Saturday, November 3, 2007

   In this world, not everything will be won by justice. If you want to win, you have to learn how to cheat a little bit! - Takagi Yasushi, NANA

Well.......how is it? I think maybe it's a bit difficult to read in some places, so let me know if anyone has an idea to fix that. Also, while I'm thinking about it, Dad, the left side of the page thing isn't a formatting problem everyone's site is like that. Mine's just more pronounced since I use a picture and not a solid color background. So, today is Culture Day in Japan. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but if it weren't on a Saturday we'd get a holiday for it. There's a big festival going on downtown this weekend and people from all over the world come perform. Supposedly there are acrobats and some really spectacular stuff, but last night all I saw was clowns and some freaking looking people who were all painted green. I've heard good and bad things about it from other people here so.......yeah, I think I'm staying home today. Maybe I'll go back out tomorrow and see how it is. Today I'm going to try to catch up on some stuff online and around the house. So now, here's some pics I should have posted a loooong time ago! First, a very famous place in Tokyo that I went (briefly) on my 2nd day in Japan. I don't expect most people to know it, but if you otaku don't I'll be very disappointed! If you really have no clue, don't worry about it. It's a sign inside a train station and if you get the reference you'll be really excited. If you don't, even if I explain it you won't care. Just know that it's famous. Next is a group from my office when we went to Tokyo Disneyland in the end of September. It was really fun, but rainy and crowded. Finally, the view from my front balcony now that the weather is turning cold and clear... When I first got here people kept telling me, "you can't see Mt. Fuji now, but you'll see it in the winter" but a few times I saw it early in the morning and I thought, "oh well, it's just a big dark shape in the distance, that's not very cool." But.......now! Now I see what they meant! Here's a zoomed in view... You can see the snow on top really well! It's so cool! I actually stopped on my way to the elevator and ran back inside for my camera the day I first saw it like this. You can't see it from just anywhere in the city, as you can probably tell from the first picture, b/c of all the buildings. I live on the 6th floor though so I've got a pretty good view of just about everything. Well......I think I've only got a few more pictures to talk about from a long time ago, and then I'll have to go some more exciting places! Unfortunately now that school is really going, I spend most of my time working so I don't have a lot of fun things to talk about right now. Some people go out or travel a lot on the weekends, but.......I get tired pretty quickly recently. I guess I'm working harder than I realize. Anyway, when my brother gets here we'll definitely go to some cool places. That's all for now!

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Friday, November 2, 2007

   No matter what bad things a person has done, if he then does something good people might think he's actually a good person. - Miria Harventt, Baccano!

That's right, isn't it? Ah......I suck. Sorry everyone! I don't even have any pictures to post right now b/c Photobucket is undergoing maintenance. I am planning to give this site an overhaul this weekend though so keep an eye out for some cool new stuff soon! So......important things that have happened since my last post....let's see..... 1. Goodbye party for the little mountain school 2. Started working at the big city school 3. Welcome party for that school - we had fondue! 4. Halloween party (on the same night!) for foreigners 5. Visited an elementary school and taught 3rd and 4th graders 6. Taught my middle schoolers about Halloween 7. Attended my school's chorus contest (today) 8. Sang at an international festival downtown (sorry, I still don't have the video...) 9. Went to Tokyo Disneyland! Important things coming up: 1. Daidogei - this weekend, international street performers festival 2. Going back to the elementary school next Friday to teach 1st and 2nd grades 3. Mid year JET conference (Nov.22) where I'll get to see some of the people I left Florida with 4. My brother coming to visit (not till Dec. 16th......) Otherwise I've been trying to stay out of the cold and not spend too much money! I seem to have become even more obsessive about model building recently, but I'm trying to do more drawing again soon too. I've gotten tons of drawings from my students as presents and they keep saying they want some of mine. I don't know if I want to start that though b/c there are 600 kids in the school and if I give something to one of them......well, it'll just be a domino effect!

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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

   I'll change, even if it's just a little. - Ikari Yui, Angelic Days

Here is a video of my kids cheering at Sports Day! They're so awesome! I'm sorry I haven't been able to post in a long time, but things just keep getting busier and busier around here! Here's some pictures from last Sunday, the most fun day ever! Me running the relay. The guy that went before me was super fast! The white team getting ready to cheer. The Japanese language teacher getting in on the tire-fight-race. Ever seen this race on "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge!"? (aka Takeshi's Castle...) I'm sorry this post sucks..........I really want to tell the story of all the fun races we had and other events too but I don't have time! I'll just say that my team lost, but it was lots of fun anyway. After the Sports Festival there was a party for teachers and parents at this Japanese style room/meeting house and we had sushi and other good stuff. Next weekend I'm going to Tokyo Disneyland!!! Talk to everyone soon I hope!

