so at school we had spaghetti for lunch, which in itself is a little unusual. but, apparently the most unusual part of the lunch was the fork! all the teachers were utterly surprised at seeing a fork handed out for lunch, they didn't even know the school had forks! i found this quite humorous of course, i mean ... come on, it's a fork!
well im off to sapporo tomorrow for a week and it seems like it wont be enough time because of how many people i want to meet up with. but, none-the-less i'm very much looking forward to it. it will be colder but the houses will be warmer AND i wont have to shovel! however, this does mean that when i do come back i will probably come back to white lot that once was my house unable to see my car or door! oye! talk about getting my exercise when i come back, eh?
have i talked about the roads yet? i've gotten quite used to driving in the snow here, but one thing i dont understand is the conditions of the roads. imagine someone came along with an ice pick and picked at the most random spots in the snow on the road, making it extremely bumpy and ridgy. ur car gets banged all over the place, u need 4wheel drive just to handle that crap! its crazy!
good news ... the guy came and installed the water heater arround my pipes so hopefully they will no longer freeze. there was one or two nights there where i really wanted to move, but im slowly learning the tricks of keeping my house warm and its becoming much more comfortable, so i think ill stick around!
arighty, well i have to catch a train to aomori so i can wake up early and catch another one to sapporo! love you all!! update as soon as i can, i promise!
so what's happened in the last week you might be asking? well let me tell ya ~
i had my first private eikaiwa (english conversation) kind of deal last week. went to this crazy big house and talked with the wife of an older guy works at the BoE. shes in her late 60s but loves English and is surprisingly good. she made me dinner and then we talked for over an hour and then i got paid a nice little fee :) and ill be going again today ... woo hoo!
last week was busy with meetings and what not. had an end of year party with friends and that was an interesting night, let me tell ya! well actually lets just keep it at. it was fun though! sunday went into hirosaki and ended up taking the train because it was pretty blizzardy out and didnt want to drive in it. shoveled every day last week, and yesterday i shoveled for over an hour!!! luckily it didnt snow last night so i woke up early and was able to go back to sleep again because no shoveling was needed! can i get a woo hoo??!!!! in total, my pipes have froze 5 times now but my office is having some sort of heating system installed to stop that from happening. although they are going to have to fix my faucet thing because it broke off this morning when i was trying to turn the nob! doh! i just dont understand japanese houses!! hehe, oh well :) at least i figured out the other heater and so now my kitchen is more comfortable now.
ahh, the weatehr was so nice today but now its snowing again :( only means more shoveling! but, i leave for sapporo in 3 days and can't wait!!!!! oh yeah, another good thing ... u know those 2nd years i mentioned before, the bad ones? well i finally had them again after 2 months and they were actually pretty good today. i was so surprised! yesterdays elementary school visit was a lot of fun too, theres now almost en entire school of elementary school students that can sing the chorus of we wish you a merry christmas and they are sooooo cute!
ok, enough random rambling. there is absolutely no sense to this blog whatsoever and i apologize for that. just sitting here at my desk taking advantage of my own computer in front of me instead of the schools :) love you all and miss you too!!! (well those i dont see all of the time anyways ... )
can i say holy crap again?? so u know how i said it snowed last week? well i was only kidding, that was just a tease. let me tell you now, that it freaking snowed and it's still snowing and it's supposed to snow all week! but get this, it's already snowed at least a foot in just a day and a half!!!! i woke up at 6 this morning and just couldnt get out of bed, knowing very well that i had to shovel because id already seen what it looked like last night. finally made it outside at about 10 till 7 (i try and leave the house at around 10 after 8). went outside, jaw dropped at the amount of snow and started shoveling. i didnt stop until 7:40 and i still have sooooooo much more to shovel, and my neighbor even helped me!! damn!
so in other news, had another end of the year party and it was much better than the BoEs. had a lot of fun and even got a shovel specifically for my car and some gardening type gloves that i guess are used when u shovel. huh? anyways, it was fun. then on saturday i did christmas shopping (still need to send it out, hope it gets to the family on time!) and at night we had a sake party and that was fun. drank lots, didnt actually get that drunk and felt great the next day.
sunday was spent at a meeting and with some friends. when i came back on sunday, i found that my neighbor had shoveled for me again!!! and i mean this time he shoveled good! he also shoveled a little bit on monday. i think because i told them that this is my first real winter they have been very helpful. after yesterday i made it a point to get out and shovel myself because i was starting to feel bad and so thats what i did this morning, but he still helped me, thank goodness, otherwise i would have been late to work which i nearly was because the drive was crazy even though its practically around the corner from my house! must force myself out of bed at 6 from now on, there's just no way of getting around it.
oh yeah, one more thing to rant about. so when i came back to my house after id been gone during the weekend, there was ice in the dishes in my sink as well as my kettle. and my sponge in the sink and the shower were all ice!! can we say it gets cold in my house?! so i now turn off my water every day when i go to bed and go to work otherwise im sure my pipes would freeze!! oye, but at least i have good neighbors!
time to get tough and buff i imagine from all the snow shoveling im gonna have to do! love u all and slightly jealous of the warm weather or at least the warm houses u get to enjoy! :P
you know, why can't i make decisions? i tried doing some shopping today and i just cant decide on anything!! i guess in a way, i save myself money, but i just can't decide on anything! for example, i was looking at some scarves and nope, just couldn't decide on one. i always think, well ... i'll come back for it, but when i do i don't get it! and it's making christmas shopping even more difficult! oye
finally decided what to do during winter break. ill spend a week up in sapporo and a week down in tokyo. ill also have a few days at home, probably need them to shovel snow and what not. oh, but the snow is so pretty! let's see what i say about snow in a couple of months time when it actually starts being a chore.
so remember the 2nd years i told you about before, the only ones that i tend to have bad classes in? i haven't had them since the beginning of last month! its the last month for the teacher because shes going on pregnancy leave and she wants to finish the book before she leaves, thus she cancels all our classes! can't really say that im sad about it though. i just wonder what it will be like with whoever the new teacher will be.
so last week i did a couple of christmas lessons, well kind of. my teacher wanted me to play some christmas carols and make worksheets that had words missing in the lyrics and the kids had to write it in. then they got to make christmas cards for the rest of the lesson. it was actually really fun and listening to carols got me feeling all christmasy and missing home :P
this last weekend was a lot of fun. started it out friday night with some sushi and teenage mutant ninja turtles with brian. this is when the snow started to fall. on my way home it was pretty white out, but not a whole lot on the ground yet.
saturday morning, i headed down to hirosaki to meet up with a couple of teachers for lunch and conversation. that was fun. and it was still snowing. met up with the hirosaki cew afterwards to listen to some shamisen and then karaoke. the shamisen place was cool. although ended up paying 2,000 yen ($20) for one beer, but thats just how it goes here. when we went outside, there was even more snow and it wasn't stopping. we went to karaoke, but one place treated us like shit so we went to another place that was cheaper and better. ended up doing karaoke for 4 hours and the highlight song was some queen!
after karaoke (by now it's 1 am) we headed back. when we went outside, there was a little more than ankle deep powder all over the place. it was beautiful! it would have been a lot of fun to walk in too if it weren't for the fact that i was wearing converse sneakers that got soaking wet! anyways, headed back to kevin's place for tea and sleep. the next day, kev, ben, and i walked around hirosaki. went to the park and some samurai houses and had fun in the snow! and it was all blue skies!
on my way home, i got a little worried because i knew if it had snowed that much in hirosaki then it only means it snowed that much more in kanagi so i wasnt sure what my driveway would be like. but it turns out that i have terrific neighbors who actually shoveled it for me! ahhhhhh!!! thank you!!! they are such a nice old couple. did i tell u that they gave me a daikon a couple of weeks ago too?
anyways, they are all saying that from now on it will be a white land here. joyful!! now i really have to try and wake up early from now on! oye :P but one thing, is for sure ... it is very pretty!!! check out the pics below ...
thats hirosaki castle
in the park
can u see mt. iwaki through the gate? it's all white
kev, me, and ben in a winter wondeland
that was after karaoke
last week i was so incredibly busy! i had something on my schedule from sunday to sunday and i think my body is paying with it with this cold i have. luckily no fever and i'm starting to feel better after taking the medicine one of my friends bought for me even though i insisted i buy it. one thing ... where does all the snot come from? seriously, i've filled up like 2 trash cans worth of tissue! and the cough ... oye! and let me tell ya, teaching a bunch of really energetic kids when ur sick takes it out of u!
anyways, the point is that i'm finally starting to feel better and this is the first week in a long time where i have had nothing on my schedule the entire week (well aside from the last japanese class until april) and u know what? it feels so nice!!! it's great being able to come home and just stay here and bum around until bed time. then again, i dont think i would wanna go out this week considering the weather. *yup, gonna talk about the weather again :-P
it's started snowing again and the wind has come to. i got a little (just a smidge) taste of what winter will be like and what everyone refers to as the white out blizzards and snow that hurts ur face because it's being blown so hard! luckily i was inside, but i can hear it! ahhh! i just hope shoveling doesn't start anytime soon because i can't seem to get out of bed in the morning.
other news, made dinner tonight that reminded me of home: mashed potatoes, corn, and some crab croquet things (imagine chicken mcnuggets but filled with this crab cream stuff). minus the crab croquet and add in some chicken and it would have been just like at mom's! hee :)
alright, love and miss u all back home! oh yeah, reminder (if anyone has nothing to do - which is no one right now i imagine - and feels like recording some movies for me and actually sending them - i would love u forever!!) hee!
