Life is OOC here.....a few funny anecdotes!

Outta controlness has consumed my life in Japan, let's just put it that way.  I haven't blogged in a while so it's easier to recount some of the random, headturning things I have experienced during the last 3 weeks.  Enjoy!

Hmmm, where to start?  Well, I last blogged about inappro things my kids were saying to me.  Unfortunately, things got worse.  Last week, I was looking for the two girls who were in the English  speech contest.  I wanted to confirm that they could stay after school to practice with me.  That's when the 9th grade boys turned on me.  I was simply walking through the halls, stopped to say 'hello', as I turned  to continue walking away, one of them grabbed by ass.  No, I'm not joking either.  Before I could say anything, it happened again.  I don't know who it was but I have some guesses.  Then, I yelled 'yamenasai' to get them to stop, and continued walking.  One of the little daredevils did it AGAIN.  Just as I looked up, the kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) was right there and saw the whole thing happen along with me telling them to stop.  Then, another teacher came out and they started talking in Japanese.  I didn't know what was going on so I just walked downstairs back to my desk in the teachers' room.

THEN, the door slides open and all the 9th grade teachers are there.  Kyoto-sensei gets it across to me that Daisuke, one of the double trouble twins who always give me a hard time, is waiting outside to apologize to me.  The 9th grade English teacher then proceeds to translate Daisuke's apology from Japanese into English.  I don't get why he couldn't at least say 'I'm sorry' in English because they ALL know that.  His head was hung so low from humiliation that it might as well been between his legs.  I accepted his apology and he said it would never happen again.  I thought all the teachers looked like they wanted to strangle him.  When I walked back in, the teachers' room was abuzz and I was like ohhhh god.  The English teacher who I'm closest to came over and asked me if I was ok.  I, then for the first time, was able to explain in English was exactly happened.  I also thanked her and the teachers for taking care of the matter because at some schools, teachers have been known to laugh it off and not care.  Luckily, this was not my situation.

Update on the predicament?  This week, I've had to walk with my arms over my chest so that a couple of the boys couldn't grab my boobs as, yes, they were reaching for them.  For whatever reason, they just call them 'boings'.  Today, my least favorite student folded his hands with his fingers up like he was praying and almost tried to poke me in the ass.  As soon as I saw his hands like that, I knew what he was going to try.  I have heard that the boys in junior high like to pull that one alllll the time.  Fortunately, my favorite student, who is one of the good 9th grade boys, stepped in and kept him from touching me at all.  Thanks!

Something else interesting also happened today.  This supposedly famous hair stylist in Kitakyushu came to my junior high for the afternoon.  Mondays are usually Yogote's day off but he takes the time to talk about his job/career to junior high students.  Moral of the story: follow your dreams!  He did a powerpoint about his life/career so far and then proceeded to cut one girl's hair for free.  I'm thinking he costs at least $150-200 here for a cut.  It was amazing to watch him cut-so fast and precise!  He said that his comb costs more than $100.  At the end, all of the kids got up and walked by the table so they could see all of his 'tools', scissors, etc.  All of the girls in my favorite 7th grade class were hilarious.  They appeared to have the biggest crush on this guy, even though he's gotta be in his mid-30's.  They began tearing up sheets of paper into pieces so that they could get his autograph.  They also provided their names so that he could make each autograph specifically out to each girl.  I thought the whole thing was great-we would have never gotten that in America!

This past weekend was pretty much chill.  My Scottish friend's parents came into town and a slew of us went out for all-you-can-eat yakiniku (chicken and other meat you throw on this little bbq built into your table).  I don't understand why, but most people went home after that.  Notice, I said 'most' and that most certainly did not include me.  Two friends and I went out for nomihoudai karaoke for two hours.  We sang some hits: things like Sting's 'Fields of Gold', Mariah Carey's 'One Sweet Day', Spice Girls' 'Say You'll Be There', and 'Another Night' by Real McCoy.  We went big instead of going home.  After that, we thought it would be a grand idea to go to the closest Lawson's convenience store and buy cocktails/beer and drink/loiter outside for a half hour.  There is obviously no container law here :)  We started walking home but of course I wanted to stop at my favorite park, Kasoyama Park near the Board of Education.  It almost feels like the Rotunda at UVa or the Sunken Gardens or the Wren Building at W&M, it's always nice after a long night.  Little did I anticipate, we would spend two hours, just the three of us and our drinks, sitting on the steps at the park talking for 2 hours.  And, I got back at 5am.  The fact that the little bakery was opening across the street from my building was a sign that I needed to go to bed.

Other than that hectic night, the weekend really was chill.  Just studied a lot for the GRE.  Went to the local Catholic church and thanks to my sheets with the Mass in Japanese (Kanji and Romaji) and then in English, I could follow along.  Met another foreigner there from New Orleans who had just married a Japanese girl.  Apparently, we works for another English teacher company but his salary is half of what I make.  Thank you, JET Program!  But churchin' it up went well and one new Japanese friend even gave me a ride to the travel agent afterwards.  I needed to spend some time there planning a trip to Thailand and Cambodia.

Last Wednesday, I took the bullet train over to Fukuoka for dinner with a new friend in Tenjin, the heart of downtown Fukuoka.  We went to a MEXICAN place called El Borracho (the drunk.)  And seriously, it was exactly what I needed.  I miss Mexican food so much!  You can bet I had a big fat mango margarita, some tortilla chips, and the restaurant special.  The chef is Mexican and learned to cook there as well so he was definitely legit.  Half the people in the restaurant even spoke Spanish and English.  I looooved it.  I was exhausted by the time I got back to Kitakyushu though.  Oh!  So how I ended up meeting a bunch of other JETswas a Fukuoka Prefecture JET event at the Asahi Beer Garden in Fukuoka the end of September.  $38 for two hours of all you can drink and all you can drink.  Plenty of Kyushu beef and Asahi beer for all!

