Another Weekend!

So this past weekend was full of fun activities and a good variety. On Friday night, my buddy and I went to Chiba to meet up with a friend since he works close to Tokyo. He didn't get off work til close to 7pm, so it was better for all of us to meet halfway between Tokyo and Ohara otherwise it would have been pretty late by the time the friend from Tokyo would have gotten to Ohara. The night just consisted of walking around for a little bit, eating some dinner, and then hanging out at a pub before heading back down to Ohara. The friend was coming to Ohara because of one thing....THE BEACH!

Yes, beach season is almost over here...:( The beaches close when school starts here which is 9/1, so we all wanted to get some sun and ocean time before we would miss out and have to wait until next summer to go. So Saturday we spent the day at the beach. It was a fun time and we definitely got our fair share of sun, water, and sand. We decided that after the beach, we were going to head up to Togane to check out the city and visit some other JETs that live up there. It's a city about 30-40 minutes north of us by train. I had never been there and was looking forward to seeing what the city was like. My friend up there was dancing in the Matsuri festival up there, but we got up there a little too late to see him perform. But we did make it just in time for the fireworks! Which I love!

We spent some time going around and ended up at a darts bar. Apparently, it's a bar where they have exclusively dart machines. We went and it was a lot of fun. We played games of cricket...but my team lost by 16 points! We were dominating toward the end and one team merely shoved us out of the lead at the end! Arggghhh! Anyway, it was fun and we of course had to enjoy some karaoke afterward. We karaoke'd for 2 hrs and sang our hearts out to classics. What else would you do in Japan!?!?!

But the most interesting part of the night happened after Karaoke. We were walking home when all of a sudden we heard someone yell something at us. I was walking home with 3 other JETs and the man yelling at us was an electrician who was outside of his shop holding a bottle of shochu and a glass. There were 2 caucasians in the group, and the electrician wanted them to take shots of this drink. Now shochu is not a weak drink by any means, but my friends gladly took the drink offer although it seemed really sketchy at first! It started off as a drink. And then the electrician mentioned the name "Alex". There's an Alex that we all know from our orientation and he's known to be a funny and outgoing guy, so we wouldn't have been surprised if it was the same "Alex". Being very curious, I asked the electrician what Alex looked like and he said, "C'mon, I have pictures in my office. Come look and see if it's the same guy." Well, we were actually all very curious, so we figured why not. This guy was funny and seemed harmless. Plus, there were four of us and we were on a well lit street.

We got inside the office and there was the electrician's boss, sitting inside but was completely drunk! Haha, these two must have been sitting around for hours just drinking and having a good time at the obon matsuri. Well, we saw the pictures and it was definitely not the Alex that we were thinking of. Haha! Well, our curiousity stopped there because the electrician was the 3rd or 4th person to mention the name "Alex", so we just had to know. Well, the electrician continued to offer my friends drinks and to have our company since we were already inside. We figured we'd hang out since it'd be bad to just take drinks and then leave right away. The man obviously liked all of us because he kept 0pening the refrigerator and offering us things such as more drinks, and even pumpkins! Now, at first we had no idea what the "pumpkins" were, but apparently it's a Japanese type. Well, we couldn't refuse the offer so my friends now had some Japansese pumpkins. We hung out there for another 30-40 minutes, just talking about stuff, joking around, and having fun. It was fun and something that doesn't happen everyday! When in Rome!...or I guess, Japan!

Haha, so we finally got back to our friend's place pretty late....around 2:30am and got ready to crash. When all was said and done, I think we all finally went to sleep around 3:30am.

The next day, I had plans to meet up with a friend to do some site seeing and hang out in Tokyo. So I left for Tokyo in the morning and met up with my friend in Yoyogi. There, we went to the Meiji Jingu, which is a shrine which was created for Emperor Meiji who ruled from the 1880's thru 1910 or so. It was really neat and seeing the whole grounds was awesome. It covers many acres...I couldn't even guesstimate. But we were there for a few hours and walked through the area and then headed over to the park closeby. It's Yoyogi park and on Sunday afternoons, it is really full with people doing different acts such as dance, hula, drawing, juggling, yoyos, etc. You name it, and there were people out there doing something. There were also many people out lounging around or picnicking. It's kind of like Central Park in New York and also covers many many acres.

