Once we finished, we came back to the usual ALT room and Barett followed us in. Then, he proceeded to go off on a rant about Kitakyushu and how much he thinks it sucks. Keep in mind that this is his second year as a CIR and fourth year living in Japan, though he is originally from Sacramento. Oh yeah, and he met his wife here. A lot of the time, he bashed Kitakyushu for being too industrial, dirty, and dark compared to its nearby rival city, Fukuoka. He also compared our city to 'nitty-gritty US cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.' I was trying so hard not to laugh during this whole schpeel. AND one of our supervisors was in the room for the little speech. He called Kitakyushu people unfriendly, not willing to help, and horrible at English. Why the heck would you just come in, in front of people you've never met before, and say these things?
The best part was when he was telling us not to eat this certain type of fugu (blowfish) at parties with our co-workers. He said it was kind of 'gelatinous' and basically equated it to semen. Many ALTs were confused by this comment and then asked him to clarify. This finally gave everyone else an excuse to burst out laughing at the absurdity of the whole thing. Then I asked him 'What if your favorite thing about Kitakyushu?' I didn't really get an answer and he went off on another rant. Another ALT, as perturbed as I was, asked him other questions to explain what he meant. Really, these were just ways of baiting him along with making him sound stupid, arrogant, and close-minded, all of which, he was by far.
I was so glad at the end when our supervisor blatantly asked him, 'So, what was the point of all that?' Clearly, she wasn't happy either! He didn't even answer her in English - instead he responded in Japanese so we couldn't understand. Needless to say, all of us had a great time laughing and discussing the crazy things he said, once he left. A day later, I'm still confused as to why he even renewed with JET for another year.
Hmmm, other highlights of the past few days...
Saturday consisted of picking up more stuff for my still pretty empty apartment and then meeting up with some other ALTs to go see the premiere of The Dark Knight. I didn't mind going to see it again because it meant interaction with other ALTs. (Sidenote: I am not a fan of living alone and our apartment clusters are so spread out from each other.) The T-Joy Movie Theater is part of a big shopping center/food complex called Riverwalk on the Murasaki (Purple) River. I was excited to see Tully's, Starbucks, and Seattle's Best Coffee all in one place. Two differences from theaters back home: you can pretty much bring any type of food/drink into the movie (minus like a big pizza or something) and instead of matinees, movies after 8:30pm are cheaper.
Sunday was an incredibly productive day. I took the monorail from my apt into Kokura Station, where you can catch buses and trains to pretty much anywhere. At Best Denki, Japanese equivalent of Best Buy though not as good, I was able to buy an air conditioner, THANK GOD, a SoftBank cell phone, and get internet access! Fortunately, the air conditioner will be installed after I get home from work. HOLLA for no more sweating as soon as I get out of the shower! I am also obssessed with my new internet thing - I can get wireless wherever I go, thanks to E-Mobile. It's a USD wire connected to a white thing smaller than a mouse but bigger than a memory stick. Pretty much the greatest thing ever. A friend of mine up in Chiba (near Tokyo) was gchatting with me from her bullet train using the same thing. America needs to convert ASAP! What was even more gratifying was that I did all of these things by myself.
I also enjoyed going to Izutsaya, a gigantic department store near Kokura Station. The bottom floors were made up of tons of food stands and a grocery store. A little higher up were designer stores where I saw authentic Burberry handkerchiefs for an amazing $10. The top floors had restaurants and cheaper clothing for the average person.
Monday involved more paperwork and then, returning ALTs took us a few places to pick up things in the afternoon. I picked up a single bed and some mini-couches that sit on the floor for fairly reasonable prices. They will be delivered the first weekend of September since I didn't want to take off work for them to be delivered. We also ventured into some HUGE secondhand shops that were amazing. The most stressful part of this trip was riding the city buses. I don't even understand bus systems stateside let alone in a country where I can't read anything!
Yesterday was realllly chill. More self-study. Ohh, I forgot to mention that I bought a shiny new bike to ride around in. It's yellow and very similar to what we would call a beach cruiser. I'm not very good at this city biking thing so y'all would probably crack up if you saw me riding around. My biggest accomplishment yesterday was riding my bike home alone from the Board of Education without getting lost. And then I was stoked to get to work all by myself this morning as well. Because I don't know the language at all and the city is kind of confusing, these small feats have become big achievements here. Sometimes I get frustrated with the amount of effort it takes to do ANYTHING but I think that's normal. Today is just more of the same - working on my self-introduction for class, etc.
That's it for me though!
P.S. I got my bank account today and I must say that ATMs (though having very limited hours) are very hi-tech. I can put my whole bank book in there and the computer will update it with all of my paycheck info, transaction history, bills paid, etc. When we were being shown how to use an ATM, this was blowing all of our minds!
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