I must all add that 1 out of my 10 kids in the English speech contest made it to the finals.  I only see 8 of those kids for one week a month and I thought I would be blamed for their failure because I was with them the week before the contest but my other school's kids did wonderfully so I'm free from guilt.  One of my good friends here and one of my English teachers actually judged the room where my kid got through to the finals and it was a close-call.  Luckily, they told me what areas she needs to work on so I can help her even more.  I actually like staying after school with her to help because her English is good and her friend stays too.  They are hilarious and think I'm just as funny.  Basically, they get a big kick out of everything I do!

Oh yeah, and I leave for Seoul, South Korea on Friday night.  We have a national holiday for Health and Sports Day on Monday so I just made it a 4-day weekend and took this Tuesday off.  So I get back from Korea Tuesday night.  We managed to score a room at the Ritz Carlton in Seoul for only $150 a night.  Livin' large this weekend and I deserve it.  Between studying so much for the GRE along with Japanese class every week, my brain is practically cracked out!  Planning to do a bunch of shopping there because it's supposedly a lot cheaper than Japan.  Be ready for that blog sometime next week after I get back!

'Yamenasai!!!!!!!'

This week the title refers to 'Stop that!' in Japanese because that's what I have to say to the kiddies every time they say inappropriate things to me, which is basically everyday.  That brings me to Monday.....

The students were pretty much out of control and I only had one class to teach that day!  The 9th graders thought it would be cute at Sports Day practice to tell me that I have a sexy body repeatedly.  They also proceeded to tell me that I had a 'good bust size' as they put it.  I'm thinking I need to pretend that I don't understand them because all week, I heard these things of things 2764823585 times.  The one class I had was crazy loud but I had fun.

Oh yeah, I also joined the volleyball club on Monday.  Every time I got one of the kids names right, I gave them a high five.  High fives are new to them and they looooved it.  The girls started asking me questions about sex and I was just like 'uhhh, no, bad english'.  There is no way in hell I'm going to try and tackle that subject.  They all thought it was hysterical and laughed so hard that they were rolling on the gym floor with laughter.  Yes, the hormones are raging with these kids too.....

Tuesday started out kinda wacky.  My JTE was late to teach our class because one of the students in her homeroom got hit by a car.  It was one of my favorite students, Masahiro, too!  Then, I saw him in the nurse's office and he looked perfectly fine except for the ankle brace he was wearing.  I guess he was nudged by a rolling car?  Later that day, there was another fiasco when an 8th grader went missing.  Apparently, this happens all the time, according to one of my JTE's.

This week was full of more Sports Day practices to gear up for the big day, tomorrow, Sunday, September 14.  So, I have to work tomorrow.  Monday is a public holiday so we get Tuesday off in exchange for tomorrow.  Let's hope the typhoon doesn't hit tomorrow because that screw everything up and jeopardizes bar-hopping on Monday night with the other JETs here.  Like, I said last week, the drinking party with the teachers is tomorrow night so seeing other JETs is a no-go.  As for the practices, I basically stand there sweating my butt off in the sun and snap a few pics in between.  Some kids are alllll about the peace sign and posing for them but others hide their faces and are extremely embarrassed.  Honestly, I can't wait for it all to be over because it's thrown a crazy loop into the regular schedule and the kids have been bouncing off the walls.  I just need things to go down a few notches.

Wednesday was super-chill.  I had 3 classes and then left early after lunch to go to a meeting at the Board of Education.  Every other Wednesday, all of the JETs have to report to meeting at the BOE.  It was good seeing the other ALTs again.  I mean, I hang out with some of them but not all of them.  One is semi-sidelined with crutches and others live farther away so that unfortunately makes it difficult to get together during the week.  We technically finished around 4:30pm but afterwards, a small group of us just chatted, caught up, and exchanged crazy stories from school.  Post-chatting, we went out to dinner at some random restaurant that played random music.  I recall music from Usher's latest album being played and though I am a fan, it was completely out of place.  Thank goodness, our Japanese advisor came, otherwise it would have been me and all guys yet again.  Food was good and again, I found myself eating things and then finding out later what they were.  For example) I chewed for about 5 minutes on the pig's achilles tendon.  Scrumptious, huh?

Thursday was laid back as well.  Only had 2 classes, with one of them being my favorite, full of out of control kids who get way too excited about learning English.  But, hey, that makes my job easier, doesn't it?  After work, I bounced on over to another JET's apartment here and 3 others joined us for okonomiyaki dinner.  I probably had a little too much red wine for a school night but I was fine getting back.  I just liked being able to hang out after work and not being limited to weekend get-togethers.

I prepped for two classes on Friday but one of them was cancelled due to, you guessed it, Sports Day practice!  The kiddies got out of school early but not before spending the afternoon cleaning and prepping one final time for Sports Day.  Cleaning time continues to fascinates me to no end.  They have cleaning rags they use everyday to wipe the floors.  I was intrigued by the use of folded newspaper to clean the windows too.  Teachers and students alike here were surprised to know that most schools in America have hired maintenance men to clean the schools, that no students or school employees did any actual cleaning.  I get the sense Japan keeps cutting their education budget?  But this cleaning ritual is completely and utterly normal for schools around the country.