That's what was left of my (small) turkey!No left over turkey sandwhiches this year
This was our feast (half way through), so much food!
We resorted to chopsticks to eat our food! What else would u do in Japan :-P
ok, highlights from the week:
-snow actually started sticking last week. had about 3 days of slushy snow and craziness, but it is now melted
-went to aomori for mid-year conference, learned some, drank some, talked some, and slept in a hotel that smelled like fish everywhere u went, even in the bathroom!!!
-played really funny sports with a bunch of random people in hirosaki while it was snowing outside ... my team got 3rd place in the whole shabang and so i now have $30 to spend anywhere i want :)
-watched the new harry potter and i was very happy with it
-went to an end of the year party with the people i play tennis with and had very interesting all english conversations and by interesting i mean, huh? but it was fun
and today was thanksgiving!! and we actually did a proper thanksgiving. made the turkey and stuffing with brian at my house (took a lot longer than expected), took that over to becky's where there was much food to consume. everything was really good ... the gravy, the turkey (yay my first turkey turned out good!!!), the stuffing, the potatoes, the salad, the desserts, everything!!! and like everyone should be on turkey day, i'm still stuffed and will probably be for a few days. i'll post pictures later because im off to bed for some well needed rest.
happy thanksgiving to everyone in the states!
so i dont think i even knew what a persimmon was before coming to japan, let alone ever having tried one. but they are a wonderful fruit ... think of the texture of peaches, in the shape of a tomato and slightly red orange. they r really good. well i bought some and let them go a litte too ripe and instead of throwing them out, i decided to make bread and surprisingly turned out really good. a little mushy on the inside because i didnt leave it in long enough, so now it kind of tastes like pumpkin pie but in bread form. really good with cream cheese!
as i sat in the office today i watched it snow all day! it was the wet kind of snow mixed in with hail and sleet and all that so it didnt stick, but, it did snow. everyone was all worried because they havent changed their tires yet, but luckily im good in that department. i think im finally starting to realize that ill actually be living in a place with extreme weather! went to the store and invested in an electric blanket, well 2 actually, one for my bed and one for the couch. the heater is ok i guess, but on days like today where its really cold (and they say this is nothing!) i can see how the heater wont be enough. also bought slippers and they are great for the freezing kitchen floor! got get ready to live in my little igloo here!
haha ... u can so tell im from california because californians talk about the weather a lot, well whenever there is weather. when it rains in california, it's all over the news! everyone in college just laughed because california was reporting news that was pretty darn obvious. and now here i am telling u all about how its cold and starting to snow and yet people here are like, yeah? your point?
oh yeah, i wanted to share some of what my students wrote. they had to write whether wearing helmuts while riding their bikes to school is a good or bad thing and here's what they had to say (no motifications):
-those against wearing helmuts ~
"We can safety precaution"
"Helmut is disagreeable because very strange"
"If we will be an accident, "die when die""
"Helmut is in troubl in resting place"
"first, wet in a helmut when it rained"
-those for wearing helmuts ~
"helmut is very cool" --> enough said!
ah my kids are great ... i know i made probably the same mistakes when i started learning japanese, shoot, i probably still do!! but at least u get what they are trying to say!
so, the Japanese can make some of the best technology in the world, but they sure as hell can't build houses ... at least here in Aomori. At this moment, it is hovering at 48 degrees in my house! And it's 3:15 pm!! This is scary because it's not even really winter yet, and yet it's freezing!! I already broke down and bought an electric blanket which provided a very cozy bed last night and now im seriously considering buying a kotatsu (coffee like table that has a heated blanket u sit at so ur lower body can be warm. oye!
other news ... did u all know that Steven Segal (spelling may be wrong, but the dude from that boat movie - Under Siege - I think and other low rate martial art movies) has come out with a debut album. I heard the first single yesterday and all I'll say is that I think it will only be debuting in Japan where his new movie is also going to debut! hee
changed my tires to winter tires ... a little early but at least ill be ready! well i think that's all for now ... hope ur all doing well and getting ready for the holidays!!
got another half day today ... i love meetings! and, it's been hailing all day! at first it wasn't sticking ... but then ~
it's only the beginning!!!
so once again it feels like my house is going to blow away. right now there's a pretty good storm going on outside, nothing was said about any typhoons coming, but man the winds are crazy strong today! and there lightning and thunder going on too! so right now i'm relaxing in my toasty living room thanks to my kerosene heater, watching movies, and intermittently worrying whether my house will stay put :-P heee ...
i've discovered the joys of my oven. i have a decent size oven, that most people don't have. i made a chocolate cake on saturday that was yummy and made a tuna casserole tonight that was decent. wasn't my mom's because i didn't have all the ingredients and didnt want to venture out into the storm. but it turned out ok ... i'll just have leftovers for the next few nights because it's impossible to make a casserole for one! oye ~
other good news, i was able to get a half day off today. all the teachers had to go to goshogawara for some meeting around lunch time, so i went home for a few minutes then figured i should go to the board of education and do some work. went there and only kobayashi-san (the secretary lady) was there and she said i could go home because no one else would be in today. sweet!! meant to get loads of errands done, but ended up laying down in front of the tv and sleeping most of the afternoon. guess i needed to catch up on my sleep! and tomorrow might turn out the same way! keeping my fingers crossed!
oh yeah, so if anyone feels like sending a care package and has the time ... i would love some new movies! i recorded about 12 movies before coming out here and i swear i've gone through all of them about 5 times now, some even more than that! and im feeling like i need some new movies to veg out in front of . im not talking new new movies, just some maybe u could record off the tele! and as much as i hate to admit it, im a sucker for chick flicks ... heheheh.
ok, hope you're all doing well. missing you here in japan, especially as the holidays get closer!
i can't say it enough ... i love fall! this really is the first time i get to experience a proper fall with leaves changing color and all that. growing up in southern california, i got a little bit of it, but not to the extent im getting here. and then in orange county the trees were just confused and didn't know what to do.
but here in aomori, it's absolutely gorgeous!!! went out to kuroishi today and we walked around this park area that has shrines and just beautiful grounds. we crunched through all the leaves on the ground while looking at brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows. ill post the pics here because im actually out of space on my picture page for a little while. let me tell ya, the pictures just dont do it justice.
lately its actually been warming up a little bit, but they say its supposed to get really cold this week and possibly snow a little bit! yikes!! ive discovered that i can actually bake in the oven that i have ... made a chocolate cake last night and it was oh so yummy! we're gonna try and plan a thanksgiving deal too ... ahh, holidays. it'll be my first time away from home. im definately sad about that and wish i could go home (wouldn't it be awesome to have a magical transportation device that just beamed me over instead of the 14+ hours it required to actually get home). but i hope we can bring a little bit of the holiday spirit here.
ok, need to go to bed. enjoy the pictures below!
so, it's been a while since I've watched Japanese tv. Lately, I've just been popping in a movie and having that as backround noise. Well, tonight I decided to leave it on regular tv and you would not believe what's on right now. It's actually a show teaching us (the audience) how to do disco dancing and the host is wearing this awful suit! It's absolutely hilarious and scary at the same time ... hahahahah! wow, if you could only be here to witness this!
in other news, i got naked with my teacher and a friend today and can i just say how relaxing that is!! :-P now, before you start thinking other things, we went to an onsen (hot spring) and that's just what you do at onsens, you get naked and soak yourself in very warm natural spring waters. We also viewed some beautiful fall foilage and all in all it was a nice day! It's so nice to feel like you're making Japanese friends, especially since I'm in Japan :)
By the way, just want to make a shout out to Myrna ... congratulations girl!!! I still can't believe it!!!! Ahhhhh, we're getting old!! heheh
oh yeah, check out the foilage on my picture page, i know i said i uploaded some in my last post, but u might have noticed i didn't and thats because i had used up my limit already, but now it's all good and new photos are uploaded or will be soon if u read this right after i post this! ok, bye!
last week was the first week at school where i was busy from the time i got there till the time left, followed by nights in which i wouldn't get home until 10 or so because of various activities. this is my excuse for my lack in blog activity.
highlights from last week:
*kids at elementary school going wild about my arrival and yelling it up and down the hall ways
*realizing that i'm not the only one that finds one of my teachers a little difficult to work with
*200 japanese kids running around like wild in the haunted house
*getting an invite from someone when i really needed it
*eating freshly made mochi
*was finally able to make broccoli crab salad ... made me miss home!!!
