Wednesday, August 30, 2006

the tick: leonardo da vinci and and his fightin' genius time commandoes!

so i've been watching a lot tick. as a kid i always watched this with my big brother on fox. the slow witted genius of the big blue super hero, that is nigh invincible, holds a special place in the my heart. therefore, in this game of blame i'd like to find fox with fault. just cause. so in this episode, as the title eludes, da vinci and other famous inventors are transported to the present (1995). there is ben franklin, the inventor of peanut butter, gutenburg, and some other guys. what i'm interested in is the two women who are transported from the past. one is mona lisa. she is of course only credited with being the subject of her painting--the villain even apologizes for involving her in this mess. the other woman is the the inventor of the wheel. firstly, mind you, this is the only woman inventor in the bunch, clearly she is added just so they can feel more diverse (like with the inventor of peanut butter being black). secondly, 'wheel' (her given name in this ep) is the one that gives da vinci's location away, after he's escaped and gone for help. therefore she is the weakness of the bunch, the honest one. aww ain't that sweet, a honest gullible woman. later when she escapes (by climbing over the side of the glass cage) no one else uses her route. it's not good enough for them. they have to invent there own way out, asking her to retrieve supplies for them. finally, 'wheel' does not get sent back to the past but rather stays in the present and sues for royalties on her invention of the wheel. clever yes, but a reinforcement of the stereotype of the greedy woman. now you could say i'm just an over sensitive cranky female who likes to make up feminist causes just to make a scene. this would be misguided on your part. the fact that this little difference in roles slips by nearly unnoticed indicates the depth of the gender related discrimination in our society. this kids program is subtly displaying where society places women. we are in service of men, retrieving items so they can make their own invention instead of just using ours; we're supposed to be meek and follow their lead or we will be seen as destructive and greedy. this message is ingrained in our culture so well that we really don't notice it and must put in the effort to see and then change it. we can return to the '60s. we can change our ways from the dark days of the '80s. think about it.

cartoons are so depressing sometimes.

packing...again.

it's seems to be a theme this summer. packing to move out of my apartment. packing to move into elena's. packing to move out of elena's. packing for japan. packing for saijo. packing for osaka. packing to move into my new apartment. packing for mt. fuji. okay wait. go back one. packing for my new apartment. yes i found a place. yes i'm really excited. yes i will actually have an address. yes i will have a 3 ton weight lifted from my shoulders. yes i will stop complaining to my new friends (at least about this). my old place (in pdx) was 4th floor, hardwood floors and on the corner. my new place is 3rd floor (top floor), hardwood (okay, it's linoleum but i can pretend) and tatami, and on the corner. the really exciting part is the location. it's a 2 minute walk from a JR station (that's the japan rail local train) and a great neighborhood for biking. i may--MAY--even be able to bike/walk to school. i was already planning out where to put things after i walked in so i knew it was the place for me, besides the fated apartment number of 303 (my first place was 613, second 103, last 403). friday my coworkers, yamaguchi-sensei and tsukahiro-sensei, will help me move in my fridge, chair, washer and stuff. i'm going to mt. fuji this weekend so i won't be able to organize till next week, but who cares? i can finally settle. i can finally put things on the wall. i can finally make some place scream 'LIZ!' (and yes there is room for a second futon, and i am buying one, so all you japan curious peeps you can come crash at my place).

hear my sigh of relief across the ocean.

my team-teachin' buddies.



so i can see why my predecessor stayed for three years, or was at least able to survive those years. i went to a work party tonight. it was with most of the english teachers at my school. so there are eleven total. they were all so great and i was actually able to joke around a little. i hope that i'll be able to pick up enough 日本語 (japanese) to understand some of the stories being told around me. but we went to a fancy/trendy izakaiya (japanese style bar/restaurant). it was nice, lots of mayo. i tried almost everything, and the salmon was definitely the best. i had beer, the only woman who did--although if my supervisor wasn't driving i bet she woulda done it right by the alcohol. i felt kinda bad for the head of the department. he is definitely on the outs of the gang. i need to remember to keep that in mind and still be kind to him. i wish yamagouchi-sensei had joined in the conversation more, but maybe that's his personality. but it was a good night. i think that teaching with these people will be a positive experience, challenging at times because of language barriers, but still good. tsukahiro-sensei reminds me a lot of my high school history teacher, mr. chasko, would just to kick our desks (or us) if we fell asleep during movies. tsukahiro-sensei seems very enthusiastic about team teaching. this week (week after the party) we has me in his classes even though i'm not scheduled until next week. and at the very lest i'll be very busy with correcting speech-papers for the end of year bilingual speech contest. i was handed 5 classes worth of papers to correct today. the bad grammar is giving me a headache, but i think i will be able to make a difference in the student's understanding of english if i am given the chance to communicate with them one-on-one. once i have time with each teacher i'll have a better gage on how that will work. also i met the two part time teachers today. surprise surprise they're both women and speak better english than many of the full time instructors. but both seem great and it seems i'll be able to shoot the breeze with them during my free time (or at least the younger of the two).

