Miyakonojo

Maybe I'm back to writing... maybe not. We'll see when the mood strikes me.

Good news though. I got a new camera(yesterday) that does HD video. I wasn't happy with the quality from the iPhone. So although I don't know how often I'll have a blog update, but I should at least have some videos up fairly regularly I hope.

You can access my videos at my youtube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/SandTiger42

I will also be posting private videos that won't show up on my youtube homepage. You'll have to do 2 things to see these videos.
1) Create a youtube account. It's free.
2) Add me as a contact or friend on Youtube. If possible with a msg of who you are so I know who I'm adding.
After you've done those two things. Every time I post a private video I'll send you a link to the video via Youtube.

Only some of my videos will be private. If you want to know why I'm doing this, send me an email and I'll let ya know.

Make sure to watch all the videos in HD! Click the *360p* button on the bottom of the video and change it to *720p* or *1080p*. Unless your computer is from the stoneage, then it won't be able to play the HD.

Ok. Now on to some good stuff.
School lunches are nasty. Some days they're beyond nasty. There is very little I'll refuse to eat, but today was #1 on the freaky list. It's a fish called shishamo. Shishamo is a whole fish(head, tail, bones, eyes, internal organs, everything), and then you batter it up and lightly fry it. Not only that, but you eat everything. The head and the tail also.

Not gross enough yet? The fish is also pregnant. It's chock full of fish ovaries. It probably takes up about 25-50% of the weight of the fish.
Here's a picture of todays Lunch. I also have a private video up of this.


Today was also club day at my school. Once a week elementary schools have club day. Basketball club, badminton, other sports, computer, art, boardgames, tea ceremony, etc etc etc. I usually hang out with one of the sports clubs, but I'll try to visit every club at least once.

Today I realized there was a dance club and I had never been. Usually when kids say dance they are into hip-hop . That's what I expected. I was looking forward to a cute lil hip-hop performance from 9-11yo girls. But when I got there... there was newspaper scattered all over the room.. and some of the girls were wadding it into balls... making paper airplanes.. just... playing. I was completely confused. The teacher asked me "I bet you can't tell what club this is can you?". If I hadn't already known I'd of had no idea.

The teacher then says for everybody to stop their "preparation" and asks who wants to "go first". I'm baffled. A group of 3 girls volunteer and start their "performance". One girl grabs a sheet of newspaper and the other 2 girls get into position. One girl starts wadding up the newspaper, tearing it, throwing it, doing everything you can with a wad of newspaper. At the same time the other 2 girls are on the floor, now they're not, now they're jumping around, now they're rolled into little balls, now they're hopping around while in little balls. I'm so confused for the first 30 seconds. It was the most painful and embarrassing thing to watch, couldn't begin to explain how awkward this was. Then it dawned on me, they are doing interpretive dance. One of the girls kept asking very quietly under her breath, "Can we be done NOW!?" while the other girl kept making her do the most awkward and embarrassing things. Another girl just tried to shrink from existence itself.

This went on for another 10-15 minutes with other groups of girls. At this point I'm curious WHO CAME UP WITH THIS CRAZY IDEA. So I go over to the teachers and ask. They are the youngest teachers in the school, a male and a female. Pretty fun, both really great teachers and I love teaching with them or just hanging out in their classes. The female teacher is particularly fun, shes probably my favorite teacher out of the 150+ teachers I've worked with. She's like me if I were Japanese, Female, and EVIL.

Back to the story, I ask about the freaking awkward interpretive dance. But instead of an answer, I just get "Brian, you should really do this. Go for it. Go up there with Male-teacher and show the kids how its done". Are you absolutely crazy lady!?!?!?!? I turned purple just thinking about doing something so embarrassing. Noooooooo way. Never gonna happen. I tell them so, with much enthusiasm. The next words out of her mouth were "Hey kids, Brian says he totally wants to do this!" The kids cheer. I can't say no now. How do you say no to a whole bunch of girls who adore you? So I leave my dignity back with my chair, and go make an utter fool of myself. And the kids are like, "Wow, hes really good at this". Soooooooo embarrassing.

When I'm done, in what seems like an eternity but is probably only 1 minute, I go back to my seat and the Female teacher has the most evil, maniacal laugh I've ever heard. I'm now convinced that the whole interpretive dance thing was her idea to start with.

However the best part of the day happened earlier when 2 little girls found out they could wrap me around their finger. They are probably the two cutest 3rd grade girls in the whole school. They saw me in the hallway, ran up to me and gave me the warmest hug ever, and said "Brian, Join us!!" In the cutest most sweetest voice ever. IN ENGLISH. That's probably the first time I've ever heard that since the 2 years I've been in Japan. Their homeroom teacher was with them and he asked "What does 'Join us' mean?" The girls didn't even have any Japanese accent when they said it. They said it in a perfectly little girl voice. Full of pleading and big puppy dog eyes. They didn't really care what we were doing, as long as we were doing something together. Wow. How can I say no to anything they ever ask me again? Good thing I'm not their dad. I spent my lunch recess with them.

