Tokyo Silver Week

Golden Week in May is the biggest travel weekend in Japan, when three holidays in a row create a 5 day weekend. For some reason, this year, I guess they shuffled some holidays around in the Fall so that they did the same thing, and they're calling it Silver Week. It was this past weekend, and Caitlin, Lana and I went to Tokyo.

Caitlin and I took the Shinkansen up on Saturday, and hung out in Asakusa, where we were staying. We had dinner in Shibuya, burgers, real burgers, with cheese and bbq sauce and pineapple. Due to the stupid fact that Tokyo subways stop at 12, we decided not to go dancing like we'd planned, but go back to our hostel.

Sunday we scoped out a flea market and then met up with Lana in Harajuku. We shopped and saw Meiji Shrine, and a bizarre store called condomania, which is exactly what it sounds like. We had Thai food for dinner, which was great, and then met Caitlin's friend Cameron and his 3 friends back in Asakusa. Since there's nothing much to do in Asakusa, we ended up getting an all night karaoke room and hanging out there, until circumstances required that we return to our hostel.

Monday we went to the Tsukiji Fish Market, and had really fresh sushi at a little place in one of the many maze-like alleys around the market. Walking (or, more accurately, squeezing and staggering) through the market area made me feel like I was really in Asia, the foreign smells and the jam packed little streets with severed fish heads staring at you and weird creatures floating in icy water. In the afternoon we walked around Ginza, the fashionable shopping district. I came across a print shop where I found this gorgeous print by a Japanese wood block artist from the early 20th century names Kawase Hasui. I've fallen in love with his work, it has a very realistic and yet very picture-book feel to it. It's very idealized, peaceful and calm. You can take a look at some of his prints here. The one I bought is below.

Monday night we went to Tokyo Tower, because the view at night is really cool. Then Tuesday we went to Nikko, about 2 hours outside Tokyo, where there is an impressive collection of shrines and temples. One of the shrines has carvings of monkeys on it doing the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" pose. Apparently these carvings have something to do with the origin of that phrase, though I don't understand how. Due to unfortunate circumstances, we were forced to stand the entire 2.5 hour train ride back to Tokyo, and were exhausted when we got back. We had dinner at a little place near the hostel, and accidentally ordered spam patties. Then we went back to Ginza to have dessert at a place called Alice Cafe, which is a theme restaurant where the waiters dress like Alice and the place looks like Wonderland. It's dark, like you really are in a rabbit hole, the walls are draped with blue fabric and there are mirrors on the ceiling. It was a lot of fun, but I was very conscious of being the only foreigners in there. Clearly it was off the beaten path.

Tuesday night, Cameron and his friends were supposed to come in to the city again to meet up, but due to what I'm not sure, lack of consideration or immaturity and poor planning, they chose to wait until 10 to let us know they were actually still in Hanno, where Cameron lives, an hour outside of Tokyo. But why didn't we come out there? We could have a house party. Long story short, Caitlin and Lana and I disagreed about whether such a plan would be a lot of fun or a mind-numbingly juvenile throwback to freshman-year frat parties, and we parted ways, them going to Hanno and me going back to the hostel.

We met up again the next morning. I had breakfast at a little cafe in Asakusa, did a little last minute souvenir shopping (I bought a gorgeous silk robe and a Starbucks mug-I'm collecting the different ones from the major cities). We went to Roppongi Hills, the huge shopping/housing/entertainment complex for lunch, and while Caitlin and Lana shopped I went to try to find the studio of Murakami Takashi, a Japanese artist I like. I assumed his studio would include a gallery, which it did, but the building was closed, probably because of the National holiday. So I didn't get to see it, but it was still cool to see where his studio was.

We left Tokyo at 3 and got back to Yamasaki around 8 or 9. It was a fun trip, but it was tiring. The hostel we were staying at was in no way relaxing. It deserves its own entry, but I'll try to do it justice here. The only redeeming quality was the price, which at under 20 dollars a night is unbeatable. That said, I would at all costs avoid staying there again in the future. It was not too far from the subway, which was good. But Asakusa is not the most exciting area of Tokyo. The guidebook actually used the word "yawn" to describe it. There was one toilet per floor (one physical toilet) and it kept running out of toilet paper. One of the girls in our room the first night came back at 6 am and had forgotten her key, she knocked and woke us up to let her in. There was no one at reception at that time. The other 3 nights we moved into an 8 bed mixed dorm. There was no lock on the door. Again, 1 toilet for the entire floor. The common space was a kitchen (cockroaches) and through the kitchen was the one sink and shower (no lock) on the floor. Zero privacy. I showered on Sunday night because there was no one around at 3 am when we got back, but that was it. I couldn't shower again until I got home Wednesday night. I know. Disgusting. The security was a joke. They told us that after 12 the front door would be locked, and we would need a code to get in. When we came back at 3 Sunday night, the door was open, which meant we were able to walk right in, and right up into our dorm room, which, you will recall, also had no lock. There was one guy sitting up in the kitchen on his computer at that time, a guest with insomnia, I assumed. It turns out he wasn't even a guest there. His friend was, but he had nowhere to stay, so he was just hanging out in the hostel. He made himself perfectly comfortable in our dorm. We came back one day to find him sitting with his laptop on Caitlin's bed, which he had clearly climbed over to plug in his cords. Caitlin was understandably annoyed. It's common hostel courtesy, don't enter another person's bed space. I've stayed at a lot of hostels, and some of them were pretty dirty, but I've never stayed at one that was so completely oblivious to the convenience and comfort of their guests. They didn't even have individual bed lights, so when you got back late, like we did every night, and the lights were off and people were sleeping, you had to fumble around for your things in the dark, or use your cell phone light.

Anyway, other than the hostel and the unfortunate disagreement about Hanno, it was a great trip. Here are pictures:

Tokyo Silver Week

Japanese Drivers License

Finally, after months of agony and defeat, I passed my road test on the second try and got my Japanese license. Yay! No more biking around the inaka. I can go to the gym again. I can drive to Himeji. Life is good.

The process of actually getting the license started in July before I went home, when I started the whole process of filling out the paperwork and such. I had to schlep to Akashi, which meant taking the bus an hour to Himeji, then taking the train to Akashi, for my road test, which I failed the first time. You drive on a closed course, which sound pretty simple, right? Well, driving on the course, that is to say, what they expect you to do, bears little resemblance to what I've known for the last 8 years as "driving." In fact, all the road test tests is your ability to take the test. Not actually drive on a road, where you're more concerned with paying attention to the real-time action on the road than with following the procedure.

My second road test, scheduled on the earliest available day, which was a month after my first road test and luckily on a day I had off from school, I left the house at 7:30 to catch the bus to Himeji. I caught the train to Akashi, and the bus to the driving center, where I arrived at 10. I checked in to the test window, and then had to wait until 12, when they let you walk the course. Since it was the same course as last time, and I spend the whole 2 hours that time stressing and studying the course map, this time I decided for my own sanity to get out of the building, and I went to Starbucks and read until 12. I walked the course twice. I chatted with a guy I assumed was American (Japanese-American) but who turned out to just be Japanese, though his English was completely unaccented and fluent. All these things helped calm me down, and at 1 I was the first to go. I was really nervous, but I stayed calm, and drove the course without incident. Though, that alone is not enough to ensure you pass, they're so anal. When I finished, the cop was trying to tell me my result, but I didn't understand what he was saying. He repeated himself about 5 times before (a little exasperated, I think) he said "Ok! Ok!" Which I took to mean I had passed. I was so relieved, I was shaking. They told me to go and sit inside and wait.