Last night, some of my JET friends came over and we shot a YouTube video tour of my apartment.  I wanted to have a clean-cut version but with 5 guys over here, that did not happen in the least.  Needless to say, the whole thing was pretty hilarious.  Then, we hit up a nearby restaurant I like called Italian Tomato Cafe.  I think the name says it all.

Hajimemashite!

The title means 'Nice to meet you' in Japanese.  This is in reference to the fact that I had to do my self-introduction 12 times this past week.  I'm definitely sick of talking about myself, my family, my dogs, sports, my travels, college, American food, and my friends in dumbed-down English. Highlights include the kids going crazy over Ichiro pics and over one pic of me and some high school friends in my hot tub.  They just kept calling it a big bath.  Oh, and when I explained how the restaurant at the top of the Space Needles revolves once an hour, they started making vomiting gestures in reference to people throwing up their food as the thing spun around. Don't worry, I'll have to do it about 20 more times in 2 weeks when I go to a different junior high school for one week.

I'm going to preface discussing my first week at school with some excerpts from the English textbooks all Japanese students use across the country.....

1) Teacher: Jack, why are you late this afternoon?

    Jack: I broke my ankle.

    Teacher: That's a lame excuse.

2) Karen: Is our school haunted?

     Teacher: I don't think so. Why?

     Karen: The principal is always talking about the school spirit.

3) What do you call an ant who hates school?

     A tru-ant.

4) What must you pay when you go to school?

     Attention.

5) What did the dog get for Christmas?

     A mobile bone.

6) Emi: I want to find some e-pals.

    Mike: Ok, let's surf the internet and find some.

    Emi: Is it difficult?

    Mike: No, many people around the world make friends through computers.

Can I just say CREEPER?!

7) Nana: Everyone in my host family is nice to me.  But my host mother always gives me too much food.  Do I have to eat everything?  It's too much.

    Teacher's answer: You must tell your host mother.  Say, 'I'm sorry,  It's very good but I can't eat that much.'  She will understand.

Yet another example of oversized portions and American obesity.....go figure.

8)  Emi:  But as my host father says, 'Rome was not built in a day.'  It takes work and patience to have a happy family.

9) lyrics to Mariah Carey's 'Hero'

10) lyrics to 'We Are the World' by Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie

11) dialogue on Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring'

12) Mother's Lullaby, a short story about a young mother and her child dying from the radiation set off my atomic bomb in Nagasaki (Oh yeah, this is the lesson the 9th graders are on.  Yay for being the new American!  Awkward.....)

So now you have an idea of the kinds of things I will probably experience everyday.

This week went be relatively quickly.  The first days, the kiddies had back to school testing so I sat around and tried to help out where I could.  On Monday, there was an opening ceremony where I had to go up and say a few words on stage in Japanese, introducing my self to the entire school.  Luckily, I survived.  The vice-principal, whose English is limited but better than the principal's, came up to me exclaimed 'Mariners!' when I was done speaking.  I had to contain my laughter.  

The week's schedule was also out of whack due to upcoming Sports Day, which is on September 14th, yes, a Sunday.  Thankfully, we get the following Tuesday off instead since we have to show up on the weekend.  I was invited to the teachers' enkai (drinking party) post-Sports Day action.  You can bet I'll have my camera out at that little shindig.  My favorite English teacher out of the 3 at this school asked me if I drank and then proceeded to tell me that she really enjoyed cold sake.  This is gonna be a riot come next Sunday!

Speaking of Sports Day, they practice all the darn time.  So far, I have not seen any actual sports balls.  It primarily consists of running activities, marching and random drills.  There is no American equivalent and sometimes I think the kids remind me of Nazi Germany with their bowing and call and response.  And this isn't just at my school either.  Two other JETs in my city compared them to Hitler's little army even before I could.  My mom just about cried laughing when I told her this.  I've heard rumors though that the kids are working on building 6-level human pyramids and run relay races all day long.  I personally haven't seen evidence of this stuff yet but this Wednesday, we have Sports Day practice alllll day long.

Tomorrow, I will be joining the volleyball club.  'Club' because they call all of the sports teams here 'clubs'.  I bought knee pads today - let's just hope I don't collapse on the gym floor.  I opted not to do soccer because I didn't particularly fancy playing on a dirt field.  I'm limiting my participation to Mondays and Wednesdays because I'm going to be taking Japanese classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  And Fridays, well, they are Fridays and time to finally enjoy the weekend away from the kiddies.

As for time away from the kiddies after work, I mainly run errands and go home to relax in the AC.  My commute is conducive to running errands because the main station I go through to switch from the train to the monorail is surrounded by everything and anything.  I can get whatever I need there.  That's not to say, I live out in the boonies because I don't.  It's just easier to get stuff around there.  Y'all know I'm lazy.

Thursday was an exception though.  Another JET and myself went down south to Kokuraminami to meet up with two other city JETs (one of them is on crutches due to a sprained ankle so this was easier) and our Japanese mini-supervisor, who is absolutely hilarious.  I found out she is obsessed with The OC now and watches the episodes in English.  She got all riled up when I accidently slipped that Marissa dies at the end of the third season, hahaha.  We had a delish dinner at a yaki-tori restaurant for about 2 hours.  It honestly was the perfect group of people there and I had a lovely time.  It was just what I needed to help me finish out the week strong.