This is my favorite school. I get to go back tomorrow. The sun will be out and I'll probably go swimming with the kids in the afternoon. That's always a trip. The boys think I am a perfect shining example of all that it manliness. That's because Japan is a land where growing a beard is near impossible and chest hair is thought to be only a legend. I'm like the Burt Reynolds of Japan. heh

Today was a rather special day, we had snow. The last time it snowed was 4 years ago. Didn't have my camera with me, sorry.

I woke up this morning and didn't have time to check the weather forecast like I usually do, so I just opened my window... and everything was pure white. My first reaction was "Crap, gonna make getting to school a pain in the ass". It looked to be barely coating the ground, not enough to play in. Seemed like it might melt fast too.

The drive to school was relatively easy, the roads were not icy and had very little traffic. I was surprised to see that the snow was about an inch deep, and didn't seem to be melting immediately. I also saw some kids playing in the snow on the playground when I arrived. After I settled in and greeted all the teachers I had about 10 minutes to kill before class. I figured I would go outside to lob a few snowballs at the kids. I do a survey every winter for my Christmas class, and probably only about half of all the kids in my city have ever played in or seen snow.

I stepped out of the back door to the teachers room, and saw a few boys lobbing snow balls at each other. They obviously had not done this before, because they were just throwing powder at each other. They said "Hello" to me, I ignored them. I was too busy scooping up snow and packing it tight. I let loose at the most energetic kid, who was about 70 feet away. Now, normally when I throw stuff at them I never use full power. But this is snow right? It's not gonna hurt. Much. The thing went flying past his head and hit the brick wall with a loud "THUCK". The look he gave me was the coolest thing I have ever received. It was a mix of the fear of death and profound awe. The dude thought I had the pitching arm of god, and I was trying to smite him with it. While he was still in shock I sent another one flying. His eyes went even wider as this one flew past him with another "THUCK". I was laughing hysterically while packing another one. At this point he said "Hes laughing... this is dangerous!!!"

At this point I realized I could have way more fun. There were only a few kids out the back door to pelt, but if i went through the front entrance and changed into my outdoor shoes, I could run to the playground where I saw dozens of kids playing. Sweet. So off I went. I could barely contain my excitement from the thought of owning these kids. POOOF. HAH, In your FACE, little 10yo boy. OWNED.

I had arrived. I scooped up a handful of ammo and lobbed of a warning shot in between a group of kids as my greeting. I heard a few kids say hello and all the kids were super excited to see me. One kid said "Yay, the cool adult is going to play with us." I picked up a snowball and then launched it at a group of kids.... things get a little blurry after this. Turns out when your the coolest adult these kids know, Everybody wants to have a snowball fight with you. After 30 seconds of being wailed on I had to sprint back to the teachers room in full retreat. There was at least 50 kids chasing me, and if I had stayed I'm sure the whole playground, which had at least 200 kids, would be attacking me.

Back at the teachers room, 1st period was starting soon and 2 6th grade boys came to escort me to class. When I arrived at the classroom I asked the teacher jokingly if we could have a snowball fight instead of class. To my surprise, and elation, he said yes. So for the first hour of my day, instead of teaching English, I ran around having a snowball fight with 30 of the happiest kids ever. I wasn't expecting to do it for 2nd period also, but the teacher thought it would be unfair to the students if they didn't get to have a snowball fight also. I agreed, in theory anyway, so we held 2nd period outside also. The only problem was, most of the snow was melting away. So instead of just snow, it was also a sand, mud, and ice ball fight. And at this point I was extremely exhausted and couldn't escape from these kids. So 2nd period was me trying to escape a group of 10ish girls who would not relent in their efforts to have me covered in dirty snow. Too bad by 3rd and 4th period there wasn't any snow left. It was snowing most of the day actually, but it'd melt the second it hit the ground.

So my 2nd day back will probably be the best working day of the year. I also can't move a muscle and ache all over. Doing no exercise for 3 weeks and doing nothing but eating did not prepare me for this. Or maybe it did, I just weighed myself and have already lost 2 of the 5 pounds I gained while being back home. I've only been in Japan 3 days! I'm going to have to go on an all chocolate diet so I don't loose too much weight this winter like last winter.

Woohoo. Able to upload videos and pictures from my phone now. The quality is kinda low, click on the video (not the play button) to be taken to a larger quality video.

Hey,

I just got an iPhone, so I am running a test to see if I able to make a blog post from it with pictures and video.