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Monday, September 17, 2007

   They're flying faster than mushrooms! - Okazaki Shinichi, NANA

Ahahaha! And then Nobu yells "Mushrooms don't fly!" Ah......but it would be cool if they did, ne? Sorry I haven't made a post in almost a week. Things have been REALLY busy around here! If this post is a bit disjointed I apologize, but I'm typing it while I talk to my little "Bakura-chan". He's nine years old today! Today was a holiday in Japan, Respect for the Aged Day, so I finally got a little free time to come by here. Ever since last Wednesday I've been running around like crazy. That day I stayed late at school to help my student practice for the speech contest. Then that night I went to an oden restaurant with all the other teachers (all 10 of them.......it's such a small school!) for a party. I spent the night up there too since there weren't any more buses going back down the mountain. Then on Thursday it was the speech contest. My student didn't win, but I didn't really expect her to. All of us ALTs had to stand up and introduce ourselves and then write comments for the kids. I didn't realize it was such a big deal that we were there, but everyone was really happy. There was even one kid who talked about how he was "otaku" in his speech! He said he thought that after English, anime would become a second international language because people could learn to understand each other from watching it. I was so proud even though I didn't know him! I went to talk to him at the break, but I didn't get much time. We just talked about watching Lucky Star! On Friday I missed the bus back home because I was so into watching the kids practice for Sports Day! Luckily I got a ride with my English teacher since the Board of Education was having a party for all the ALTs. After that a bunch of us went out and then the girls had a sleepover at Stacey's apartment which was really fun. Then Saturday Jasmine and I went to Fujieda (about 20 min by train) to meet some other ALTs who speak French and watched a French movie at one of their teachers' houses. I was sitting there thinking "wow......." the whole time. There I was, in Japan, in a Japanese lady's house, watching a French movie, eating French desserts, and speaking French with three Canadian girls! It was pretty surreal. Yesterday we were supposed to have Sports Day, but it was raining so it's been moved back to next Sunday. I watched some of an international dance festival with the other girls. Some of the Japanese ones kind of reminded me of karate. It was so cool, it made me want to join in! Their costumes were really cool too! Today Shirley and I went to eat at the Kappa Zushi (a kaiten sushi place where the food goes around on a conveyor belt - it's really good and cheap!) and did a little shopping. I'm going to try to go to bed early tonight so I guess I should stop now and show some picutres! The mountains around my school. Hopefully after Sports Day I'll have pics of the people I work with. Lanterns from the last obon festival we went to in August. The temple entrance way all lit up for obon. The first model I've finished since I've been here, Evangelion 03! What? Yes.........that is what you think. I got a new bike today.........in a department store, and then rode it 10km to get home!

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Monday, September 10, 2007

   Even if the paths we walk are different, it's good to have friends. - Ukitake Juushiro, Bleach

Hello again! Wow, I'm posting fast lately, huh? I've got a lot of catch up to do with all the pictures I've taken though. Also, it's been the weekend so I had plenty of free time. Since today was Monday we only had to work half a day. The 2nd and 4th Mondays of every month we go to the Board of Education and have a meeting in the afternoon so that was today. The other Mondays we go to our schools in the mornings. So today was mostly just paperwork and talking about how we all like our new schools and what we've taught so far. Actually there was a lot of time where people just sat around and talked so....I read my Weekly JUMP! It comes out every Monday so it's perfect. I'll keep the writing short again since there's not much to talk about and I only have 30 minutes before I have to get on iChat with everyone from my old school. That will be fun! Here's some more Shizuoka pictures for you all! this bus cracks me up! it's advertising for Pachinko (kind of like slot machines, but they use little white balls instead of money) a cicada - man are they noisy on the weekends there are always people doing shows in the streets downtown like this. Once I saw 5 guys doing a basketball trick/break dancing routine. It was crazy! the tiny little gundam shop! me, Shirley (the one hugging me) and Nana-chan on my first night in Shiz! After this place we went to karaoke!

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Sunday, September 9, 2007

   All the things that I say, will someday fade away. But the message in these songs has kept me sane all along. - P.S. Shock the World, Less Than Jake

If I'd come to Japan a week earlier I could have seen them at Fuji Rock Festival! Fuji City is only about an hour from here by bus. I think they're pretty popular here though so maybe they'll be back before I leave. So, I'll try to keep it short today since there's not much to report. I've been enjoying my internet and chatting with people back home. I don't have to work tomorrow until 1pm and then it's only for 3 hours. Mondays are pretty cool now. So today it's outside pictures....let's see... this one was taken from up on my balcony the view from my front balcony, in the winter Mt. Fuji will be visible here! view from the back balcony, that green thing is actually an indoor golf course! the full moon over Shizuoka-Shi, I love it! all the parts of my yukata set, except the shoes which I don't have yet! the black is the yukata, the darker purple is the obi, and the light purple is a thin sash. The flower can go on the obi or in the hair. my favorite snack just got better - the dark chocolate version! Oh, please check out my new fanarts if you can. They're the color and gray scale versions of the picture I drew for the cover of our speech contest booklet. It's this Thursday! Hopefully I'll get a copy of the book to keep. The pictures aren't that great since I had to just shoot them with the camera. No scanner....*sniff*.....I hope you're enjoying it Nichole! Hehe, anyway, here's another firework video! Tomorrow, more outside pictures around Shizuoka!