As it turned out, I was the only one of the group that day who passed. They test all the foreigners together in that 1 o'clock block, and there were about 12 of us. I waited until 2, then they took me to another office, handed in some paper work, and took me to another place to wait until 3. At 3 they had me go wait in the lecture with all the Japanese people who had passed their tests, and take our pictures. Finally at 4:30 or 5, I got my license and left. I got back to Yamasaki at 7. It was a 12 hour day.

Back to School

School has started again, and that means it's sports festival time~! The sports festival is an annual event, like field day or color wars, but WAY more ritualized, because, after all, this is Japan. The actual thing isn't until the 13th, but the week and a half before are dedicated to practicing everything from marching, to singing the school song, to dancing, to more marching, to group calisthenics. There is not much going on in the way of classes, which means a continued light load for me. I'm spending the time working on my English boards and re-vamping my Miriam Dollar system. In light of the recent crime wave (ie kids stealing Miriam Dollars from one another, and in on instance, a second year setting up an extortion racket), I decided to change the rules. Now the students have to write their names on the Miriam Dollars (or I have to do it for them) so no one else can use them. The tricky bit is while I know many of the kids names, I have trouble recalling them from nowhere. If I see a kid's name written, I can usually find the face, but going from face to name is much harder. So we'll see how this works.

Himeji Beer Garden

Last weekend we took Lara to Osaka to see her off as she returned to America. Before she left, she and Lana had their long-awaited sushi-eating contest. They tied at 16.5 plates each. To put that in perspective for you, they each usually eat about 7 plates for a meal. I usually eat 4. Here are some pictures of the epic battle:

Sushi eating contest

Friday night I had an enkai with my teachers. We went to Himeji, to this really nice hotel with a Western-style buffet. It was delicious. I voluntarily ate two helpings of salad. They had cheese and crackers, bread sticks wrapped in prosciutto, pasta salad, roast beef, meat sauce pasta, soup, salad, fresh fruit and fruit tarts. It was delicious. Then we went for karaoke afterwards. Karaoke with the teachers is always an experience. But this time was the first time we got a private room instead of going to this one karaoke bar in Yamasaki which is just public with everybody in the same bar. So it was a little more awkward (to me) all sitting around in a U and singing. I think I preferred the other way, and the izakaya style dining. The big round tables at the hotel restaurant made it hard to talk to many people. Usually I enjoy talking with some of the other teachers, but this time it wasn't quite as homey and relaxed a feeling as it is at an izakaya. Oh, and the worst part of the night came when the vice principal, who I really like usually, called me over to him (he was drunk by this point) and said "Miriam, you gained weight in America." Just said it, just like that. I've heard stories from other JETs about co-workers saying things like that, which we would consider totally inappropriate, but I'd never experienced it before. On the one hand, because of the nature of the comment I was annoyed, and started worrying he was right. But on the other hand, I kind of feel like the fact that he said it means I'm considered more a part of the group. Maybe. I don't know.

Saturday night we were all itching to get out of Yamasaki. There was a party going on with some JETs up north in Hyogo, but it became a logistical nightmare trying to figure out how to get there (3+ hours on the train, or 3 hours driving?) so we decided to skip it. Instead, we went to Himeji and went to a beer garden. Beer gardens are these things in Japan in the summer, on the roofs of department stores, where for a flat rate (usually 25-30 bucks) you get all-you-can-drink and eat. There are all these long tables set up, and you just hang out and drink beer or watered-down chu-hi and eat lots and lots of fried food until you feel sick/ get your money's worth. So we did that until 9:30 when it ended, then we went over to this Irish pub we know, and had some more drinks and snacks. We were considering doing karaoke, but since we were tired we decided to skip it. We were waiting until 12 to go check in at the Toyoko Inn, because if you arrive after midnight you get your room for half-price. Well, we got to the Toyoko Inn at 12 and guess what? The one in Himeji doesn't do the half-price deal. We were really annoyed. I thought, oh well, I guess we have to pay full price. But Lana and Caitlin said "ok. So let's go sleep in the car." I couldn't believe they were serious. There we were, in the hotel, we could still get a full 8 hours of sleep, and they wanted to walk all the way back to the car to sleep. We argued about it for a while, and finally I said, "ok, well you guys can go sleep in the car, I'm staying here." So that's what we did. I got a single room and they went back and slept in the car. Honestly, if it had been, like, 4 in the morning, and we were totally stranded with no where to go, and we just needed a place to crash for a couple hours, I'd have thought sleeping in the car sounded like a fun adventure. But since we had a place to stay, and the entire night ahead of us, I wanted to sleep in a nice comfortable bed. Anyway, we met up the next morning for breakfast, did some shopping, went to the flea market, got sushi for lunch, and came back to Yamasaki.

Beer Garden

Also some miscellaneous pictures of the rice paddies around my school. I was biking home and the light was really nice so I took some pictures.

Rice Paddies

The Return of Blogging

I'm going to try to start up this blog again, though probably less frequently than I was doing before. For now, a brief recap of the last month:

The first term of the Japanese school year ended in mid-July, and summer vacation began. I went home to the US for three weeks, from July 24th. It was my first time back since I came to Japan last year. I spent a week in Boston visiting my parents, then a week in St. Louis visiting friends from college, then another week in Boston. My brother Benjamin was working in Williamstown, MA on the Williamstown Theater Festival, so we went to visit him and saw a few plays (one so-so, one GREAT, and one absolute crap).

I flew back to Japan on August 14th and went straight to Okinawa to meet up with Lara, Lana and Caitlin for a last hurrah of a tropical vacation before Lara left to move back to the US. Then I came back to Yamasaki and, the very next day, schlepped to Akashi to take my driving test, which I failed. The test here is insanely picky, they make you drive this closed course and they pick out stupid little anal-retentive details to fail you for, like not checking your left side twice before turning, or signaling 20 meters, not 30 meters, before the light. I was so pissed about failing, and I can't take the test again until September 14th. In the meantime, though, I have time to take a driving class at the driving school here.

The new JETs arrived in Shiso while I was in the states. I met them last week. We had a big Karaoke marathon. They all seem really cool, which is good, but I'm still so sad Lara left, and George is leaving soon. It's a lot of upheaval, and in case you didn't know, I don't handle change well.

We went to Osaka this weekend to see Lara off. She left early Sunday morning. We had planned to have a big last night out, but we were all so exhausted we kind of crapped out by 2. Lara left at 5, so we had a sleepy goodbye as we put her in the cab. It feels really weird in Yamasaki knowing she's not here. I think I'm kind of in mourning.

School is starting again. The student are back for their term tests. Classes start next week. Then we have a few weeks of half-school, half-sports festival prep, before the sports festival happens on September 13th. Luckily, that means I get that Monday off, so I don't have to take vacation time to go to Akashi for my road test.

Here are the links to the pictures I've put up.