Edit: ok, looks like I can post fine, just no pictures or videos. I'll have to add those later via my PC.

Ok.. so who really believed me when I said an update every day? Been lazy/tired/busy :)

I went on a trip this golden week (a week in Japan where many holidays come back to back). I ended up going to Mt. Aso, which is an active volcano. There was a hippie festival there that we camped at for 2 nights, and then went into town to do some sight seeing and bathing at some outdoor hot springs. Was pretty fun, but tiring.

Here are some pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianwasik/sets/72157617769339520/

Ok, so you have not seen any pictures for ages right? My bad. I'm going through some photos now. It's going to take a while, cause I have not actually looked at any of my own pictures for the past 6 months.

But I'm now going to try to catch you up all at once. I will be trying to update my blog every day with a new set of pictures. I will post a teaser pic or two on the blog post, with a link to my photo album so you can check out the rest of the photos.

So to start off the party, here is a picture I took today of the main road (notice all the cars and the old lady making a dash to the other side!) from where I work, City Hall, when I am not teaching at school.

Next up, my new(used) Car!! It's a Van! It has a GPS system, which is so awesome. I can now drive out of my city and not have to worry about getting lost trying to find my way back. Seriously, roads here are not laid out in the grid system like back home. It's got a decent stereo system also, the interior is like new, and it can hold 7 people.

To check out the rest of the pics follow this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianwasik/sets/72157617031364679/
Click on a picture, then click on the button above the picture that says "all sizes" to see a larger image.

So about 20 minutes ago, I was sitting in front of my computer when I got to experience something new for the first time since being in Japan.

I suddenly heard my apartment make creaking noises, much like a house settling. I thought "That's odd, since when does my apartment make creaking noises..hold on now... I'm movi..n..g...EARTHQUAKKEEEEEEEEEE"

I'm in a 13 story apartment, with my apartment on the 2nd floor. I'm glad my neighbors didn't come crashing on down.


Also, in other news. I bought a car. Another one anyway, and sold my current car. Got me a 2002 Mazda MPV. Check out this link to see what it looks like: http://stb1.blog64.fc2.com/blog-entry-130.html
It's got a GPS system, decent stereo system. Should be taking a lot of road trips soon. Gonna be fun fun fun.

Sorry for the long period of silence. I got a little homesick/depressed. It was nothing major, I was just missing home a little bit. And the easiest way to deal with that, is to pretend home does not exist. Thus I didn't want to talk to anybody from home, send emails to people back home. Out of sight out of mind.

The reason I became like that is because of the weather. Winter sucks here. Hard. Don't get me wrong, I like winter as long as there is snow. But there is no snow anywhere remotely close to this area. But we are in a valley, and cold winds come down from this one specific mountain. They warned me and I thought they were lying to me, but sure enough it gets freeeeeaking cold but yet no snow. Fast forward a few months, and it still stays really cold. For the past month its been about as cold as Tucson in the coldest part of winter. Spring time my ass. But the cold isn't my biggest downer, its the overcast rainy days. I. Miss. Sunshine. It rains here for 6 days in a row, gets cloudy on the 7th day, and then rains again another 6 days. I didn't even know that was friggin possible.

Next winter, I'm not staying in Japan. I will be coming home and traveling to warm countries.

Good news is that its going to warm up a little bit from here on out. The last few days have been warm and sunny. Im coming out of my stupor. I will try to get my computer fixed so I can start processing photos and upload them. My kinda kicked my computer in the balls a few months ago accidentally, and it does not seem to do a lot of what its supposed to do. Among other things, it doesn't recognize files from my camera. I'm also thinking of getting rid of my camera, and getting a video camera. Maybe videos of Japan will be more interesting than photos. What do ya think?

Currently I am looking for a car. Its a long story so I wont bore you. But even though there is nothing wrong with my current car, its old and thus expensive. Newer cars are cheaper. I'm probably going to spend a decent amount on a stereo and a GPS unit, so I can take some decent road trips.

SAKURA and HANAMI (Cherry trees and flower viewing)
Right now the cherry tree blossoms are coming to an end. They are super pretty, but super short lived. It would have been nice, if perhaps it wasn't cold and rainy the entire time. It would have been awesome if it wasn't for the craptastic weather in Japan. I did manage to go out to a park one afternoon for my lunch break. The one day it was semi-sunny(but not warm). There was a group of old ladies having a picnic, singing old traditional Japanese songs and dancing. It was totally awesome. After I was done eating I went over to say hi, and they quickly made me sit down and kept offering me food. Old ladies in Japan are Awesome. Normal Japanese adults are boooring. In public everybody has to behave, not stick out, not have fun. They always are worried about what other people think about them. Except old ladies. These old birds were the most care free people I had met in a while. For example, typical Japanese adult who greets me for the first time says something like "Its a pleasure to meet you Mr. Brian. I hope we can have favorable relations in the future". Seriously, its always that polite. These ladies said something like this "Sup dawg. Where u come from? America? Damnnnn dats tight". Totally. Awesome. But then I had to go back to work. LAME. But it was cold anyway.