As for Friday, I stayed about an hour later talking with one of the English teachers.  Then, a bunch of 9th graders bombarded my desk and became entranced by my notebook full of my Japanese practice, vocab, writing, text message translations, etc.  They started helping me with my things and then had me help them with their English.  Yes, it was a corny bonding experience and I loved every minute of it.

After-hours, I ran home, just in time to shower and head back out to meet some JETs for Korean BBQ.  This was my first time eating Korean food!  I tried kimshi (fermented cabbage, way too spicy for me!).  FYI....this is where the expression, 'You're in deep kimshi comes from'.  Well, it started during the Korean War apparently.  I also tried squid (yuck) and cow tongue (very chewy is all I have to say).  One of my friends kept putting things on my plate and every time I would ask what it was, he would say 'just eat it.'  I forgot to mention that at dinner, it was me and seven guys.  Unlike at home, as one of the few females, I'm always outnumbered over here which means I get more crap than usual.  Well, it's comparable to Chris, Shariff, and Co. at W&M.  Did I tell you that this was all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink for 90 minutes? It felt like a lot longer than that to be honest. To drink, I went for the umeshou, which is plum wine.  Needless to say, by the time we left, everyone was pretty toasted.  Even after that, we all thought it would be a grand idea to go do all-you-can-drink karaoke for 2 hours at Shidax (our fave place for sing-a-longs).  I think the highlights of the night was singing Bryan Adams's 'All for Love' which is featured on The Three Musketeers Soundtrack circa mid-1990's.  Loooved it!

Yesterday was chill.  Woke up uber-late due to the late night before.  I finally got my furniture (2 small suede couches that sit on the floor and a bed) delivered and my place looks legit now.  I want to have a housewarming party sometime soon and then a 'Swing Vote' theme party.  For the Swing Vote party, people can dress up for Halloween, as election-related things (donkey, elephant, etc), or as something Kevin Costner film related.  I would love to have the soire on the real Election Day, November 4th, but alas that's a Tuesday and we're dealing with a 13-16 hour time difference.  I figure I'll just do it the weekend before and combine it with Halloween.  I fully anticipate ridiculousness ;)

Today was catch-up day as usual.  Sunday grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, blogging, etc.  One friend came from another part of the city to have lunch with three of us and I got to show him my newly furnished cutesy apartment.  I was proud.  With that in mind, look forward to a Cribs-esque video that shall be posted next weekend after filming goes down on Saturday.

Time for bed.  Peace out.

Bravo, Bravo!

Ahhh so I guess I'm due to report on the busy as a bumblebee weekend and my first day at school!

Friday was pretty chill.  I visited my second junior high school, Ryusei JHS in the Moji ward of Kitakyushu, in the morning.  Both the principal and vice-principal were gone but I did get to meet the third grade (equal to 9th grade in the US) English teacher.  He's so little but his English was great!  He showed me around the school and I was pleasantly surprised to find my assigned locker for my indoor shoes in addition to a welcome note waiting for me on my desk in the teachers' room.  I think my fave part about the teachers' room in that it has AC.  The rest of the school doesn't so yes, it's hotter than hades.  After the visit, I headed back to the BOE and watched the rest of my cohorts do dry-runs of their self-intro presentations.  Later, a small group of us went to the 100 Yen Shop.  Luckily, I made it home before the rain!

That night, 9 of us went out to a bar called 'Bravo!' in the Kurosaki area of KitaQ.  Three of the other ALTs live in that area and have been hanging out there for the past month so we finally decided so see what all the hype was about.  The nice CIR in KitaQ came and joined us too!  I pretty much chillaxed the whole night and was very entertained by the ooc people all around me.  I should have written down all of the crazy things people were saying!  I ended up crashing in Kurosaki because the trains stop at a way-too-early midnight.  The next morning, I arrived back in my Kokura nieghborhood around 10:30 and went shopping for work clothes around the station before taking the monorail home.

Once home, I had a few hours to breathe until Latin American Night at the Kitakyushu International Association in the Yahata ward.  Lots of English and Espanol speakers present and I could actually understand the things that were being said!  I was also able to have a pina colada (alright, a bad one) and food from Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia!  I ran into a few new friends I had met the previous week which was uber-exciting!  I met some Japanese people who would just randomly come up to me wanting to practice their English.  All of them gave me their business cards too.  I feel like such a little networker!  The majority of the night was spent on the dance floor doing the salsa.  There was a pseudo-mariachi band and I thought the whole scene was hilarious.  I think the highlight of the night was when another ALT and myself taught some Japanese ladies how to do the macarena.  They went ballistic and I laughed so hard :)  At the end of the night, I wanted to get my picture in front of the mermaid statue (they are everywhere in Norfolk) that was a gift from Norfolk, VA, one of KitaQ's sister cities and this random Hispanic guy jumped in the picture and kissed my cheek. Yikes!

Though I had another super-late night due to Skyping with family and friends at times more convenient for them, I roused myself out of bed to check out the 10:15 service at this Christian Church about a 3 minute walk from my house.  Turns out, this was a Methodist Church and there was an English teacher there.  He translated the entire sermon for her.  Nearing the end of the service, one member gave the number of people in attendance and then brought a microphone over to me so that I could introduce myself to the entire congregation.  And oh yeah, I did it in Japanese!  Yet another funny coincidence, when the teacher found out I was from Tacoma, he told me that he (along with the church) hosted a group of students from Bellarmine in June!  Then, his family invited me to have lunch with them at the church and I proceeded to learn all about Finger Five, the Japanese take on the Jackson 5 in the 70's.