my weekend with mayumi-chan

august 26th and 27th



so i awoke early (5:45) saturday morning to catch to bus to hiroshima eki (station). once there i successfully navigated my way to track 7, car 11, seat 1A on the nozomi shinkansen. this is the fasted bullet train. it was absolutely amazing. 1 hour and 28 min later i was in osaka (this is a 5 hour bus ride mind you). now mayumi had been working till 1 in the morning, so i told her it would be just fine if she met me at 11am (instead of 9:30, when the train got in). i wandered. and wandered some more. debated about leaving the station to explore more, but opted to just wander. i purchased some omiyage (souvenirs) for people back home and then met mayumi at 11:30, after a brief phone conversation of ‘what can you see?’ ‘i see such and such a sign’ ‘which side of the sign are you on’ ‘i don’t know…’ and so on. coffee was had and then we were off on the JR train to kyoto (only 540yen and 30min). at the kyoto station mayumi had hired a taxi for the day. apparently this is the way to see kyoto, as the taxi drivers know all about the city and can basically double as a tour guide. uehata-san—spoke great english, so he was able to answer my questions and explain much of the historical significance of…well…stuff.



he introduced himself as uehata, but said his nickname was 'joe', so that's what stuck in my head. very cute. both of us being very hungry, mayumi asked him to take us to a good sushi place. we were shuttled off to a very classy restaurant, and we were the only patrons for much of our 2 hour late lunch. the sushi chef was amazing. all the fish was wild, except the eel—which was swimming in a tank at the end of the bar. first was a course of sashimi, then sushi, and then an amazing dessert of sweat green tea (basically concentrated) over ice with azuki beans (the beans in my favorite type of mochi, anmochi). we also had beer and shochu (which i couldn’t finish as it was just making me sleepy). the sushi chef and then owner had very involved conversations with mayumi. the owner used to date an american woman so there were many funny gaijin stories to tell. i was given his card and mayumi said that if i keep in contact with him i may be able to get into some exclusive parties and maybe get a meal from his restaurant. ii ne. next, joe took us to the golden pavilion. this is one of tHE sights in kyoto. apparently it was built by the first shogun of the tokugawa period. so it’s old (1397, originally). about 50 yrs ago they replaced all the gold leafing (it cost 700,000,000yen). All of this information was given by the amazing joe, he took photos for us, too--mayumi and i posed for the classic japanese photo—cheezu—about 20 times, he carried umbrellas for us and ran from my camera every time i tried to take his picture. it felt like the royal treatment. mayumi bought me a protection charm for my (soon to be found) new apartment and then we headed off to the next sight. on the way we passed a huge white kannon—for a moment i wish we were going there, then the place we ended at was worth missing the kannon. we went to the kiyomizu temple. it was incredibly beautiful. i kept thinking we had come to THE thing had come to see, but no, there was more. we prayed at three different, no four, shrines (?) and drank water from the mountain stream. there was an amazing view of kyoto (at sunset!) and the temple was surrounded by a huge forest. it was just so peaceful, i wish we could have stayed longer, but we made it just before closing. we then wondered down the street--chawan-zaka or teapot lane (more great pics taken of the sunset) and i stopped to buy some omiyage and we then decided to head back to osaka. joe dropped us off, gave us his card and mayumi paid the bill. at kyoto eki we stopped for more coffee and split some pasta at a kisaten (japanese style coffee shop, serving drinks and real food--mayumi really misses these back in the states). we went back to osaka, stopped off at an izakai (a japanese style bar with drinks and lots of small appetizer style dishes) off the main shopping district (near mayumi’s place), had some gin and tonics and dinner. we chatted and then wondered to mayumi’s to clean up and rest before heading out. on the way to her place i saw more of osaka. bright lights, good places to eat, the apple store, a nice kid who wanted to ask where i was from and a couple drag queens. after making circles around her trendy neighborhood, we arrived. her place was quaint, she’s paying for the location (and the fact that it’s fully furnished) rather than the size. after finding out where the good scene was tonight, we headed out to platinum—a club.



before that though, we stopped at an exclusive (secret) bar/gallery. mayumi is of course friends with the owner/designer. we were going to meet him at a bar, but he was heading out to nevada for a conference so his place was closed and he was packing for his trip. buut…he still let us come in, meet him and take some photos. his theme was red. everything was red, including him (clothing all red, sunglasses and berkies—dyed so even the cork was red), even his bike parked outside. so cool. he gave us postcards with a photo of an exhibition at burning man and gave me a card so i could check out his website and call him when i’m in osaka again. we said good-bye and went to the bar. well really it was a club. there were like six greeters at the door (mostly posh guys in suits, i felt underdressed in my plaid dress) and the place was packed. it was 3,000yen cover for women, 3,500yen for guys (about 30 and 35 bucks). we got more drinks, 3 gin and tonics for mayumi, 2 g'n'ts for me plus a greyhound (a new one to the bartender). we drank and watched the party below (there was a balcony around the dance floor for watchers). the music was eighties, then rap, then j-pop, and then techno. after finishing our drinks we headed down to dance. i quickly realized there was no room for my normal flailing style, so we just did the i’m-in-a-crowd-squirm. the guys dancing did not do the white man dance, but were much more enthusiastic. a nice change. the girls looked young, there seemed to be a number of night time workers (escorts, like mayumi’s job). we danced for a while. i got tired. we went home around 2:30, stopping to buy cigarettes for mayumi, tea and coffee for the morning and some ice cream. i took a shower and crashed in mayumi’s bed while she showered and then proceeded to crash. after waking up late the next morn (11:30) i checked my e-mail then we went to piano piano for lunch. this turned out to be a very swanky italian joint. i had a three course meal for lunch (only 750yen) that included salad with tako (octopus), a paninni with salmon, and a dessert of ice cream, fruit and whipped cream. mm mm good. mayumi then took me to americatown (the famous shopping district in osaka) and then to the ‘sanrio gallery’ (hello kitty land). i got my souvenir t-shirt and we then headed to osaka castle. mayumi had only been there one other time, even though she’s lived in osaka eight years, so i don’t think she was totally bored. the castle was rebuilt after the war (wwii?) so it looked old on the outside but was a very modern eight story museum on the inside. there was a great view of the city, we took pictures and then it was time for me to catch the shinkansen home. we trekked back to osaka eki, mayumi bought my ticket (spoiled me with first class, or ‘green car’) and my dinner to take with me on the train. we had coffee again and she walked me to my train. a tearful good-bye and an hour and a half later i was back in Hiroshima. my bus pulled up as i approached the stop and i was back at my apartment by 9:40. a glamorous amazing weekend. it’s weird to think that i won’t see mayumi till who knows when and that she will not be helping me with my japanese, or me with her english for this next year. things have changed so damn much.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

qutie a little adventure.