But overall, it was a fun weekend and had a good time! I'll keep you updated on what new adventures await! I'll be heading to Nagano this weekend with my dad, so I guess there will be more stories to tell when I get back!

Chiba Orientation

This past Monday and Tuesday we had an orientation where all the new Chiba JETs got together to learn more about living in Chiba and learn more specific things related to our situations and placements. It was a cool chance to see all the new JETs together and meet new people and find out more about where others were placed. There really are a wide variety of people that were all brought to Japan to accomplish the same mission: Teach "Engrish" to the Japanese kids!

Anyway, it was a 2 day orientation which started on Monday. It was filled with current JETs giving presentations on Life as an ALT, basic Japanese Etiquette, and how to take care of a Japanese home. While some of these were repeat topics from the Tokyo Orientation, there was some slightly different information that was also tailored to Chiba Prefecture. That evening, there was a "Pizza in the Park" event where we all get together at the park that's in the park across the street from where the Orientation was held. It was fun because that was really the time that we could mingle and meet the other new JETs as well as current JETs from Chiba that had made it up for the event. That lasted for awhile and we all headed to a pub afterward. It was fun to hang out and we had to head back soon because the place we were staying actually locks the doors at 11pm! So much for being a late night...except that we all ended up staying up til at least 1am because there was a "conference/party room" where we all hung out in. The second day was filled with some of the same types of seminars, but there was also a current JET that came in to do a demonstration lesson with a current English teacher at a school. It was fun and a good experience to see what the classrooom environment will actually be like. I've been in Japan for a little over 3 weeks now, but have yet to stand in front of a classroom teaching English. It's nice to now have to worry about classes right now, but they'll be starting soon enough!

The Sunday before, I visited my grandmother who is currently in Kashiwa at a nursing home. She's been there the past 10-12 years, but has been holding steady on her overall health which is great. Considering she's 96 years old, she is still doing very "genki" and is in good shape! I was worried that since I went there all alone, she may not recognize me. She's been showing signs of alzheimer's since being at the nursing home and so I wasn't sure what to expect. But when I got there, she smiled instantly and seemed embarassed that a visitor was here for her!

She definitely recognized me and was happy to see me! We spent the time talking about Noah and all the letters that he writes to his "hii-obaachan" (great grandma in Japanese). She has a folder with all the letters collected in there and enjoys looking at those at her own leisure. We also looked through old albums which my family and I brought last year filled with pictures of us and our different lives. She enjoyed looking through those again and talking about all of us and visiting her in Japan. She was really happy to know that everyone comes to visit....and especially enjoyed the chocolates that I brought her! Haha, I didn't buy her too big of a bag because I know that she'll just go ahead and eat all of them within one day! I guess I get my sweet tooth from her...I definitely am a fan of chocolate and have a sweet tooth for most treats/desserts! As well, the staff at the nursing home, Motherth, are always so friendly and nice. The day that I visited, they were doing a special event in which they were making okonomiyaki and yaki soba. They insisted that I join in on the lunch with everyone and kept serving me plates upon plates of food...sounds great until you've had 3 plates! haha, but after a filling lunch I was definitely satisfied!

The night before this, I attended a festival that was actually held on the grounds of my middle school. There was a lot of people doing different acts and dances at the festival. There were also lots of food stands in which they were selling different foods such as takoyaki, kakigori, yakitori, rice, and other such traditional Japanese foods. The picture I included is myself with the school Vice Principal, Myself, the Superintendant, and the School Principal. Overall, it was really cool to see what types of events go on around the town. As I mentioned before, it's not the biggest city that I've ever lived in...in fact, it might be the smallest, most rural area that I've ever lived in! But, it's all a great experience thus far and the people are all extremely nice. Although I'm familiar with Japan, it's cool to see the side of Japan that I don't know about and to experience it firsthand!