USA Summer '09

Okinawa

Here are some from the trip to Matsuyama we took just before I went home. Matsuyama is a town on the island of Shikoku, famous as the setting of the famous book Botchan. There is a very famous, very old onsen (hot spring) there.

Matsuyama

Attack of the Swine Flu!

So obviously the big news around the world lately has been the swine flu outbreak. Japan was obsessively trying to control its borders in a spectacularly failed attempt to stop the flu from entering the country. We are now in the midst of an outbreak centered--where? Hyogo. My prefecture.

It started this weekend with a few cases in Kobe and Osaka, both within two hours of my town. Now I've heard there are cases in Himeji, which is the nearest city to me. Basically I'm sitting in the middle of the outbreak. No one in my town seems to have it yet. However, the government is freaking out, and they've closed all the schools in the prefecture for the rest of this week. Though the teachers still have to come in. 

Everyone is wearing face masks. We've been urged to do so. While this might seem scary to Americans, who aren't used to (a) seeing face masks in use regularly, and (b) people freaking out obsessively about getting sick, keep in mind that many people in Japan wear face masks all winter long, simply to avoid getting the flu. It's not weird here. To us, seeing people all over wearing masks makes it seem like there's an outbreak of some deadly disease. But here they use them all the time. The stores are sold out because there was a rush on masks this weekend after the first cases were announced. 

I know that the WHO is classifying this as a level 5 pandemic or whatever, and I'm doing my best to take the necessary precautions, but I have to say, honestly, people need to CALM DOWN about this flu. People over here have been acting like it's an outbreak of the plague. The Board of Education called all the ALTs in for a meeting yesterday to ask us if we'd be willing to hold off on going home for a while, instead of this summer, waiting until the fall or winter. They admitted this was kind of a moot point now that the flu has actually arrived here, but they're worried it's going to get worse in the next two months, not better. If this thing is still around in two months and still at a level 5 categorization, I am going to be incredibly surprised. Actually, the real reason they didn't want us going was not out of fear of us getting the flu, but more out of concern that we could be in the US, and the WHO would raise the alert level to 6, and we wouldn't be able to get back into Japan (I guess level 6 includes closing borders?) 

Acceptance of cultural differences aside, if they had told me definitively I couldn't go home this summer, I'd've had to open up a can of whoop-ass on 'em.

Japan: Robot Nation

This is a cool story, check it out.

Robot Nation

More Photos

New pictures up. Posts to follow soon!

Cherry Blossom viewing in Himeji and Yamasaki

Oh, Japan...

A new ongoing album dedicated to those little idiosyncrasies that make Japan the magical place that it is. 

Spring Break

It's spring break, and with it has come an enormous sense of relief. School is so stressful for me here, I think because I am running blindly and not getting any feedback, so I constantly feel like I'm failing and not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. But now that it's break and I don't have to be doing anything particular, I feel so much more calm. The funk and depression I was in for most of March seems to have disappeared. I've been working full time, despite the break, because I don't have enough days off left to really go anywhere, and I decided to get a big jump on the new year by doing a lot of planning and preparation before the term starts. 

I've been kind of stumped as to what I ought to do with the second living room in my house, and so far I've just kept it closed off as a kind of empty storage room. But now that I've been here 8 months (woah...) I'm really sick of the set up in my house. I hate not having a table to sit and work at. The one decent sized table in the house is in the kitchen. Back when I moved in, I tried to bring it into the living room to use as a desk, but it was too big and I couldn't get it out of the kitchen. So it kind of became a counter top for me to pile all my crap on. I'd eat all my meals at the little table on the floor in the living room, I'd do all my school work (if I had any) at the table in the living room. But the problem is that the little table on the floor is so comfortable, and I can't focus sitting there. If I'm going to be doing something where I have to focus, like working, or writing, or studying Japanese, I have to be sitting at a real table in a real chair. So, I'm redecorating! I cleaned off my kitchen table and moved it so I can actually sit at it, and that's where I'm going to eat my meals. I also took down the hideous curtains that hung in the kitchen, and I'm going to get some nice new ones. While I was sick a few weeks ago, someone came to clean up my garden. There was a little bamboo grove of sorts at the back of my house, which partially obscured the view. But the person who cleaned the garden ripped out the bamboo. So now the back of the house is exposed to the view of the houses across the rice paddy. I've been trying to open the screens more, because one of the things I love about spring is throwing open the windows and letting the natural light in. My house is so traditional, it's anything but light and airy, which is a bummer. But I'm working on it.

I've been planning on redecorating for a while, but I'm finally getting it done. I went to the home goods store Nanba to buy a desk. I actually ordered one, but then Caitlin took me to this used goods store, and there were all these really nice desks and things for WAY cheaper, so I cancelled my order at Nanba and I'm going to go get a desk there. I bought a beautiful painting of a woman wearing a kimono, apparently its an original painting (by a local or what, I don't know) but it looks old, the way the picture was mounted was not modern looking, and the frame and everything is really weathered. I hung it over where the desk is going to go.

This used store (recycle store, its called) is AMAZING. Caitlin's been talking about it for ages, but I kind of got the wrong impression of it, and didn't realize how awesome it is. It's a huge warehouse-like place, piled to the ceiling with second hand stuff. There are tables, chairs, desks, lamps, dishes and glasses of every kind, jewelry, artwork, movies, CDs, pillows, exercise equipment, mirrors, wardrobes, so much stuff and I can't even think what else, but I'll put it this way: a child with an active imagination would have the time of their life in this store. 

This has been my spring break. I come to work at 8 (or a little after, since no one's really there and there's no morning staff meeting) and I'm only supposed to stay until noon, but I've been staying until usually 2 or 3, sometimes till 4 or 5, because I'm trying to get work done. Also I'm trying to build some good credit at school by putting in the time to show that I'm not one of those ALTs who just wants to jet off and get away from school. 

Anyway, I'll post pictures of the room as soon as it's finished. Which will hopefully be soon. Right now, I'm in that phase where you start cleaning and making improvements at home, but it gets way messier before it gets better. But I'm trying not to let it bug me. It's going to be so much better once I get everything in order. 

Japanese man is a double A-bomb survivor

I found this interesting story this morning. 

Japanese man is a double A-bomb survivor

Meet the man who survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hitting the nail on the head

While doing some research into teaching Phonics online today, I found a page written by a former ALT who had some thoughts on the dichotomy between theory and practice in the Japanese English education system I've been trying to put my finger on in the past few months. He kind of hit the nail on the head, I think. This is what he had to say:

"The bureaucratic system that often regards ALTs as nothing more than window dressing in the fantasy world, which the Ministry of Education refers to as 'Japan's English education system.'

"[Japan has] a future generation whose government has the proper resources, yet constantly robs them of future opportunities and chances because they lack the knowledge to properly teach a foreign language or are too proud to rely on 'outsiders' to play a pivotal role in the education of their youth."

All of this does nothing except help me form a better understanding of why my job is so damn frustrating 95% of the time. At least I know it's not just me. 