mind you that's little. today we got out early. so very exciting. yesterday we went on a culture field trip (kate went to the elementary school, sandi, natalie and i went on a home visit). so...at the home visit we went to three different very fancy expensive houses. i took too many pictures, of course, that i'm still only hoping that i can get off my phone. perhaps they will appear on flickr later this evening. anywho, it was interesting and we were fed food (including mochi) so all was well. this led to the activity this afternoon which was making posters to present on friday morning (sound like high school to anyone else?). a mistake was made (perhaps consciously) and we were told that we were done for the day once our poster was done. so 40 min later i was rushing to my room, getting out about 2 hrs early. so kate and i felt the need to take advantage of the bicycles that the complex was offering us to borrow. we grabbed the smelly helmets (which we did not wear, bad us) and headed out. not thinking we were going to go very far we ended up downtown. before this though we ran into a mystery building that turned out to be a sake distillery. the staff said, yeah take a look around. and there we went. we got a pseudo tour and kate successfully asked what this strange hanging ball thing was (a bunch of evergreenery that indicated, when it was dry, that the sake was ready-don't think its the only indicator anymore but still cool). after this we came on to the 'you me town'. we had to see what it was. turned out to be a mall of sorts with a grocery store and clothing and a basken robins. clothing was purchased (there was a comme ca ism--same place i got a t-shirt in sapporo) and then octopus balls, an pan (red bean paste in pancakes) and then of course a crepe from basken robins (the one with chocolate ice cream, banana, whip cream, chocolate sauce and corn flakes). all was so yummy. we then peddled back up to the HIP, hoping we were going the right way. kate earned a battle scare, stubbing her toe on a quick rising driveway curb, and we did make it up the big hill. i was actually able to make it all the way up without walking it, so i guess i haven't lost all my biking skills. yay me. so perfect, though. i really missed biking. my second purchase, after a rice cooker, will be a bike.



post script: i am going to be sooo fat if i don't change my diet like i say i'm going to. ice cream everyday? crepes whenever i see them? store bought food always? yeah...fat and poor.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

really?

i looked at my countup timer today. i've only been here 16 days. i don't buy it. it feels like at least a month. well no more like two. tokyo was two weeks, hiroshima was a week, first hiroshima orientation downtown was a week and this last bit was like two. craziness that this is all in my head. this week i'm at a language intensive with a culture ad on. all the first year JETs are trapped in saijo (a suburb? or small city 30 min from hiroshima). we are staying at the hiroshima international plaza (or HIP for short) which is a good 15 min bus ride from the city. it's kinda isolating, yet communal. the girls and i (sandi, kate and natalie) are making daily trips downtown to fuji grand (a freddy's style supermarket) to get lunch and dinner cause HIP food is disgusting greasy shit. we had dinner at the jolly pasta tonight with some second years, including the ever wonderful dob, and just watched the post-graduate brat pack flick "st. elmo's fire". quite a deep film about losers who just can't find their way. last night we watched "when harry met sally". mind you these are amazing nights of drinking beer, eating chocolate and mochi, and watching these lovely 80s classics. not the most japanese experience, but right now we are all so stressed that trying to appreciate japan is a challenge (of course natalie and i both found our japanese addictions, green tea and mochi respectively). but it has been a good stay--if not for the language class that is a bit tirering. and my momentary breakdown monday passed with only one night of no sleep (the bus was sold out to osaka so i wasn't going to get to see mayumi, but she's going to help me pay for a shinkansen--bullet train--ticket, so all is well and we love mayumi). but i'm exhausted and need to sleep so i will do so now.

198 yen



today was a simple day. i decided not to go downtown, but rather to clean my apartment in an attempt to get rid of bugs (i woke up with a bite on my calf). this look about four hours to get to as 'the tick' was doing an excellent job of promoting my procrastination. i tried to burn a cd of photos, for my self intro, to print but the cd was too scratched. i bussed to the co-op. a new supaa (same name as the one i frequented in sapporo) that i hadn't been to. i bought an apple for 198 yen (that's one apple) and some other essentials. it took me forever to find the 'death to bugs' aisle, once i got there i couldn't do it. too many scary chemicals. i'll figure something out letter, maybe after i move. i found the magic moisture absorber, yay! this comes highly recommended from 2nd and 3rd year JETs. apparently you open this strange contraption and it sucks up the moisture in your apato so as to decrease mold growth. something that sounds good to me. i walked to the bus stop and decided i'd risk taking the koyo A danchi instead of the koyo C danchi bus. this was a wise move. A danchi comes way more often and it stops at the bottom of my hill. so i have to walk up instead of being dropped at my door step. yeah big deal. pah. (b-t-w, if i'd known this before i never would have had to take a cab, grr.) murata sensei met with me she's going to give me a ride to the train station tomorrow so i can get to saijo on time. i was planning on staying there the whole week, but i think i'll come back tomorrow so i can get my ticket to osaka then figure out a way to indicate to murata-sensei that i don't need a ride on the other days....(not really supposed to do that as i'm not supposed to stay in the hotel, they'll reimburse me for travel expenses but not for the hotel. mind you the reimbursement would cover the hotel, but that's bureaucracy for you).

