, this is what I came home to:

THIS IS NOT OKAY. it is hailing/sleeting/whatever you want to call it, but there is white stuff on the ground so I am calling it SNOW. in light of recent events, I am deeming it okay to turn on my heater even though it's not December. I am actually really nervous to drive in these conditions. as I've mentioned before, some of the roads here are rather tiny and don't have any barriers. which leads to a drop into a rice field! hydroplaning, anyone? I hear you're not supposed to step on the breaks and are supposed to turn into the direction that you're skidding, instead of going against it. any other tips?

some of the tips I've gotten on staying warm include putting bubble wrap on my windows. I suppose this is faux-insulation, but I don't need to give people more of a reason to think I'm crazy. yes, please come over to my padded apartment! leave your straight jackets at the door.

despite the fact that it is snowing outside, schoolgirls are still wearing skirts. with no tights. I am freezing with tights and pants on. I asked one of my teachers about this one day, and she said that even though they're technically allowed to wear tights with their skirts, the students just choose not to. I have no idea why. this is crazy talk. at least my junior high girls wear somewhat longer skirts. the high school girls, on the other hand, hike up their skirts to an absurd length. if you get off on the whole school girl thing, Japan is the place for you. it makes so much sense now why there is an age cap on JET participants. besides trying to keep the age/generational gap reasonable, this is fetish heaven for you if you're into school girl outfits. must keep the creepy pedophiles out somehow.

I had more interesting things to say, but I've put off updating for so long that I don't remember anymore. I am mostly still freaking out about the snow thing. forget having a white Christmas; I'm going to have a white Thanksgiving.

Addae M.J.-B., if you're reading this, send me your personal email address!

letting it be

2008-11-10T22:20:00.005+09:00

I put shampoo on my loofah thing in the shower today. I am starting to go off the deep end! probably a bad joke to make, considering I had recently visited the cliffs near my area that are popular for suicides. oops. they were absolutely beautiful, though, even though it was freezing. the winds were blowing something fierce, and I almost felt like it was going to knock me over a few times. what blew my mind was that there were a bunch of women climbing those things in a skirt and heels. really? I know you have to showcase all your nice shoes whenever you go out cause of the whole having to wear ugly inside shoes thing, but one wrong step and you could've taken a nice and chilly swim in the Sea of Japan. is looking fashionable really worth it?

I went to Obama City on Friday. it took over two hours to get there via train, with travel time and layovers and such. unfortunately, by the time I had gotten there (around 7:40 p.m.) the damn stores had already closed. wah waaaaah. we ended up eating dinner and then going home. that means I spent more time on the train than actually in the city. of course I will go back, because I am determined to have my Obama burger and Obama red bean cake, so I'll keep you updated on that. it's right by the water and was beautiful, though, so I can't even imagine how wonderful everything looks when bathed in sunlight!

we played Jeopardy in class today, except I didn't make them answer in the form of a question because that would be a bit confusing. however, they did have to answer with relative clauses (is that what they're called? see, native speakers can't be fussed enough to know all the technical terms for this crap.) their answer had to be in the form of, "blah blah is a man/woman/student/animal/alien/whatever who is..." the last question for the day happened to be, "Who is Barack Obama?" I got the answer, "Barack Obama is a man who is black" which was not very exciting. I also got, "Barack Obama is a man who says, 'Yes we can!'" which I was surprised they knew. then, I finally got the answer I was looking for, "Barack Obama is a man who is the new leader of America." I guess they hadn't learned the word "president" yet. good work, kids.

the Californian in me is weeping. it's colder than my heart outside. it dips into single digits at night (in Celsius, of course, which makes it sound even colder) and is even worse when it rains. I sleep in a sweater, tights, and with socks on underneath my thick comforter. I refuse to turn on the heater because it's only the beginning of November! and that would be ridiculous. we will see how long this lasts. I am going to try to hold out until December. they pulled out the heaters at school. there is a huge one in the teachers room, but one of the English teachers tells me they won't turn it on for a few weeks. I will either be really warm or toast to a crisp because the thing is directly behind me. I hope it doesn't set anything on fire because I will surely be the first one to go. yikes.

good news! no pink eye. I guess my eyes have just been super dry and were irritated. I bumped my leg and started tearing up, so my eyes felt better, but my leg hurt like a mother. really weird feeling. if it isn't one thing with me, it's always another...

it's been over three months, and despite already feeling settled in, I am still totally stoked I am in Japan. even though I always complain about how cold it is, I am looking forward to my first white Christmas. :]

a change has come to America, but apparently not to California.

2008-11-06T23:01:00.006+09:00

the world according to my mother: "don't go to Thailand right now, it's dangerous. Vietnam is also dangerous. it's dangerous in Hanoi, too, so be careful. let me ask your aunt to see if Halong Bay is dangerous. are you sure you want to go? I hear it's dangerous."

it's about to get political, y'all.

I spent November 5th glued to my computer, obsessively refreshing CNN.com. it was good that I had a good number of classes that day to teach to keep me from going insane. I didn't want to jinx it, but I knew itw as pretty much decided when I saw lines through blue states, signifying that they had gone from Republican to Democratic since the last election. one of the teachers asked me if I cheered when I found out Obama would be the next president of America. I told him that I didn't because I was in the teacher's room and didn't want to look like a douche, but that my heart had. truth be told, my little heart was doing the electric slide and all kinds of neat victory dances. Matthew told me it was safe to come home, and it actually doesn't sound like such a bad idea now. more on this later.

while we have won one battle, it seems like the fighting must continue for another.

how is it that California is simultaneously one of the most progressive and non-progressive states in America? we overwhelmingly voted for a black president, but chose to strip away fundamental rights from a certain group of people. I think it's bullshit (sorry, I'm angry) that a simple majority was all that was required to change the state constitution. Prop 8 never even should have been on the ballot. I am so angry that fearmongering helped passed this discriminatory piece of legislation. is it 2008 or did we suddenly jump back into the 1950s? I am so sad that the same thing passed in Florida and Arizona, and that same-sex couples have been banned from adopting in Arkansas. wofjdas;khj23;o4piuwdj;oijs;kldj

I am going to Obama City tomorrow. I will eat an Obama burger (don't worry, it's a fish burger because Obama is a small fishing town) and buy a copious amount of Obama paraphernalia like Obama chopsticks, Obama t-shirts, and Obama red bean cakes. I will join fellow ex-patriates and Japanese citizens alike in celebrating Barack Obama's historical victory.

right now, I'm proud to be an American, but less so to be a Californian. it's weird to be happy and sad at the same time.

so, a yen for your thoughts. what is your take on all of the political happenings as of late?

in other news, I hope I don't have conjunctivitis. that's a fancy way of saying PINK EYE. :[ I love kids, but they are germ-carrying little buggers.

edit: if you are against the passing of prop 8, please sign the petition. the fight isn't over!

"are you pregnant?"

2008-11-01T18:55:00.006+09:00

I love Vietnamese. like Japanese, it's also a contextual language (at least I think so!) maybe it's because I can't really read it all that well since there are so many effing accent marks and all that to learn, so I have to rely on sound. I checked my voicemail today. naturally, there was a voicemail from my mama. it went something like this: "Anna, this is mommy. call me back when you're home. is it getting cold over there? are you eating properly? are you pregnant? how's the car situation? when you go to Vietnam, be careful. I heard that some people stab themselves with a needle and threaten to infect you unless you give them money. don't eat bad food! okay, bye." I listened to it while reading some other stuff so I was a bit distracted and had to listen to it again two times. she asked if I had voted, but the word for "vote" in Vietnamese is also the word for "pregnant" (again, relying on sounds. maybe it's written differently) and since she had nonchalantly embedded it in ten other questions, it was just awkwardly funny. she also told me today that she'll disown me if I stay another year in Japan. I laughed at that, too.

it has dipped into the 50s here and I am freezing my non-existent balls off. I've stocked up on tights and turtleneck to wear underneath clothes. scarves and hats galore. I can surprisingly fit into some clothes here that are really cute! it's exciting to go winter clothes shopping. I refuse to turn on my heaters because it's only November. I can handle this! I can handle this!

it's weird to think that I'm building a life here for myself. I have a job, own a car, have bills to pay, sorta know my way around now, am immersing myself in the culture, know people in the community (or rather, have people know me as the foreigner/English teacher) and it's all rather wonderful. I am convinced that Japan hates me and wants me to go home because I was sick three times in the month of October. cold, stomach virus, cold. awesome. good thing it's a new month. time to try for a new record!

the word for "buffet" here is "viking." it makes me laugh. there's an Indian restaurant sorta near me that a bunch of us like to frequent. mmm, naan. you can either order off of the menu or go for the viking/buffet. if you think about it, I suppose it makes sense. eat like a Viking! and then go conquer some new lands.

gas prices have also gone down, which is exciting to no end. when I first arrived in Japan, it was somewhere around ¥189 per liter. that's something like $8.50 a gallon. yeah, what the heck? now it's down to ¥137 per liter, which is a little over $6. I know it's bad for the environment and what have you, but one of my favorite things to do is to drive around aimlessly at night. it's creepy to do here because there are no lights and it's easy to get lost, but I suppose if I'm driving around aimlessly, maybe the point is to get lost.