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Saturday, September 8, 2007

   How you livin' biggie smalls?

WARNING: Long post ahead! Heh, the reason for the title is this: If you haven't seen it before, this is what my apartment used to look like.... So now, at last I can show you all what it looks like with me in it! bookshelf kitchen the contents of my fridge are a bit less alcoholic.... desk closet ahh....I just realized I've been making these smaller than I meant to.....ok, the next ones will be bigger... bed bathroom ....and...the Evangelion Doritos, since I promised them! Next time will be some outside type pictures and my yukata. Now let me say one more time....I looove my school! Everyone is soooo nice to me. They're even having a welcome party at an oden restaurant next Wednesday night. Oh, if you don't now oden is a kind of Japanese stew and it's really good. Lots of vegetables! Yesterday I got to visit the elementary school that's next door and help another ALT teach the 5th and 6th graders about animals. They were so cute! I also got to watch my kids practicing cheering for Sports Day. Japanese cheering is really different from American. I think I like it better. It's more about pumping up the team and less about girls in small skirts entertaining drunk fans..... Anyway, Sports Day is next Sunday and I get to go and participate too! We do all kinds of cool things like relay races, tug of war, and that thing where 2 people have to saw a big log in half. Megumi and I will probably do that one together. Oh, Megumi is the English teacher and she's the same age as me so we get along well. Also, in Japan Sports Day is a really big deal. They practice over and over to show all the parents what they can do. Oh yeah, and "ALT" is what all of us native English speakers are called. It's short for Assistant Language Teacher. There are 19 of us here in Shizuoka, 3 are at high schools for the entire year, 2 visit a different elementary school each day, and the other 14 of us rotate through the middle schools every few months. It's a bit complicated, but it works. I also got to learn the official Japanese stretch from the kids while practicing Sports Day. I didn't know this but every morning at 6:30 this certain music is played on some TV station all over Japan and people do a set pattern of stretches. I can't watch it at 6:30am of course b/c that's when I'm biking to the station to catch the bus, but the kids will do it at the opening of Sports Day so I watched and they said I could join in. I haven't exactly memorized it, but I will so I can teach everyone at home someday! We had a typhoon here this week, but I wasn't really bothered by it since it's just like a hurricane. It's not exactly safe to be up in the mountains during that bad of a storm though so the kids & I all got sent home after lunch on Thursday. The only bad part was biking back home in the rain. I seriously thought I was going to die! The wind was really strong and cars kept driving past and splashing me so I thought I was going to crash! Ahh...but maybe I was just freaking out....I got home just fine and it was pretty cool standing out on my 6th floor balcony and watching the clouds go by really fast. Its' too bad though, at home we give the hurricanes names, but here the typhoons just have numbers. This one was #9 and I learned that there are usually about 20 in a year. Of course they don't all always hit the same part of Japan, just like not all hurricanes hit the same part of Florida. The kids are getting a little less scared of me now so I'm glad. Since they learned that talking to me in the hallway gets them stickers they're all about it, especially the 3rd years which I find really funny. I mean....they're 14, but they like it so I'm not complaining. Also, Megumi is assigning them a topic to write to me about every day in their little English notebooks. They don't write very much, but it's nice. I check the grammar and such and then write them a little note back. It gives me something to do too. The other teachers are impressed though when I have no work to do and I whip out my kanji workbook. I've only learned 2 so far, but they were important ones! The first is the one for person, and the second is the number one. After that they're all numbers for a while so it will be a bit boring, but I know I need to learn them. I can also recognize the kanji for Shizuoka, Ken (means prefecture), Shi (city), Ku (ward) and Suruga, even if I can't read them since they're part of my address! Now I just need to learn Shinkawa and I'll have the whole thing down. Well, I guess I should stop here so I'm not wasting too much of people's time. Here's a video from the fireworks in Fukuroi that I saw the first weekend I was in Shiz! You can hear Stacey and me talking in the background a bit, and some Japanese girl saying "kawaii!" (cute). Stacey has a video where the girl behind us is saying "Sugoi, sugoi!" (amazing, amazing!) like 50 times in a row. It's really funny! See you tomorrow everyone! [PS] Leslie, I've tried to email you back twice, but it keeps getting returned as "delivery failure". Maybe I have the wrong address? Could you send me one again? Thanks!