Friday, August 18, 2006

technology therapy.



so i was going to resist temptation. i was going to be all self-entertaining and not need the internet. yeah. that failed. today i decided to trek into downtown hiroshima, with my laptop weighing on my shoulder, and use the free wireless that i knew existed. so here i am sitting in choco cro, typing away on my macbook after having posted a couple weeks worth of posts on blogger, myspaced and gmailed. i feel better. my list of other things that i wanted to get done today included buying my ticket for osaka, bugging my supervisor about calling the realtor and getting photos printed for my self-intro lesson plan. i don't know if those things are really going to happen as i've been sitting here playing with the miraculous internet for two hours now. but who cares?! i've been able to communicate with the western world without having to spend any money or wait a week and a half for a letter to arrive or depend on my mom and i coordinate a time for her to call with me (with still the question of wether or not i'm being charged for the minuets i'm using). with the piano playing (yup second floor choco cro on hondori has a pianist. random, yet cool) and the chatter of japanese, the only unpleasentness is the air-con thats blasting me.

oh and b-t-w, banana and chocolate is my new favorite flavor. they had chocolate croissants with fresh banana inside. like heaven; oh and the same combo makes THE best crepe.


the rest of the day:
wondered, got a real japanese dinner. it was pretty good, don't think i'd get it again. the shrimp tasted funny. i got a new dress and found a pretty cheap place for clothes-old and new. sang the homer simpson S-M-R-T song when i got back to exactly where i wanted to be without really being lost and navigated the bus system so i could get mochi and a picture frame at my near by supaa and hyaku en shop without missing my bus or really have to wait more then 5 minuets. good times.

new plan:
leave the house every moment i get and don't forget that i'm in japan. duh.

notecards.

august 18th

so heres the deal: notecards are simple, easy and useful. they are everywhere. we use them for notes, for flashcards, for whatever the hell we want. but heres the nub, how do you say notecard in japanese? it's not no-to-ca-ru-do as one would assume. no, it is much more complicated than that. i attempt to describe them and i receive clueless expressions in return. i believe that they do exist in japan and that i am just incapable of finding them. if they don't exist i don't know...it's just too weird to think that they don't have them here. i've seen smaller versions on rings, clearly for learning words/kanji, but that's not what i need. i need those handy dandy 3x5 cards that throughout my school career were within reach whenever i desired them. replacements can be found, but they won't have that easy no cutting, perfect size, strength of our classic american notecards.
yeah i cut my own.

on another topic...

the head of the english department at my school is an interesting fellow. he kinda creeps me out. he is one of those people who insists on getting involved in everything. i have a feeling the status of being my friend--the amazing gaijin from afar--is something he desires. it feels so false and annoying. he was discussing politics and movies and american things like he was trying to show off how up to date he is on the goings on in america. it was rather interesting to hear his attempts at clever conversation, but for the most part it was just sad. i hope that i can unrudely avoid not always asking for his help. this is the kind of 'friend' i was warned against. i don't need people to like me because i'm a foreigner, i need people to be my friend because there's a mutual apprciation of each-other as people. then again i'm not really looking for kick ass friends at work. i just hope i can make some japanese friends that are not from work...

work doesn't feel that different.

august 17th



for those of you who knew what my job consisted of at portland state you may have some idea of how i spent my work day. i am about to take off. it's about 4:15. i spent the first four hours uploading photos onto flickr--the only site i can access with all the proxy crap. then i made 'the liz quiz!', a time filler if my other part of my self intro doesn't use up the whole period. i don't know if it will be of any use at all but it killed like 3 hours so thats all that matters. tomorrow i'll try to come up for visuals for the rest of my lesson plan. i felt kinda bad about not spending the whole day working till i saw my coworker falling asleep. of course we are in one of the few offices with out air-con, it's a little sweaty up here on the forth floor. so that killed my seven hour day. i had a japanese pear (not asian pear, although its the same thing) for lunch along with a great harvest savana bar (one of my only two). i think i might go to the grocery store on the way home so i have something to eat for dinner. hehe. sounds like some one is giving a death cry out my window, probably just kendo or something. one cool thing about school, at least in the summer, is all the kids practicing for band. they spent nearly the whole day on the balconies playing band instruments. it was pretty cool, but it's still hard to comprehend that nearly all the students come in for full days in the summer. i just don't get it and i kinda pity them. enjoy your goddamn summer. damnit. willamete. but then again the teachers have to come in too, even if its just to sleep...

a brief review of the first five episodes of Duck Tales



a disney cartoon that many of us remember from the early nineties, Duck Tales stars uncle scrooge, uncle daffy, launch-pad, webigale, mrs. ***, the butler, *** and of course louey, dewy and hewey. as you may remember uncle scrooge is a variation on the scrooge from a dickens's scrooge with tiny tim and all that. the uncle is greedy and a heartless brat at the beginning of the series. he will not give to charity and feeds the boys--who have been dropped off by uncle daffy who joined the navy to see the world--free cheese samples. this situation is quick to change after the end of the first episode as the boys prove their worth by saving scrooge's valuable model ship and as the family members that scrooge can love and can be proud of him (mind you that's the boys being proud of uncle scrooge not vice versa). this lovely disney moment leads into the next 4 episodes in which they are searching for the gold that the model boat is a map to. after much trekking and complications they find the real ship in the desert in mexico. they sail it out during a heavy rain and eventually lose it as it sinks to the bottom of the sea with the villain supposedly still on it. finally a coin from the ship leads to another pile of gold, the villain is still alive and in competition for this same gold, and again in the end the gold is lost. dinsey teaches a valuable lesson about 'gold fever' and greed and how it can take you from what is important, friends and family.