I kept waiting for nice weather to go cherry blossom viewing, but it never came. I did end up going out at night for a BBQ. It was overcast, and rained for a small bit. Everybody was freezing. I a shirt, two sweaters, and my warmest winter jacket on.

So cherry trees really are beautiful, but highly overrated because of the freaking weather.

I finally ordered a memory card for my camera online. I've been doing a lot of shopping online tonight. Looking for Christmas stuff to purchase also. I missed last Christmas cause I was in Japan on vacation, now I'm gonna miss it this year also. I feel the need to surround myself with shiny lights and familiar Christmas thingys.

Tomorrow I teach 1st graders at an elementary school. I am normally relegated to 3rd though 6th grade, as they have a tendency to actually learn. Whereas 1st and 2nd graders are like ... I'm at a loss to describe children here....

I wish I had videos to send back home, cause I'm sure all of my family members will have a hard time picturing my typical day with 1st and 2nd graders. Outside of their classroom, I am protected by the older students. There is a ranking system here in Japan, and they start them way young. The younger kids are not allowed to play with the bigger kids, which works to my advantage outside on the playground. However once I enter their classroom, their domain if you will, I am left to defend for myself. I'm fine for the first few minutes as all the kids are thinking "HELP A HUGE MONSTER JUST ENTERED THE CLASS ROOM" I try to work it to my advantage for as long as I can, I hold up my hand to theirs, casually stretch up and touch the ever so short door frame, and generally just go along with their idea of me being a Tall Monster.

It never lasts long. There are always a few kids who can tell I am one of those so called "gentle giants". Those few kids run up to me and clasp on like a leech that has not fed for a whole year. This is when things go sour. Being the cute devils that they are I can't help but give them attention. And as soon as I toss one in the air, or play with one, all the other kids realize that I am suddenly not a "giant monster" but instead "the coolest guy ever to set foot in their class room". There's a calm before the storm. A split second of absolute silence before the gates of hell are torn down in a deafening roar. That's when every other kid in the class decides they want to play with me also. And a split instant after that, I LITERALLY have half of the class hanging off of me. Kids will go to the other side of the room, line me up, and then run at full speed and try to jump as high as they can and cling to me. They will use their classmates as stepping ladders if they are there. They will climb their desks if they are near it, and then jump for my head. In a matter of moments I am unable to move an inch. The teachers... they do nothing. They think its all fun and games. Eventually I try to move. I then pretty much fall to the ground, luckily there a dozen kids to cushion my descent. But I always have to push kids out of the way with my hands and then catch myself so I don't kill children. This puts me at even easier climbing height. Eventually you can no longer see me, just a gaggle of children where my general location should be.

This is what my entire day will be like tomorrow. I'm freaking pumped. Its so fun. (never ever did I think I would say that)

Except for when they attempt to stick their fingers up my but, or grab....places. But thats for another conversation.

Tomorrow there is a hang gliding event on a mountain pretty close to my place. I got special permission from the organizer to show up and crash the pre-party tonight. I found out about this a few months ago, and because I pretty much feel like I am on vacation here, I want to try to do everything at least once. The deal was that I was originally allowed to invite a few other friends with me, but then a few days before I found out that wasn't gonna fly. But because of my extreme interest, the organizer was going to allow just me to show up. I didn't have to pay the dinner fee either, yay. So the plan was to crash the party, and then quickly make friends with everybody who was going hang gliding the next morning. Then being the super awesome cool guy that I am, people would be begging me to jump on their backs while they jumped off a mountain.

Slight problem. In Japan, I am a fat ass. I am about 22lbs over the limit of being able to tandem with somebody. The drunk Japanese men at the party seemed to think they had the answer to this problem though. They swore if I cut off my private parts, it would alleviate the extra 22 pounds. I want these dudes as my wingmen if I'm ever trying to pick up a chick...

So I won't be able to go hang gliding tomorrow, but I will still go and watch them. I won't be able to take pictures, cause I still have not bought a new memory card for my camera... sorry. I'll buy one this week.

But thats not the end of this story. I was debating whether or not to get a motorcycle next year sometime. But now I am thinking I might pick up hang gliding as a hobby instead. I still need to figure out the costs involved, and where and how often I will be able to go. Normally it takes 3-6 months before you can fly solo, but these dudes know of a place where I can do a week long intensive (crash?) course and get my solo license in one week! I can't start until spring cause winter has winds that are too strong I've been told. But that gives me time to get the logistics worked out.

