Irasshai: May 2007

ladies and gentlemen, watch out for rocks!

yeah, sorry, this is kinda gross.
this is what happens when you run at full speed, stubbing your toes very hard on a rock, and breaking two of them.

i wanna be outside...

kazuya's bbq

kazuya organized a bbq in toyosaka yesterday. some pics:

my amazing night

i went to kickboxing class last night in the city and after my coach and i went to his friend's antique 'shop' for some food. his friend owns a tiny little antique shop in furumachi, but he has another full time job so it's open very infrequently. it's more like his hobby, as well as cooking. so we sat down on the tatami mats and zabuton cushions, and his friend served us mouth watering delicacies like curry (*not* japanese style) and naan, sausages (also not jpns), grilled mushrooms with olive oil, sweet soybeans, and ulong tea. it was honestly the best curry i've ever had (with the possible exception of Indus...but the meat was more tender).
his friend told me to have a look around. there was tons of stuff in the antique shop from dolls to ceramics to old collector's items. he asked me if i wanted to see the collection of antique kimonos upstairs in the attic. so i went up and had a look around and there was one that i liked. it was only Y1000! ($10). so i thought that i might get it.
then he showed me a box with a wedding kimono in it. he took it out and let me try it on. it was gorgeous. bright red with white birds on it. it was really heavy - must have been at least 10 lbs. kazeta was saying that that kind of kimono people will rent for about Y200,000 a day ($2000).
and he said he would sell it for Y10,000! i don't know if it was because he's selling his shop soon or if he got a really good deal on it or what...but i absolutely couldn't pass up this chance to own something so incredibly beautiful and 100% authentically japanese.
so i bought it!
i'm going to have to ship it home on it's own...it will fill an entire suitcase on it's own, as wedding kimonos are designed to have that big huge part at the bottom.
here is a video i took of it, and some photos below:

i'm so happy!

it's rare...but sometimes the creativity does shine through...

immigrant's party saturday night

i hadn't been to a party in a while so i sucked it up and went to immigrant's cafe saturday night for some fun adventure times.
jon, anna, kazuya, masa, sumi, tomoks, jenelle, sam, troy...

immigrant's party pics

our little journey on saturday

i actually managed to sleep in and miss kickboxing on saturday. i was SO angry with myself. what an idiot.
instead i dragged jon out on a bike ride with me. in the maze of shibata, you cannot cycle in a straight line for more than a block. after a few lefts and rights we found ourselves in an old sake? factory. there were a couple of houses amidst trees! and even a river which wasn't paved!
so we snapped a few pics...

the rice fields have been flooded

much like the cherry blossoms and their blooming, the flooding of the rice fields happen over time as you trace japan from the south to the north. while we were in kyushu several weeks ago we noticed that not only had the rice fields already been flooded, but that the rice was already almost a foot high. at the time our fields were still dry. they've just been flooded and yesterday the light (after a storm) was just brilliant so i couldn't resist pulling over and snapping a few pics.

tuesday night dinners

i meet with some women from my old eikaiwa class on tuesday nights for some delicious food. they rotate between their houses. this night it was at hoshino-san's.

i woke up in a funk this morning

due partially, i would imagine, to my late night last night and subsequent exhaustion upon waking.
i wasn't even out on the town or anything.
i went to my pottery class with casanova. both of us were in slightly uninspired moods and after less than an hour and a half decided we'd had enough of playing with clay for the evening. i utilized the 'sausage method', thinking to make a mug and ended up with some kind of a rice-bowl. i've decided that i tend to eat far more cereal than rice (at home, anyway) and so i will call it a cereal bowl. moderate success.
on the way home we stopped at anna's house to catch up with her and lindsay, and to bring to a close our 6-month long obsession with Prison Break (second series). but, disappointingly, the end of the (pirated) episode was not working properly and so we were left unsatisfied. (working on it..)
wow. you can definitely tell that i haven't had the most exciting of days.
um. yeah.
will try to at least post some pics tomorrow.