Boys will be boys

It is refreshing to see that men are the same in every country. Right now Japan is competing in the World Baseball Classic, and everyone is following it. Today was the last day of school, and the students left at lunchtime, so now all the teachers are just hanging around with nothing much to do. So the men are glued to the TV in the corner of the staff room watching Japan vs. Korea. Every few minutes there is an eruption of sound from that side of the room. It's ironic, all last week and yesterday and today, I had nothing to do and was sitting at my desk trying to not fall asleep. Then, today my JTE gave me an assignment, and now I actually have something to do. And this is when the other teachers decide to watch a baseball game in the middle of the day (though to be fair, they're nowhere NEAR as obnoxious as American sports fans. And being form Boston, I know obnoxious sports fans).

My principal is really funny, he's like a little boy (always, actually, but especially while watching the game). Every time something good happens, he jumps up and turns to the rest of the room, like "did you see that? Did you see?" He's carrying a yardstick or something around and swinging it like a baseball bat. But he's doing it with the over-excited happiness of a five year old. It's really amusing. I like him, I'm sad he's going to be leaving. He and a few other teachers are being transfered. This is common in April, when the new year starts. The BOE redistributes teachers all over the district. Both of my JTEs are staying, though. While I think we need to improve our communication to work more effectively together, I really like them both. One of the teachers who is leaving, I just found out, is the music teacher, who I really like. She's retiring I think. Also one of the math teachers who I don't know so well, but who I like, is leaving. The PE teacher is leaving, but I don't know him at all, and he's kind of gruff and has no interest in talking to the ALT I think. 

Tomorrow is the first day of spring break, and I'm going to be spending the time planning my curriculum for next term. It's only a week and a half break, so it's actually the perfect amount of time for what I need to do. I think. I guess I'll see.

Road Trip to Fukuoka

A while back, we decided that we wanted to do a big trip this weekend, because it was a three day weekend, and it was Lara's birthday. We were going to go to Okinawa, but we couldn't get cheap tickets. So we decided to do a road trip to Fukuoka instead. Fukuoka is in Kyushu, and it's about a 7 hour drive south of here.

We rented a car and left on Thursday after work. We drove about two hours and stopped in a town in Okayama called Kurashiki. It's a very small city, but it has this one area with canals running through it, and cute little shops and things on either side, little bridges, vendors selling things, it was really cute. We spent the night and Friday morning there, then drove down to Fukuoka. We got in around dinner time. Saturday we saw some of the sights in Fukuoka. We went to a temple with a big statue of Buddha inside. Fukuoka is far enough south that the cherry blossoms were already starting to bloom. There was one big tree in front of the temple that was blooming, it was really pretty. Then we went to Ohori-koen, a big park. There is a big lake in the park, and the park kind of wraps around the lake. There were things like museums and gardens around the outside of the lake, and a stretch of land linked by bridges cutting across the middle of the lake. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was about 70 degrees, sunny, with a clear blue sky. We wandered around the park, went into one of the Japanese gardens, saw the remains of the castle walls where Fukuoka castle once was. Then we did a little shopping, and went back to the hotel for a little rest before dinner. For dinner we went to the Canal City area and had ramen from a vendor along the river. Fukuoka (or rather Hakata, which is part of Fukuoka) is famous for its ramen. While we were eating outside at this vendor, it started to rain. Most people left, but we stayed there, sitting at our table in the rain. The waiters brought us umbrellas. I think they thought we were crazy foreigners, sitting there eating ramen in the rain. We were determined to have the Hakata-ramen-from-a-vendor experience. 

Saturday night we went out to celebrate Lara's birthday. We went to a club that ended up being full of foreigners. It took us a while to find a place. Going out in Japan is not at all like going out in the US, or even Europe. Back home, you know you're going to get either a bar, a lounge, or a dance club (roughly). You see a building, with a door and a sign, and you know what it is. In Japanese cities, things are stacked on top of each other and every inch of the block is exploding with signs for places you can't even see. Most of these buildings have maybe 6 to 10 floors, say, and on each floor is a different business--a restaurant, a club, a bar, a hair salon, I don't even know. There is a huge sign sticking off the side of the building with the names and floors of the places inside. It's like a vertical strip mall. But there's a much wider variety of types of places you can go. There aren't just "bars." There are hostess bars, the male equivalent host bars, sex clubs, karaoke bars, karaoke boxes, dance clubs, one place we found was a virtual golf bar, where you could hang out, have drinks and snacks and play virtual golf, and I don't even know what else. Everything is just MORE. So it took us a while to find a place. But once we did we had fun. 

We got back late and slept in Sunday morning. Then we checked out of our hotel and went to get breakfast, did some last minute shopping and got on the road around 2pm. We drove straight back with only a few rest stops and breaks for meals, and got back to Yamasaki around 9:30.

Pictures from the Fukuoka Road Trip

Nara

About two weeks ago, Lara, Lana, Caitlin and I went to Nara for the weekend. Nara, like Kyoto, is a very historical city, and many of the old buildings still remain. We arrived early on Saturday morning and checked into our hotel. We decided to splurge a bit and stayed at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese style inn. This one was very small, on a little back street in the center or town. It had a beautiful Japanese garden in the middle, traditional rooms with futon, Japanese communal showers--the works. It was an interesting experience. It was fun and I'd do it again, but I do kind of prefer the privacy of a Western style hotel.

On Saturday we walked around a bit in the center of town and did a little shopping as we walked towards Nara Koen, a big park and the location of many of the sights. One of the things Nara is famous for is the deer that roam freely in this park. They are considered to be messengers from the gods, and are given the status of National Treasures. There are about 1200 of them wandering around (it's a big park), and you can buy deer crackers to feed them. We had a lot of fun feeding the deer (and running from them when they chased us looking for food). 

We went to Todai-ji, supposedly the biggest wooden building in the world, and home of the Daibutsu, a giant statue of Buddha. After that we wandered around the park, enjoying the weather and seeing a few other sights. We had a relaxed dinner at a little jazz bar we found (its name was Gentry. We thought that was pretty classy, until we realized they had meant it to be Gently. Whoops. Typical Engrish mistake).

Sunday we were planning on going to this one garden in the park, then traveling a bit outside of the city to visit another famous temple, but at that point I was starting to feel sick (the feeling which subsequently turned into pneumonia and a week home sick). We made it to the garden, which was pretty, but I was feeling really sick, so I decided to come back early. Caitlin's knee was hurting so she decided to leave too, and then Lana and Lara decided they might as well leave as well. So we came back early. But Nara is not that big, so I felt we got a nice little taste of it in the day and a half we were there. 

Pictures from Nara

With spring comes the return of traveling (I hope!). First stop: Osaka

A few weeks ago, I went to Osaka for about 24 hours. We went on a Friday after work, with the intention of going dancing, because we hadn't in a long time (there are no clubs in Yamasaki). Lara, Heke and I took the bus to Osaka, checked into our hotel and had a late dinner at a really cute izakaya near where we were staying. It was dimly lit and we were in our own little room at our table on the floor. It was warm and cozy and we ended up staying until they closed at midnight. Then we went dancing, and ended up staying out all night. I had planned on staying all day Saturday and coming back Sunday to Yamasaki, but I was so tired I was thinking I might just go home on Saturday morning. Heke did do that, but I rallied and stayed Saturday with Lara to do some sightseeing. I'm glad I did, because it was a gorgeous early spring day and I've been wanting to see Osaka (not that I really "saw" Osaka. It's a HUGE city with a lot to do there's no way to get in all in in one day). We went to Osaka castle (which is not as impressive as Himeji castle, since it's actually a replica of the original) but it was still cool. There were some beautiful views of the city from the top. We ate sakura (cherry blossom) flavored ice cream and wandered through the park. At the base of the castle there was a vast plum orchard and the blossoms were just starting to come out. Since the weather was so nice, many people had decided to picnic under the trees along the river beneath the castle. In the afternoon Lee joined us and we checked out a temple, then I caught the bus back to Yamasaki in the evening. 