I went to an agricultural festival today. one of the local high schools is an agricultural high school, so they were selling fruits and veggies that they had grown. there was also a petting zoo? they raise their own chickens and stuff, too. it was nuts. I bought some huge Japanese pears that have been genetically modified to not spoil as fast. they're supposed to last until new years. on the one hand, it may mean that my future babies will have five eyes; on the other hand, it means that my pears won't go bad because I have a tendency to buy produce and forget about it, thus wasting money. SWEET!

I wanted to play hooky and go down to Obama (yes, there is a city in our prefecture named Obama) for the election, but I can't bring myself to skip. I hope you've all done your civic duty. I will be crazily refreshing websites at work on November 5th here. I mailed in my absentee ballot a few weeks ago, so I hope my vote counts. I'm pretty sad I didn't get to vote for the propositions, but I hope enough Californians vote no on prop 8.

I leave you with this. the best part is that there are lyrics at the bottom so you can see what they're saying. my favorite lines (even though I have no idea what it means, really) involve some Japanese, the word "freak," some more Japanese, and "my bro." my junior high kids are obsessed with this stuff. the teachers even did a number to it during one of the festivals. madness, I tell you. welcome to the world of Japanese boybands. 2001 called. it wants its frosted-tip hairdon't back.

edit: apparently I didn't address a few important issues. yes, I did vote. no, I'm not pregnant. I'm not sure if gay people can get married in Japan, but homosexuality is something that is not talked about here. no, I do not eat Hello Kitty snacks, but I do love me some Pocky and Hi-Chew. I will take pictures of my place whenever it looks presentable (which it might never) and I am always in love with some boy. Sprocket is a boy! thanks, Left Atrium. :]

you're gonna be the one that saves me

2008-10-22T22:55:00.003+09:00

I wasn't going to update until tomorrow after I visited my third elementary school, but I went to my first taiko practice tonight and I just had to share with the interwebs how freaking cool it was.

however, we shall proceed in chronological order.

I visited my second elementary school on Tuesday. again, the kids were adorable beyond belief. when do I ever enter a classroom to a roaring round of applause? only in elementary school! I had lessons with first and second graders this time. they kept asking if I was Japanese and blabbered off in Japanese to me at a million miles a minute. they were so enthusiastic about the littlest things. "oh my gosh, we both like sushi?! no way!" they were practically jumping up and down in their seats and raising their hands soooo high whenever I asked if anyone shared my likes. I thought they were all going to pull a muscle! I ate lunch with the second graders. the girls drew pictures of me and basically turned me into an anime character. it looked nothing like me, but they kept gesturing excitedly at the picture and exclaiming, "Anna-sensei! Anna-sensei!" one girl drew a picture of a penguin for me. it is currently on my fridge. they were trying to name all the animals they knew in English. one boy kept flipping his eyelids inside out to freak me out and every time I squirmed or looked away, they all giggled. oh, babies. I'm really excited for my next elementary school tomorrow. hopefully I'll be three for three on amazing visits.

I had my first taiko lesson today. I wasn't even going to go, but I'm very glad that a few friends convinced me to. :] surprisingly, it's the one class that is relatively close to where I live. every other thing I go to/will go to is in the city, which is about a 35-40 minute drive away. the instructor is an older gentleman who has been playing for 40 years and has taught for 16 years. he's freaking brilliant on the drums. taiko involves coordination and talent, so that means I sucked at it. there is obviously the rhythm portion, but it also requires you to moves your arms a certain way. it's harder than it looks, but it was still fun nonetheless. if anything, I got to beat the crap out of something. good way to let out some angst, no? the drums in the room ranged anywhere from $1,000 to 7,000. there are only two classes a month, so hopefully I am able to retain everything I learn. I will be that obnoxious person who drums on everything around them. I apologize in advance! the class periodically plays for residents in a nursing home, too. I am so excitedddddddddd! weeee!

I was unsubscribed from the Dance Marathon mailing list today because the new committee has been chosen. siiiiiigh. it made me very sad. just another reminder of the fact that I am no longer in college. I knew I shouldn't have graduated.

it rained today, as well. apparently that's what autumn is all about here. it'll rain, get colder, and then snow. it got dark around five today. how depressing! I must invest in a kotatsu soon. it's pretty much a low table that has a heating unit. the top part is removable, so you can take it off and wedge a blanket underneath and just slide under the warmth of the table. sounds magical.

we all live in a yellow submarine

2008-10-14T19:52:00.004+09:00

holy mother of all things good, I had such a wonderful day. I had my first visit to my first elementary school (of ten) today, and to be honest, I may have a hard time going home if they are all like this. on a cuteness scale of one to ten, the kids are a 9876576456. I felt like I had died and gone to baby heaven. those little buggers were adorable.

let me start off by saying that I saw the babies (yes, they are small humans; thus, they are babies to me) walking to school as I drove to work. the first thing I thought was that they looked like little ducklings, waddling in a straight line. I say this in the most endearing way possible. they have uniforms, so they were all matching and sporting their yellow "outside" caps. they have white "inside" caps for when they are inside school. they have cute (but a bit unpractical) brown backpacks, and attached to the backpack is a bell to ward off bears. I don't know how often bears frequent this area, but one of the teachers told me about how there was a monkey running around near school this weekend. it was a terrible time to forget my camera at home. I'm taking tons of pictures next time.

this school is relatively small. there are about 70 students total, and each grade has no more than 15 kids. I taught about Halloween and the kids got to go "trick-or-treating," did the Hokey Pokey, and had two story times. there was even "Hello Time" with all of the students and staff, dedicated to getting to know me. one kid guessed that I was 49 years old, another hit it right on the head with 22. what the hell? I guess at that age, your perception of time and age is a bit warped. oh well, I still think the kid who thought I was heading into my early stages of menopause is cute.

I decided to eat lunch with the second graders, who were by far the most interested in me. I think I have a few new best friends for life in that class. the girls were especially excited to talk to me and ask me random things. every time I would walk by their room, they would yell, "Anna-sensei! Anna-sensei!" and wave furiously. they held my hand everywhere and asked me about every piece of jewelry I was wearing. I had heard horror stories from other people about the elementary school kids being really grabby, but I didn't experience any of that. thank goodness. one kid even asked me what my favorite river was and which of the Seven Wonders of the World is my favorite. how the heck do you know about that as an eight year old?

anyway, back to the school lunch thing. the kids have a cart of food outside of their classroom and have to distribute it amongst themselves. I had already asked the teacher if I could eat lunch with them beforehand, so a table was set for me. all of their little desks were arranged in a circle. I planted myself down with my combini sushi lunch (I was too lazy to make lunch this morning) and just watched. like clockwork, the kids who actually would come in contact with the food put on white surgical mask looking things, a cap to hold their hair back, and an apron. so. freaking. adorable. others put trays, milk bottles, and utensils on the table, or brought bowls filled with food. I was amazed. they asked questions throughout lunch and it was just a blast.

they are so much more engaged and excited about English than my junior high kids. maybe cause it's kind of a novel thing to them and they feel like they have more playtime when I'm there, but I totally feed off of their energy. I want it to be December already, if only because it will be time for my next visit to the school. weeee!

I’ve been your Penny Lane long enough, and now I want to be your Grace Kelly.

2008-10-13T14:14:00.006+09:00

gomen, gomen, gomen.
(sorry, sorry, sorry.)

I've been a bad little updater, haven't I? I hate updating for the sake of writing something, so I wanted to have something to share when I finally did post again. you haven't missed much, I promise. last weekend I pretty much puked up my insides, so that was fun. I decided that no one really need a play-by-play recap of that, so I'll spare you. I missed two days of work. I wonder if everyone at school thinks I'm pregnant now. apparently that's what happens if you miss a day or two of work. who would thunk it? I've watched a crap ton of shows/movies from Saturday-Tuesday when I was quarantined, so I think I'm mostly caught up on pop culture references. ready, set, go!

the weather has been so nice lately. it's cooled off considerably. it's supposed to get hot again before it gets cold for winter, though, which I find rather strange. it has already started to get dark pretty early, which does not bode well for winter at all. it's going to be dark and depressing and I will probably come home every night and drown my loneliness with a bottle of wine. and then when I become poor from buying so much wine, I will be sad about that resort to drinking chu-hi. chu-hi is like super crappy and cheap booze that comes in lots of fun, fruity flavors! that'll be awesome. just kidding, I'm still on my sobriety kick.