*having 3 guys from the office (all wanting an excuse to get out of the office) come futz around with my heater - it was hilarious watching them crawl around on the floor with their screw drivers and saying, hmmm and more hmmmmm and then getting it to work after pressing a little reset switch resulting in a much more comfortably living room!
so ... it is getting cold yo!! actually went out and bought wool sweaters and all that. it feels like the dead of winter, or at least what we would call winter in orange county! i was spoiled for 4 years and just now realizing that! it's been recommended that i change my current tires to winter tires in a couple of weeks. i guess this means that winter really is coming ... ahhhhh!!!
still haven't even decided what to do for winter break, current possibilities: korea or thailand with ann and if somehow we can't work it out than just going up to sapporo for a couple of weeks to stay warm in my host parents house.
oh yeah, went camping the other weekend. got to see beautiful colors, did a little hiking, got a little drunk, and was able to see a fantastic ocean scene more during more than half of my drive home! it was fantastic! check the picture page for updates :)
first ... check it out, added my photo link on the side bar ... tend to upload pictures about once a week or so ... easier than uploading them on here cuz it takes forever!
now on to japan news ...
monday was great at the elementary school ... i love the kids there, they are so cool! one 1st grader came up to me and said "whats cooking?" and i just laughed, i guess its on a tv commercial here ... so cute!
tuesday morning (at 1:30) there was an earthquake that woke me from a very strange dream, so the rest of the day i didnt know if there was actually an earthquake or i dreamt my house was being shaken by something freaky! had to go into the board of education because my other schools had the day off since they had to go to school on saturday on sunday. many of the other alts in the area also had a day or two off, so i was hoping to milk out a day or two when i went into the office oh so discretely ... and this is how it went down.
supervisor: hi allison, how are u? allison: oh im tired, i went to school on saturday and sunday for the school festivals. s: oh, how was it? a: it was interesting and fun ...
then he walked away and all hopes of having the day off were crushed. 20 minutes later he came back and was like s: wait, u went to school on saturday and sunday? a: yes. s: from morning till evening? a: yes. s: oh, u should go home because next week will be rough. u can have tomorrow off as well because u went for 2 days.
thank you mr. moriyama!!!! i so needed it. so i went home and drove around to look at the pretty changing leaves. also came across a port town that was beautiful! the ocean smell really made me miss california and i realized that living by the beach would really be awesome! after more exploring, i headed down to hirosaki with becky to have dinner with some of the teachers at my school. we had sushi and it was soooooooooo good!!!!!!! and, they didnt make us pay! crazy huh? we're going to an onsen later this month ... yay, they are fun ... found cool japanese people that i really feel like i can communicate with!
today was spent cleaning house and getting stuff done ... still have more to do though :P
Ok, so as you might be able to guess, there are many times when I have to use my electronic dictionary to figure out what the heck people are saying here. Well, I had to go to school today (Sunday) for the school festival and one of my english teachers and students came up to me and said something in japanese and wanted me to translate it. well i didnt know the verb and when i looked it up, it said "brace" and things along those lines. well the rest of the words in the sentence were boy, brace, is doing ... and then they added toilet. huh? the boy is bracing himeself in the toilet? then the teacher procedes to do a discrete gesture and it all clicks. this is their polite way of saying someone is taking a dump! well they wanted me to translate it and im like, uhhh? well ... u can say pooping, but i guess the more discrete way is that he's going number 2. the kids can understand that, and they are like 2? huh? then the teacher figures out why its called number 2, we all have a good laugh, they walk away, and i just shake my head going oh man, the things ive had to translate the last couple of days. funny stuff man!
well it looks like i might actually be getting a life soon and become pretty popular. going out with some of my teachers on tuesday night for dinner, then going to onsen with one of them later in the month. going to 2 (yes 2, i dont think id even been to that many this entire year!) meetings this week. going camping this weekend and getting phone calls from random people. can we just say all of a sudden? damn ... now i almost wish i could just have a quite night at home and relax with my new lighting since i bought a lamp! :-P
ok, off to bed! i have to teach the little kiddies tomorrow and possibly try and squeeze out a day or 2 off on tuesday because i went to school on sat and sun and everyone else seems to get days off to make up for it. what's up that? im tired yo!
good night ...
oh yeah, first off ... if you ever wanna see pictures, feel free to visit my picture site http://www.flickr.com/photos/allisonthejet/ . pictures are up from my weekend and there are pictures of my house and surrounding area, friends here and whatnot ... enjoy!
so, on to the main blog. i dont know what was funnier today ~ having to explain what bootylicious means to a student because its in a song they are going to sing for the school festival (she was asking all sorts of words then she pointed to bootylicious and i just laughed!) ... or (and some of you won't necessarily get this) responding to "do you have a gohonzon?" with "yes, sometimes, but lately i've been busy so i just buy a bento (pre-made meal) at the store" :-P of course that was responded with silence and i realized my mistake. i had only heard gohan (i though, and that means food/rice) and though she had asked if i made my dinner, so of course i have an appropriate response only to find it was way out in left field!
this weekend is bunkasai, or school festival, and so everyone has been working hard at school except me. i feel like a bum, i ask if i can help and today i was able to for a couple of hours, but than after that it seemed as if i wasnt needed anymore, so i just sat in the teachers office. sometimes i actually wonder what the other teachers thing of me. maybe they dont want to ask me to do anything because they feel i would think its above and beyond my responsibilities, but come on! i dont do anything ... give me something to do!!! must be more proactive from now on.
i think thats all for now, should go to sleep since i have to wake up early tomorrow even though its the weekend :( oh well, festival should be fun!
goodness ... i havent gone this long without blogging for a while now, eh? hmmm ... updates from last week: played my last game of volleyball with the towns people until next year (because the floor of the gym gets too cold? thats what i understood anyways :P), for the first time, made a few recipes from my japanese cook book with a friend - wasnt too bad ~post pictures later, hit someone on the head with a kendo stick for the first time and it's a frightening thing but somehow relaxing, made japanese mochi out of flour, and played the tsugaru shamisen but out of tune, or maybe it was in tune and i just cant tell the difference! and i know there was a bunch more i was going to blog about, but alas, i have forgotten.
update on my weekend ... finally made it back to sapporo and it was a kick ass visit!! left aomori city at aroun 11 pm and slept in a bed on the train. didnt really sleep well, kept having dreams that my car was going to get towed and i was worried i wouldnt wake up in time for my stop. arrived at my station at 5 till 6 (am) and my host mom was waiting for me at the gate. headed back to the house, and man did i suffer from nostalgia!! it was great though. my family took me the curry shop i frequented with my school friends and the head chef remembered me! then went to a movie with my host sister-in-law. dinner with the host family and the usual friends. very nice to see everyone and nice to finally be able to understand japanese! next day, went to the zoo with host brother and sister-in-law, then out for sushi with the family. the entire time i was really treated like a daughter, instead of some student coming back for a visit. i tried to pay for my food and the movies and the zoo, but they insisted i put my wallet away. even at the zoo i failed because i guess my host mom gave them money for all of us to go! anyways, it was just an awesome visit. they said that anytime i come i definately will always have a place to stay (even at their new house outside of the city, the said one of the rooms would be mine :P). the only bad part of the trip was that i realized how much i miss sapporo and everyone there. and jess, there were definate moments when i would get the urge to want to email u random stuff! and when i drove by the school, it was just weird to think u guys aren't there and there's a whole new group of kids. i like aomori, but it still hasnt turned into my comfort zone like sapporo.
oh yeah, banked on a tempurpedic pillow! i mentioned that they must have got a new pillow in my room, said it was comfortable and my host mom said, "oh you should take it! i hardly use it" and i said no, no, no, i couldnt ... but she insisted and so i went home with a tempurpedic pillow! good thing too because the train back from sapporo was so slow (because of broken traffic lights or something) that we missed the train back to aomori and i had to sleep on the floor of the station until 3 am, the next train, but i got to use my new pillow! :) my host mom reminds me of my mom ... always asking, so do u need anything? do u have this, do u have that? we can go get it, or i can send it to u ... :P im one lucky girl that's for sure!
hehe, anyways, i have more to blog and many pictures to upload but im so tired i need to go to bed! sorry ... stay tuned ...
so i have a theory ... when school is in session, the weather is absolutely gorgeous! but ... when it is the weekend or during the holiday, the weather is crap! i dont think i remember a weekend where this hasnt been the case. all week, skies are blue, sun is shining, and just absolutely beautiful outside, BUT, during the weekend it becomes gloomy and rainy and u just wanna stay home instead of taking advantage of doing stuff outside. oye!