Pictures from Osaka

Quickly checking in

Well, I've gotten bad about keeping up with this blog. Partly, though, there hasn't been that much to tell. The first few months I was doing a lot of exciting new things, but then winter came and I settled into my routine, and I don't think anyone really wants to hear about how I got up, had breakfast, went to work, came home, made dinner and went to sleep. 

It's almost spring here. It's kind of battling its way in. We keep having these infuriatingly spring-like days that turn into snowstorms or rainstorms, and then it plunges back into winter. But it's getting there. March is the end of the school year in Japan, and the 3rd years are graduating, in about 2 weeks actually. Then the other students finish at the end of March. We get two weeks of spring break, then the new year starts in April. There will be a whole new class of 1st years coming in. I know most of them already, because I teach at the two elementary schools that feed into my JHS. So I'm hoping that will be a plus.

There really isn't very much going on for me to write about. Since it's been so cold, no one has been really up for traveling. Hopefully we'll start traveling again in March as it warms up, so I will have some interesting stories to tell. 

Well, this was a thoroughly uninteresting post. Sorry. 

The Miriam Times Issues 1-13

A couple people asked to see the Miriam Times, the newspaper I put out every week for my students. Here are links for all the issues so far. Enjoy!

MT 1

MT 2

MT 3

MT 4

MT 5

MT 6

MT 7

MT 8

MT 9

MT 10

MT 11

MT 12

MT 13

And now I've come full circle

I think I just had an epiphany, but not necessarily the good kind. All this time, I've been thinking that the lack of classes where I'm actually doing constructive communicative activities with the students was my fault, that I didn't know how to plan, or I wasn't taken advantage of the times when I was allowed to contribute to planning the lesson. But now, as we are nearing the end of year exams, I realized something. It was like making a connection where before there was a huge disconnect, and suddenly the light came on. 

The teachers here don't want the kids doing constructive, communication-based activities. All along I've been thinking they wanted them to, but didn't know how or were worried it would make the class unmanageable. Now I see I was wrong. They want to kids to pass their exams. That's all. They want them to learn Testing English, they don't want them to learn Actual English. I'm kind of stuck in a corner, because the English teachers tell me what kind of lessons to plan, and that doesn't give me much leeway. The worst part of that is, they always tell me to prepare the same kind of lessons: listening practice and reading practice, or worse, the dreaded, asinine wordsearch. That the teachers only care about the testing was the first part of the epiphany. The part that hit me like a bucket of ice water was when I realized that if that is all they want, then I really serve absolutely no purpose with my presence here. If all they want is for the students to learn grammar, the English teachers are perfectly capable of teaching that themselves. What JETs provide is the other component, natural English communication, and an ability to actually speak the language. THAT'S THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE JET PROGRAM. In typical Japanese fashion, they have set up a system whereby they say one thing on the outside (we want our students to actually be able to speak English, not just learn the grammar), but then do something completely different in reality (like focus on testing and ignore the communication part). 

For some reason, this reality just solidified in my mind today. The students have tests next week, so I'm going to the third year class on Monday, and I assumed I'd me preparing a review of some sort for the students. Nope. I've been asked to prepare listening practice and reading practice. That's all. I understand because they have a test coming up that those become the priorities. But this is always how it is. 

While it's a bit comforting to know it is not entirely due to my failing that we never do communicative activities in class, it is also incredibly frustrating to realize that because a component of it is out of my control, there's not much I can do to fix it. All along I've felt like the English teachers and I were kind of in the same boat. I've been struggling trying to figure out what I was doing wrong in terms of planning effective lessons. I thought it was my fault, my inexperience. But today I began to see the situation as me battling furiously against the current (trying to bring effective communicative activities to the classroom) while the English teachers threw up roadblocks every step of the way. They never give me the opportunity to bring anything constructive to the classes. They do, but within the narrow confines of the type of activities they want. The few times I managed to force a few (slightly more) communicative activities into the classes, I felt like I was slipping one in the back door, manipulating and circumventing the JTEs. I felt sneaky. And I shouldn't feel that way, since it's my job.

It seems like everyone and everything is working against the students actually learning English. The first years are apparently complaining about the younger JTE. They say she doesn't explain the grammar in a way they understand, they play too many games in class, and she does inappropriate things like show her wedding pictures during class (it was a little booklet, and she passed it around while they were working silently in their workbooks, and many of the girls were really excited about it). I don't know how many students are complaining, but it can't be that many. In any case, the students never speak up and say when they don't understand something. When you ask them "do you understand?" you are met with blank stares. No one says anything. Of course, I'm hearing all this criticism from the other JTE, who heard it from the vice-principal, who heard if from the parents, who heard it from the kids. So that, plus the language barrier, and I'm not sure how accurate a representation I'm seeing. But it really pisses me off. The "games" the first year teacher uses in class are what I would call closer to communicative activities, the point being to get the kids' noses out of the books and have them actually speak English. But they don't seem to like that or think it's worthwhile, because it isn't directly leading to passing a test. The worst part is, I know exactly what they're feeling because I was that student in junior high. I didn't see the value of immersion in French class. I got angry because I didn't understand, and I lashed out at my teacher because of it. Now years later, and after having had much more experience with language learning, I realize there is a huge difference between "learning a language" and  "learning a language for academic purposes." They are completely different things. In the short run, getting these students through their tests is the goal. That is the teachers' job. In the long run, getting the Japanese population to be able to speak better English is the goal. That is the government's job. That's why they hired the JETs. BUT. But but but but BUT.... this puts the teachers' goal and the government/JETs' goal completely at odds, and makes my life a living hell.

This is the closest I've been to completely losing it at school since September.

Obama-mania hits Japan

Watch this.

Obama-mania

Photos for the day

I know he's out of office (finally!) but that doesn't make these pictures I found today any less hilarious or, sometimes, inexplicable. Please enjoy ;)

Also this one, because after all this blog is about Japan:

Success!

For my lesson yesterday with the third years, my JTE asked me to prepare a listening activity on Obama. Normally when we do listening activities, it's me reading from a script and the students filling in the blanks on a worksheet. Which is fine for listening practice (although not really, because it's completely superficial and in no way real life listening experience). But at the conference in Kobe last week they were talking about communicative English teaching, and how you have to incorporate reading, writing, speaking and listening to make a good communicative activity. The benefit of having an ALT in the classroom is that we are native speakers and can help with speaking and listening exercises. But I haven't been doing much of that lately. The kids hardly ever speak in class, because we haven't facilitated it though activities.