now disney also teaches us a valuable lesson about spanish conquistadors. they are evil And mexicans are panic-y and dumb. so...the spanish speaking population of the world gets a bad rap from disney. the villain is a 400 year old, what looks to be spanish conqueror, who is so obsessed with this particular pile of gold that he has been able to stay alive for that long. quite a feat. what's interesting is the populations of the voiceless masses(because of language difference or limited vocab). they are all presumably latin american. DEpressing. the villains are not the nazis of indiana jones, they are the nasty conquerers of the early americas...but the stupid clueless masses are the 'natives' that were originally conquered: the mexicans and the native 'savage' population of a lost mountain top in the andes. basically the ducks, the stars, are the white people that disney is aiming to please. the dogs (i think) are the latino populations that are either greedy and nasty or stupid and blindly following superstition. just a little light into how disney sells its products.

another day....

august 15th, 16th

so my lucky charms seems to have abandoned me. negativity is a cloud over my head that insists on staying. i woke up in my own bed (which apparently i should put away everyday or it will mold. fun). i could barely get up and missed the first bus that i planned to take. it really wasn't bad. i enjoyed eating my own food and having control over my own well being. i don't know if it was worth 3600 yen, but oh well. it was another day of orientation. i went to the less job related ones: cooking, travel and pop culture (j-pop). in the cooking section there was an opening game of listing off a number of things that would possibly indicate that you are not a food loser. well it seems that i am THE food loser. every qualification matched me, i was the only first year still standing in the end. food loser = me. we went on a walking tour, i got totally disoriented. i took some pictures to help for later, waste of time as i will explain further on. there was an enkai (work party with lots of drinking) but first the girls and i--kate (chicago), natalie (from south africa) and sandi (illinois)--went back to kate's room--at the hotel for non-hiroshima city JETs--to chat about tv shows and movies and stuff. sandi went home for lack of money, the other three of us went to the enkai. as we were 30min late everyone else had quite a head start on us. it was an all you can eat and drink buffet. mix your own hard-a drinks and lots of beer floating around. interesting, but really i wasn't totally feeling it. i still had a decent time and drank too much beer. we then wondered over to the shack, a gaijin bar. i had water and nibbled on popcorn. i tried to take a pic of the 'greasy but good' section of the menu and realized my memory card had popped out and disappeared. fuck monkeys. i am soooo angry. i mean i have most of the photos off of it and there was a hope it would show up the next day at the restaurant (it didn't), but shit. i lost my miyajima photos and some good shots from earlier in the day, including a t-shirt with the text 'eat more rice bitch'. good stuff. so yeah the rest of the night/next day i was blah. i held onto the little hope that it would show up later and we went onto jamaica--a bar and dancing thing. mostly rap on tuesday, lame. but i got my jiggy on a little, chatted with some cool kids and went home with a very drunk kate and natalie around 12:30. kate was a doll and let me crash in her hotel room so i didn't have to worry about the bus. we ended up talking till like 2 and finally then slept. the neeext day was free breakfast at the hotel and the last day of orientation. some info about killing time and about how to spend your time in hiroshima--travel, creativity, finding yourself, ect. and then this cool woman, flo, talked about the importance of sex and masturbation in keeping from insanity (a recommendation for nerve.com, we'll see if its any good). then she showed some of her really cool photos and talked on the basics of photography. 15min after this inspiring talk i find out that no, my memory card has not turned up. shit. so the option now is buy a new card ($100) that won't work in the new camera i want or buy a new camera ($400) that i don't have the money for or hope that i can get the photos off my cell phone and just use that till i get paid. so my new challenge is to read my japanese phone manual...in japanese. yay. oh yeah and we went to indian for lunch, wandered pasco depaato, got coffee (i didn't but others did) went to tower records and finally headed to the bus center after getting lost in soga trying to find a salad. yeah i'm fucking angry. i had some cool photos on there that i was very close to downloading monday night but i didn't. fuck shit. this is not my week.

post shower, more clarity.



so what i most desperately desire is the possibility of calling home. it's 4:30am in portland, (8:30pm here), elena would be the only one who might be awake. but realistically i'm fine. it's only 2 weeks till i will have that ability. during those weeks i will be busy. tomorrow is my first full day at school. next week i go to a week of japanese language courses. the week after i'll be at school everyday, maybe teaching. on the weekends i will most likely be going to osaka and mt. fuji. i will be a busy busy girl and i will be fine. the positive things that have happened? i met more cool JETs and got phone numbers of people i can hang out with later. including a nice lesbian girl who used to be my predecessor's friend. i saw portland in the lonely planet u.s. edition. they mentioned a couple good things, called our park blocks small, and of course mentioned powell's and the crystal. i bonded with kate, natalie, and sandi. there are plans to travel together, to go to concerts and me to visit each of them as sandi is the only other one in the city. plus kate has seasons 1-4 of gilmore girls and natalie loves buffy and st: next gen and sandi and i are going to trade books and she might re-teach me to knit. everything is going to be fine. at least that's what i'm going to keep telling myself, over and over.

new experiences.