Sidenote: One more crazy coincidence!  One of my best friends from Semester at Sea is somehow, randomly rooming at optometry school with a friend I've known since 8th grade through summer camp and working together later at that same summer camp!  All these connections are honestly getting ridiculous.

Oh, but anyways, Sunday ended with chilling at Starbucks with for a few hours with a couple ALTs and a Japanese woman who apparently has experience teaching Japanese.  I thought the whole situation with very awk.com but somehow I lasted.  Then I just finished a bunch of errands and made my usual Sunday journey to Trial for grocery shopping.  I actually made it to bed by 10:30 and yes, I felt like a grandma.

Today was a big day - my first official day at one of my junior high schools!  Less than 5 minutes after I arrived, I had the privilege of watching one student get his hair chopped off due to his 'unique hairstyle.'  The kid was just asking for trouble and I had heard stories of this very thing happening.  I thought it was kinda funny and all of his friends wanted to watch but the teachers ushered them out of the teachers' room.  The day really began with the opening ceremony, where I had to get up in front of the entire school and introduce myself in Japanese.  I survived and everyone clapped.  I think they had to.  Once the vice-principal heard I was from Seattle, he came over and exclaimed 'Mariners!'. Hahaha, the whole Ichiro thing never gets old, does it?  The rest of the day, they had me sit at my desk.  I ended up studying Japanese and plotting out my schedule.  I met a slew of teachers too but I was rather quiet because, oh wait, I don't know Japanese and the majority of teachers don't speak English.  

I also found out that I can order a bento for around $4 everyday but the catch is that the bento changes everyday.  I could randomly end up with fugu or some other seafood I would never touch.  One teacher kept warning me that the bento had Japanese food in it.  I mean, it's not like I expected a Big Mac or a hot dog to be in there, you know?  But whatevs, I like bringing my own sandwich anyway.  Stopped by a few of the clubs after school.  Basically, these are the equivalent of school sports.  The kids went nuts and I got synchronized goodbyes from the entire group.  The kids are fascinated by me and are very friendly.  They know some basic English phrases but I had to whip out the Eng-Jap dictionary about 482327 times today already.

Overall, like Borat would say, today was great success! But I'm exhausted.  Sitting at your desk isn't hard work but everything is still mentally draining.  You have no idea what people are saying in Japanese around you (or about you) and you never know if one of the teachers is analyzing your every move.  Let's just hope they don't secretly despise me by the end of the week!

"How we do the damn thang Uncle Sam style baby baby"

Happy Thursday to everyone because at the very least it's 1am on the West Coast.  The above quote is from another ALT in my city.  He's from San Francisco and clearly wanted to make sure I was representin' during my first school visit today but we'll get to that later....

On Monday, I had my last Japanese class at the YMCA.  Our beginner level class had to listen to speeches by the ALTs in the intermediate and advanced classes.  I didn't get the point because it's not like we could even understand what the heck they were saying.  It ended early and they gave us certificates of completion.  Then, they threw us a party, topped off by donuts by Mister Donut!  The rest of the day we just hung out at the Board of Education.  

But the biggest news of the days was getting our junior high school assignments and schedules.  I got placed at two schools.  Basically, I go to one school called Ryusei Junior High School for 3 weeks a month.  The other week a month I go to Shitoku Junior High to replace another ALT when she has to work at the BOE.  I think that will be a nice change of pace.  The only downside of this school is that it's in Kokura-minami (minami = south) and 5 stops down from my stop on the monorail.  Once I get off, it's a 20-25 minute walk, part of which is uphill.  On the super bright side, 2 other ALTs live uber-close to this school so hopefully I can hang out with them more!

My main school is in Moji, which is the farthest east of all of Kitakyushu's wards.  I take the monorail to Kokura Station (the big station where you can catch the bullet train here) and then it's a 5 minute train ride to Moji Station from there.  From that station, it's an easy breezy 10-15 minute walk.  This commute is a lot more enjoyable and the school was super-easy to find.    I ventured there on Monday night and I don't have any insider info on the school but it does look pretty big from the outside.  Of course, I took pics which I'll be posting later.  I'm also looking forward to exploring this nearby mall/bowling alley with a soccer field on top!

On Tuesday, I took my free summer holiday and had an extremely productive day off!  Got an official email address for my keitai (cell phone) and switched my wireless internet bill from my credit card to my new bank account.  This was an incredible feat as none of the employees spoke English and I was flipping through my Japanese-English dictionary like crazy!  Then, I visited two travel agencies and got flight estimates for a bunch of trips I'm trying to plan.  I also picked up a mysterious package from the Post Office which ended up being one of my GRE study books.  Oh and the best thing of all - I got a birthday package from Maura with all this amazing American stuff - Wisconsin cheese, Mt. Rainier animal cookies, travel binoculars, PEZ, and gold chocolate coins...that looked like Japanese Yen.  HOLLA.

Yesterday, we pretty much did a bunch of cultural stuff.  Something called Noh, kinda hard to explain so feel free to Wikipedia that.  It's like a certain type of drumming where you have to sit on your knees in this rather uncomfortable traditional position called souza (sp?) on tatami mats.  We got to watch and then participate ourselves.  It rained like cats and dogs alllll day :(  Got off early around 3pm and headed home to get out of the bad weather.  My TV was also delivered last night.  It's a sweet 15-inch Panasonic HDTV, about 3 inches thick, and I'm all about it even though nothing is in English.  But I did manage to find an Orix Buffaloes baseball game on!