So yesterday before class, I was preparing my script as usual ("Obama is from Hawaii. He is 47 years old" etc.) when it occurred to me that this could be turned into a perfect "communicative activity." Instead of having the kids listen and fill in the blanks on a worksheet, I would read the script, and they would have to take notes, and then get into groups and write a summary of what I had said. I proposed this to my JTE. She seemed really skeptical, like she wanted to say no but was too non-confrontational to do so. I almost backed down. In typical Miriam fashion, I started to quail under even the slightest resistance (and it was pretty slight). Normally my justification for backing down is that someone else must know more than me, and if a superior disagrees with me, my idea will probably fail. But this time I forced myself to trust my instinct. I definitely thought the kids could do this, even if my JTE thought it was too hard. They're going to be in high school next year, it's time to challenge them a little. It drives me crazy how they don't have to work for things in English class. The answers are handed to them. With this activity, I wanted them to have to dig in and really listen to English with no help, then compose thoughts in English.

So we did the activity. I read the script, and the kids took notes, and we broke them into groups. Each group (in theory at least) had one leader, one recorded and one presenter. During class there were a few times where I had to stand up to my JTE as she tried to simplify the activity. At one point, she asked me if it was ok for the kids to just say words, like "47" instead of "He is 47 years old." Which completely defeats the purpose of the activity, to compose real English sentences. She really thought this was too hard an activity for them. If anything, I think it is just at their level. With this kind of attitude, it's no wonder why the kids can only speak English is single words. ("Pen." "Pen what?" "Please." "Please what?" "Please pen." "May I please have a pen?" "Yes." I can't tell you how many times I've had this conversation. You see why I'm bowled over every time my speech contest student speaks to me in complete sentences).

The kids did very well. I think the lesson was a success. I want to do more lessons like that. And the best part was, after it was over, my JTE turned to me and said "I was surprised, they could do it!" I kind of wanted to throttle her (partly in amusement) because of course they could do it! They're 15 years old, it's not going to kill them to be challenged a little. Instead of handing them the bar, how about setting it a little higher and making them reach for it? This is my goal for the rest of the school year. 

Craziness

Yesterday something strange happened. I had a panic attack. Not like a little one, a full-blown panic attack. I've had maybe two or three of those in my life, and this one came out of nowhere. I was in Japanese class, and my heart started fluttering, which it does fairly often, but it's never more than an annoyance, and it goes away. But yesterday during class it wasn't going away, and I started having trouble breathing. I got dizzy and I had to excuse myself. I went into the stairwell and put my head down, and I had to cover my ears because all the noise of the different conversations in the classroom was making me crazy. After a few minutes I tried to go back to class, but I was still dizzy and my head was pounding and being in the classroom was so noisy and overwhelming that I had to go back to the stairwell. I was shaking, and for absolutely no reason I started crying. There was nothing to trigger it, I wasn't upset about anything. It was like I had suddenly lost control of my body and my emotions, which was frightening. I've never shaken so uncontrollably in my life. I think it kind of became a cycle, and I finally had to haul myself out of it and go back to class, even though my head was spinning, and force myself to try to calm down and sit through the rest of class. 

I was thinking about it today, what might have brought it on, when there was nothing overt to really cause a panic attack, especially one of that magnitude (the only other time I can remember feeling like that was during finals Freshman year, and even then it wasn't this bad). Yesterday I came back to school after the JET Midyear Conference in Kobe and had a new sense of purpose. I'm really trying to improve my work life, and overhaul the bad habits I've fallen into, because I definitely fell into a comfort zone last semester, and I'm not putting enough effort into my job. So yesterday went well in that respect. But I think the emotional strain of forcing myself out of my comfortable routine, and the intense fear of failing to better my work situation (which I'm unhappy with right now) may have all come to a head yesterday. 

Actually, I want to clarify that. I am re-contracting for next year, no question. I like my life here, even when there are challenges. The biggest enemy I'm fighting right now is not culture shock or the Japanese winter (although the no central heating is a bitch). My biggest enemy right now, or I guess, rather, the biggest challenge, is my expectations of myself and what I can realistically achieve. I was so frustrated last term when I came up against the reality of my job as compared to the expectations I had, and as a result of my disappointed idealism, I fell into an apathetic rut. Now I'm trying to correct that. By far the hardest thing about being here is this job. But that doesn't make me want to leave. It makes me want to stay and keep working at it until I can do it well. I've never been faced with something like this: a job at which I feel like I'm failing. As a students, I always knew how I was doing, and because I knew how to be a student and worked hard, I was always doing well. But here, I have no idea how to be a teacher, much less one of a language I have no qualifications to teach in a country where I don't understand the language, the school system or the culture. It is incredibly frustrating, not to mention thankless, teaching junior high. With elementary schoolers, you know you've done well if the kids are having fun playing a game you made. Then it feels worthwhile. But junior high schoolers wouldn't be caught dead showing they were having fun. So you spend hours planning an activity, and making props and questions and lesson plans, and then, if (it's a big if) you actually manage to get them to do the activity, which is a feat in and of itself (you don't know how many times we've had to scrap an activity in the middle of class and give the kids word searches just to get them under control), you have no idea how effective it was, because they all look like they'd rather be having root canal surgery.

There's this, plus I've been stressing about the fact that I haven't been studying Japanese AT ALL. I had all these plans, and I do have time, if I use it effectively, but I haven't been, and I actually feel like my ability to speak Japanese has decreased in the last few months. Again, disappointed expectations of myself.

So when I said nothing brought on the panic attack, I take it back. Seemingly nothing brought it on, but in hindsight I guess the stress had been building up for a while before the cacophony and frustration of Japanese class pulled the trigger. But it caught me off guard because I wasn't expecting it. Though it may not have been completely emotional. I'm still dizzy today and I think I might be getting sick. Really hoping it's not the flu, it's going around, a lot of the students are sick. 

Pirates and Princesses Party

Saturday night we had a joint birthday party for Caitlin and Heke. The theme: Pirates and Princesses. It was our first party since everyone came back from break. Somehow I became the host of this party, and it was a crazy fun time, and a success, of the carnage Sunday morning was any indication. Does anyone know how to get beer out of tatami?

Spencer brought two of his friends from Chikusa, Sayaka and Hiroshi, both teachers at Chikusa High School, and both in their mid-twenties. They were both really fun, and I'm glad to be making friends with more and more Japanese people (especially young Japanese people).

Pirates and Princesses

Also, uploaded a few more pictures from Himeji.

Himeji

First Day of Classes

Today I taught my first class since the break. And why, God why? Guess who it was? 2B. The worst class in the history of organized education (well, perhaps the term "organized" is a bit of a misnomer...) Actually, it wasn't so bad today, either because they were better behaved, I had build them up a lot worse in my head over the break, or because I was expecting it and went in with appropriate expectations. Today it was my class, I planned everything and ran the class (only not really, the JTE and the judo coach were running interference the whole time). 

I decided this semester to put more effort into my work. This job can be really easy if you want it to be, you can just sit back and get by without doing much. I never wanted it to be that way, but last term I was really confused about my role and what I was supposed to be doing, so I kind of decided to hang back and just go with the flow, instead of following a course I chose. Now I know how things work here a little better, so hopefully I can direct my course a little more instead of letting it direct me.