august 14th

so a couple things happened today that were new experiences. firstly i have never actually felt claustrophobic in a crowd. secondly i have never taken a $40 cab ride. today was another orientation. simple information about how to kill bugs and who do i live near. i met a couple new people and actually got to talk more with a couple of the second years. there was complaining about the heat and then complaint about the american-style air-con at the conference room (meaning really really cold). after all this there was a group going to miyajima island to watch the annual fireworks. remembering my experience in sapporo, i knew this would be a sight to see. after waiting for the other girls to change into yukata (summer kimonos) and getting dinner we take the streetcar to the JR train to the ferry and finally walk to some place we might be able to see something. the amount of people doesn't seem that bad, like a busy day a disneyland. one weird thing was there were small dear in the middle of everything. people were petting them and feeding them. it was so sad, they were clearly so out of place and i just can't imagine how scary that would be for them. of course maybe they're used to it, which is i think sadder. moving on, we finally found a spot. probably one of the few in which we could not see the tori (shinto gate), which is the cool part of this event. the fireworks were pretty good, but i missed all the crazy kids i went to the sapporo ones with. we left early as to beat the crowds to the ferry. our timing was great and we got to see the finale from the boat. pretty decent (pictures below).

the next step was getting back to the city. after i rejoined my group we trekked over the the JR station, like everyone else. here is where i actually felt claustrophobic. lacking water and air, i begin to feel feint, pushing through i was fine after there was a fan on the train. but damn, that was something that i didn't think i'd ever feel no matter the number of people--a little ironic that this was post-tokyo. i then decide to separate to attempt to catch a bus home. after waiting at hiroshima eki for 45 min i finally decide that, yes, the bus is not coming.

i jump on the streetcar to a landmark i know while calling people to find a place to crash. nope. no more room on the floor of the hotel, and no one else is answering phones. another reason i like to plan. so my fall back is the taxi. firstly i have to explain where i live, mind you i haven't even been able to find it on a map or successfully explain it to other JETs. after much sumimasen, wakarimasen (excuse me/i'm sorry, i don't understand) we figure it out and we're on our way. i think. watching the meter jump up 80 yen every couple minuets and still not quite sure i'm headed in the right direction, i have never had such a tense car ride in my life. finally i tell the driver that yes, kore wa migi (here, turn right), and then tell him to stop at the bottom of the hill. 3760 yen. ugh. even walking the last 1/2 mile really didn't save me anything. its only money. i'll have more in a couple weeks, but do i feel dumb. at least i get to sleep in my own futon. i really cannot wait to move to a place that is a reasonable distance from anything. hopefully the same thing won't happen tomorrow after the next activity.

me = bored.

august 13th

me = bored.

so i had a goal for this year, as in 2006. it was to stop taking plastic bags, or bags in general, from stores. this was going relatively well. when i remembered i'd have another bag with me or would just not worry about it and carry whatever i bought. well...then i moved to japan. last night i bought a salad. it came with an ice pack, a plastic bag for the plastic container and ice pack, and then another bag to put the first bag in. and this was only for one item. a simple attempt at healthy eating, a salad, and i feel like i'm committing an environmental sin. then at the grocery store today i came out with 5 bags for about five items. you thought america was wasteful? think again. i feel sick.

jumping to my inability to speak japanese...i was waiting for the bus and this guy starts talking to me. he asks if i'm american. i say yes (in japanese). then asks if i'm a student (even here where everyone looks young they all think i'm in my teens or something). i say no, ego no sensei (english teacher). he is of course shocked and says more things and now i am lost. i tell him that i don't understand. he's quiet for a while then tries again. on this new topic i still have no idea what he's saying. i mean i have NO idea. man do i feel clueless. the little bit of ego i gained yesterday is smashed.

tangent: fuck yeah. iron and wine sings one of my favorite songs and i had no idea. i loooove this song but i don't know what its called. its the one from garden state. yesss.




yeah...me = bored. i can't wait till i have internet, and even more so, till i'm within walking distance of anything. today basically consisted of me laying on the futon, then picking up a book, then deciding cartoons and breakfast sounded good. partook in duck tales, wrote some letters, then took the bus to buy dinner and tape. got dinner, forgot tape. came back to eat my gaijin dinner (pizza with corn--the only thing i could find that didn't require heating). i had to wait for the bus for an hour, then i wasted my last new monk while eating dinner. its 7pm and i have nothing to do. maybe i'll read...

why do women where painful shoes?

august 12th

i never really thought i would succumb to this problem. i only wear converse, birkies and docs. i can't remember a single pair of shoes that i broke in with pain. preparing for this trip i needed suit shoes. i was very excited when i found some very eighties little shoes that looked like mens' dress shoes. they were comfortable in the store, did not cut into my heals and i thought i had found the perfect shoe. thought. fast forward to tokyo. they bug my feet a little, not enough to complain. i still think i'm pretty shoe savvy. in fact my blister from portland, and random cut on the bottom of my foot, feel better wearing these cute shoes. but no. i am deceived. moving on to hiroshima, i need to look nice but its 90 degrees and 90% humidity. i'm screwed. logic tells me going with out socks is the dumbest thing i could do. my body tells me there's no way in hell i'm wearing stockings. i listen to my body. she usually wins out. so about 10 min into walking around, getting vaguely lost, in downtown hiroshima i know i've made a mistake. band-aides are applied and i push through it. a lot of standing, walking, trudging on stairs is required. i start to limp. now mind you as i am participating in this self inflicted torture, nearly every woman with me is walking the same hobbley dance. after some discussion there was a conclusion that we all had new shoes. this seems reasonable. new shoes hurt (well not mine, but thats what i've heard). but after speaking to one of the guys, also a possessor of new shoes, i've concluded women are trained to hate their feet. his shoes didn't hurt. he in fact claimed they were very comfortable. us women-folk over here cannot seem to buy based on comfort. even i attempted to, but was tricked by vanity (cute shoes rather than birkies--a little more profession in my choice i guess). can i blame society? as i do for most things...yes. society tells women that they will be judged by what they are wearing, how they look. you can see this as a woman takes forever to pick out an outfit; and when she is out and about she judges other women on their attire. she sees herself through the eyes of other women and men. men may think about what they wear but...but it is not the first and dominant way in which we judge them. a guy has ugly shoes, he is easily salvaged by a witty comment. a witty woman with ugly shoes is called frumpy. the man is still called witty. yeah you could argue it's changing with the metrosexual and all that, but no. women's power is in her looks. men's power is in his mind. she is the object. he is the subject.