Sorry it`s been a whole month since my last post. Just been busy. Just about every weekend I end up going on a trip, or I end up vegging and catch up on some US tv shows.

The memory card on my camera bit the dust a few nights ago. So I lost a bit of photos. I`ll have to go through my photos on my PC to find out how many I lost. I`ll try to post a few photos soon, but no promises. I`m going out of town again for the next two weekends.

A few weekends ago I went to hike a mountain. They call it the Mt. Fuji of Kyushu. I laughed as we got close, cause it looked tiny. My mistake was comparing it with the real Mt. Fuji. It had to have been taller than the Catalina`s back home though. It was a little tough. Actually, whoever told me it was a "hike" is a #$&!$ liar. It was a climb. The first half you are hiking up very loose pebbles, and its very steep. About 1/4th of the way up I was ready to call it quits. Seriously, it was way too much work. My clothes were already dripping wet from my sweat. There was literally not a single spot of dry clothes on me. But I figured, "meh, it can`t get much harder". Stupid mountain. Oh its actually an active volcano, but has not erupted for about 1200 years. Yeah, it got harder. Much harder. Climbing over boulders, having to get on hands and knees to climb a path of small boulders that are about 2 feet wide and to the left is a sheer drop off from the mountain. Yay.

They say a healthy adult can climb it in 2.5 hours. We did it in 2. There were 21 of us. By the time we got down, I had drank about 1.5 gallons of water and was still massively dehydrated. Seriously, if your not in shape you can`t climb this thing. But the most humbling part was all the other people. About 2/3rds up my pace slowed a little because of a group of people in front of me. The "path" is about a foot or two wide so passing is not an option unless you wanna fall off the mountain trying. But we were still moving at a fairly aggressive pace. I found out later it was being led by a 70yo couple. They were not even sweating as much as I was. They also looked fine, whereas I looked like I had just clawed my way out of a grave. I`m pretty sure when I`m 70 the last place you will find me is climbing this mountain.

Seriously, this was the most strenuous thing I can recall doing. Ever. I hate exercise. Not to mention seeing all the bees and giant hornets up there. There is absolutely no way a rescue squad can get to anybody up there anytime soon. Would take a full day to extract you. Airlift would be pretty difficult or impossible depending on what area of the path you were on.

The next day we ended up going to a hot sand bath. I was thinking being buried in hot wet sand did not sound like fun at all. When I left Arizona, I was pretty happy to leave the sand behind. However this was the most pleasant experience ever. I would try to explain it, but I could not do it justice at all. I gotta say I would climb that mountain all over again if it meant I could take another sand bath. But I think next time I`ll just drive past the mountain strait to the sand baths.

In other news, I made a big purchase yesterday. I could wait no longer. I bought a super duper electronic ass cleaning, ass massaging, heated seat, laser guided toilet seat. It senses when I walk into the bathroom, and it instantly heats up the toilet seat before I can sit down. I`ve tried to surprise it, I even bum rushed it in the middle of the night in pure blackness. It was waiting for me. No more need for toilet paper, this thing has like a gazillion ways to clean your bum. Not only can you set the type of spray, it`s even heated. Another cool function is the green "x marks the spot" laser guided system. During the night when you lift up both toilet seats and take a pisser standing up, it tells you where to aim your stream via an eerie green glow. It also does this startup routine when you sit down that sounds like a mini jet airplane taking off. I think it cycles the water for some unknown reason and turns on an odor fan to keep unwanted smells from... smelling. I paid about $400 for mine. It`s far from the best model, but its well above the entry level. It even comes with a remote control!! Which as far as I can tell is useless for most people. I mean... your sitting down and you can`t move from the toilet what use is a remote you can use from the next room. There is only one possible use, which I will exploit to its fullest. I simply take said remote control out of the room, and find a sucker to test out my toilet. I then turn on the cold water, turn on the painful needle spray, turn it to full power, and hit start. Hilarity ensues.

If your anything like me before I tried one of these, you are fearing for my sanity right now. The first time I tried one, I only did so because I was not sure if I would get the opportunity to try one again. The first thing that goes through your mind is a mixture of "Holy crap what crazy dude thought of something this awkward" and "How have I been living without one of these for so long". I can`t believe it took me 2 months to finally buy one of these things.

I don't belong to a gym here yet. I need to do some scouting. I know there is a good one in the city, but pretty far away and very expensive. There is supposed to be one close by, but not so great. I have not checked either out yet.