Today I only had the one lesson, and the JTE asked me to prepare a lesson about Korea and New Year's in America. Normally for this kind of cultural thing I do a listening activity where I just read off a sheet, and the kids read along and sometimes fill in the blanks. I put pictures up on the board as I speak. I've always thought this was fairly boring, but I wasn't sure what else to do, and this somehow became the mode of doing things. This time, as part of my resolution to get involved in the actual grammar and such, I decided to find out where the kids were in the textbook and design an activity incorporating that and the Korea/New Year's stuff, which, really, is what I'm supposed to be doing. So I came up with this game where the kids are in teams and one person from each team comes up and they write the answers on the board. Each team has on the board a paper ball and post, and if they get the question right, the ball drops another notch. It's the Ball Drop game, and I thought it was quite clever. We managed to get through it, though not completely successfully, I had to cut some corners because we were short on time and the JTE had inserted a dreaded wordsearch into the middle of class, taking away 15 minutes. 

I spent 2 hours last night and all morning today working on this game, which I never did last term, and I'm hoping this will be a better term, where I'll actually be doing work and feeling like I'm accomplishing something.

My Car

By request, here are (finally) some pictures of my car. Enjoy!

Miriam-mobile

Himeji

Sunday I went to Himeji with Lara to hang out and do a little sightseeing, on the cheap since we're all broke after the vacation. We went to Himeji castle, climbed to the top and spent some time sitting in Starbucks reading. It should give you some sense of how very much we live in the countryside, that the nearest Starbucks is an hour away, and in Himeji it's known simply as "the Starbucks."

Himeji pictures

A Few Miscellaneous Posts

Michiko: Before break, I was over at Michiko's for dinner one night. I had just stopped by to drop off some Christmas cookies I had baked, and she invited me to stay for dinner. Gareth was there, and we cooked ramen on the stove in the living room. Michiko had suggested to Lara and Lana that we could watch a show called Winter Sonata as a fun thing to do for some Japanese practice. Actually, Winter Sonata is a Korean drama from a few years ago, that got HUGE in Japan. It's been dubbed into Japanese. It stars a really famous Korean actor named Bae Yong-Joon who is a megastar in Japan, particularly, I believe, among middle-aged housewives. Here, he's called "Yon-sama" ("sama" being an incredibly elevating honorific). We actually talked about this in my Japanese Civ class last year, that's how big this show is. Anyway, we watched the first two episodes, and it is melodramatic like you wouldn't believe. Two high schoolers have been best friends since they were children, he's in love with her but she doesn't know, then this new, brooding, handsome student comes to school. He's looking for his long-lost father who abandoned him. He thinks it's the girl's best friend's father. He and the girl fall in love, the friend is jealous, then, in a surprising twist, it turns out the new guy's father is probably the girl's father. Ew... He runs away leaving her heartbroken. Then he has a change of heart, is running back to her, when BAM! he gets hit by a truck and dies. Flash forward to 10 years later. The girl and her best friend are engaged, when back into their lives comes... guess who? It's the guy who died! Or is it? M-e-l-o-d-r-a-m-a. 

Student Journal: I was asked to correct an English journal kept over break by one of the third year students, TM. In one entry, he writes about his dream of being an interpreter and learning about many cultures. He says "Ms. Miriam speaks about four languages, and I think she is very cool." Yay! I'm cool :) I said during my self-intro at the beginning of the term that I spoke English, French, Italian and Japanese, but I may have neglected to mention I'm only fluent in one of those. I like when I'm asked to help out with things like this. The speech contest, editing students' writing, the English club, these are the times I get to know the students better. Just seeing them in class is useless for that. 

New Term, New Approach: I came into this job last term with no clue what I was getting into. I had a number of expectations, almost all of which were wrong, about what this job would be like. Now that I've done this for a full term, I have a better sense of what I'm getting into. I've set some goals for myself, such as being more assertive with lesson planning and communicating better with the other English teachers. I also know how things work here now--or rather, I know that any attempts to plan a schedule will be thwarted by the unpredictability of the school calendar, so I have to take it one week at a time, and make sure I'm proactive about seeking out the information I need, so I don't end up being surprised at the last minute as I always was last term. 

OMG: So I'm a little strapped for cash now that break is over (or rather, I've gone over budget and there's still over a week until pay day). So I was planning on not spending any money for the next 10 days--eating the rice and cereal I have in the house, for example, and not going anywhere this weekend. Well, back in November, my teachers had a drinking party. No one ever came to collect my money the next week at work, so finally I asked the English teachers about it. She said she'd find out how much I owed and let me know. We had another party before the break in December. Then I left for Korea. Well, today, finally, she comes to me: "Ok, for the two parties combined, you owe 16,569 yen"-- 170 dollars! Why, why, WHY this week of all weeks? 

Did you lose weight?: Today, the music teacher said to me "have you lost weight?" I really don't think I have, if anything I think I've gained weight since moving to Japan. I assume it's because I was wearing a suit, since today was the opening ceremony, and it's slimming. But there are two other possibilities: either I actually have lost weight (possibly from not eating for a week in Korea) or I've gained weight, and she was using the same reverse politeness Japanese people use when a foreigner opens their mouth and speaks terrible Japanese, and the Japanese person automatically blurts out "your Japanese is so good!" In the West we say "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything." In Japan, it seems the motto is "if you can't say something nice, say something nice."

Engrish: Added some more Engrish. Now with more Korean! Check it our here.

Winter Break: Tokyo

After I got back from Korea, I spent a few days recuperating and watching TV. Then on the 3rd I went to Tokyo to meet up with my friend Lee, who spent the break with some friends in Yokohama. It took longer than I had anticipated to get to Tokyo, and by the time I arrived on Saturday it was already dark. I couldn't find the hostel, so I had to take a cab (it turned out to be right around the corner, but it still cost me 8 dollars. In Seoul, the 20 minute cab ride from the city center to Lana's aunt's apartment cost less than that. Go figure.) I hung out for the evening with an Italian guy I met at the hostel who's name I think was Adriano. I remember when he said his name, I had a sense of a body of water, presumably the Adriatic, but then later I forgot his name, and I kept thinking of the Baltic Sea. But I think it was Adriano, because that makes more sense than Balto. 

On Sunday I spent the morning in Ueno park. I went to the art museum and a small shrine. Lee got into town around 1, and I went and met up with him near the hostel. We went to the Imperial Palace (you can't go inside, because it's actually the Emperor's residence, right there in the heart of Tokyo. Two days a year they open it to the public: Dec. 23, the Emperor's Birthday, and January 2nd. I missed it by one day.) After dark we went to Tokyo Tower, because the view of the city is supposed to be better at night. It was pretty impressive. After that, we went to Shinjuku, which is a cool area of the city, and tried to find a movie theater, but failed, so we went to an Irish pub (I know, very Japanese). 

Monday we went to Tokyo Disneyland! I'm on a quest to visit all four Disney parks. I've now been to three: Disney World in Florida, EuroDisney in Paris, and Tokyo Disney. Someday I'll make it to California. Tokyo Disney was a lot smaller than I had expected, but it was a lot of fun. I flagrantly disregarded the warnings about people with bad backs and motion sickness riding the roller coasters and went on Space Mountain and the Star Wars ride where it's like you're riding in a runaway spaceship. We did Pirates of the Caribbean (they've added the Johnny Depp character to the ride since the movies came out) and the Haunted Mansion, all the Disney staples. The weather was great considering it was January. It only got cold at night. 