b-t-w, this one hundred times worse in japan. looking to women's feet i wince at the adorable (or sometime hideous) heals that surround me. there is nigh a flat shoe.

comfort zone.

august 12th



i was back in my comfort zone. after yeas of training in the u.s., and a 5 week stint in hokkaido, the shops of hiroshima feel like home...ish. today i woke up before my alarm, as i have everyday, after started reading 'breakfast of champions'. why no one told me of this book before confuses me. much like 'one hundred years of solitude' i feel at peace with this novel. its totally the kind of reading that i've always wanted to do. mind you i've only read the intro and first chapter, but i'm definitely falling for kurt vonnegut jr. if only for his drawing of an ass hole. ( * <--something like that, but more childish). i then took the bus downtown, got some looks from the locals, and successfully got unlost (once downtown) in 5 min. i called home, told the parentals i'm still alive. and then met up with sandi (from illinois). we--the two with cell phones--of course were the only ones there. eventually kate (from chicago), rebecca (from australia) and kate (from portland) met up at gaijin corner. the 5 of us white girls began to stand out quite a bit with our loud talking and clueless wondering. it was very fun. our first stop was lunch. most of us went to the pan-ya (bread shop) in sogo department store and got really fun stuff. i got what i thought to be potato salad, really cheese salad, curry bread, flat bread and a delicious apple sweat potato treat. besides exploring the city we had a couple goals: walets, indoor slippers for school, and hello kitty strapus (cell phone decorations). we found some really cool shops, kate (chicago), sandi and i all bought engrish shirts. i want to steal kate's soo freakin' cute. we found lots of expensive american clothing in used/vintage shops. and soo awesome: we found birkenstocks! sandi plans to buy some after pay day; owning already 2 pairs, i am less tempted. but surprisingly the prices are very comparable. the pains of today were really involving having no money and japanese clothing being too cute. after much frustration we finally returned to sogo looking for wallets, ending up getting crepes and snacks. i found some slippers (dr. schools birkie rip-offs) for 2991yen and in the end it was at the bus station that i found the rest of all i needed. although now it seems my wallet won't close, but its still very nice for $10 (1000yen). finally feeling toatlly exhausted i bought the most gaijin dinner possible, not even knowing it: salad on top of italian noodles with marinara sauce. very yummy after the hour bus ride home. i'm looking forward to tomorrow, a day of just me and getting organized with a trip to buy dinner, since i still can't cook (probably won't be able to till i move in 2 weeks).

my cell phone is orange with dancing penguins.

august 11th



so another long day this wonderful friday. current music: beatles-when i'm sixty four. i love this song. i had to learn it in elementary school. ahh...mrs. bartnick. i'm about to go up to my supervisor's apartment for dinner. again. she's been so great. i keep thinking of her as a host mom rather than my supervisor at work. today i got to see my school--finally. it is four stories high, my office is at the top, with no air-con (as the japanese say) i have a fan and i'd like to believe that i will be fine, but we'll see. 90% humidity is hard to get used to. we got there really early because murata-sensei had to open classrooms for students to study in, and yes it is summer, and yes of the students still come to school everyday. 3rd years (3-year system mind you) are studying for college entrance exams, 1st and 2nd are doing clubs. the teachers are supervising and killing time, i think, as they still have to come in everyday. i met the front office staff (useful people at know as they doal out the moo-la), but they all don't speak english so i need to figure out how to do basic japanese if only to suck up. i met a couple other teachers and the english teachers. mr. yamagouchi (who i share an office with) is very nice. kinda a goof i think. mr. ineo (?) is head of the english department and know it. he's spent alot of time in the u.s and is apparently new to yasufuruishi high (my school--i know the name, yay!). he kept going on and on in english about all the places he'd been. but he'll be useful resource. walking around the school all the students seem to light up when murata-sensei mentioned that i was the new ALT (assistant language teacher). it was pretty cute. my office seems like a good set up, i'll be spending a lot of time there so thats good. and it sounds like they're giving me more to do than my predecessor, she complained a lot i guess. so i have 16 first year oral communication classes, 9 second year writing classes and a vist to another school once a week. i'm not sure what's happening there. the first bit sounds like i'm just supposed to figure out a way to talk about myself for an hour. good ol' myspace, i hope you have trained me well. self-introduction is apparently the ice breaker for the students to the new ALT. so lesson planning here i come. after this tour/info session there was a mass of paper signing. apparently if you sneeze there's a form you need to file. talk about paper waste. it makes me sooo sick just thinking about it. i'll try to do my part to reduce, reuse, but i don't think japan recycles. i think they burn. *shiver* but i'm going to actually try to figure out the incredibly complicated garbage system and conquer it. (sp?--the fact that i'm an english teacher...nicole and elena you must separately be cracking up). so yes, on with the day. after all this rigamarole at school we headed out to get some more paper work done out in the world. i had to fill out forms for my alien registration card. i won't get this till the end of august and i won't be able to do anything--open a bank, get a cell phone, get internet--till i have this card. irritating to say the least. the next stop was the deo deo electronics store. murata-sensei asked how the other first years had cell phones (their supervisors put their name on the paperwork and would switch it later when the magic card came) and agreed to do the same! this was a shock. i was anticipating a month without a way to get a hold of anyone and low and behold murata -sensei saves the day. woo-freakin'-hoo. soo...i got the niftiest cell. it is orange (seems to be my current color) and the menus all have dancing penguins. they run around and climb ladders, grow balloons then ride them in the sky with the birds, fall like dominos, and so many more different antics. it makes me smile every time i open it. which is of course constantly because, hey new toy. so cell phone in hand we go to the hyaku-en shoppu, then a different hyaku-en, then the grocery store (in the same building as the hyaku-en) and finally home. a very thankful liz says good buy for the moment to murata-sensei and finally organizes her temporary apartment. and so after fiddling with my phone i attempt to e-mail my parents (after having only talked to my mom once) but i didn't write down the e-mail and i can't get it to work--japanese cell phones text with e-mail addresses. after calling sandi, who i'm going to hang out with tomorrow, and mayumi (yay!!!) i head up stairs for dinner. murata-sensei has made gyoza (pot-stickers) with shrimp and veggies in them just for me. we had salad (with kelp and tofu) and rice and bread and miso with fish. i feel mush better, i've been lacking greens, and mayumi calls! you have no idea how great it was to hear her voice. it just made me soo happy. she's going to come in the hiroshima at the end of aug or beginning of sept and then take me to osaka. so damn exciting. feeling even better, i then try text alex (who's e-mail i actually wrote down) and success, it doesn't bounce back. eventually he writes back but i can't read it. but at least (i think) i can write out. thats something. i finish the second half of monk (on the correct night, friday) and go to sleep. i feel sooo much more relaxed--which is probably helped by the fact that i found my happy pills and vitamins.