I may not need one however. I got more comfortable with being around children, so started playing with them more aggressively. Side story: I don't understand Japanese people. As adults, they don't show public displays of affection. No touching.. no hugging.. no verbal expressions of emotions even. But then you look at their children, and you can't pry them apart with crowbars. Back to topic: This had positive and negative outcomes. I found that they like to cling to me. And Japanese kids are light. So I now use them as free weights. I can do curls and stuff with one on each arm. I get a workout, and the kids think I'm the strongest guy in the world, so it's a huge ego workout at the same time! But now you can't pry them off of me for anything. At any given time I can have 5 children hanging off me. Yeah.. I bet my family can't even picture that. It's fun swinging them around, launching them into the air, it's just a blast. Some are shy at first, but once they see 1 student having fun, they ALL want to have fun. I have not got poked in the ass yet. I do however get my crotch grabbed. By 8yo boys. I don't even know how to react to that. I don't do much about it though(other then pry them off at lightning speed), I do NOT want to draw attention to that, lest every child decides its funny and tries to cop a feel. *shudder*

Also I'm a celebrity at every school. Because I only see these kids once a month, I'm a cool special treat. I'm exotic to them. I can do ANYTHING, and they will pretty much say "OH WOW THATS SOOOO COOL" For example, climbing stairs 3 steps at a time, reaching up and touching the ceiling, waving to them, showing them my shoe size. Pretty much if I do anything, I'm cool. Soon I won't be able to function in society if I return to the States. I won't understand why everybody doesn't treat me like I am the next best thing since sliced bread.

People in general here are very nice. I recently took my car in to have it looked at. The previous girl left it in pretty bad shape, but wasn't really aware of the issues when she sold it to me. She didn't deceive me on purpose, she just assumed because it got her from point A to point B fine, it had no problems. But the car's not a complete loss, and everything will turn out fine. At the dealership though, I got treated better than anybody ever has at any car repair shop in America. I was given a discount, just because they liked me. It was a small one, but they didn't even tell me, I just happened to read it on the receipt. And get this, instead of trying to repair stuff that wasn't broken they told me the exact condition of everything I asked. I was debating on what to do with the breaks, because I am trying to put as little money into the car as possible until I scrap it in April and buy a different car. They thought that the breaks would last until then, but were not positive and it might be pushing it. It would cost a few hundred dollars, a little too much for me. So what does the mechanic do? He goes into his own parts supply that he paid money for and brought out some brand new brake pads and offered to give them to me for free. Not only that, but he did the labor for free also. They are also going to keep an eye out for a good reliable car for me when I eventually scrap this one. Used cars here are not too expensive, at least cheaper than in the states.

Bye for now.

Yesterday was my first day teaching. It went well. Ish.

I taught at an elementary school yesterday. The first class I taught, a combined class of 3rd & 4th graders, the teachers knew no English. Which is not uncommon for Elementary schools. English is not a required curriculum for elementary school students yet. The Japanese government will be implementing that in.. 2 years I think. It was a little nerve racking though being up in front of a class for the first time ever, and having the 2 teachers stare at me with more confusion than the 8yo kids. The vice principle there is AWESOME though. The next class, she came up with me and did team teaching with me. So we took turns and introduced some English and games and what not. She saved me. The teacher from the last class of the day, spoke good English and was Super Genki(uhm..type in "define:genki" into google without the quotes. There is no good translation into English.) so the class was really fun, and the kids were motivated.

The kids thought I was a Giant. No ass poking happened, but I did turn into a jungle gym for a small amount of time. My neck/shoulders are killing me. Played with them at lunch also, kick-baseball and dodge ball. I behaved myself and restrained from kicking the ball into next month(It'll reappear next week...), and did not really throw the ball during dodge ball... The kids were super cute. They got into like an argument over which team I should be on and what not.

I have pictures that the Vice principle snapped of me while teaching. I'll upload them tomorrow maybe. I said that about the monkey pics too didn't I....


Today I went to teach at Jr. High. The kids there are a little more shy, and don't want to stick out as much. In class. Outside of class they were really happy when I even walked by and made eye contact with them. heh.

I was told to get there early today so I could give a little self introduction to the office and staff in Japanese. No problem, I didn't bother to prepare a speech like they asked, as I have given this to everybody 90000 times now. Self introductions are big here. Evidently I miss understood something, because after I did that they said "ok, now lets go to the auditorium so you can give a speech to the students". I thought that was odd, since I would be giving my introduction in class to them as my lesson. I walked in and there were 250 students waiting for me to give them a prepared speech in Japanese. I'm not one to panic or get stressed.. but pretty much I thought "oh @*&!#, this is gonna be interesting". Then the principle gave a simple intro of my name, and where I came from. He did that from the side of the auditorium, and not from the gigantic stage set up in front. I felt relieved, as I thought I wouldn't have to stand up high having everybody stare up at me. I was handed the mic, and then shoved up the huge ass stage. Great. I believe the first thing I said in Japanese probably translates to this "holy crap there are a ton of you, I'm freaking out a little" Then from there I attempted to make a speech in Japanese. I learned something. I can not BS a speech in Japanese yet. I'm not ever sure I said anything comprehensible. After half a minute I gave up and gave a speech in English. One of the teachers translated for me. Afterwords some of the teachers came up and said "great speech". I think I just taught Japanese how to use Sarcasm.