The one thing that I still can't get used to is....THE HEAT! It's still so hot here...hot hot hot! and humid! But anyway, it's fun here and it will cool down here soon enough...I hope!

Adventures in Tokyo

So last weekend, I met a new JET that's in the same area as I am and we decided to take an adventure to Tokyo! It's so nice that where I live is only about an hour or two away from the big city! We were itching to get out of the inaka and head toward big civilization, so we packed our bags and decided to get ready to head out for a night, stay one night in a hostel in Shinjuku, and then come back to the inaka the next night. We headed out on Friday, Aug. 6th and headed in. It was really easy to get to Tokyo. We made it there no problem! Only took about 1.5 hours or so. We got in and first headed toward Ueno for the night to find some food. There was a kaiten zushi place (sushi boat place) that he knew of that existed somewhere in Ueno....with really good sushi...for really cheap....

Heading out of the station we went toward Ameyoko-cho, which is one of the main streets with vendors and shops. We searched, and we searched, and searched. We kept looking around and could not find it for awhile....I mean awhile. We were getting real hungry, it was extremely humid and hot for being 7 or 8pm, so at this point I was sweating up a storm. All the shops were starting to close around the streets, so that meant it was getting close to 9pm. And we still hadn't found the place. We were walking around for almost 1.5-2 hours and I was ready to just go find somewhere else to eat. But then finally, the last possible place that we were going to look for the sushi places that night came upon us!!!! We had finally found the sushi places, yes, plural. There were probably around 4 different kaiten zushi places in the same vicinity. And the worst part of it is, if we had just taken a left out of the station exit instead of a right, we would have found the sushi places right away!!!! haha, anyway, the delayed gratification made the sushi taste even better! So, that was really gratifying to finally get some sushi and enjoy sitting down and resting for a bit.

After dinner, we went toward Shinjuku which is where our hostel was located where we stayed for the night. It was in an area called San-chome, which means the 3rd "Block" or "Area". Well, of course it wasn't going to be as easy as knowing it just as a street name or small vicinity. Of course, Tokyo is huge and has lots of parts, and even one area spans over the course of at least 5-6 large blocks....so there we were, stuck again trying to find another place! Haha, we went in to a Family Mart which is a convenience store to ask for directions. But the girl in there was only able to give us directional advice. She didn't know exactly where it was and under her breath in Japanese I heard her say "sore wa toi desu ne" which means "actually, that is pretty far." Great.

We walked around for a little bit, still hot and humid out, and it was around 10:30 or 11pm at this point. We were pretty tired, but obviously had to find where we were going to stay, otherwise we'd end up sleeping on the street! While walking around, we went through Kabuki-cho, which is an area that is notorious for....well, not great things. There is Kabukuya, which is basically where you choose a host man/woman and spend time with them and get over-priced drinks. I swear that every single host was out to try and lure myself and my new friend into their bar. We obviously refused but I think every single person that could approach us did. Haha, well, we walked around some more and finally made it to another convenience store. We asked an employee in that place and he was able to direct us to the hostel that we were looking for. But to our surprise, or irony, we had actually passed it earlier while looking for it! We were standing right next to it, but didn't even notice!!! Haha, such tourists! Anyway, we went back a few blocks and put our stuff down. It felt good to not be carrying my bag anymore and to feel semi-"free".

Anyway, we were just looking to relax so we went back out to look in a few shops for some cold drinks, and then walked around a bit more, now that we knew where we were. On the way back to the hostel, we stopped by a bar that was just down the street and hung out there for a little while before heading back into the hostel for the night. Overall, fun time and glad that we were able to get to Tokyo and enjoy some time there.