I went to a festival in my neighboring town yesterday. (pictures to come soon.) it was so much fun. I had a ton of these "churro" things, which were basically fried donut sticks (with ridges and all like a churro!) sprinkled with powdered sugar. yum! there was a parade with tons of people from the community, all doing a coordinated dance. we wondered if there were meetings to teach the dance throughout the year or what, because literally everyone knew the dance. a few of my friends joined in on the fun and danced in the parade. of course, I opted out and took pictures instead, cause there ain't no coordination in these bones. there were dance troupes galore, taiko drumming, and really good food. people even threw free mochi into the crowd! I would say that the one thing I'm missing from everyone elses' JET experience is the "celebrity" effect because I blend in completely. no one really knew I was a foreigner yesterday until I hung out with friends and spoke English. a lot of people who do get the "celebrity" experience say they'd rather blend in, so the grass is always greener, I guess.

today is a holiday, which means no work! who would've thought that Health and Sports Day would be important, right? I've been really spoiled with so many days off. I haven't had that many five-day work weeks. instead, I spent my morning at the orphanage for a Sports Day with the kids. there were two teams competing against each other in various events, and the day ended with a barbecue and free play. we had a three-legged race, relay race, balancing a thingy on a spoon and running as fast as you can, balloon popping contest, tug-o-war, and a bread eating contest. we can tell our presence is already making a difference because the kids open up a lot more and a lot faster - even the tiny little ones who used to cry if we so much as looked their way.

there are so many kids I want to steal from the orphanage and take home, but there's one in particular that is my favorite favorite. he's got this devilish smile, so you always feel like he's up to no good, but he is such a sweetheart. he was my partner for all of the events today, so there was lots of piggyback riding and hand holding. at least there is one boy out there who wants to hold my hand, right? <3 when I told him I was leaving, he asked if I was coming back. aww. I adore him.

I got my ballot in the mail not too long ago. I was excited it even made it all the way out here. who knows if my vote is really going to count, but I'll sleep better at night knowing I tried to do my part. if things continue the way they are going now, staying another few years doesn't sound like such a bad idea. I finally broke the news about staying a second year to my mama this week and she was definitely not a happy camper. oops. hopefully she'll warm up to the idea soon.

anyway, I'm gonna go try not to be a waste of life for the rest of the day. errands, some lesson planning, and cleaning are calling my name. I have my first elementary school visit tomorrow, which I am SO excited for! I think I have to do the Hokey Pokey at some point. hm. either way, yay babies!

Happy Blandizzi Week! I'm celebrating you from Japan. :]

love is a verb

2008-09-28T10:59:00.005+09:00

the scent of freshly baked peanut butter cookies is wafting through my apartment right now. I am in my happy place. I love being Susie Homemaker sometimes! when I was at home, I didn't bake or cook nearly as much as I do now. I guess because things aren't as widely available, if I want something familiar to eat, I have to make it myself. I am going to be a damn good wifey someday. :]

I apologize for slacking in the update department. I didn't go camping, so I will have to share southern adventures later. it's been a long couple of days, but I've been fortunate enough to meet and re-meet some really rad people. we've bonded over music, terrible rap music, knitting, and alcohol (is there anyone out there who knows what the balls a Shandy Gaff is? it sounds like a good name for a Leprechaun.) I've been giving this thing called sobriety a try. with the zero-tolerance when it comes to drinking and driving and trying to save money, it just makes sense to not drink as much. of course, the saving money part is a bunch of crap because I sure do spend it on other ridiculous things. that being said, I am spending less money than I would if I were drinking myself into Cirrhosis.

I was elected one of two First Year Representatives. I'm really excited about this! my co-rep is super cool as well, so if anything, this will give me the chance to be better friends with at least one other person. at this point, we kind of don't really know what we got ourselves into, but we're starting fresh so the sky is the limit, I suppose!

it's in the high 50s/low 60s now, which is absolutely refreshing. it's a nice break from the heat. I think the typhoon (which wasn't that exciting, by the way) brought some cooler weather. the Californian in me is already cold. it's so sad because this isn't even the beginning. winter is going to royally suck and I will probably hole myself in my apartment and sit in front of the heater. I am excited for my first snowy Christmas, though! and consequently my first snowy winter driving experience. hopefully I won't drive into a rice field and have to pay my entire life savings and then some.

get well soon, Claire! <3

?!

2008-09-20T09:47:00.004+09:00

I love hanging out with my block. they are like my family-away-from-home. there are technically nine other people in my block, but I only see six of them on a semi-regular basis. we have block dinner every week or so and it is really nice to see a friendly (read: foreign) face and speak English! we're going camping next week down south and we all know how well Nature and I mix, so stay tuned for some ridiculous story about how I almost drowned or something.

we crashed another block's potluck/p party last night (it was "p" themed so you had to bring "p" food or dress like something that started with the letter "p") and I learned two new things.

first, if you drive your car into a rice field, the entire plot of rice plants would be unusable. in addition to all that you'd have to pay to get your freakin' car out, you'd also have to pay the farmer the money that he/she would've gotten from the harvest. this is totally conceivable because the roads are tiny and there are no barriers. honestly, one little swerve too far in one direction and you will be swimming in the rice paddies. I am deathly afraid of this.

second, if you commit suicide by jumping in front of a train, your family is liable to pay some extra costs. if the train is delayed and people ask for a refund because they can no longer use their express tickets, the family would have to pay for that reimbursement. what the heck? that's so messed up. "your son just died, but some douche is pissed they weren't able to get to Tokyo on time, so you have to refund their ticket."

nice.

Nara

2008-09-17T22:24:00.004+09:00

[this post is a continuation of my birthday adventures. see one post below for Osaka, and two for Kyoto.]

we got up bright and early the next morning for Nara. we walked through Amerika Mura on our way to the train station and saw people stumbling home from a night of drunken debauchery. amazing! there was a 24-hour bar/cafe thing, so we assumed that's where the party had been. it was about an hour train ride from Osaka, and we had to get back to Kyoto in order to take the train home at a decent hour, so the day was a bit rushed.

Nara is home to one of Japan's most famous temples named Todaiji. I guess Nara used to be the capital of Japan way back when, so it's also known for that. one other thing it's known for? having a crap ton of deer.

you see, I am unnecessarily afraid of semi-large animals. I was scathed as a child, so I'm kind of afraid anything bigger than a Golden Retriever will eat my face. I mean, wouldn't you be freaked out for life if a huge dog bit you when you were four or five? makes you feel a little bad for judging me now, doesn't it? jerk.

there were deer everywhere. on the side of the street, in a park, on the way to Todaiji. they are so accustomed to having people around that they just approached everyone and tried to get food. you could buy crackers for ¥150 to feed them, even though there were signs posted around telling you not to get too close and feed them, for fear of them busting a cap in your ass after you ran out of food. I was hoping to leave Nara without being touched by Bambi. as cute as they were, those things were dirty and bug-infested. no rabies for me, thanks. sadly, I think one licked my bag. dammit.

anyway, back to Todaiji. it was pretty rad. I don't think I'll ever be templed-out while in Japan, even though there are so many. there was a huuuuuge Buddha statue called Daibutsu in the center of the main temple area. it's nice to go in there, breathe the incense, and just soak up the history. I can imagine how much more relaxing it would be to go during the off season, when there aren't crowds in the way. I'm Buddhist by association, but I really don't think you have to be religious in the least to enjoy these places.

after that, we went to the Nara National Museum and checked out an exhibit on (you guessed it!) Buddhism. on display were Buddha statues, artwork, scrolls, and other things from... I don't remember what century, but they were all collected from nine different prefectures throughout Japan. I also saw two trannies. one was quite scantily clad. I don't know who dresses like a floozy to go check out temples, but hey, whatever tickles your now non-existent pickle...

Nara was a lot more urban than I expected. then again, most of what I've expected Japan to be has been wrong. I mean in terms of the whole "city vs. rural" thing. I guess I'm out in the sticks, but I'm only a half hour or so drive away from the city, so I'm not exactly having to find a well for my own water, y'dig? I thought Nara would be in the middle of freaking nowhere with temples scattered around for fun, where tall buildings would be few and far in between. not so. they're actually in the process of spiffing up Nara Station, so I'm excited to go back and see how well that thing will actually operate. on our way from the temple to the station, we stopped at a pretty kitschy resto for lunch. I had cake there, since it was my actual birthday, and it was ten shades of wonderful. mmmmm, chocolate.