but, alas, i didnt let it stop me this weekend. headed out to ajigasawa friday night to hang out with some friends. went to a japanese izakaya (restaurant) and had some good food. then headed to a very small bar to sing (quite horribly, well at lease me :-P) some karaoke. all in all, it was quite fun and didnt get back to meredith's place until 4 in the morning! slept in, then had some pancakes and watched movied. u wanna know something though? for all my american friends, pancakes in england and australia and other western countries arent the same pancakes we have in america. the pancakes they make are what we would call crepes. but, still delicious! so after vegging out for a while, went home and then met up with a couple of friends, a lady from my office, and her friend to go out to eat at a very good japanese restaurant followed by (of course) karaoke. it was a lot of fun. im hoping it will be the beginning of a couple of good relationships with japanese people!
and today, just doing laundry and planning on going into town to buy my ticket for next weekend. guess where im going? im gonna go to sapporo!!! i cant wait! well, i hope all the tickets arent sold out :-P that would suck! ive been here for 2 months, but never called my host family because i hate talking on the phone. well, knowing that i wanted to go to sapporo for my 3 day weekend, i decided that i could no longer delay calling them. but they werent home so i emailed them. my host mom emailed me back and can i just say that i love my host family!!! she said she was so happy to see my email and they they didnt have any plans that weekend and that i should come and stay at their house!! yay! i was hoping that would be the case :) i didnt want to ask and be a burden, so very glad that offered with open arms!
what else? well i think thats about all for now ... oh yeah, i want to share some pictures. the first few are from my area ... views of the town (can u see that im surrounded by rice fields?) and my night out last night.
signed up with flickr so now u can view my photos there! ill still probably post a few here, but now u can actually see most of the pictures i take! have fun ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allisonthejet/
oh yeah, and in other news ...
so u know how i said 2nd years suck! i had been hoping that it had just been a bad day, but i have a feeling that thats the way they behave. because the next class wasnt that great (even though i spent some time making this poster of differences in american schools and japanese schools) and maybe half of them were paying attention (or at least thats what it looked like). my teacher was translating everything and a handful were actually interested, but everyone else was just talking (maybe they were talking about the content!! hmmm). so when the class was over my teacher looked at me and was smiling and was like wasnt that a good class? (uhh, ok!). oye, oh well ... it will be a challange!
i love my first years ... they are always great! and my 3rd years are usually cool too! oh u wanna know something cute? my 2nd years (at the other school) just came back from tokyo and a couple of the girls brought me back gifts from disneyland! ahhhhh!
So not my town, but very similar! Just some random town I saw when I was on the bus ...
SUA friends! lovely!!
Shinagawa station ... where I caught the bus!
So here's Tokyo ... took it from the bus ~
I'll add more local pictures when I take some!
ok, sorry, i cant figure out why the pictures arent uploading, but as soon as i can figure it out then i will upload ... ta ta for now!
yes people, i have finally entered the world of digital cameras!! bought a very cute (u know how important that is!) konica minolta camera. it has 5 mega pixels, huge display screen, and it's red!! and best of all, it takes really great pictures!! i can zoom in on the picture itself and it never gets blurry, just really nice and clear! and the guy i bought it from was really nice (and cute) and was from aomori! cool eh?
so, my trip to tokyo was good but short! went to hirosaki on friday and got on the bus at 10pm. surprisingly, the seats on the bus were quite spacious and i could recline my sight a good way down. made sure i brought a pillow with me, so i was able to get some pretty decent sleep until we arrived in tokyo at 7 am in the morning. it was raining when i arrived (edge of the typhoon was there) and man was it crazy being in tokyo coming from aomori! aomori is all countryside, even the big cities are relatively small. but tokyo, man, tokyo is huge!! incredibly overwhelming!! but luckily i was fine due to the excellent directions my friend gave me and the fact that id already been to tokyo so i knew what to expect.
anyways, headed to suhjins in the morning to rest then met up with yumi in the afternoon to go to the headquarters and have a meeting with guy in charge of sua students. he was really nice and i told him about my experience in sapporo with my host family and he encouraged me to go check out the headquartes in goshogawara on my own, that it would be fine, but someone should be contacting me soon. it was crazy going to headquarters because everything surrounding headquarters is just sooooo sgi! flags all in the windows and shops everywhere! went into one shop and they were all excited when i told them i was from sua.
after that, yumi took me to shinjuku to buy a camera! yay!! then we met up with all the other sua students for a mini-reunion. had some izakaya food, talked, and had a good time. kind of headed home a little early, but it was really nice seeing everyone!! felt all nastalgic and stuff!!
trip home wasnt as enjoyable because it wasnt a night bus. the seats were much smaller and my ass barely fit and had to sit next to someone else so couldnt really stretch out or anything. but it was pretty scenery, got to sleep, and read some, so not too bad.
then back to real life today. had a much better elementary school visit (same school as my first elementary school visit that didnt go as well). the kids were hanging all over me and once classes were done at around 1 they let me go home! sweet!
and now, what uve all been waiting for ... pictures from the weekend!! (yeah, look above, still havent quite figured out how to post them within the written blog, maybe i should look for a different site to host the pictures ... any recommendations?)
so there were no classes yesterday, but i still went to school. one of the teachers was actually surprised to see me because neither of the english teachers were there! but i still went, figured i could do prep work for next weeks classes. and surprisingly ... i actually got a lot of work done!! i was thinking about asking my vice-principal if i could go to the BOE after lunch but i ended up staying until it was time to go and finished prepping for next week, well mostly. and it was cool. i got to see something really funny! imagine a group of 9th graders (both guys and girls) wearing a 20 lb sympathy belly. whats a sympathy belly u might be asking ... its a make shift boobs and pregnant belly to simulate what it would be like to be pregnant. the kids have to put the belly on and do random chores like cleaning, and carrying stuff. the funniest thing to watch was what it was like to have to lie down to go to sleep, get back up, take off and on their shoes and socks and then picking something random up off the floor. it was hilarious! all the kids going, ahh, its heavy, it hurts! good stuff!
why is it that whenever there is a holiday the weather turns to crap? i swear, all week long, its nice outside when we have to be inside in the classrooms. but as soon as the weekend comes (especially when there is a long weekend) the clouds come and rain on our parade! punk! well anyways, im headed down to tokyo to see some sua friends and im totally jazzed. hopefully i will buy a camera while im down there so i can start uploading pictures on this thing! yay! but until then im gonna go bum around the house and listen to the rain! look for updates in a couple of days!
lake towada
pretty waterfalls! yeah, class was rough today, at least with the 2nd years (equivalent to our 8th graders). they just didnt want to do the activities i had planned, so i ended up changing it up about 15 minutes before the end of the class and did a different activity, and that seemed to go ok. but man, otherwise, they sucked today! i wanted to yell at some of them! even one of the students (the one i helped with the speech contest) was like good luck allison, as if she knew that todays class was not the easiest. the other classes werent at bad. i guess u always have ur bad days! i think my favorites to teach are the 1st years (7th graders), they are usually really genki and just up for anything (most of the time). and in my 3rd year class i have that one boy that tells me he loves me and all that jazz every time he sees me. its all fun and games, and at least it gets his friends (seem like the bad boy cool group) to laugh and participate during class, or at least pretend to.
this last weekend was a long weekend and of course the weather was bad. hung out with some friends at a house bbq on saturday night, chilled at my house during the day because it was raining. was supposed to go camping on sunday, but it rained all day long! and i mean big rain!! so instead, we all met up for a movie, dinner, and other stuff. was bummed about not being able to go camping and onsening, but it was cool hanging out with that crew ... especially watching "the canadian, eh?" throw up on his way down the stairs ;) yum! monday, picked up a friend from aomori to go do some sight seeing. almost had the day ruined when my car decided not to start on top of a mountain at a look out point. started freaking out a bit, calling everyone i could trying to get a particular phone number (all of whom no one had). then, magically, my car started again and we were on our way. saw pretty waterfalls and lake towada (biggest lake in aomori) and it was soooo pretty! too bad the weather was a little crummy, not really clear but not cloudy and just kind of hazy. then we randomly ran into ben, the fukaura jet, at the most random time and place. all of a sudden i got a phone call saying to pick up the broom behind me, freaked me out! then randomly ended up leaving at the same time and following him for a bit of the way towards hirosaki. very strange i tell ya! hmmmm ...
after the day's adventure, stopped by homac to get some home stuff and finally have made my shower something much more enjoyable, all with the help of a shower curtain, shower hook, and a rack to hold bathroom stuff! so nice! now if there was only some way to make it all bigger!