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Tuesday, September 4, 2007

   I want to work hard so that everyone will recognize my existence. - Sabaku no Gaara, Naruto

Eh-heh...sooo....I couldn't actually do it. It's only Tuesday....ah, but I got the forms in the mail that I need to fill out about paying for the internet. I'm just posting now to say that I loooove my school! Everything about it is so cute! Haha, ok maybe that's not fair of me. The teachers probably wouldn't appreciate it too much. Since it is a very small school everyone is very friendly with each other. Besides the English teacher only the school secretary speaks English well. He also speaks French and, whatever they speak in Madagascar because he went there for....something....I didn't understand that part too well, but he's helping me to learn more Japanese. Sometimes we both accidentally say French words though, which is pretty funny since no one else knows what we're talking about! Yesterday I taught my self introduction lesson to the 2nd and 3rd graders (what Americans would call 8th and 9th graders) and I think it went pretty well. There are only 8 kids in 2nd grade & 10 in 3rd so it's pretty easy to have class. None of them can really get away with talking or not paying attention, not that Japanese kids really do that very much anyway.... Today was Term Examinations all day so I didn't have any classes which was kind of boring, but I got a lot of stuff ready for the rest of this week and next. Tomorrow I will teach the 1st graders and there are only 5 of them! They are pretty shy when they see me at school so far because they don't really know much English so even if I just say hello and wave they tend to run off pretty quickly. Tonight I ate takoyaki from the grocery store. Mmmmm.....it was sooo good! Who would have thought I would like octopus so much? Actually, they're better when they're really hot at a festival, but these are pretty good too. I also found a bag of the Evangelion Doritos! Yosh! I couldn't believe it, and they were only 88 yen. That's like 50 cents (for the big bag!) I'll take a picture of it before I open it. The new movie opened this weekend but I haven't gone to it yet, trying to save money.....ahh....it's hard to do living here with so much fun stuff. Well, I hope everyone is doing well as usual! See you Saturday!

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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

   Freedom is something you have to actively acquire. It's not something that's given with no strings attatched. To be free means to take responsibility and prepare yourself for what's to come. - Charles Beams, Eureka 7

Ahhh...my own internet at last! Ok, so not really, but soon! I got a call back from the people at NTT today and they are coming to install it on September 8th. That's not this coming Saturday, but the one after. I know, it's not really that soon, is it? At least it's a definite date now though. And the Saturday after that (the 15th) we're all going to Tokyo Disney!! I can't wait! Tomorrow I'm going to visit my little junior high school up in the mountains and meet the teacher I'll be working with for the next month or so. I'm a little nervous, but....I think it will be ok. Today I cleaned my whole apartment. Whew! Haha, actually, it was easy since it's so small, although....there was some dirt left over from it's previous occupant....ah-haha, but I can't complain. It's a good place. Anyway, Japanese cleaning products are really good. It was really cool to see the tatami come clean just by wiping them off. I did have a little "Spirited Away" moment though crawling around wiping the floors with a rag. The bathroom is easy too since it's entirely made of plastic, even the floors and ceiling! It's weird, but useful. Tonight I've got to work on another project that our supervisor gave me. He saw my sketchbook and asked me to draw a new cover for the English Speech Contest that's coming up. I'm a little nervous about that too, but I'll do my best! It's not the kind of thing I can do at the office with everyone sitting around though so I'll have to spend some time at home, at least on the pencil work. I don't have my scanner over here of course, but I'll try to take a really close up photo so I can post it here when it's done. Look for pictures on the 8th!

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Saturday, August 25, 2007

   We are each responsible for changing our own reality. - Nodame Cantabile

This is just a quick post to let everyone know I'm still around. I won't be emailing or posting for a while though b/c I had a bit of a problem with my airport yesterday. I did however successfully speak to the people at NTT and they are taking care of my "application" for internet using the certificate that says I have applied for my alien registration card. Hopefully they will call me back soon (like today....) and then I can get the optical cable service that they offer. In the meantime I've been mountain climbing (not Fuji, just a smaller one) and visited the shrine of Tokugawa Ieyasu, as well as having many adventures trying to talk to Japanese people around town. Also, I know everyone really wants to see picutres, but it is next to impossible to get them to attach to an email or load to myspace or photobucket right now. Just hold on a little bit longer please! I've got tons to show you, I promise! Sorry for the short post, oh, and I'd like to give a thank-you shout out to Roleni-chan, angelkat, and YamiYasha4Ever who always visit and comment even though I'm a bad friend who doesn't comment them back. *hugs* Thanks!! Ja matta!

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