sushi

so it's 9:25am and in 20 minutes i'll begin teaching the first of 3 classes in a row...followed another during 6th period. kat's on g-chat, freaking out. she woke up this morning in a panic mode about the time disappearing. and she's not even leaving japan! (though she is leaving this cushy niigata life). then i just had a meeting with H-sensei for our plan for 2nd period and we're doing "do you like ~?" and we'll do "do you like sushi?". i looked at the sushi picture card and immediately felt a lump in my throat. such a normal thing, "do you like sushi?" which will turn into something completely abnormal in a few months...
am i making sense?
my jon-delivered cold is also getting worse, not better.
i'm on another new gym craze, so this week i'll hopefully sweat it out.
had my alarm set for my monday wake-up time this morning (it's tuesday). which means my alarm went off 1 hour late, waking me from my deep (nightmare due) slumbers at 7:45. i have to be at work at 8. luckily it's my close school, and last night i'd prepared the coffee moka already so i just had to turn on the stove, throw on my clothes, pack my computer, wash my face, drink my coffee, and brush my teeth. made it to school on time. unbelievable.

a sunny monday

it's gorgeous and i'm sitting in the teacher's room at an elementary school about to teach my second 6th-grade class. i'd rather be outside. i think it must be about 25 degrees!
bring on the beach!
pursed my lips, sucked it up and went to the cinema in the city yesterday to watch Spiderman 3. kinda boring...but a nice sunday thing to do. even at Y1800. (plus Y700 for parking).
is it friday yet?

omedetou

Pirokutetesu Gym

kboxing coach, kazeta-san

friday night

as a semi celebration of both anna and emma's birthdays, anna had a gathering at her house in nakajo.
i invited a friend who's just back from a year in toronto and he brought with him a cd filled with pics from his year abroad, including a bunch of my sister. was nice to see!

(kazuya, minoko, masa, jon and (domo-kun)

i feel compelled to not ignore the blog.

ever since the facebook craze hit i've been less motivated to update my blog. but i need to remind myself that this is a medium for me to look back on when my time in japan has come to an end. to read snippets and be reminded of the times i've had out here. facebook is great and fun for pictures etc but i don't write about the day-to-day life here and all of the zillions of things that make japan japan.
it's been a constant for me almost since i first arrived. it doesn't deserve this untimely death. so it will be revived.
a little recap of the past few weeks:
i returned from my SE asia adventure to the beginning of a new school year. both the kocho and kyoto senseis at both my schools (vp and principles) were replaces, as well as 6 out of 9 english teachers. it made for a nice change. my semester is much busier at saruhashi (nicknamed my "bad" school though it's much better now, and most days i even prefer it to toyoura). H-san, who is in charge of my schedule, is eager to utilize me and tries his best to schedule me for all available english classes while i'm here 2 days a week. this makes a big difference, because when i am busier, the days go by faster and are usually more enjoyable. it also feels good to have a sense of accomplishment.
my other school is better too. the english teacher who is in charge of me there is a bit crazy, but he's fun and we have a laugh together. he has a great relationship with the kids and they are very well behaved around him.
there are four new english teachers at saru chu. three of them are guys who are my age, and i think they are extremely frightened by me. they are soooo nervous in my presence. maybe they think i will judge their teaching abilities, or their english abilities, or maybe they are just terrified of a non-timid female gaijin who is about a foot taller than each of them.
at toyoura i teach the special needs kids one class a day. this year there are only 3 of them. but we have a good time together and i'm amazed at the vocabulary they're able to pick up.
so school is...fine/good.
i've written below about golden week, which was...fantastic. emma w., lindsay, kat, kate and i all came to japan at the same time 3 years ago. i've made so many amazing friends out here, but these guys are my golden gals. three years of going through the same ups and downs, always being there for each other, and knowing what one another is going through. unfortunately,
they're all from england but luckily, they'll all be in the same place when i visit!
i'm still kickboxing twice a week and that's still going well. i love my instructor so much, i really wish i could transport him back to canada when i leave! a few months ago during a fight, he was kicked diagonally in the knee and ripped something, and had to use a cane for several weeks. at the beginning of june he's going in for surgery to correct this problem, and will be bed/home-ridden for up to a month! so he'll have his assistant teach his classes. but that's kind of too bad since i've only got another two and a half months or so with him. (as an instructor! ;) ) last night i went to class but wasn't feeling well and actually had to leave halfway through due to a fever and stomach cramps. he send me a text later on in the evening making sure i made it home ok.
i'm starting my pottery class again on wednesday nights with casanova. i missed it this week due to a dinner but looking forward to starting it up again.
tuesdays i meet with 5 women from my eikaiwa class who want to continue to practice their english. it's also good for my japanese, and they all cook delicious food so i'm quite happy to oblige!
the weather's slowly warming but i'm still waiting impatiently for the days to come when we can take off to the beach at any time of day. now that i'm back from GW i really feel as though the summer's pretty much here and that the time is just going to go at high speed until i leave. the homeward stretch. finally and literally. less than 3 months...or 12 weeks. it makes me terrified, excited, sad, anxious, happy...
i know 3 years here is enough. and that it's time to move on. but what's that going to mean???
here's to a fantastic final summer in japan.