this weekend im headed down to tokyo to see some of the sua crew. looking forward to that. had to go to hirosaki today to buy my ticket, and on the way back, mt. iwaki looked stunning with its shadowy silloute (spelling?) and random whisps of light coming from behind it. very cool ... can't wait to get my digital camera so i cant actually show u guys some of the stuff im talking about. but oohhhh ... i can show u a couple of pictures from my sightseeing trip on monday! waterfalls and pretty lakes!
so i made the most random meal tonight! seriously, very random! and in the process of making my very random dinner, there was a casuality ... my thumb, well not the whole thumb, but it took a beating! i bought a new knife today because the ones i had kind of sucked. so i was cutting up all the random stuff i was going to put into my random dinner and as i was cutting a green pepper (mind u, they are very small and kind of difficult to hold, these are the small green peppers im talking about) the knife found the tip of my thumb and well u can guess what happened. luckily it wasnt nearly as bad as it could have been, but man the thumbs bleed yo! and it made it difficult to cut up the rest of my random stuff ...
so r u wondering what my random meal was? well i thought i make some sort of stir fry. so i started out with a little bit of oil in the pan, then added some garlic and onions. put some chicken in. the put red bell peppers, followed by green bell peppers. then i put some potatoes in, and then carrots. to top it all off i decided to put some yakisoba style noodles in as well. added a little bit of pepper, soy sauce, and some sesame salad dressing then mixed it all together. u know, it really wasnt that bad! surprisingly, the sesame salad dressing added that bit of flavor that made it different than ur typical stir fry and turned out to be yummy. the only bad part of the meal (well other than having to clean it all up) was my poor thumb which now has a handy band aid on it.
in other news ... i dont think ive ever been so productive as i was today. had to go to the board of education because i had no classes at one of my schools. so i prepared for my classes for the next two days and i was busy almost all day! couldnt believe it. felt nice actually to be doing something at the office other than my usual "pretending" to work business. also took care of my parking permit thing, which means i can register my car very soon! yay!
ok, i think im gonna go nurse my thumb and read some uncle tungsten.
so during the typhoon, a huge plastic thing had blown behind my house (made a very large noise) and today my supervisor came to check it out. ended up tearing the whole thing apart, never knew where it came from but that it wasnt needed! anyways, he was checking out some other stuff on the outside (with the lady from the office and my neighbor) and low and behold they discover, not one, but multiple bee nests (although they look like some form of wasps). u know, i can handle the spiders, no biggie, and the mosquitos can be annoying, but bees! why bees! i hate them!! so i need to buy some good killer spray and my supervisor said he would take care of it. oye! yada yada yada (yada means, no good!).
other news ... i may actually make some friends in this town! in all my classes i always end up telling them my favorite sport is volleyball. well low and behold, one of my students (i had actually been helping her with the speech contest, she won! woo hoo) said her mother plays at the local gym and that she said i should go! well i met her mom at the speech contest, and of course she said that i should definatley come, its every week, tuesday and friday. today i decided to go. i was a little hesitant because i didnt know anyone, and wasnt sure of my students mom was going, and just didnt know what to do when i got there. but i went and ended up having a blast! there were loads of people there, had no idea kanagi had so many young people! i was randomly assigned to a team (theres about 8 - 10 teams), i sucked really bad, but as everyone is japanese they all told me how good i was! ha, yeah right! but they did say that they were glad i came and that they look forward to playing with me. i saw a few of my students there because they were doing judo at the same time, met some of my students parents, and even saw one of my elementary school teachers there! it was really cool, and a good work out! definately a good way to finally get to know people in the community! yay for activities that dont necessarily require constant japanese but helps me practice it during down time!
anyways, just feel really good tonight! :-P
now lets see if i can actually stay awake during work tomorrow! oye, no classes!
allison's car is expensive to fill up with gas, that's the word on the street!!! although in other news, i went up to tappi (northern part of the tsugaru peninsula in which i live) with becky. unfortunately it was kind of cloudy so the view that we would have had wasnt quite as spectacular. but all in all, it was still really pretty. we were able to see hokkaido very clearly ... man im ready to visit sapporo! i think im gonna go next month!
after tappi, i headed down to hirosaki to see some other friends. we hung out in an izakaya (pub like place but nothing like that, hee) then headed off to bowling. so bowling shoes in japan are so not as cool as bowling shoes in america, let me tell ya! after that, a couple of us were pooped so we headed back and went to bed. then i gave kevin (hirosaki jet) a tour of my neck of the woods and in that i discovered a place i never knew existed, well kind of. on my way to one of my schools i always see this old castle and in the backround some make shift castle that is pink and purple (supposedly characterized after european castles, didnt know that preferred that color palat over there, but hey, it works!). well the area turned out to be some really strange back of the woods place. there is a huge hotel that looks like a cross between some weird hospital and the shining. then on the side of it there was a decent size shrine. on the other side, on top of the hills, there were what looked like missile (?), i dont know. and in some field there was a goat that wouldnt stop crying, oh yeah, and that was next to a church in the shape of a castle painted purple and pink! give u the heebie geebies? us too! the name of the complex was odogawa independence. hmm, sound like some strange cultish community if u ask me! we ended up talking to a guy that works there, i think, and he was nice. told us that the boss of hte place was off trying to tell people not to vote for koizumi (elections were that day), then headed off into conversation that i wasnt quite prepared to talk to a stranger about. we took a look inside the hotel and it seems nice. may go back for the onsen some time as its not too expensive. but still, kind of strange yeah?
so today i had an excellent elementary school visit. the kids were cute as heck and just had a good time in all the classes. the school is really small so i think it will be a lot of fun there.
alright, im exhausted (yeah whats knew right?). good night all!
so a typhoon came through the other day and they say it wasnt really that strong but i was woken up at 4 am because my windows were rattline like crazy and house was practically shaking! just love my sturdy little house! :-P everything was fine though, just a lot of rain and wind, but nothing compared to what the typhoon was like in southern japan!
had another enkai (welcome party) tonight and it was a bit more formal than the last one. but it was cool. although i smell like smoke and alcohol right now even though i really didnt drink a whole lot.
so i know this is short, but i think im gonna go to bed, im just soooo tired! ill try and be more genki next time and have more rantings and ravings!
well there is a slow moving typhoon moving through japan heading up to aomori, which means the winds have been really strong and man does my house creak when the wind blows!! luckily by the time it reaches here it wont be nearly as strong as down south, its been wreaking havoc down there!
had an excellent elementary school visit on monday. all the kidies were cute and kept coming to the teachers room to ask me to play. i might have even tought them some english in the classroom as well! imagine that!
there was an english speech contest yesterday. ive been helping 6 students (3 from each school) with their speeches for the last couple of weeks. one of my schools did really well, taking home the grand prize trophy!! woo hoo! the other school didnt do as well, one girl brought home a second prize in her category ... so i dont think it has anything to do with me :P but the speeches were cute, some of the kids were so stiff it was just kind of funny, and then other kids were actually really good. but man, some of those speeches were really random ... one talked about almost running into kangaroos :)
not much else now ... off to the exciting land of junior high school! wonder if ill get any more proposals!
man kids wear you out! it could also be that ive been going to bed at my regular time (11 - 12) and waking up at 6:30 everyday, then going to play with kids all day trying to be genki (upbeat), and then going out at night = very very very tired allison on friday. i was so tired, that my head kept doing that embarassing bobbing action in the teacher's room, hopefully not to many people saw that.
then, being the dork that i am, instead of staying home and resting, i went to the welcome party hosted by AJET (JET organization in aomori), so basically around 50 JETs got together in the hills outside of aomori city to party at some cabins. it was fun, but incrediblly tired today. we played ultimate frisbee today as a fundraiser for the non-profit organization in aomori by jets called everest of apples that is supporting the building of a school in nepal. that was a lot of fun, had some minor injuries, not too much of a surprise considering we were playing on an asphault field instead of grass like it usually is.
other news ... it might just start to be getting cool here. it was significantly cooler here today than the last few days. had an annoying bug in my bedroom friday night that kept waking me up every few hours with random spurts of cricket music (but slightly different). the air is filled with this stinky smoke right now and i know it has something to do with the rice fields. i think they are getting ready to harvest the rice which means they have a lot more leaf litter and they burn it everyday making it very smoky with a constant burnt smell in the air. and thats all i can think of now follks. stay tuned for more exciting news from the land of japan in coming days!
wah hooo is all i can say!!
so much to blog, but i guess ill leave out all of the minute details that i usually put into my blogs to save you from reading pages and pages :P
school started last wednesday and it's been going really well. all ive been doing in self introduction lessons (telling them about me), and acting like a fool in class to get some laughter out of them. all in all, ive been getting positive reactions in the classroom and my teachers tell me that students are telling them that they like me so far. but will i actually be able to teach them is the question. i got my first proposition by a student the other day ... during the whole class he was asking me if i have a boyfriend and if he could be mine, and if i would marry him and just being really silly. i just kept telling him you're too young! the students all say hi to me in the hall way, so it's nice. my teachers (JTEs) are good too. some of them cant actually speak english that well, so im using my japanese more than i thought i would, but i try and speak english with the teachers.