I watched people make mochi, too. you pretty much hammer rice into a nice, sticky, gooey mess and inject it with red bean paste. soooo yummy. I think there are places where I can make mochi, so I'm definitely going to save that for an angry day so I can do some pounding.

while it doesn't seem like I did all that much from what I've written, I obviously can't write down every single thing that happened. it was a jam-packed weekend, with a lifetime of experiences that I will never forget. yeah, I'm here to be a teacher, but so far, I've done most of the learning. good news is, I've got a long way to go, so there's not going to be a shortage of material any time soon!

Osaka

2008-09-17T21:00:00.004+09:00

[this post is a continuation of my birthday adventures. see one entry below for Kyoto.]

Osaka is your standard big city. there were so many foreigners around that I felt like I was in my melting pot of diversity of California again. the crowds buzz by you in Osaka Station and it's easy to feel overwhelmed. I met up with a friend and braved Osaka on my own the next morning while she tended to other obligations.

I went to the Umeda Sky Building to get a 360 degree view of Osaka. in retrospect, I regret not doing that right before sunset because that would've been breathtakingly beautiful. alas, you live and you learn. next time! I went up about forty stories or so in a glass elevator, so it's kinda freaky if you have a fear of heights. fortunately, I jumped out of a plane before I came to Japan, so pfffft heights. it was a relatively clear day, so I was able to see sooooo much. check out the pictures. I would never be able to do the cityscape justice by explaining it here.

as I was leaving the Sky Building, people were setting up for some sort of Mexican Fiesta. this excited me to no end because you have no idea how much I miss Mexican food. I saw taco booths, huge Corona signs, and sombreros! unfortunately, they really were still setting up, so nothing was for sale. wah waaah. apparently there is going to be an International Beer Festival there in October, so guess who is making another trip to Osaka soon?

next on the itinerary was Osaka Castle, or Osaka-jo. however, the trip wouldn't have been complete without some Anna idiocy. I left my camera at the counter of the automated ticket thinger and went all the way to Osaka-jo before I realized what had happened. I freaked out and ran back to the station. luckily, people here are pretty honest, so someone gave my camera to the employees at the fare adjustment window. is it sad that I wasn't so upset about losing my camera, per se, but the pictures that I had taken? whoops. basically, I paid for four tickets instead of just two. go me! camera lost? check. camera found? check.

Osaka-jo was beautiful. it was surrounded by a moat and kind of on a hill. it was a teeny tiny trek to get there. I spent ¥300 on the best green tea/vanilla soft serve in my life there. I didn't actually go into the castle because seeing it was enough, so I sat around and people-watched some more, while eating my ice cream. your standard street performers were present, except one guy who spun a bunch of things on a metal stick, which he balanced on his finger. yeah, don't ask.

I met up with my friend Galina again and we headed for our capsule hotel. those things ROCK. I thought it would be a little coffin-esque and a horrible experience, but I had no idea they provided you with so much. you get a towel, PJs!, toothbrush, razor, soap for showering, even a shower sponge! sorry. I am easily excited, alright? you pretty much don't need to pack anything because the necessities are provided. there are washing machines, a sauna... the works. the only thing that sucks is that you can hear everything since you are in such close proximity with others. if someone's alarm goes off or they are being loud, you will hear it. bring a pair of earplugs along if you're a light sleeper. it's no Ritz Carlton, but for about $25 a night, it's a sweet deal.

after we set our stuff down, we went to Amerika Mura. it was like a cross between downtown L.A. and New York. it was interesting to see the Japanese version of Little America. I feel like we've butchered their culture so much that I went into it with an open mind and not on the defensive. you know, with the attitude like, "we don't do that in America! what the heck, that's not how I dress!" etc, etc. shops lined the streets. there was a fake Statue of Liberty. oh, home. there was an American Apparel and obviously I had to buy something that is made where I live, but got shipped a bajillion miles here and is overpriced. the cashier was really excited when I told her I was a real live American! and that this stuff is made where I'm from. I guess most youngsters hang out in Amerika Mura, so the fashion is completely wacky. to each their own. I could tell that I was no longer in the sticks because people were certainly not bashful about PDA and there were tattoos galore.

we had dinner in Shinsaibashi. that place is excessively loud and bright. in one of the Japan guides that I read, it said a scene in the movie "Blade Runner" was modeled after this area. I don't know if that helps narrow it down at all... hahah. we ate at a Thai restaurant, and I swear for those two hours, I had almost forgotten that I was in Japan. I ate Thai food all the time at home, so it was a nice, nostalgic feeling. we called it an early night because we were so exhausted from not really sleeping the night before.

besides, we had to haul ourselves to Nara the next day!

Kyoto part ni

2008-09-17T20:22:00.003+09:00

I've decided to split up each city into its own adventure report to avoid having an enormously fatty and boring post. instead, I will have three relatively fatty and boring posts! happy reading. ganbatte!

I have to look at the two hundred some odd pictures I took during the course of the three days to remind me of what I did and saw. three days doesn't seem that long, but at the time (and even in retrospect) it felt like a lifetime. I cannot even begin to stress how fortunate I am to be able to do things like this. I wasn't really going to do anything for my birthday, but at the sorta last minute, decided to mow through the Kansai region. what the hell?

the train ride to Kyoto is my least favorite part of the trip. the train has to go through a few tunnels and those things are loooooud. the scenery is beautiful, though. I love passing through Shiga prefecture and seeing the (I think) man-made lake. the rice fields were still intact there, as opposed to here, where the empty fields are a prelude to the bleak winter that shall surely come.

there is still so much of Kyoto that I have to explore, but what I've already seen could tide me over for a while. I took a train there by myself, and obviously did not die. this was super exciting. I love being self-sufficient. makes me feel like I ticked something off of my to-do list that I had meant accomplish a long time ago.

I intended to go see Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pagoda thinger) but I had hopped on the wrong bus and decided to just go with that. I rode a few random buses and let them show me the city. I really love doing that. I wish I had done that more often in L.A. I definitely saw more than I would've been able to cover on foot. I passed by Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pagoda thinger), a few art museums, and a crap ton of other temples. I wasn't too heartbroken about not being able to see everything because I definitely plan on going back often. it's so close!

I ventured into Gion (where there are supposed to be lots of geishas and maikos in their full garb. maikos are geishas-in-training.) sadly, I didn't see any, but I had myself a wonderful soba dinner. then, I walked along the main river that runs through the city (I forget what it's called) and just people-watched. yes, like a creeper. there were a ton of tourists, but I seemed to be the only douche with my nose buried in a Lonely Planet guide.

after it got dark, I went back to Kyoto Station and went to the rooftop terrace. I didn't want to pay to go up Kyoto Tower, so I opted for the more budget-friendly (read: free) roof. there was a little area called Happy Terrace, which made me chuckle. the view was quite underwhelming, because what can you really expect to see when you're not that high up and when you're surrounded by buildings? nonetheless, it was something I was glad to have done.

I met a nice young man on the train to Osaka. it was a half an hour ride, so we had some time to talk. most of the time, I know where I'm going, but I am so freaking paranoid that I have to ask thirty ways to Sunday if the train is going where I think it will. there was only one seat open and I sat next to him, after having run onto the train because some lady said it was the one! that goes to Osaka. I told him the standard information: I'm a JET, I'm from America, yadda yadda, etc. in his broken English, he asked why I was in Kyoto and going to Osaka. in my broken Japanese, I told him I was there for my birthday. it turns out that his birthday is one day before mine! it was a pleasant surprise. he thought I was Japanese (go figure) and said that for only having six weeks of legitimate Japanese lessons, my Japanese wasn't too shabby and that my pronunciation was good. yatta! :]

after what seemed like the longest day to myself ever, I made it to Osaka.

I turned 22 in Japan. who woulda thunk it?

2008-09-15T19:36:00.004+09:00

I just wanted to quickly say thank you to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday! it is so wonderful to know that I am in your thoughts. I really appreciate you! :] I'm sad I couldn't spend my birthday with friends at home, but it has still been a pretty gnarly birthday weekend filled with new friends, good food, and amazing Japanese scenery. :]

as for my trip, I shall say a little something (okay, a lot something) about it in the coming days. I am too exhausted to make sense, but I really don't want it to be a bunch of gibberish so I'm gonna hold off. the pictures should be up soon, though, so if you wanna skip the words and go right for the images, be my guest!