Oh and I almost forgot....Remember that guy who called Fukuoka the light and basically made Americans look bad?  A small group of us had another run-in with him at the Riverwalk Complex during lunchtime.  He started drinking the haterade on Kitakyushu all over again - this time with his wife sitting right next to him.  I was annoyed fairly quickly so another ALT and I just started baiting him.  Then we easily found errors in half the stuff he said.  Classic all over again.

As for today, I had my first school visit at Shitoku in Kokuraminami in the morning.  I met the kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) and one of the JTEs who was very nice and accommodating.  She even brought me green tea and let me sit in the principal's office where there's AC.  Score!  None of the other JTEs nor the principal were there though so she just gave me a mini-tour and showed me where my desk was in the teachers' room.  They didn't have anything else for me to do and I ended up leaving a little after 10am.  I thought things went rather well.  The left me a 2 hour free gap before having to be back at the BOE.  Once back, I had to do a dry-run of my self-intro.  Of course, my other lovely ALTs volunteered me to go first.  Afterwards, I received a lot of helpful suggestions and I came to the conclusion that I need to speak even slower English.  I definitely didn't like having to go first but in the end, I was glad I did.

Tomorrow, I visit my main school, where I'll the opportunity to get to know my future students better.  Keep your fingers crossed that I get good JTEs!!!

Another year dunzo

Hmmm a week has passed since I last wrote = whoops.  But really. It was hectic.

Monday started with a bang at the Kitakyushu YMCA.  I had my first real Japanese language class.  Considering I knew about 5 words coming to Japan, I feel a tad better about the language thing.  Now I can recognize some of the kana (they have 3 'alphabets') - hiragana, katakana, and kanji.  The instructor was pretty understanding but I still felt bad asking questions because I thought I was holding the rest of the beginning level class up (even though the rest were all fellow ALTs).  That afternoon, after class, I went ahead and did all of the extra exercises just for practice.  Keep in mind that this current dedication to Japanese will be on hiatus from whenever I get my GRE study books till Oct. 25th when I actually take the test.  The other highlights of the day included getting my SoftBank cell phone bill switched from my credit card to my new Fukuoka Bank account.  I also got an ATM card that I can only use at ATMs - they don't believe in debit cards here which is already driving me crazy.

Tuesday began with another 3.5 hour Japanese class.  In the afternoon, we had a special musical extravaganza.  Our group went to this musical hall where about 80 people were each stationed in front of this string instrument.  I never figured out what it was called  but it was a big dark piece of wood laying horizontally on a stand about a foot off the ground.  There were about 15 strings strung across it and you had to put these little plastic things on the tips of 3 of your fingers to play it.  We sat in on the giant music lesson and then got to try it ourselves.  My history of being musically talent-less continued.  Nothing major after work except that a senior ALT decided to start texting me in Japanese to ask about my birthday plans.  Good thing I was at home so that I could rip apart my Japanese handouts from class along with my dicitonary in order to translate all the things he said.

Wednesday = my 22nd birthday!  Upon arriving for work, I was surprised with a huge chocolate bar, a cute pink tote bag, and more Japanese candy.  We spent the day at a conference center where we attended a seminar all about team teaching with Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs).  We got to watch examples of 3 different styles of team teaching and act as the Japanese junior high students.  Then we met in groups and talked about what we liked and what we didn't like.  I thought it was fun!  After we got off, we all headed back home before the night's activities.

Later that night, 13 of the other 15 ALTs met me for dinner at Capricciosa, an Italian restaurant at the Riverwalk complex.  Dinner was a blast - even our Japanese prefectural advisor came. She is just too cute!  She brought me a bunch of freshly-cut flowers and gave me a big hug.  Our ALT PA showed up with colorful jewelry and a sparkly 'Birthday Princess' crown for me to wear the rest of the night.  Needless to say, I loved it.  The food was fantastic and the company was even better:)  The night's festivities continued with 7 of us going out for nomihoudai karaoke for 2 hours.  And yes, I sang my favorite song of all time - Toto's 'Africa'.  All that was missing was my SAS'er crew with me!  We then decided to move on to a tiny bar called Round 5 owned by Bob from San Francisco.  More karaoke there followed.  The night ended with sitting on the floor and enjoying ramen and rice in this whole in the wall place.  I walked into my apartment a few minutes before 4am, Skyped my parents, and gchatted some friends before going to bed at 5:30.

Luckily, we didn't have to be ready to go to the two-day International Camp until ten till noon.  Hence, the reason people were able to celebrate with me!  This camp was being put on by the city and we were going as international liasons to simply help out the kiddies.  This was right up my alley!  The attendees were all Japanese kids moving back to Japan from abroad or non-Japanese kids, who spoke other languages, living in Japan.  The first activity was a pseudo-scavenger hunt where we had to walk 4.2 kilometers in our assigned groups to finding these big blocks hidden in the trees.  My group full of little girls was great.  Four of them especially latched onto me.  Examples) one tried to throw she huge dead bug at me once she realized I wouldn't like it...another one would pick up things from the ground and tell me what it was in Japanese to help improve my language skills.  Oh to be six years old again!  After that, we had a bit of break, ate dinner, and the ALTs led an activity that had the kids flying around like Scotland dragons and hopping like Australian kangaroos.  Obviously, we had to incorporate the international aspect (where we were all from) into the activity.  And that night, I introduced the game of Mafia to the other ALTs and it was an instant hit.  Thank you, SEP!