had my first enkai (welcome party) last week from one of my junior high schools. i have a feeling that i will really enjoy that school, everyone is really friendly there and there are a few teachers who are really young, including one of my english teachers ... he's only 24! im pretty lucky with the school lunches too, i guess my schools are known for having the best school lunches. had an elementary school visit on monday and the kids there are sooooo cute! i played with them during lunch and i couldnt understand them half of the time because they speak the local dialect, tsugaru ben.
other news, oh yeah ... i traveled down to akita (prefrecture south of aomori) this weekend and what a trip! i picked up 3 others and we drove for 8 hours to the campsite to joing 30 other jets to watch the number one fireworks competition in japan. the fireworks were amazing but i think ill remember the drive best. we were just being incredibly silly and stupid during the drive and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking! on the way back, we took a "scenic" route that added another 2 hours. we drove through a mountain pass that was all gravel with crazy turns, but we saw a monkey, some dog looking like creature, and found an incredible play ground at this campsite in the middle of the mountains. got home really late, but it was a good trip. a lot of fun!
i guess thats it for now. after i get my next paycheck, ill probably buy a digital camera so i can start adding pictures to this site. until then, you'll just have to use my magical descriptions to imagine everything in you own head! :P
good night ~
happy birthday to you (you know id sing it to you jessica!) to both of you, Cassie and Jess ... i'm thinking about u here in japan. hope you're enjoying your palindromic birthday!! eventually ill send off postcards ... maybe by christmas? alright, gotta go to school, i'll blog when im not exhausted and when i have my own internet.
that means it's been a while huh! alright, here's the low down short version style ...
went to aomori last week for orientation. learned lots of good stuff and had lots of fun. saturday, hung out with my new friend becky who lives the closest to me. sunday went to this international gathering and did pottery and ate yakisoba. monday, i took the day off to go to hirosaki to get my car. today, went to the office, then drove around with my supervisor to find my schools, and got some paperwork done so that the car will officially be in my name, and so i can have internet at my house. tomorrow is the first day of schoool ... and whew, taking a breath. for me details of the above events, continue reading :P
okay, so before the orientation i took car of my car insurance. man that shiot is expensive! about $90 a month and it will be that way until i leave because it doesn't start getting cheaper until your 26. boo! wednesday, left for the orientation and arrived at a very nice hotel in aomori. had our own rooms, and i'm envious of the slightly large bed i had in the hotel compared to mine at home. 1st days events included a welcome reception lunch and check in. then went out with some jets to go eat and then found a dance club in which only jets were there, so that was fun dancing to strange 80s music and other random bits.
the next day was full of seminars in which i got some good ideas for my first day of class. also obtained my cell phone, finally!!! i love it! it's all fancy pants and i can talk into it like a walky talky because the screen is the entire speaker! hee ... well that night, much exchanging of phone numbers occurred and i dont feel so isolated now. a lot of the jets went out to eat and then went to karaoke. it was loads of fun, but i made it back by 12 while others continued on until the wee hours of the morning. i need sleep :P friday was another day of seminars, one of which taught us a little bit of tsugaru ben, the local dialect of which i understand nothing!!! after that, went home and slept! felt so nice!
saturday, i hung out with becky and we made dinner and watched tv. it was cool just to chill for a while. sunday, a few of us went to goshogawara for this event that apparently about 8 other jets were going to as well. some other japanese people were there and i think it was an attempt to have some culture/language exchange, which happened a little bit. it was fun though, we made some potter. not sure if we will ever get it back and ate some really good yakisoba (noodles). but it was bloody hot! it's been raining non-stop here, although when it does stop (i know, oximoron) it's crazy humid and hot!
monday was very exciting because i finally got my car. had to take the train down to get it and guess what? while i was waiting for the train in goshogawara i found the soka gakkai culture center! i had seen it on the map, and it was close to the station so i figured i'd go look for it, and there it was! didn't go inside because i had to catch the train, but at least i know where to go. i think i have to wait for tokyo to settle everything before i actually get involved with the organization here, but i imagine that wont be too far away. wonder what it will be like here.
today was nice, i finally felt very comfortable with my supervisor. he drove me around to my schools (i met the staff very briefly) and then he tested me in my own car on where all the schools were. passed with 100%! heee ... looking forward to school starting tomorrow, although i imagine time will start to go by quickly though! i probably wont be posting nearly as much until i get my internet, which should happen sometime next week (crossing my fingers). alright, signing out. love you all!
thanks to everyone for your concern about the earthquake. it was centered in miyagi which is a good 2 - 3 hours (by train) away from me. it's been all over the news. according to the japanese scale it was a 6 out of a 7 point scale, richter scale measured 7.2 and it caused quite a bit of damage. being as far as i am away from it though, all we felt was a little tremmor. it was weird because i was sitting at my desk and i thought i felt something move, then it got a little larger and continued on for a good 15 seconds (at least). everyone in the office was like, earthquake earthquake! i don't think it was any stronger than a 3.5 or 4.0 where i was. my first earthquake in japan though! everyone in the office asked if i was scared and i told them we get earthquakes in california as well, so i was fine. actually thought it was kind of fun :P but i hope everyone is okay where it was much stronger.
today i'm off to aomori for the orientation. should be fun, 2 nights and 3 days in a hotel with all the other jets. i wonder what kind of trouble we will get ourselves into ... heee. it will probably about a week before i can post again because im taking monday off to go get my car! woo woo!! later ya'll :)
just give me one of this big white funny hats and call me chef allison! yes people, i made dinner last night and something that i have never made before. i saw it on tv one day and thought that it would be good. i guess it would be called kabocha takikomi (or something like that). kabocha is a pumpkin squash like vegetable (one of my favorites) and takikomi just means a rice dish (i think). anyways, this is how you do it, or at least how i did it. in the rice maker you put: rice, cut up raw kabocha (and that is no easy task, that stuff is hard to cut), salt, soy sauce, some vinegar, i think i put a little of bit of sugar and close the lid, push the button and in 25 minutes after mixing it all up, you have a wonderful little rice dish that is oh so yummy! hehe, i was pretty happy with myself. i didn't measure anything, just kind of put stuff in ... probably could be a lot better, but for my first time it wasn't bad. i also made this pasta salad. but the pasta i used is called konyoku (i think) and it's those noodles that are kind of clearish. it was as any salad to make. just sauteed cabbage, carrots, and cucumber in some oil and vinegar, added the noodles. drained it all off. then i made a sauce using mayonaise, soy sauce, and pepper. it turned out pretty good, although i think next time i should wait until everything is cold before adding the sauce. and that is my cooking adventure this week as i wont be home wed-fri.
other news and strange observations ...
have i told you about this yet? one of the funniest things i see here are grannies on mo-peds. i'll be walking down the street or driving in town and i swear, i've never seen so many little old ladies on motor bikes. they wear their little helmuts and rule the road! you would never see that in the states!
while taking a walk around the area last night i noticed that my town has a large number of hair salons. small town (relatively), yet many many hair salons. i even saw a sign that said blow cut, what's that? i'm sure they mean a cut plus style, but i almost thought it was going to say something else ...
so, now that everyone has finished washing off the graves of their loved ones/ancestors, they say it might start cooling off and go into a quick fall. if only! sweating in your own home isn't a whole lot of fun, but what are you going to do right?
if you'd like to read about all the juicy details from this last weekend, then read on ...
sorry, no juicy details - 1st weekend i didn't really party since coming to japan. i know you're terribly disappointed, but i did accomplish some stuff this weekend. friday night, chilled at my house and read musashi. if you haven't read it, let me suggest it to you. it's a really long book, and it took me a while to get into but, now that i am, i absolutely love it! it's a great book with an excellent story line and good lessons.
saturday, i duked it out with my house. i was very lucky with my predecessor because i was able to move into a clean house (i know of other jets who were shafted by there predecessors who left their place a mess). however, after further inspection, i realized the place needed a little bit of spring cleaning, especially the kitchen. visually it was fine, but whenever i touched any of the buttons or appliances my hands would get sticky and i had to wash them. i don't know what caused it, but i ended up cleaning this film that coated everything - perhaps from the kerosene heater during the winter, i don't know. all i know is that it took me freaking 3 hours (at least) just to clean the kitchen, mind you i was being very nit-picky about it. the plan was to spend the morning cleaning and then explore my town in the afternoon. well when i finally finished cleaning around 6 in the evening, i was spent and just took the rest of the night off on my couch!