The rest of the day went smooth.

I gotta go assemble a bicycle now. Catch you all later.

Ps. Oh. I was just about to post a photo of me in the class room. I just remembered that I can't do that. I am not allowed to post photos of students in class. Illegal or something like that. Because they are minors. I'm not really clear on the details, but I was specifically warned about posting photos of students on blogs and stuff. Sorrrrrrrry.

Today for lunch I had my first hamburger after living here. I got a recommendation from a friend to hit up this place that has "sasebo" style burgers.

I'm now on a mission to find a GOOD hamburger in my area. This burger I ate was GROSS. I wont even describe it to you, the horror would be too great. If I can't find a good burger joint in my area before I come back to visit the states.. I'm going to be eating in-n-out 4 times a day. Woe to the man who tries to stop me.

Getting there was interesting. My predecessor sold me his craptastic bicycle which he described as "really awesome and wish I could take it with me". The thing is a giant rust bucket. The kickstand would not even go up, it was fused together with rust. I had to bend the kickstand frame 90 degrees out, just so I could ride it. Now the kickstand juts out in just the right position that allows it to remove Japanese peoples kneecaps. I'm naming it the kneecapitator.

But you probably don't have much to fear, as it's about as much fun to ride as going to prison and dropping the soap. Besides being a rust bucket, its also a "mama-chari". Which means its a old style bike with no suspension, a basket on the front (quite useful in Japan actually), and small tires on it. It's rickety, it makes your ass sore and whenever I hit a small bump I can hear thousands of my unborn children cry out in anguish. And when I hit a large bump, I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

I'm buying a mountain bike soon. Real. Soon.

But until then, you Japanese moms may want to send your children out with knee pads.

So things are going well here. I still have yet to settle in to my apartment though. This weekend I was planning on doing some organizing and cleaning up, but plans came up and I left for out of town.

Friday night, some of the Japanese guys at work wanted to go out for a night of food and drink at the top of the local mountain. I had really wanted to go and do this ever since they took us there for a tour in the daytime. I'll be heading back there in November for some hang gliding also! The 4th and newest member of our ALT team arrived that day also. Pictures are up!

Then Saturday we left for a road trip down south to Kushima. In Cape Toi every year, they do a "Fire festival". This consists of a pole that's 9 stories high, with a basket full of fireworks at the top. They get a bunch of guys drunk and then give them these balls of fire on a rope, which they twirl around and then launch into the air trying to make it in the basket. Once somebody makes it, which can take as long as 90+ minutes, some fireworks in the basket goes off and everybody cheers. Then the pull the 9 story (90 feet) high wooden pole down.

Wanna know the fun part? The crowd is about.. 85-90 feet away in a circle. So the first danger is when these fireballs go off on a tangent. I mean its on a rope, so its really easy to accidentally let go at the wrong time and have that thing go flying backwards. Which happened. This year only 1 went wayyyy off course. It managed to nail my friend also. It would have hit him in the head, but it was pouring rain the entire time, so it just caught his umbrella on fire! Then when they pull that thing down, you gotta run for your life again or get crushed. That was Freaky! This festival would have been banned in the 1950's for being too dangerous if this was the U.S. Luckily Japan ROCKS. I've got no pictures of this, because it was pouring rain and I didn't want my camera to break. Next year maybe.

Later that night we drove down to a little tiny beach area and camped out. We had our tents up in the sand, made a pretty large fire, I bought some fireworks and had some fun and we sound of crashing waves sent us to dream land. Or they should have but it was so freaking muggy and hot, especially inside the tents, that I really only got 2-3 hours of sleep. It was fun though. And then going for a swim in the morning was pretty nice.

We drove back Sunday afternoon, and then stopped at a tiny little place that fed us, and let us use their bath and hot spring. I don't actually know if we stopped at a little bed and bath place, or a retirement place, or what. But it was nice and the atmosphere was very relaxing.

Oh, I forgot to mention that before we headed back on Sunday we took a little detour to check out Kojima, otherwise known as Monkey Island. I have not got my pictures up on Flickr yet, but they should be up soon. Pretty much it's a tiny island that has a bunch of monkeys. And since people go to visit all the time, they are completely used to people. Also, since your not allowed to feed them, or touch them, they ignore everybody. Much better than monkeys who go nuts for people food and try to steal stuff from everybody. You could get within a few feet of these guys and they would just ignore you. Here is a little taste of some of the photos I took:



I have not started teaching yet. That happens next Tuesday I think. Looking forward to it!