The next day, we hung out around Shinjuku and then headed down to Shibuya for a little bit to go shopping around and take a look at what has happening. We spent most of the day walking around again and I got a new pair of jeans. I guess since I'm in Japan, I'll try and catch on to some of the styles and might as well get some cool clothes while I'm here! Later that afternoon, we met up with one of my friend's friends and we went out to dinner again in Ueno. We went to a different kaiten zushi place to get some sushi, and then made it to a takoyaki stand where I burned my mouth! It was fresh takoyaki and it was sooooo HOT! But good. We also made it to a yakitori place. I think it was actually someone's house, but the restaurant was on the first floor. As we walked in, there was an older woman who greeted us and there were a couple chefs in the kitchen area who greeted us as well. Sitting alone at a table was a middle aged man who had been drinking for awhile. He also greeted us with a little drunken smile and shout in Japanese. Well, the 3 of us there are all Asian Americans, so they expected us to all speak Japanese, or at least some other Asian language. But when we sat down, we all busted out in English because that is our native language. In almost an angry tone, the middle aged man was like, "Ehhhh! Why are you guys speaking in English?!?!?! And why do you speak it so well?!!?!?"

Haha, he was definitely confused. He thought we were either from Hong Kong or Singapore, and was expecting us to speak in Chinese, Korean, or some other language besides English. We explained to him that we were all from America and so that's why English is our native language. After that, he became our new best friend....lol. He kept talking to us and wouldn't stop asking us questions or complimenting us on how well we spoke English...(obviously drunk). But he was funny and we enjoyed talking with him.

At this point, it was about 9:30pm on Saturday night, so the other JET and I decided to head back to Ohara in Chiba for the night. We caught a train that left Tokyo around 10:30. So we were expecting to get in to Ohara around midnight or so. Well, we hopped on the train and took it easy. It was going to be a straight shot all the way to Ohara....or so we thought....

We were riding the train for a little over an hour or so, and there was an interesting crowd on the train. There's a style in Japan called "Gal Girl" or "Gyaru" in Japanese, which basically refers to a style of dress and fashion for young women in Japan. They typically have tan dark skin, bleach their hair blonde or brighter brown, and wear lots of makeup. They also wear pretty extreme fashion clothing such as shorter skirts or skimpier dresses/tank tops. There were quite a few of these "Gyaru" girls on the train as well as some rowdy high school boys...actually I don't think they were actually in high school. I don't think they went to school. It was a group of 5 young boys, no older than 17 or 18. It was kind of sad to see these guys. They actually looked like a Japanese version of rednecks. They had mullets that were dyed brown, kind of had missing teeth, and were dressed with really baggy jeans and kind of ghetto. So they were a mix of redneck and ghetto. But it was sad because when you think of typical Japan, you think of reserved, respectful, and polite people. But these 5 boys were NOTHING like that. They were loud, obnoxious, and acted extremely stupid. They were very disrespectful to the people around them, had their feet up on the seats, were using the arm/hand railings that you hold on to while standing as pullup bars, and had beer. They were also very loud and shouting with each other, pushing each other around, and goofing off on the train, which is a big taboo in public transportation in Japan. They had no respect for themselves or the people around them. They even broke one of the benches on the train but just burst out into laughter when this happened. Typical immature boys times 10....and you'll get the picture of how these guys were.

Anyway, we were riding this train for awhile. And we were approaching the last stop. But....none of the prior stops really sounded familiar, and the stop we were at, Kimitsu, did not seem or sound familiar. I asked the girl next to me where we were and she pointed out on the map a place....a place that was not where we were supposed to be....

We were supposed to be in Ohara, which is on the Pacific Coast on the Eastern most side of Chiba. But instead, we were on the Tokyo Bay side, which was on the Western most side of Chiba....NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! We rode the train to the wrong side!! Apparently, there was a stop at a transfer station where we were supposed to switch lines! Well, I asked her if we'd be able to go back to Soga and transfer lines, but at this point it was nearly midnight and all lines in Japan stop running...at around midnight!! Well, we were SOL, and were pretty much stuck in a city that was nowhere near our destination.

We had no choice but to get off and try to find our way back. So we got off and I asked a taxi driver how much it would cost and how long it would take to get back to Ohara. At first when I asked him, he had to process my question. Then he exclaimed, "Ohara?!?! Ohara?!?! I never go there! That's far!! That will take at least an hour or two and probably cost at least $200!!! You're better off staying at a hotel tonight unless you have to get back!"