sunday, i went down to hirosaki with a friend. it was raining all day off and on, and being the smart graduates that we are, we forgot our umbrellas. but after buying them, we went to hirosaki castle and explored the gardens (castle was closed) and it was beautiful! then we had fun driving around the city. hirosaki is a really nice city, i'd like to spend more time exploring it. while we were there, i saw the most narrow street i'd ever seen! we were brushing the bushes as we drove by, no joke! it was insane! if another car had come, well then we'd have to play chicken or one of us would have had to wait. also did some grocery shopping and plan on cooking this week after being inspired by some things i saw on tv. although, aomori orientation is this week, so i really won't have much time to :P
i think i'll be buying a digital camera soon (this week or next week), so be prepared for some pictures!! ooh la la! ok, bye (^-^)
so i actually talked to my boss yesterday (not my supervisor, but the actual boss in the office) for the first time really. during lunch me, him, and another guy were chatting about california and what it was like and how i liked japan and what i've been doing. it was cool. i guess it paid off to because he let me leave early! usually i work until 4:15 and at 3 he told me that it was ok to leave. finally someone realized i'm not doing anything around here :P
well after work i met up with another lady from the office across the hall, miki. she had asked if i wanted to play tennis with her last week and of course i jumped at the opportunity to get outside and meet some new people. so last night we met up with her other friends who play every week i guess. playing tennis in japan is quite interesting. imagine playing tennis in high school where you do drills for about 80% of the time and then you finally play. that's what it's like here. everyone pairs up and volley's using only half the court and starts out close together, then eventually uses the length of the court. that goes on for a while, then you take a break for some water. then u pair up with other people and do the same thing. after a while, you start to work on you serves and other techniques. and then finally, you play a game. and this wasn't only with miki's friends, i was noticing it with everyone on all the courts! i just thought it was funny. people in america (espeically my bro and i) might warm up for a few minutes and then we say screw it and go right into a game! that is definately not the case here. but it was fun, realized i could probably use the drills because i sucked!! it was nice meeting new people though and i guess they do it every week and they asked me to come again. i think i will, although i was tired when i got back ... played from 6-9.
other news ... it's still hot and humid! although, everyone says that after the bon festival (the time of year when everyone cleans off their ancestor's graves and other memorial stuff) that it will start cooling off significantly and then all of a sudden we'll have an early fall leading right to the craziness of winter! ahhhhh! still not looking forward to winter :P
oh yeah, i'm officially a registered alien in japan. et phone home right? yeah, corny i know. and i have a bank account! woo hoo! do u know why that's so exciting? because you can't do anything in this country without a bank account (get a cell phone, car, insurance, internet, etc.) but funnily enough no one really uses credit cards or their bank cards. it's pretty much a cash society.
so what's the point of coming into work with ties on if you're only going to take them off? It seems as if all the men in my office do that. They come into the office, wearing their ties nicely, and then take em off! They only put them back on when they have to go to a meeting or go home. weird people i tell you!
last night one of the teachers from the junior high school came over so i could help her with her homework for some conference or something like that. it was cool, she brought over McDonalds because she wasn't sure if i liked japanese food. funny, i much prefer japanese food to mcdonalds. oh well. gave me some insight of what it might be like at school. im definately looking forward to it.
so today i brought my lunch, and man if i knew it would have got the reaction it did, then i would have brought lunch a long time ago. they were all oohing and ahhing at the fact that i brought it and that it was japanese food! funny people.
i woke up this morning at around 1am because an incredible storm was brewing outside! lightening and thunder abounded, i almost even got scared. but alas i didnt and fell back asleep. but man, i swear one lightning must have been right above the town because the crack of thunder that followed shook the house! not that that takes a whole lot, as my house is built similar to a kind of shack. and the tin like roof enhances the sound of the rain, but i didn't mind ... so much!
rode my bike through town yesterday to go to the store and develop my pictures. everything in this country is smaller! the people, the roads, the houses, and even the pictures! they were tiny ... hee, but quick, only 30 minutes to develop!
so i finally talked to my neighbors a bit yesterday. found out their name is nakamura (i think). the wife is really nice and brought me a bag of potatoes, although, i don't know what one person is supposed to do with a whole bag of potatoes without them going bad first. i'm still trying to finish up the tomatoes she gave me!
i finally cooked my first meal last night. nothing much, just some yakisoba (noodles) but it was good. felt good to cook, hope to do more of it while im here.
well i had a fight with my front door this morning and the door one! let me tell you, that thing is a pain to open from the inside and outside! perhaps it just needs some getting used to, but man i wish that would happen already!
my house is the house of spiders. i'm hesitant to kill them because i saw one attack a fly the other morning and i figure if the spiders are there then hopefully other bugs won't be. but some of them look pretty nasty!
they say it will start cooling off after the bon festival (mid-month) and i am definately looking forward to that! currently, if i take a nap on my couch i start sweating and you all know what a great feeling that is!! can we say someone please turn on the airconditioner! :P
yup, i lost my voice yelling that at the tops of my lungs for 2 hours while jumping around for about 8 kilometers on friday night dressed in a very strange get up! and as you could only guess, it was great fun!! went into aomori on friday and danced around with all the other jets for 2 hours, got all nice and hot and sweaty and then went out afterwards. well actually, on the way back, i saw anne and that supervisor dude (read my previous posts in case you don't know who i'm talking about) and he apologized for giving me the wrong address and gave me the right one. hmmm, should i go for it? maybe ...
well after that, went out to eat with one group of jets, then met up with another group (all the newbies that i connected with in tokyo) at a bar and then karaoke afterwards. well singing at karaoke definately did not help my voice (nor did it help others ears i imagine), but it was still fun. ended up going back to a jets house and crashed there with about 8 other jets at like 4 in the morning. a few of us went straigt to sleep while some of the others went out to get more drinks and i guess they got lost for like 3 hours or something, so when they came back (at 6) they were hooting and hollaring like crazy. i think i was so tired i didnt really care though. the irish man was crazy funny though! the irish definately like their drink!
the next day i was spared the hangover that everyone else got (i seem to be lucky in that department, don't ever really get them). headed back to goshogawara expecting to watch tachi nebuta (an even crazier festival i guess). hung out with my friend eric for a few hours but then decided to go home because i was soooooo tired!!!
and then the next day, duh duh duh!!!! i tried driving in japan on sunday!! ahh! hehe ... eric bought a car, but doesn't have his international driver's license yet (i do) and our supervisor told him not to drive until he has it, but the guy he was buying the car from was leaving for the airport yesterday, so he asked me to drive it back to his place. in total, i drove for about 2 hours or so and i did a really good job, i must say! i thought i was going to have a heck of a time adjusting to driving in japan, but once i got behind the wheel it actually felt comfortable and eric even said that i drove as if i'd been driving in japan forever.
some funny things that we saw:
-a man peeing on the side of the rode, seems to happen quite often, we've coined it the "arkansas of japan"
-a pony in the back of a truck, but not just any truck. those really small tiny japanese trucks where the bed of the truck just looks like a piece of plyboard. the pony was tied up somehow, and just chilling as the truck drove on by. i could only imagine it saying "what in the hell are these guys doing putting me in the back of a truck with no guard rails? man they are crazy!! where's my apple?" or something along those lines :P
well folks, i imagine there was some other stuff i wanted to blog about, but i've drawn a blank at the moment.
i'm off to aomori to participate in the nebuta festival with all of the other jets and people of this ken. wish me luck! we're going to be dancing around like wild banchees while dripping with mad sweat!! sounds fun right? :)
expect a nice update in a few days!
man ... the japanese really know how to do fireworks! i'm pretty much out in the sticks (well sort of) and last night i saw one of the best fireworks shows i've ever seen. right now the infamous nebuta festival is going on all over the prefrecture - check it out - (http://www.jomon.ne.jp/~kusumi/aomori/nebuta/nebuta.htm & http://www.nebuta.or.jp/english/index_e.htm)
and last night was no exception for goshogawara. they have a special nebuta called tachi nebuta and you scream ya-te-ma-re over and over again. really fun! and they have super awesome fireworks. it pretty much looked like the grand finale each time! wouldn't even know how to explain it.
other news = i officially have my official seal to sign official documents :P the japanese have what's called a hanco or inkan and it's a little stamp that has your name on it fitted into a circle. well whenever you are told to sign something, they really mean stamp you name. i had mine registered yesterday. if you lose it, then anyone can essentially sign you name, so it's best not to. i wanted to use the one my host brother and sister-in-law got for me last year, but i guess i have to use the one the office got for me.
it's still cloudy. people say it's usually quite clear here, but ever since i got here it's been cloudy, rainy, and freaking humid! i've never sweated so much doing so little. something as easy as walking up a few flights of stairs and i start dripping like a shower! it's rediculous.