Other random things from the camp....I met a Japanese guy who studied architecture at ODU in Norfolk for three years as well as another guy who attended UVa for a year.  Yes, my world continues to get smaller from here.  Some of the kids attending the camp were originally from Virginia and their aunt was visiting from Richmond.  I told one Japanese coordinator I was from Seattle and she says, 'Seattle?!  I went to Seattle last year....to see Ichiro.'  The Ichiro never gets old and I want to bust up laughing every time.  Apparently, the kids' favorite part of camp that night was the communal bath, though not coed.  None of the ALTs participated in this Japanese tradition but the kids were allll about it.

The next morning was, by far, my favorite.  It was time for morning exercises.  This consisted of playing a cassette tape, in English, that sounded like it was made in the 1950's.  We were directed to do various stretches and jumping jacks among other things.  It was a total riot and looking around the rest of the ALTs, we were all trying hard not to laugh.  I wish I could have video-ed the thing.  Then, we went off to our designated morning activities.  Mine was leather crafts where we made keychains.  The rainbow one I made seemed to a big hit and all the little girls were obsessed with it.  Maybe it was all the bright colors?  Post-activity, we headed back on the bus.  The majority of the ALTs ended up being on my bus and we were able to play two rounds of Mafia.

I spent the rest of my free Friday afternoon getting my gaijin (foreigner registration) card and re-entry permit.  Now, I can leave the country and actually get back in.  I must also say that my gaijin card is pretty snazzy and it has temporarily replaced my WA Driver's License as my primary form of ID here.  Another ALT and I then hit up the biggest bookstore in town and Muji, kind of like Old Navy but with household goods too.  That's when it started pouring rain.  So we left our bikes in place and walked under a covered maze of shops and restaurants downtown.  We were finally able to ride back home at around 7 but we saw that we needed to make a quick detour.  

We noticed that the TOTO Company was holding some sort of community festival so we jumped right in.  Lots of cheap authentic food stalls, music, dancing, toys, and games.  We were looking at this one kind of food for awhile, trying to figure out what it was when a Japanese woman came up and started speaking to me in English.  Turns out she is an English teacher at a private school here in Kitakyushu.  As soon as she found out I was an ALT, she wanted to know which school and I had to again say that I didn't know yet.  She explained all about the food we were staring at and I got a free sample.  Then, she insisted on taking me to another food stall to try a few other foods.  Our time together ended with her insisted on exchanging numbers so that she could call me in order to get together to teach each other English and Japanese.  What a productive day!

Yesterday, another ALT and I ventured over to Mojiko Retro Town within the Kitakyushu ward of Moji, still within the city limits, but we had to take a 15-minute train to get there.  Mojiko is home to the Old Moji Mitsui Club, an hangout of Albert Einstein in the 1920's.  We wandered into that and met an old Japanese man who studied at Michigan and Indiana State when he was in college.  Mojiko is also known for discounted bananas so I was ecstatic to get 6 oranges and 5 bananas for 300 yen or $3.  Fruit is considered a luxury and it's so expensive here :(  We also bumped into some kind of dancing festival with a million high school-aged kids, complete with music.  My favorite part of the day was lunch at Le Cafe, right on the water.  Their yaki-curry was delicious and we got to meet the legendary Mr. Clive, this old guy from London who has worked there the past 8 years.  Now that's what I call a hit!

Today was another lazy Sunday but it wasn't meant to be.  I accidentally set my alarm for 10pm instead of 10am and woke up at a quarter till noon.  I had these grandiose plans to go over to Green Park in the Wakamatsu ward but they were instantly nixed because of the limited bus schedule.  Instead, I caught up with the parental units and a few friends, did my laundry, went grocery shopping, and wrote my thank-you notes.  All in all, I'd call it a catch-up day.

Tomorrow is my last Japanese class at the YMCA.  Let's hope I can get through it!

Over the river and through the caves!

On Thursday, I ventured into my first caves since Virginia's Luray Caverns.  Only, these caves were super-chilly in the heat of the summer.  Slipping on the sandals provided for free, we delved down into the looming caves.  At first, we just seemed to be wandering through narrow spaces and looking at the cracks, stalactites, and stalagmites, occasionally stopped for a bunch of people going in the opposite direction to get past us.  There was an ice-cold creek weaving its way through the path we were following.  Eventually, we were walking in it.  How I didn't get frost-bitten toes, I don't know, but it was freezing!  There were even times when I was flexible in ways I couldn't imagine now, just to get through the caves.  I think my favorite part was when I was literally crawling on my hands and knees in the freezing water in holes reminiscent of the Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam.  What made this more amazing was that it was pitch black and we were feeling our way through the cave.  Another JET had a lighter on him but this method only lasted for so long.  Finally, we were forced to turn around due to the lack of light and head back to get on our bus.

This little anecdote was made possible by my city's Board of Education.  We were taken on a bus tour of our area which included the art museum and the limestone caves to the south.  We ended up not having time to go to Sugao Waterfall but I think the caves gave us our fill for the day.  The art museum was a nice break and I appreciated the trip because I probably wouldn't have gone there otherwise.  It also gave me a chance to get to know a couple of older, returning ALTs in my city better.

Friday was a big day for all of us newbies here in Kitakyushu.  We travelled to Fukuoka (to some, the 'city of light', haha) for our Fukuoka Prefecture Orientation.  Because I have been placed in one of Japan designated cities, we technically are our separate entity from the rest of the Fukuoka Prefecture but it is the prefecture (like a state) that includes and surrounds our city.  This day allowed us to meet other new JETs in the Fukuoka Prefecture and participate in some interesting sessions.