Well, this was great....we had spent a lot of the prior night getting lost and finding our way around, and this time we were also lost.....again....except in a city where we had no idea of where we were, and in a completely unfamiliar area. So we wandered around the train station to look for the hotel, but only found a 7-11 (There's a lot of the in Japan :)

After getting directions from the clerk in there, we had to walk all the way back to the station and found the hotel on the other side of the station....again, had we gone the other way out of the station we would have found the hotel, haha. Anyway, we approached the hotel and encountered an older man. I asked him if there were any rooms available. He assured me there was one and it was only about $94 for the night for the two of us. So I asked him to give us that room.

He then asked me something to the effect of, "Swiiinnn?!! Swiinnn desu ka?"

Huh? Do you know what that means?! I didn't think so. Neither did my friend nor I. We were looking at each other in utter confusion. So I asked the man to repeat what he said to see if I missed something.

His reply: "Swiinnnn?! Swinnnn desu ka?"

Yeah, second time didn't work either. So I then proceeded to ask him to repeat it in English, since maybe we would be able to catch what he was saying. But since both of us appear Japanese, and I was speaking Japanese with the man up to this point, he was confused as to why I would want him to say it in English. He looked back at us with complete confusion as well and didn't get that we were actually "foreigners" who had no idea what the heck he was saying.

So finally, pointed at me, then my friend and said "One, two, equals both of you! TWIN!"

Ohhhhhhhhh!! He was saying "Twin" as in a twin room...with TWO beds! Haha, I started laughing out loud and couldn't help myself. And no wonder he was confused when I asked him to say it in English. He thought he was already saying this in English.

Anyway, we finally got our room and at this point we were both exhausted. We went up to the room and to our surprise, it was a really nice room! For having gotten lost, being in a completely different city, and having no clue what to do, we ended up with a pretty good accommodation and it turned out to not be so bad.

Looking back on everything, it was all pretty funny and is all a good story to tell for later. We stayed overnight and the next day, Sunday, we headed back toward Ohara. It was a good thing that we made these mistakes on days that we don't have any major obligations. Missing work because we didn't know we had to tranfer train lines would not have gone over too well. So to reward ourselves from all of this, we decided to go to the beach and hang out. It was hot out so it felt nice to relax in the sun and go in the water. The water was actually not as salty as I expected. I have been in the ocean in Florida, Hawaii, and Mexico, and it is extremely salty compared to in Japan. Well, this ended the weekend and our first weekend adventure in Tokyo. There will be many more to come and more stories along with it! Until then!

Tokyo Drift!

Been...Tooo....Loooong

Wow,

So it's been way too long since I've had good solid internet connection! A lot has happened and I haven't been able to post all the things that have been going on because of the lack of internet! But finally, I feel whole again (it's sad that being away from the internet for so long can cause someone to almost go insane!) and much better now. I have a lot of things to post, and will get those up as soon as possible. I also have a few funny stories and some fun adventures I've encountered here while in Japan for these short 2 weeks. But right now, I'm just glad and SUPER happy that internet in my house is finally up and running!

Well, keep coming back for more posts!

Internet....I'm missing you!

So I never really realized how much I depended on the internet until I've been stripped of it for the past week....and will continue to be for the next week. I won't get internet at my home until August 12th....but I can make it! Besides, there are other things to do besides just being on the computer..right?

Well, this week has been a mix of things going on. I've been at the school working and helping out with an English speech contest that students will be participating in later in September. We start practice now because the students have to memorize the skits and perform these at the competition. The school principal and vice principal are really pushing for our school to do well this year because last year was a bust for them. But I guess I'm going to help them to go all the way to no. 1!!

But anyway, I've also had a chance to get internet at the school as well and have some time to check e-mail from time to time so that's been nice. I'm at a pizza shop right now that's in a town called Ohara about 15-20 minutes from my house. They have free wireless internet here and the pizza's decent! The people that own the shop are American and it's funny...I feel like I'm in America when I'm at this shop. Everyone speaks English and all the customers also are other gaijin or foreigners. haha! Well, hopefully I can wait til my internet comes at my house and I'll be posting more!