Lee left to go back to Yokohama on Monday night, and I stayed intending to do a little more sightseeing on Tuesday morning before heading back home. But by the time I had checked out of the hostel and gotten to Tokyo station where I was going to check my bags while I went sightseeing, I was to hot and tired from lugging my stuff all over the subway system, that I just decided to got on a train and go home. Plus, I was re-reading the last Harry Potter book, and I put it down at the worst possible moment the night before, and I really wanted to finish it. I'll be back in Tokyo, probably more than once, so it's alright.

Tuesday night after I got back, we had a New Year's party with some people from out Calligraphy class (me, Lana, Lee, our teacher Fusako, and Yukako from the car dealer and her mother, Mrs. Miyawaki). We went to this restaurant called Maiwai, right around the corner from my house, which Fusako's son owns. It's also right under the calligraphy studio and in front of Fusako's house. I love living in a small town :) We had some great food, we played bingo, we chatted, it was a lot of fun. After dinner I drove Lee home, because he had just gotten back on the bus from Yokohama and his car was at his house in Ichinomiya. As I left his house,  backed out of the space and made a U-turn to get back on the road. It was about 11 pm and there are never any cars in Ichinomya, so it took me a moment to realize I was driving on the wrong side of the road! That's the first time I've done that since I started driving here. There are times when I get a little confused, but I've never actually turned into the wrong lane before. Luckily it was in Ichinomiya and there was no one around. 

Tokyo Pictures

Winter Break: Seoul

Over New Year's I had about 2 weeks off, so I went to Seoul for a week, and to Tokyo for a few days. 

I went to Seoul with my friend Lana, who's aunt lives there. We left on December 24th, around 9am, and took the bus to Osaka. We had bought a package train and ferry deal from Osaka to Seoul, which was cheaper than flying. From Osaka we took a train to Shimonoseki in southern Japan, and then took the overnight ferry to Korea, arriving in Pusan the next morning. Then we took a train to Seoul, and finally arrived after a day and a half of travel. 

It was freezing cold in Seoul. Somehow I didn't think about how much farther north it was than where we live in Japan, so I didn't pack any pants (just tights and leggings with sweater dresses and what not). Lana says she told me it would be really cold, but... it's debatable. We did a lot of shopping though, since things are so cheap in Korea. We saw two movies. Cost of a movie in Himeji (not even Tokyo, but Himeji, a pretty small city): 20 bucks (1800 yen). Cost of a movie in Seoul: 6 dollars. We saw Australia, the new Baz Luhrmann movie. I didn't really have any desire to see it, but it was actually really good. We also saw Twilight, another movie I had not desire to see (this is how cheap these movies were) but which I also enjoyed. 

Those of you who know me (which I guess is everyone, because I'm pretty sure my blog doesn't have much of a following beyond my family and friends) know I can sometimes be a slightly picky eater ;) I wasn't sure how I was going to do with Korean food. I realized I'd never actually had it before. The first few days we were there, Lana's aunt was preparing all these meals for us, and I didn't want to be rude, so I made a real effort to try everything. I can't honestly say I enjoyed it, but Lana's aunt was being so hospitable, I didn't want to hurt her feelings. 

We arrived on Christmas day, which was Thursday. From then until Saturday night I ate nothing but Korean food. Lana's aunt was accompanying us around the city, and she took us to a bunch of restaurants. Saturday night we went out for Chinese food. It was very different from American Chinese food, and I assume it was more authentic, seeing as we were much closer to China. I had been feeling kind of queasy all afternoon, a fact I attributed to an unpalatable lunch and a ride on the second deck of a double-decker city tour bus. The Chinese food didn't help matters (I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it). That night I got so sick. I was up half the night vomiting, and the next day I couldn't keep food down. I spent Sunday alternately sleeping, moaning and chewing on a bit of bagel Lana's aunt scrounged up (I think the first bread I had eaten since arriving in Korea-which is a big deal for someone like me, who's diet consists 99% of bread products). By Sunday night I was able to be vertical for more than a few seconds without feeling like I was going to pass out. But for the rest of the week I was unable to go near Korean food (or really any food). I mean, literally go near it. I couldn't look at the table when Lana's aunt put food out. For the next four days I lived on mini loaves of molasses bread and sweet butter from Outback Steakhouse (Lana wanted to go, and I was glad of an opportunity to eat Western food. However, my appetite hadn't really returned, and there was no simple pasta dish (they had all been Korean-ified) and so I ended up ordering fettucine alfredo, not what my stomach needed. I ate maybe a quarter of it. It was really good but my stomach wasn't very happy about it. But they gave us all these loaves of bread and butter to take home, so I subsisted on those for the rest of the week). 

Other than that, we did a little sightseeing. We went to two palaces and N. Seoul tower, which is up on a hill and has a great view of the city. Beneath the tower, there is a teddy bear museum

that had dioramas of Korean life throughout history. After that we spent another afternoon shopping. There is a big department store, something like nine stories tall, which is unlike anything I've ever seen. Each floor is dedicated to a different thing (women's clothes, men's clothes, accessories, shoes, home goods, food court, souvenirs, etc.) The layout is nothing like department stores back home. For one thing, everything is packed much more tightly into the space. It's not big and open like department stores back home. It's like carts in an outdoor flea market stacked practically on top of one another, but it's inside, and they are little stores, not carts. The aisles snake around like a maze. I got separated from Lana and her aunt a few times, which was a little frightening because I know zero Korean, and, I realized the first time this happened, I don't know her aunt's name, her address, or even what part of the city she lives in. And my cell phone didn't work over there. So pat on the back for me.

Shopping in Korea was a little bit of a blow to my ego. It's pretty hard to shop in Japan, because the women are so much smaller. I've never been, like, a size 2, but I'm not that big, so I've never really had a problem finding clothes that fit back home. But in Asia, it's like I'm morbidly obese. I wear a size 8 1/2 shoe, which I think would be about a 25 or 26 in Japanese sizes. The largest I can ever find is a 24, which feels like a 7. I haven't even tried to buy pants (which is how I ended up wearing leggings so often). and it's next to impossible to find shirts that can fit my shoulders (actually, that was a problem back home too). But in this store in Korea, it was worse. They only had smalls and mediums, if they had sizes at all. A lot of the clothes were simple "one size fits all," which I don't understand, because there are fat people in Korea (more than I've seen in Japan). The large sizes were in a special plus-size section in the basement. Ouch. 

So overall it was an up and down trip. I am glad I've seen Seoul. But I much prefer Japan. One thing I really hadn't counted on was how much culture shock I experienced in Korea. I guess I didn't think I would, because I've been living outside my own culture for a while now. But in hindsight, I think I experienced some pretty bad culture shock, and, in the second half of the trip, it manifested itself as the nausea I continued to feel even after the food-related sickness had ostensibly ended (or at least was a contributing factor to it).

So, Lana and I left Korea on the 31st, at around 8 in the morning, took the train to Pusan, the high-speed ferry to Hakata, and the train to Himeij, before barely making the last bus back to Yamasaki and arriving at 10:30 on New Year's Eve. We had planned on going to Osaka (our tickets were good that far) to celebrate New Year's there, but we were so tired from traveling, that we just went home. I ushered in 2009 by making macaroni and cheese and skyping with my parents. Not a particularly exciting New Year's. 

Here are the Korea pictures.