I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Respect for the Aged day by planning lessons for tomorrow. eek, that's what I get for running off to three different prefectures this weekend. the real world is calling and I don't want to pick up!

kinda maybe sorta pretending to turning Japanese

2008-09-13T09:21:00.005+09:00

thanks to all of my amazing new friends who helped me celebrate my birthday a bit early with an impromptu dinner party last night! thanks especially to Richa and Julie who coordinated the whole thing and to Julie for hosting. I had so much fun and I'm glad I know how to drive out to you in the boonies and not get lost! :] I seriously feel that much more settled in, strangely enough, because I can go out there and see people now.

I'm off to Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara this weekend. I'm paying my respects to the aged! namely... myself. :D I'm heading into Kyoto and Osaka by myself and meeting my friend Galina there. one of my old residents was a foreign exchange student from Japan and actually lives in Osaka, so I hope I can get in touch with him so we can meet! if not, there's always next time. it's not that far away, which is super exciting. apparently there is a place in Osaka called America Mura which is a shopping center with tons of imported western stuff. I guess it's their version of Little America? if I ever get the hankering for home, I could always go down there and buy a few things. maybe hugging the fake Statue of Liberty there will help me feel closer to my beloved country?

that being said, this is my first majorish train ride by myself! and being in a foreign country sightseeing by myself! I hope I don't get lost or die, whichever may be worse. there are no plans, no itinerary, and most importantly: no pressure. that's the best!

like a moth to the flame

2008-09-09T12:34:00.004+09:00

I'm glad the long work week is over. Cultural Festival and Sports Day were super interesting and I'm glad I got to be involved. I posted a crapton of pictures on Flickr, so check those out if you want to see what the kids did. I got to do the three-legged race with a student because they were given cards and had to find the corresponding teachers' name to partner up with. I was standing at the finish line taking pictures when she came and got me. oops. a lot of singing and dancing was also involved. the Japanese are way into ceremonies, I tell ya.

the party afterwards was fun as well. we went to a Japanese-style dinner and to karaoke. the teachers really let loose. they are a fun bunch to watch. no one really cares if you're a terrible singer, just the fact that you're putting yourself out there and singing is all that counts. I'm not sure if it was sunburn or just Asian flush, but those who drank were bright red. :] usually, I have to be at a certain level of drunkenness (read: completely obliterated) to sing karaoke. after they had sung a few songs in Japanese, the teachers put on "Let It Be" by The Beatles for me. my supervisor kept assuring me that it was just for me to listen to (because I had to hear English or my head would combust?) but I sang it with another teacher, anyway. it was a really sweet gesture. and it's my favorite Beatles song, so it was a win-win situation!

yesterday, on my first day off, I went to Kyoto with one of the English teachers. it's surprisingly close to where I am. only took about two hours or so on the train. my friend had discounted train tickets that were about to expire, so she gave them to us to use. Kyoto is really beautiful. so many temples to see. of course, there were tons of tourists and it kind of threw me off a bit. the only foreigners I see around here are the other JETs! we didn't have that much time to do a bunch of things, but we did see one of the more popular temples (which was apparently built without nails?) so it was a good trip, nonetheless. now that I know it isn't such a hassle to get there, I am totally going to go back and do some more exploring. Osaka is only half an hour away from Kyoto on the train! weeee! oh, I ate a raw egg yesterday. the raw egg is placed atop a bed of some sort of smushed yams and you mix it all together and pour it over rice to eat. it was interesting, to say the least, and I'm glad I did it. it wasn't bad, but I don't think it's something I will do again. just the thought of eating raw eggs weirds me out too much.

one of the many things I miss about home is that it's illegal to smoke inside public establishments. so gross. :[ even the "non-smoking" sections are literally an arm's reach from the smoking sections, so it doesn't really make much of a difference. rawr!

yay for three-day work weeks (and half-day Fridays!) I'm already looking forward to this weekend because it'll be a three-day weekend! and I don't have to go to work on my birthday! best present ever.

on a search for my marbles (both figuratively and literally)

2008-09-05T22:25:00.002+09:00

I've been awake since 5:30 a.m. and I didn't leave school until 7:15 p.m. if this is a real life, I want my refund.

granted, I was home between one and three because Friday is technically my half day and I am allowed to leave after fourth period around 12:20 p.m. however, the festivals this weekend require a bit more preparation. that being said, I am never staying at school that late again. I'll leave that up to the crazy Japanese teachers, like my supervisor, who stayed at school until MIDNIGHT yesterday. well... I guess that would be today, technically, but that is neither here nor there.

during my break, I ran a few errands. it's amazing what looking a tad bit nice can do for you here. unless I missed out on the monthly Inaka Bulletin that informed everyone in town that a new gaijin teacher is on the loose, the way I dress gave away that I was in a profession of that sort. I wasn't in a full-on suit or anything, either. just a button up shirt and some nicer pants. I went to the post office, bank, supermarket, and convenience store and they all addressed me as "sensei" for some reason. "sensei" here means more than just teacher, though. I guess sometimes it is also applied to doctors, lawyers, and more people that I can't remember.

after I left school, I hauled ass to Toys-R-Us because I needed to get marbles for tomorrow. my supervisor called and asked beforehand, just to make sure. I now know what the Japanese word for "marbles" is. very useful for life, of course. I got it mixed up, so the cultural festival is actually tomorrow. I must've baked twenty dozen cookies today. a lot of the students were super stoked and asked for the recipe. strangely enough, I think baking cookies made me more approachable, so that was a bonus. I'm giving the cookies away as prizes, since there will be games for the kiddies to play at my Corner o' America. which is why I needed marbles! which is why I made the joke in the title! yes, this post may be a product of delirium; thus, the horrible writing/stream of consciousness. what I meant to say about Toys-R-Us originally is that it carried Doritos, Funyuns, pretzels, the four different kinds of M&Ms, and some other freaking random American snacks. Toys-R-Us of all places! I never would have thought to look there for junk food, but now I know where to go if I need to find a greasily wonderful taste of home.

time for bed. yes, I do sleep this early now. no, I don't care that you're judging me. imagine how much more cracked out I'd be if I didn't sleep at least six hours a night?

...nah, I'd rather not imagine that. oyasuminasai!

p.s. happy birfday to my cousin, Justine. I know she's reading this because she's a creeeeeeper. :] (happy birfday to Richa and Alice, too, in case they are creepers! ;] geez, there are a lot of September 5th babies!)

I am so sad they blocked Facebook at work. D:

2008-09-03T22:18:00.004+09:00

I was going to make myself banana blueberry whole wheat pancakes for dinner tonight, but I was missing a very crucial part of that plan: syrup. I could've sworn I saw some at a store (which was exactly my problem because I couldn't remember which damn store) so I went to a place near my apartment that is usually reliable. that's not to say I didn't find syrup, I just didn't want to pay $14 for it. and the search for semi-reasonably priced syrup begins! if I get desperate enough, I guess I could slather honey on those suckers. okay, wait. no. that's almost sacrilegious.

my third day of work is over. I suppose I'm making some progress because I'm not coming home right away and wanting to fall into comatose sleep. my body is getting used to the schedule. sometimes, it feels so isolating to be at my desk, though, and not know what the hell anyone is saying. I hear people say "America" all the time, so I'm guessing that they're talking about me/the way I do things. when I hear them whispering and laughing, I always wonder if they're laughing at me. I know it's just me being paranoid, but these are some pretty big changes and learning how to deal is going to take a bit. I really hate having to depend on my supervisor/other English teachers to translate everything for me. I can't imagine what it's like for someone who speaks no Japanese whatsoever.

I ate beef today (I think) for the first time in like... two years. I've got to say, school lunches here trump American school lunches. they seem a little less made from a box/can/powder here and I was curious to see what they were like, so I opted to pay for school lunch. saves me the trouble of having to wake up a wee bit earlier and pack my own stuff, right? anyway, cheeseburger was on the menu. I say, "I ate beef today (I think)" under the assumption that most burgers are made of beef. I couldn't really tell what the meat was by observation and taste. it was slathered in this tomatoish sauce and the texture was waaaaay different than a "normal" beef burger. I tried to read the kanji, and I think it was the one for cow, so I put two and two together. smart, no? so why did I cave in after over two years of not eating beef? I decided it would be easier to just eat the thing. I didn't want to stand out any more than I already do or be difficult. oh, not to mention there is this weird, unspoken pressure to eat EVERYTHING that is on your plate. no joke. the first day, I was the only person who didn't finish all of my curry and rice. I asked one of the English teachers what I should do with the extra food and she had to ask around. no one really knew because there is never usually any uneaten food. finally, the nutrition teacher (who I think makes the school lunches?) just gave me a bag to put the food in and trash. besides, the burger didn't taste half bad. I would do it all over again, if presented with the opportunity.