alright, back to the desk to do no work again ... i can't believe i get paid more than most japanese who just got out of college do when i do so little. but i guess that's just the way it is!
oh yeah, i won't be posting for a few days or be at home because i'm going to aomori city to participate in the huge nebuta festival parade (this is more of a note for mom than anyone else, she knows what i mean :P)
once again, i'm sitting at the office not doing much. although having time at the office has given me a lot of time to start studying my japanese, man i've forgotten a lot!! been watching tv as well, can kind of understand it, but in all reality ... eh not really :P japanese tv is funny though. i was watching this one show where 2 guys were pretty much making fools out of themselves doing weird challenges like trying to stick to a wall with velcro and things like that. another one i would equivicate to a bad talk show (not as bad as jerry springer, not as good as oprah) where they would bring out 2 people, 1 liked the other, but the other had a secret. for example, one of the dudes liked another dude so the girl was out of luck. at least that's what i think i understood :P
so my placement really isn't that bad. it has a nice grocery store that has everything else in it as well, and it's called the great superstore! my jet big sister took me yesterday and she said it must be a good store because it carried cream cheese! i thought i'd be doing a lot of cooking when i got here, but i really don't know if i will, because cooking for one person is kind of difficult when they only sell materials in bulk (well japanese style bulk) and it goes bad realtively quickly.
the next town over is nice as well. has a lot of good shops, one i will definately be visiting to help make my house more homier. will also be investing in a dehumidifier because my house is so dang moist!
my neighbor gave me tomatos yesterday, seems like a very nice lady. will have to bring her something soon.
well if i get bored again, i'll post some more ...
i tried to get my first phone number last weekend :P Actually, more like forced too!
it started out like this ... i spent the day with Eric and Rod (Rod is a JET that is leaving and Eric is his successor and has the same supervisor as me) driving all over the Tsugaru peninsula. It's a beautiful place with beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls and everything is sooooo green!! I can't wait until i get my car so I can explore more.
I made a child cry for the first time. We had stopped for lunch somewhere and a family came in with 2 kids and of course they were staring at us. So I said waved and said hello and they responded. OOh, I'll try and talk to them a little bit, I think to myself so I go over start saying lines they many kids know (How are you?). While the older child was making an effort to talk to me, the smallest one (who waved to me) had his head on his arm and he was balling!! Crazy huh? Guess he thought I was some big scary white woman about to eat him maybe, I don't know. Kind of funny though, even though I felt bad!
Well after we drove around all day, we went down to the next town over from mine, Goshogawara, to meet up with other JETs for dinner. In total, there was probably about 20 of us and we were having a grand time. Everyone talking and chatting. Well of the JETs (who's actually leaving) invited her supervisor. I thought it was strange until he walked in, quite young and pretty cute too. Well I told her I thought so and she introduced us, but he didn't talk much (very shy man). Anyways, we all went to karaoke (he went somewhere else) and had fun singing at the top of our lungs. Then we went to a bar, where alas, the supervisor was. I sat down next 2 Japanese girls that were next to him and started talking. Told them that I thought he was cute and they made it there goal that night to embarass us both as much as possible trying to hook us up. Well to say the least, didn't really work. He gave me his number and email but because he was so "tired" he made a mistake and my email didn't go through. My friend said he's just too shy. Oh well, what are you going to do? I thought it was kind of promising though, got a number (even though wrong) my first night out on the town! Hmmmm ... perhaps a good sign? Just keep trying :P
Alright, signing out for now. If you want to call me (ask me for my number because I have one now, well at the house anyways). Hebana or sayonara in Tsugaru-ben (the local dialect)!
Howdy ya'll ... here's another update for you. It's raining! Maybe that's why Aomori is so green! Well once again, not much to do at the office so I figure I'd blog. Yesterday, Kobayashi-san (Masuyo san, not sure what to call her now because she told me to call her Masuyo but it seems as if everyone calls her Kobayashi) took me to the larger store in town to do some needed shopping. I was suprised at how large the store was, I mean it carries everything! I definately underestimated the town and what it has. Anyways, got a lot of stuff for the house, but still need to go grocery shopping because my fridge is pretty much empty except some natto, yogurt, water, and milk, orange juice, and eggs which my predecessor left. I feel more at home now, but not quite to the point where I can sleep through the night soundly. Last night, I had to leave the tv on so there could be some noise to help comfort me because it's so quite outside but the house makes a lot of noise because it's old. But I woke up at 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and at 7am I finally got out of bed.
My predecessor came to the office today and we talked for a while. Asked her some questions, and we also got interviewed by the newspaper in town. Other than that, not much to report. Oh yeah, there's a bell system in town that goes off at 6 am (wake your butt up everyone), 12pm (lunch time ya'll), and 6 pm (time to go home - I'm guessing).
ttfn
Well everyone, I'm officially settled into my new home in what is known as Kanagi, in Aomori prefrecture, in Japan. But first, let me update you a little bit. My last night in Tokyo, I went out with other ALTs from my prefrecture and we had so much fun. The first couple of days I was kind of worried what it was going to be like with all of them, because we weren't all anxious to get to know each other, or so it seemed. Well anyways, we went out to eat and then karaoke and let me tell you, the ice broke! Everyone was drinking and singing as loud as they could and just having a grand ole time.
Well the next day, we had to get up nice and early to catch our flight to Aomori. However, we almost got delayed because there was a typhoon right above Aomori (they rarely ever make it up that far north). Well we had to circle above the airport for almost an hour (after the captain said we might have to go back to Tokyo), before we finally landed. And that's when it was time to meet the supervisor. We all lined up in front of them (there is another guy who has the same supervisor as me, Eric) and bowed and that was it, the grand welcome ceremony. Well Eric and I, and our supervisor and another guy who met us there went out for lunch. They took us to Goshogawara to meet people in the city and to get our gaijin cards (foreigner cards) and then we went to Kanagi. There we met some more people, I got my luggage, and they took me to my house which is down the street from my office. Last night I unpacked as much as I could before I finally passed out. It's a nice house, smells kind of damp so I need to buy some humidity absorbers. But all in all, I'm happy with it. I'd like to get out and explore more, try to meet the neighbors, but I'll take my time with it.
Ok, have to get back to work, or at least pretend like I'm working because they sure haven't given me any tasks! Good times ;)
It is now Tuesday, 6:24 am, and yes, I am suffering from a bit of Jet lag unlike my last trip to Japan in which there was no such thing. The flight over was actually fantastic, didn't even feel like 12 hours and got to sit next to a really nice guy going to Hokkaido which helped the hours go by. There was only one time when I got nervous on the plane, and that was when we landed and it felt like the plane shifted to the left all of sudden - everyone on the plane kind of took a gasp.
After we arrived at the airport, waited for the luggage and didn't have to wait long (thank goodness, because that's the worst part of an airplane ride is waiting for the damn luggage!). Then went through customs, and can we say I could have smuggled anything I wanted to into the country!! The guy looked at me, looked at my luggage, and said, "Is this all of it? It looks quite heavy." He kind of patted the luggage then sent me on my way.
Then we were herded like sheep into the bus line. Sent one piece of luggage off to our homes and took one with us to the hotel for orientation. Bus ride took about an hour and a half. It was fun watching everyone's reactions to their first time in Japan. "Wow, look at the signs, they looks so different." "That building looks interesting." And other comments that showed their excitment and probably masking a bit of nervousness that I felt my first time in Japan last year. This time, it almost felt like I was coming back to my second home. It was surreal, but nice.
Well, we get to the hotel and it is very nice!! Check it out if you want to at www.keioplaza.co.jp (there may be an English button to click on). My roommate is someone from prefrecture. Very cool lady. The first night we had free, so Ann and I met up with some Soka friends along with a friend we met at the pre-departure orientation. It was all fun, but I was exhausted so a little out of it. Yesterday, we had to sit through speech after speech, presentation after presentation. There were a few good speakers ... some who mentioned why they started studying English, the motivation being a pretty lady teacher. That got some good laughs. I think that's the reason I was soooooo tired last night, because of all the sitting and listening. I was going to go out, but instead I went up to the hotel bar, had a drink then went to bed.
And now, it is 6:35 am and for anyone who knows me, you know I would not be up this early on my own for any reason unless I had to be somewhere, which I don't until 9. So I think this is the Jet lag, considering it's 2 pm back at home and I would definately be awake no problem. Alright, well I think that's it for now. Don't have a digital camera yet, so y'all have to wait for pictures.
Oh yeah, funny thing happened my first day at the hotel. I was in the elevator going down to the lobby. There was a Japanese couple in the elevator and I looked at them and smiled. Well the Japanese dude looked at me and frowned with this pouty lip sticking out. Have no idea why he was doing that, but his wife was commenting on my bag from Kyoto that my host mom bought for me last year. Couldn't help but laugh when I got off the elevator.