My camera came a few days ago. So I took some pics Friday and Saturday. You can see the first set by clicking here. It's some photos of around my city and a few pics of from Friday's night out. A bunch of current ALT's and new ALT's got together for a welcoming party.

The other set which you can see by clicking here, is from Saturday when some friends of mine took me out to go see Kagoshima. It's a city to the west of me, about a 90 minute drive. There is a volcano and such there. It was hot. Very very hot. Not Tucson hot, but still hot enough.

I'm not so used to the humidity here. Overall its not as bad as Tucson, but in Tucson you wouldn't go outside all that often. I'm used to sweat evaporating as soon as it appears and buildings having their AC set on permafrost. AC isn't so cold here. They try to help the environment by using less energy. But then they go ahead and burn their garbage pretty much wherever you look. Often it stinks so bad because some dude has a bonfire going down the block. They pretty much separate their garbage into 3 things. Recyclable, burnable, and non-burnable. From my understanding, burnable means "Hey Daryl, this'll burn durn guud *her huck*" Where as the logical approach one SHOULD take is "While this will burn, it is covered in lead paint so I probably shouldn't throw this into the bonfire" Sadly, I don't think this is given any thought. I could be wrong though.

There are bees like mad out here. Lovely Japanese Giant hornets. The size of humming birds. I thought it WAS a humming bird. They can actually spray you with caustic venom, that also calls in every other single Giant hornet in Japan to come kill you. Something like 50 people a year die this way. Don't matter if you have an allergy or not to these bastards. I was thinking hiking was a nice hobby to pick up... now I'm thinking Flamethrower 101 is a good class to enroll in.

Notice my work car in the set of photos. I was driving the same day I took that photo, and a Bee came and overtook me. My car can't even outrun insects here. Sigh.

Sorry for the lack of info everybody. I have been really busy with everything.

My work day consits of being at the office at 8:30 and then filling out paperwork, signing contracts, visiting schools(I have 15), and various other tasks that are required for me to setup. Yesterday I took one of the City`s cars and was told to go try to find some of my schools on my own. Driving here is not so bad, I got used to it fairly fast. I`m having issues with the speed limit though. It`s 40-50Km/H, which is a whopping 25-30mph. In the city its fine, because you are literally passing by cars/people/bikes/scooters/telephone poles/guard rails/EVERYTHING within a few inches of clearance. In the more rural areas though, its hard to stay that slow.

After work, I usually am out shopping. For food, furniture, daily needs. I`m not at home that much currently. And when I am home, I am cleaning up, doing dishes, cooking, laundry, etc. Just last night (2 weeks after being here) I unpacked my suitcases! Yay!

I ordered my camera online a few days ago, it should be here by early next week I think. Hopefully by then I can get the rest of my stuff unpacked, and after that I should have some free time.

I still have to make lesson plans for the 6 different grades I am teaching, at 15 different schools. I also have to go out of town for 3-4 days next week for another orientation. The following week I have to help prepare and judge speech contests. And then the following week maybe school starts. So don`t expect too many updates yet.

I arrived in Tokyo yesterday at about 4pm. I managed to spend the first 6 hours on the airplane sleeping, and also did a bit of prep the night before at the hotel in LA. By the time we landed at Narita I was already accustomed to the time difference here in Japan.

I'm staying at the Keio plaza hotel, and the view of Tokyo from my room on the 27th floor is stunning. Last night blew me away. This morning I woke up about an hour before my alarm went off cause I heard my roommate get out of bed. And as soon as looked out the window, whatever shred of tiredness was instantly wiped out by an amazing view of Tokyo city.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27986255@N06/ You can head there for the next few days and see when my roommate uploads some new photos. They can't capture the feeling of being here, but hopefully it'll give you an idea.

Ok I have to run get ready. Talk to all of you soon and bye for now.

This is my last day in Tucson, at least for a while. Tomorrow morning I have to get up early and drive to Phoenix to depart for L.A.. I'll spend then night there and then head to Japan the next day. I'll probably be busy for the first week or so, so probably no updates for a while.

There are a number of people I was not able to meet up with before my departure. My apologies friends. But I'm sure I will see many of you again.

Here's a little picture I took last week, to remind me of the sunsets I will be missing.

Hi everybody!!!

So for the duration of my stay in Japan, this will be the main website I will be using to keep in touch with everybody and let you all know how I am doing.

I will also be keeping a photo album online here. I will be uploading some of the pictures I take to this blog also, but the majority of them will be at that website.

To get a good idea of where I am going, check out this website. My city is called Miyakonojo, and the closest city near me is Miyazaki. But all of those places are not too far away from me, 2 hours max to the furthest.

Below is a test to make sure I am able to post slide shows in the future. It's from when I was in Japan last winter. Enjoy.