[side note: teachers eat lunch in the teachers' room together (at our respective desks), except for those who have homerooms. then, those teachers will eat with their students. a cart of lunch is brought to each classroom, and the students eat together in their classroom. also, it is the teacher who moves around from class to class, not students. seriously, everything is the opposite here.]

for being an English class, most of the communication is done in Japanese. I guess I'm just used to the whole American technique of scaring the poop out of everyone by using no English whatsoever in that particular language class. maybe these kids aren't at a level where that would be an effective way of running the class. all I know is that I should be able to understand more of what the teacher is saying, given that it's an English class, but I suppose it gives me a chance to better my Japanese? who would've thought...

it's funny how I've lived in America all of my life and should have all of this stuff etched into my brain, but as soon as I move to Japan, it's like most things are erased. I completely forgot about Labor Day, and spent it rather appropriately at work. just shows how arbitrary holidays are - except the ones that give you time off from work. my birthday is on Respect For the Aged Day (what the hell, right?) so I'm gonna have a three-day weekend to celebrate by SLEEPING and doing NOTHING. sounds wonderful already!

this made my day yesterday. on one of my worksheets, a student responded to the question "where do you like to go?" with "I like to go home. school is like hell." word, kid. word.

just kidding. I really do like my job, regardless of how much I complain about it. :]

let's get physical!

2008-09-01T20:49:00.007+09:00

I don't know how people with real jobs are able to sustain a social life. I'm exhausted, and I didn't even do that much today.

today was a good first day. I was just kind of thrown into the water, but I was able to doggie-paddle my way to shore! my supervisor is a pretty busy lady, so I didn't really have a chance to ask her to clarify much. she was always on the run. luckily, I have super nice English teachers on staff, so they were able to help me. even the non-English teachers opened up to me. a few used whatever English they knew to make me feel more welcome and I appreciated the gesture so much. conversations ranged from science to anime. the teachers were really surprised I knew about Doraemon and Totoro! I introduced them to The Simpsons as our version of animation. :] I made everyone little goodie bags with homemade chocolate chip cookies, Starbursts, and Jolly Ranchers. it was a hit! yay bribing. I lugged a few bottles of wine over, so I gave one to my principal and vice principal. I said they were from California, just like me! my principal loved it, because he got a UCLA t-shirt with the wine. he's such a cool dude.

[omiyage - giving gifts, usually when you return from vacation or somewhere far, is pretty common in Japan. the importance of omiyage was stressed so much during my orientations at home that I thought I was gonna have a heart attack. I had to go to school on the first day after orientation and my boxes hadn't arrived; thus, I had nothing to give. long story short, I worried for nothing. while I'm sure they didn't expect anything from me since I'm a foreigner and it was my first time coming to Japan, it was probably a nice gesture to give a little something, anyway.]

the day consisted of a teachers' meeting, practice for opening ceremony (which is a very Japanese thing because we practiced for a long time for the contract signing ceremony that lasted all of ten minutes), the opening ceremony, homeroom, information about sports day, lunch, practice of coordinated dance/cheering for sports day, and preparation for the cultural festival this weekend. I gave a short speech in English and Japanese during the opening ceremony to the entire school. my supervisor failed to give me a heads up about bringing a change of clothing, so while all the teachers were decked out in their awesomely 80s gym attire, I was sweating it old school in my nice button up shirt and slacks. it was brutal outside today.

sports day = the school split up into color teams competing against each other in silly events. running a relay race with a huge flag of your team's color, three-legged race with jumproping, hurdling and eating a marshmallow?, and something else that I can't remember.

I am only contractually obligated to stay until five, but school didn't end for everyone until 6:30. I met them in the middle and stayed until 5:45, but didn't intend for it to be that even steven. thank goodness Fridays are half days. I get to leave at noon!

I start teaching tomorrow. I'm going to be doing a self-introduction lesson for a few days. since the students' English is relatively limited at this point, it's all very simple stuff. my name is, I am from, this is my friend/family member x, I am x years old, I like... is pretty much all I'm going to cover. I kept getting called Anna-sensei at school today. really weird, but it made me feel super special. many Japanese teachers also complimented me on my Japanese. I know they were doing it to be nice, but it helped me feel less incompetent. (using Microsoft Word today was fun because it was all in Japanese. >:o )

going back to the festival thing, one of the English teachers invited me to a drinking party (for serious, I didn't just say that - that's what she called it) after the festival on Sunday. Japanese Teachers Gone Wild? I'll let you know Monday morning...

no school Monday and Tuesday. weeee!

you make my heart sing

2008-08-31T16:53:00.003+09:00

today pretty much made my month.

everyone knows I <3 babies (not literally because I call kids upwards of ten or twelve babies) and I got to spend time at a nearby orphanage today with other JETs. we played games in small groups for about two hours. monkey in the middle, duck duck goose, bingo, magic card tricks, telephone, memory games... think kindergarten all over again. with kids, the language barrier isn't an issue. honestly, if you try to explain it and show through examples, they'll pick it up. even if they don't, it's not a big awkward mess. I even got some hugs! and many high fives, although they call them "high touches" here. I took some pictures, but apparently I'm not allowed to post them on the interweb, so email me if you want to take a peek. they are really precious and yes, I was tempted to take one home. however, I do believe that is considered kidnapping. :[

work starts tomorrow. I will officially be a part of the machine with my eight-to-five job. it has felt like an extended vacation until now. I have to make a speech in front of the entire school, but didn't find out until last night. and that was only because I asked. I doubt I would've found out otherwise. I am not looking forward to going to school in a suit in this weather.

mini-excerrent adventure

2008-08-28T09:20:00.005+09:00

it's already been a stressful day and it's only 9:20 a.m.

as mentioned in the last post, I had to go to school today to introduce myself to the teachers and principals. I had a nice little speech prepared in Japanese and everything!

off to school I went, in my little silver car (whose insurance cost more than the car itself - go figure) around eight. I had to be at school at half past for the teacher's meeting. I live about ten minutes? away from the school via car, so I didn't think it would be too bad of a journey.

WRONG. the first time I visited the school was on my first time to my city. my city = where I am living, not the big city that I'm usually talking about when I say, "I'm going into the city" blah blah blah. after five days of assorted orientations, I was cracked out beyond belief. I think most things went in one ear and out the other.

thanks to the lack of street signage and the fact that all the damn streets are little and look the same, I didn't remember where to turn. it started pouring rain and I didn't want my first impression to be of me being late. I took some wrong turns, ended up driving through a huge tunnel, and almost wound up in another city. I wanted to drive my car into the myriad of rice fields and just cry, but instead, I figured it would be better if I called my supervisor to ask her for directions. she told me to stop at the police station (WHAT IS IT WITH ME AND THE POLICE HERE) and she would come get me. we barely made it to the meeting on time. I gave my little speech, bowed a few hundred times, and then went home. there was no point in staying for the meeting because it would've been conducted purely in Japanese.

anyway, school starts Monday. I have to go back in tomorrow in the afternoon to do some work. there's going to be a school festival next weekend. my supervisor told me to prepare a bulletin board/presentation thinger on my country. the kiddies will walk by and I should be available to answer questions. I am totally going to put stuff about Japanese Dodgers players and Little Tokyo. and of course, I can't leave out things about Obama. ;] there's a city in the prefecture named Obama! how wonderful. if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

my boxes o' crap come tomorrow! I'm so excited to have my things, even though I have no idea where I'm going to put everything. I think the majority of things I shipped include winter gear and books. WEEEE!

I r so dum.

2008-08-27T22:52:00.003+09:00

so you've found yourself at a new blog (meaning new URL) but everything looks exactly the same. why is that, you ask?

because Anna is a poopfacejerkhead. and really paranoid, at that.

I link to my blog in the signature of my emails. this is so I don't forget to let everyone know about the blog, so they can read about how I am doing! smart, kind of, but also rather tricky. obviously there are some people who I don't necessarily want reading my blog and what (sort of? possibly?) mean things I have to say, so I have to delete the signature before I send the message.

well, genius here forgot to delete the signature before replying to a message from my supervisor. not the best person to be reading about how I find flushing sounds on toilets interesting and how Japanese people are silly sometimes. I know she could very well google this, but I'd rather not know about her knowing... y'know? like I said, I'm paranoid.

I apologize for any inconvenience and confusion, but after that scare, I'm gonna be a bit more careful from now on. welcome home. again.

beep beep!

2008-08-27T22:49:00.003+09:00

I got paid last week. it's really weird to be paid for doing nothing. I suppose it's my "thanks for leaving everything and everyone you know and love in your home country" bonus, so I'm not complaining. I am truly on my own now. a ton of people I know have been on their own for a while now, and started when they were even younger than I am, but still - this is big for me. I've always been very fortunate and had my hand held pretty much all of my life. I'm making enough to sustain myself. I'm all growed up, y'all.