GW road trip

when my teachers found out that my friends and i were going to drive from niigata all the way down to kagoshima, i got all kinds of reactions from laughter to disbelieve to "suggoi!!!". it is a long way...and if i put it into context, it's much like driving from toronto to north carolina and back on only two-lane highways with a maximum speed of 120km/hr and a minimum speed of 20km/hr (on non-toll routes). it's a long way to go in only 7 days, but we all wanted the chance to see some more of japan together before we go our separate ways in august.
we set out sunday morning and by dinner time we had made it to hiroshima (record time i might add). we checked into our hotel and walked over to the peace park in the brilliant sunshine. the sun was just setting as we reached the a-bomb dome shell which made for some nice pictures. the next morning we woke early and caught a train + ferry to miyajima, the 'floating shrine'. we also took in the a-bomb museum in the afternoon and then headed off the next day to mt. aso. honshu (the main island of japan) is connected to kyushu by a bridge so we drove over and came down through the north.
mt. aso is a still-active volcano which blew its top 2000 years ago, creating the worlds largest caldera where a town now exists. the top of the volcano still sits in the middle of the caldera, with the town built all around it. so on every side of the town is the crater of the caldera and the rest of the world lies above it. the landscape within the volcano is so un-japanlike. vast, hilly fields with grass, and even cattle (which i've never seen before in japan). we drove up and up, to the near summit of the volcano's top, but then you needed to take a rope-toe up the rest of the way and it was so foggy you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face.
from aso we drove down all the way south to kagoshima and over to sakurajima, another volcano which inhabits its own island. the volcano takes up the entire island except for a small area of land at the base where there is a town. the children at the elementary schools there walk to school and back wearing hard helmets in case of volcanic rubble. sakurajima is the most active volcano in japan, and there is a constant stream of smoke rising from the top. the last time it properly erupted was in 1994, killing some tourists. since then they have built concrete shelters in the event of an eruption.
we then drove on to where joe lives, just outside of kagoshima city. we stayed two nights there, driving down to the south of satsuma peninsula to some beaches and to a lake which houses 2-metre long eels. kagoshima ken is mountainous and extremely hilly, which made for very beautiful towns amidst the sloping streets.
from kyushu we had planned to go through shikoku island on the way back up to honshu. so we drove up the southeastern coast and caught a ferry from oita to shikoku, stopping briefly in miyazaki to check out some surfing hot spots. once in shikoku we drove straight to a national-park area called iya valley where we had booked a night in a youth hostel which was within temple grounds and owned by a priest and his wife. he met us at the train station and we followed him up, up, and up back and forth for 20 minutes up a mountain until we came to the temple perched at the very top with an amazing view of the town below. there were very few guests there and we seemed to have the huge temple complex to ourselves, with an enormous tatami room to sleep in.
the next morning we took in the view from the top and headed back to the iya valley gorge. we spent the day going on boat rides, running across vine-encrusted suspension bridges, and driving through the windy roads of the mountains.
we then left the area and began the long journey back to niigata, over the bridge in northern shikoku to kobe and alllll the way back up again.
it was a fantastic trip, spent with the original 5 from when we all first came to japan. i'm going to remember this trip with you guys forever...