The beginning consisted of opening remarks from all of the prefectural advisors in the prefecture.  These are typically senior JETs who have been here at least a year.  They act as intermediaries between the contracting organization (in my case, my BOE) and the JETs in the area, also helping out the newbies.  Mine is actually from Hawaii and sidenote - my world gets smaller here.  Her little sister was freshman roommates with Alisha - one of my bff's from high school.  Go figure, right?  I guess I shouldn't be surprised by these things anymore.

The next part might have been my favorite.  They showed a video of the four regions of our prefecture - Fukuoka, Kitkayushu, Chikugo, and Chikuho.  Some of the returning JETs we knew from Kitakyushu starred in the Kitakyushu bit and were hilarious.  Our city group just started cracking up as we saw two of them appear on screen. PRICELESS seeing them read awkwarding from a bunch of cue cards.  After that, we just got more specific info from our city prefectural advisor (PA) before going to an info fair and breaking for lunch.

After lunch, we could choose two workshops to attend.  I picked Travel and Transportation (of course) and Getting Set Up.  T&T included talk on driving in Japan which I pretty much ignored because none of us in the city have cars.  But I did find out that the Sapporo Snow Festival in February has its snow sculptures up a week beforehand so I plan to go then to avoid all the big crowds.  Oh yeah, and Thailand apparently becomes a big party during Christmas time.  I think my first trip out of the country will be Korea.  I would go this coming weekend but I don't have my re-entry permit yet.  So I could go, I just couldn't get back into the country.  It's pretty easy to get to Korea though because you can take a ferry right from the gigantic station in Fukuoka.  

Getting Set Up was entertaining in the worst way.  These two huge guys were the epitome of loud, ugly, obnoxious Americans and I was embarrassed when, upon walking out, my Scottish friend said to me,'How was that for a bunch of stereotypical loud Americans?'  One kept yelling about wanting a 'good ole American dehumidifier' instead of these disposable plastic ones that collect water.  This workshop also made me appreciate my new apartment.  Some other JETs said that they had been trying to clean their tatami mats for the last week.  Others compared there apartment buildings to those in Kosovo.  Still others complained about bursting pipes that made rooms look like a bomb went off in them.  Luck of the draw, I guess!

Post-Fukuoka Orientation, it was party time.  One JET coordinated a nomihoudai for our entire group.  Nomihoudai meaning all-you-can-drink for three hours.  For 3,000 yen (roughly $30 USD), we could order whatever drinks we wanted and enjoy a seven-course set menu.  Some people's drinks hit them pretty fast and when I realized only an hour had gone by, I knew we were in for a long night.  After many konpais (toasts), everything was gone, going well.  I had a great time hanging out with a friend of mine from the DC group who was also in the prefecture. 

 At 9pm, when the nomihoudai ended, there was actually another one going on at FuBar, a popular club among JETs.  1,500 yen for girls for all-you-can-drink.  I loved when I heard about the FuBar plan because my AKPsi big brother, who was a JET the past 2 years, specifically warned me about FuBar and the nomihoudais.  She knew my prefecture too well!  However, another friend of ours was doing so hot so we went back to the TINY hotel room my friend had booked.  The rest of my city group headed back to Hakata Station to take the bus/train back to Kitakyushu.  Who would have thought the night would have ended at 9 after the way it started?

The next morning, I got on a train bound for Kitakyushu, getting off at another station to pick up my bike and ride home, only to walk in my apt door, seconds before it started thunderstorming.  Somehow I managed to stop at GAP at Riverwalk on my way home.  I noticed that everything on sale here is equivalent to normal prices at home.  I don't think I will be doing a lot of shopping there in the future because of this.  Pretty much lazed around the rest of the day, well kind of.

I was productive in the realm of graduate school.  I officially registered for the GRE and will be able to take it October 25 in Fukuoka, not Osaka, like I originally thought.  Lucky for me, Fukuoka International offers the GRE General Test in a paper-based form so now I don't have to pay like $100 bucks each way to take the shinkansen to Osaka.  I also decided on four schools I'll be applying to - Vanderbilt (International Education and Policy Management), the University of Denver (International Development), Texas A&M (International Affairs), and UC-San Diego (International Relations and Pacific Studies). Whew!  Now, I just have to decide on two or three more!

I was also able to catch up with my dad and doggies via Skype.  The day was ruined when I found out my sister crashed my car.  Though the repairs won't be cheap, the car doesn't need to be totaled or anything.  Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.  The day ended with going out with a fellow JET to Xelha, a club in the heart of the Kokura Ward that is popular with foreigners.  I got to meet some of his new friends as well as a few former JETs still in the area.  The highlight of the night was watching a bunch of Japanese kids in their 20s dance, it was a mix of hip-hop, maybe they were trying to crunk, I don't know.  But I do know that it was interesting and that I took videos that will be posted later.  

We had to leave early to catch the last train/monorail back home but I wasn't so lucky.  The monorail closed early than expected and rather than call a cab, I walked the 35 minutes home.  Granted I would have never done that at home, but this was a busy, busy street in Japan and I was fine.  Once my furniture gets delivered the first weekend of September, I will have room for 3 other people to crash at my place.  I just propose we stay out late and split a cab back for a few bucks each.  Then everyone's happy!

It's late on Sunday and I can only describe the day as 'Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon.'  Watch the youtube video if you haven't already!  Tomorrow brings my first Japanese class at the local YMCA.  We'll see how much of it I'll actually remember.