I've been in Japan for exactly a month today. it's kinda nutty how time flies so quickly sometimes. despite the occasional (okay, fine - often) miscommunication or complete blank "huh?!" stare, I totally had my first gaijin moment today. I went to have dinner today at one of those revolving belt sushi places. I was by myself, and obviously I look Asian enough to pass as Japanese, until I open my mouth and all that comes out is crappy Japanese. that means I totally pegged myself as a foreigner. as I was eating, the workers just stared at me. I don't know whether they were waiting for me to do something "foreign" or puke up all of the sushi or perform like some monkey? I guess watching me chew is a turn-on.

...

being gawked at is no fun, but it comes with the territory. I've never felt so alienated in my entire time here as I did in that tiny little sushi restaurant. dramatics aside, it wasn't so bad, but regardless, at that moment, I knew what it was like for my gaijin friends who aren't Asian. when we're in a group and a Japanese person needs to talk to us for some reason, they usually come straight to me and start talking a billion miles a minute. this is funny because there are a few other people who speak a lot better Japanese than I do, but because they don't look the same, obviously they wouldn't understand! enough of this rant.

jhghdtruoyyi; I have a car now! thank goddess for being mobile. I struggle with the speed limit, which is usually less than thirty miles an hour, but the fear of getting a speeding ticket and hassled by the popo keeps my speed demon tendencies at bay. now I can have even more adventures that don't involve taking a crazy bus (maybe I'll tell you about that in another post) or bumming rides off of people. YAY! I've been so very fortunate to have such helpful people. my predecessor, my supervisor, and all of my other friends have been amazing to me. thank you!

I'm going to school tomorrow morning to meet all of the teachers. uh, I hope I don't accidentally pronounce something wrong, thereby insulting someone's mother. wish me luck!

all you need is love?

2008-08-18T22:49:00.002+09:00

I realized it may be in my best interest to blog with a bit more discretion from now on. as much as it pains me to have to censor myself, meaning not use friends' names in some circumstances and quit cursing all the time (sigh) I know that this is accessible to everyone. that also means my employers... and maybe students! not that I would say anything bad or reveal super secret information that would cause me to be fired and deported (at least I hope not) but it is there for all the world to read. I don't want to get in trouble because of my silly internet blog, so I must be careful. hold me to it, yeah?

Japan is really beautiful. I still don't fully believe that I am living here, so sometimes it feels like I'm still just a visitor. there are mountains and tons of rice fields, and the little houses are pretty much how you'd picture them in your head. all of this should equate a serene sight, no? the reality of it is that there are these things called cicadas that are kind of a buzzkill. they are so freakin' loud, I swear. on that fateful night when Claire and I got lost, as we were walking back to her car before it all happened, we think one fell on her foot. needless to say, we ran (while kicking at the same time in case there were more... I have no idea how one accomplishes that, but we did it) really fast. it's really eerie at night, because you hear all this buzzing in the trees; sometimes the leaves look like they're moving from all the vibration, I suppose. it's difficult to even describe the sound. I'll have to record it one day and post it. it's like a cross between my Sonicare toothbrush and some sort of high-pitched chainsaw. I DON'T KNOW. the bottom line is that they unnecessarily creep me out and need to go away.

speaking of bugs, I do believe I've been bitten by the J-pop bug! I didn't think this day would come, y'all. even though I have no idea what the heck the singers are saying and can't read the lovey dovey (I'm assuming) text messages that the actors are sending one another, I am obsessed with this song. it doesn't help that I hear it everywhere. there are a few English lyrics, so I find that I end up humming those lines to myself all the time. all I know is that こころ (kokoro) is heart - the intangible feeling kind, because the word for the actual organ is しんぞ (shinzo)... I think! don't quote me on that. all the date scenes are super innocent. you know in America, we'd have a huge tonsil hockey scene at the end, sprinkled with some sexual tension throughout. maybe some girls washing a car with white t-shirts on or something, too? ridiculous gratuitous stuff.

...sorry, I spent all day at home so I don't have anything that interesting to tell you about. :D tomorrow, however, is a new day!

Mountain Man, Mountain Man... does whatever a Mountain can

2008-08-17T22:48:00.002+09:00

I have good news and bad news. good news (for most of you, at least) is that I'm still alive! bad news is that Mount Fuji pwned me. I don't really see it as that much of a loss, but maybe this is me trying to make myself feel better about not making it to the top. I thought I'd get that out of the way first. no, I did not see any Fuji apples, but I did buy three peaches for a thousand yen in case they would be the last peaches I would ever eat on Earth. :D

after our eightish hour bus ride to the other side of Japan, we reached Mount Fuji around nine p.m. on Saturday and began ascending that bitch of a mountain. when we first started, there were random bouts of lightning that made the climb that much cooler. there are ten(?) stations. and I'm not gonna lie, everyone gets dropped off at the fifth station, so we started our climb there. it was dark as shit out and kind of scary. there were rocks everywhere (it's a mountain, duh) but they made the climb a bit worse because one bad step and you'd totally slip. the small pebble things were the worst. for those of you with bad ankles and knees, this would be hell. I was especially worried about my whole herniated disc and squashed sciatic nerve fiasco, but it didn't bother me that much in the end. thank goddess. if anything, the long bus ride irritated it more than the act of climbing. weird, no?

there were also steps along the path that were (no kidding) about a foot high. I mean, I'm about as tall as Japanese women, if not a bit taller, and I had trouble. oh, the irony. also, it seemed like there were a lot of European tourists because I heard quite a bit of French and German on my way up (and down, as it were, but we'll get to that later.)

I climbed for about two hours and got halfway to station seven before I felt like I was going to die. the strange thing was that I wasn't out of breath or tired from climbing, I was just lightheaded, nauseous, and felt like I was going to pass out. hello, altitude sickness. I hadn't even ever heard of such a thing before last week, but lucky me! I got to experience it first-hand. my block leader recommended that we bring oxygen tanks, so I got one of those aerosol-sized cans of oxygen from a sporting goods store. with me, you can never be too prepared. on the side of a trail on Mount Fuji, I was sucking the livelihood out of that can, hoping it would make me feel better. it was kind of hilarious, because what else can you do in times like those, except laugh? I felt so guilty for having to abandon my climbing buddy, D'Arcy (sorry, Darce!) but we agreed it was for the best that I go back.

thus began the walk of shame back down that freaking mountain and the pukefest. it was really dark and I walked back by myself, so you can imagine how fun that was. it was also freezing! one wrong turn would land me on the wrong side of the mountain and a $200 cab ride to the other side. I'm pretty sure I would've really fallen off the mountain if D'Arcy hadn't given me her flashlight. I puked all the way back as a result of the altitude sickness, so somewhere along Mount Fuji are remnants of my miso ramen dinner and my DNA. how many people can say that they puked on Mount Fuji?! I would be really sad if I ever found out that it is a common thing. so not only was I paying homage to the invisible porcelain gods on my way down, my toes were being rammed against the front of my shoe from the terrible slope/rocks/path/mountain in general. loooooooovely.

many people warned us about being passed up by grannies on the way to the top. I didn't see any grannies, but I was shocked to see a kid who couldn't have been older than five or six. I mean, I was coming down the mountain around one a.m. or so and he was on his way up with his family. my child would be in bed and counting little Lambchops by then! what kind of fucked up reward is that? I would definitely use that as a punishment instead of some family bonding trip. "hey, clean up your room and eat all your veggies or I'll make you climb Mount Fuji." you bet your ass that room and plate would be spotless. I guess this is why I'm going to make an amazing mother someday. :]

after my stomach settled a bit, I went back to the bus to hang out with the others who decided to return for whatever reason. I couldn't take many pictures because, as aforementioned, it was too dark and I was too busy vomiting. it was still a fun trip, despite the failure. I'm proud of myself for even attempting, because I normally don't do outdoorsy crap like this for obvious reasons. if I stick around for another year, I'll probably go back when the newbies go next year. it's not like I'm on some mission to conquer the mountain, but I want to see if I can actually vomit off the top of Mount Fuji, as opposed to along it. that and being in the clouds is really cool.

we're on the edge of a beautiful thing, so come on, let's jump!

2008-08-15T22:47:00.001+09:00

so.

I'm climbing Mount Fuji tomorrow with a bunch of JETs. if I don't blog for a while, that may mean that I fell off the mountain, and thusly, am dead.

...or that the Yakuza got to me again. wish me luck!

I finally got around to figuring out my Flickr account stuff. for those of you who aren't on Facebook, click here for some visual stimulation! wait, that sounded better in my head. anyway, the pictures look better on Flickr. :D enjoy!

two gaijin walk into a Circle K...

2008-08-12T22:46:00.002+09:00

my goodness, what a crazy two weeks it has been! I haven't been able to blog or do anything because I was held captive by the Yakuza. I guess this tattoo thing is a really big deal in Japan? they checked my back for a dragon tattoo, but since I didn't have one, they knew I didn't used to be one of them (hence not going AWOL) so they let me go in peace.

just kidding. I thought that would be more interesting than just saying that I didn't have internet until now. I feel like there are fifty bajillion hoops I have to jump through because I am a foreigner. it sucks to be on the other side, no?

first of all, I have to say that it is hot as heck here. the humidity is killing me. you're already sweaty by the time you wake up in the morning. I counter this by having the air conditioning on through the night. I wouldn't be able to sleep otherwise. I tried to be cheap at first and just tough it out because I didn't want to have a fatty electricity bill, but I don't even care anymore. being able to escape the heat is exciting. I know - I've been reduced to cheap thrills.

secondly, produce is expensive as heck here. scurvy could be a legitimate concern because things are so expensive. I guess this is because pretty much everything but rice is imported. when my mama told me not to go to Japan because everything is so expensive, I thought she was lying to me. guess not! I took for granted how much was available in California. man, what I would do for a fresh mango...

you know those jokes that start out with, "a guy walks into a bar..."? well, "two gaijin walk into a Circle K..." is something Claire and I are going to be laughing about for a long while. gaijin = foreigner, by the way. the phrase was first introduced to me by my son, Matt Sperry. :]

Claire is another JET who lives the closest to me. she's about fifteen minutes or so (by car) away. we decided to drive into the city to meet group b orientation people. it was going to be an adventure, in that it was Claire's first time driving in Japan - which means that includes driving on the other side of the road, in the other side of the car, and with no street signs because I swear to goddess Japan is gaijin-proof. I served as moral support and co-pilot.

the drive into the city is about half an hour long. it should really take about ten minutes, but since the speed limit is 40 kmh/50kmh on some roads (read: 24 mph and 31.06 mph, respectively) it's like driving miss freaking daisy. we made it there just fine and were quite proud of ourselves, even though we parked at some sketchy back alley lot that has an elevator to lift your car up to parking spots. we arrived at the barbecue and went to Bear's (the bar most JETs go to in the city) and blah blah blah it was hunky dory.

on the way back, however, we got lost. we somehow ended up in a neighboring (kind of) city, but since we've been here... oh, a week and some change, we couldn't tell north from south and being surrounded by RICE FIELDS didn't help any. honestly, we saw clusters of buildings/bright lights and couldn't get to them because we would start driving down a road only to have it be a dead end into a rice paddy. so basically we were lost in a foreign country. it was kind of dark and creepy, and I expected some fool to go at us with a chainsaw. seriously.

we stopped at a 24-hour McDonald's to ask for directions, but the lady didn't really know what she was talking about. I know it's not because of how crappy my Japanese is since she drew us a map that wasn't accurate in the least. for example, the map told us to turn when we saw a Lawson's (a convenience store) and there would be a Circle K somewhere after that. there was no Lawson's and we saw a Circle K and we hadn't even turned. before we drove off into the abyss again, we decided to stop at the Circle K to try our luck once more.

luckily, that morning, I had copied my address in kanji (the simplified Chinese writing that the Japanese adopted) into a notebook that I keep in my purse. after unsuccessfully asking how to get to my city a thousand times and getting a different answer each time, I pulled out the notebook and just pointed, while saying, "MY HOMEEEEEEE!" in my terribly broken Japanese. I asked crap like "which way is this?" and "where is this?" Claire had her English-Japanese dictionary and tried, too. after a while, we all gave up. one of the nice older Circle K ladies walked away for a bit and came back, with news that she had just called the police to come help us.

at this point, I was like, "police?! poop, I am going to be deported." it seemed like an eternity before they showed up. mind you, it is close to two a.m. they asked for identification and things like that. then, they told us to just follow them the entire way back to my apartment.

it took us over two hours to get home? and a police escort, at that. I can't believe the kind of crap that happens to me. I guess i wouldn't have anything to write about otherwise. I have a feeling that I will have many other getting lost stories. sweet. it really is crazy how much you can communicate via body language and gestures, though. I've had to come up with some pretty interesting ways to express myself since I've gotten here.

in other news, I watched Batman Begins in Japanese earlier! on my phone, nonetheless. cool, haw?

flushing noises

2008-07-29T22:46:00.002+09:00

I had no idea sitting could be so tiring.

I don't want to complain about orientation too much, though, because it is a means to an end. I'll be okay with it if that's what I have to do in order to be in Japan. they're actually wining and dining us pretty well, so I am grateful.

I didn't think it would be that different to be in Japan. I mean, I am Asian, right? however, the fact that I am American trumps any Asianness. I'm sure this will hit even harder once I start work, but the whole thing about individualism vs. collectivism is already apparent.

also, I am already learning fascinating things about the Japanese that they don't tell us about in the sessions. well, they did tell us that Japanese people don't really jaywalk. am I really going to wait for the light to turn when I'm going home drunk at 3 a.m.? we'll see. wait, will I even have traffic lights where I am? oops.

on western-style public loos (read: toilet), there are a bunch of buttons. one is for the water pressure if you decide to spray yourself in the butt (because the toilet acts as a bidet as well) and to stop the water. also! there is a button for flushing noises because Japanese people don't like to hear themselves/each other pee or something. isn't that kinda neat? they used to just flush the toilet a bunch of times, but in an effort to be greener, they just put a button that produces the noise on the toilet. the toilet in my hotel room simply makes the noise for a certain period of time when you sit on it.

I know, I'm easily amused. :]

sumimasen, nanji desu ka?

2008-07-28T21:44:00.002+09:00

I spoke my first Japanese phrase while in Japan today, and I actually understood the response. granted, I only asked what time it was, but still! the hotel man answered like I was a native speaker or something! this is so exciting! lots of exclamation points!

I suppose I should back up and say that I am in Tokyo. we arrived at Narita International Airport close to four p.m. Japan time (midnight Pacific time zone) and took an hour and a half bus ride to Shinjuku where the hotel is. I'm sitting in my hotel room right now. please don't give me shit for updating my blog or telling me that I should be exploring. I am so exhausted. I am in Japan. there is plenty of time for that. :] I don't think I'll have a problem adjusting to the time difference.

holy hell, Japan is humid. it even rained a bit today, as we were waiting outside for the bus to whisk all 4634234232 of us to the hotel. we arrived en masse and probably caused a lot of congestion.

even my computer is thinking in Japanese now. it loads stuff in Japanese at first and then changes it to English. I hope that's the way my brain will work, too. baby steps! for now, I am content knowing what time it is.

oyasuminasai! good night.

rawr!

2008-07-26T17:37:00.000+09:00

hello, fair readers!

please know that I apologize profusely for any future inane posts I will definitely be writing. cause you know there will be a crap ton of them.

if you're still with me, though, you will be reading about my life in Japan. this includes work (but not in too much detail because apparently Big Brother is watching the internets), my travels, and how I am adjusting to the Japanese culture. I may sprinkle a few Japanese phrases here and there, but I will not leave you in the dark! (inaka = countryside/boondock, what have you). I'm going to link to some sort of photo hosting site for you visual people after I set it up. I haven't decided to go with Picasa or Flickr yet. any thoughts?

it is officially Saturday, July 26 and I leave for Japan today. my flight leaves at 12:45 p.m. the flight is about ten hours, or so I've heard. you bet your ass I am having myself a glass of wine during that thing. I hope the in-flight movie doesn't suck. the iPod is juiced up and ready for action!

note that the time difference is sixteen hours - Pacific time zone to Japan. I mean, not that you would even wake me up if you did call, because Skype will direct everything to voicemail if my puter isn't on. just for AIM meet-up purposes. :] switch a.m. to p.m. (and vice versa) and add four hours! easy, no? you'll have to figure out daylight savings crap on your own.

if you want my address so we can be pen-pals, let me know! that would excite me to no end. otherwise, all other modes of communication are still intact. AIM/gchat, e-mail, Facebook, and phone! I'm glad I don't have to "rough it" like my friends Courtney (who is going to Africa soon!), and Caitlin (who is already there). more power to y'all.

my next post should be from Japan, unless there is something I just have to say before I leave. ...well, that's if I have internet access while in Tokyo.

thank you to my wonderful family and friends who saw me off this (and last) week. thank you for all the well-wishes, the cards to read on the plane, and promises to visit. you are all amazing incentives to come back.

sayonara for now, America. I'll miss everyone dearly!

all my love,
Anna