music i forgot:
5th element
tool
some classical
star wars

movies i crave:
mallrats
shawn of the dead
star trek iv, and well all of them

-hopefully i'll be able to find then here.

my feet are disgusting.

august 10th

today was a day of induction and orientation and a really stressful bus ride that i could do nothing about. of course it turned out that everything was fine. i did get on the right bus. i did not piss off my supervisor, even though i was 40 min late. she was totally cool about it. but from our discussion at dinner (murata-sensei mentioned that the principal was expecting me to teach more than monique, as she was sick and missed many days of school) that my predecessor screwed me royally. i figured that she wasn't leaving me with very high expectations to deal with at school, per her complaints about being bored, but shit. now they have high expectations just in that they want me to teach more because she was such a slacker. garg. i just don't know. this just sounds like another pile of shit. and of course i'm writing this after a very long day so it seems even shitty. gawd i'm so negative. it's just so frustrating. i think i need some stress free monk time.



post-stress free monk:
so thursday (the 10th) was not a great day by the end. i had to take a bus downtown to attend the induction ceremony for the BOE (board of education) and an orientation on teaching and some basics about getting settled in japan and policies about being a JET. the induction was about 40 min, pretty short, but me and the rest of the women were all wearing new shoes and dying in them. we had to stand and bow a lot and say 'hi' and ' arigato gozaimashita'. my first of many ceremonies. next was meeting people at the BOE, which meant walking up and down stairs and standing there, some one says something official, we bow and then walk out. its all very interesting (and painful for my angry feet). this was followed by lunch. we went to vietnamese food near by (on the sixth floor not eighth) and there was a mad dash for buffet food after more speeches and then an awkward meal with a japanese BOE member. the great thing about this was i got to talk to more of the JETs one, guy, matt from the u.k., approached me, saying he had meant to do so earlier, and we starting talking and joking around. nice guy. this was followed by the orientation which had some useful info and games for students. finally we're done and dob (one of the second years) leads us to find the post office for kate and the lawsons so matt can buy concert tickets. next we go out to new york new york--a gaijin bar--for food and drinks. as i have dinner with my supervisor i just have a beer. its so damn cool how many different types of people i'm meeting. the second year at our table was from chicago, then there was a girl from south africa and a guy from jamaica. this part of JET makes me so happy. after a discussion of goals and what do you miss (yeah i'm still do myspace surveys, just live action style) a group of us wonder to the bus stop as to get home on time. well i don't wonder, i hobble horribly down the street. i have blisters and open wounds on my feet because i was a moron and chose to beat the heat by not wearing panty-hose with my skirt. soo not worth it. now my real stress of the day is as follows, i'm the bus center, say good-bye to everyone, see my bus off in the distance at stall #11 and make a run for it. i get on and then start to think, is this really the right bus? i had to be on something something 'c'. i could have read it wrong. i decide no i'm fine and when we hit traffic start writing letters. so stuck in traffic i'm realizing i don't recognize where i am and it's 7:00 (the time dinner starts at the murata-household) and the bus isn't moving. i'm so screwed. i don't have a phone. i'm really late. and i'm on the wrong bus. shit. i decide to breath slowly and just figure i'm on the part of the bus route i don't recognize. i'll be fiiine. which is of course true. i start seeing familar things, the bus is moving, and when i do finally get off (after pushing for the wrong stop, very rude) i get to dinner and murata-sensei is smiling and happy to see me with no complaints about the time. *sigh* a pleasant dinner, where i don't eat much follows and then i'm off to bed feeling cranky with monique. each day is a new and exciting day of stress.

shock and...culture...

august 9th



i'm sitting in my temporary apartment. definitely temporary for it is far from everything that i want to be near to which makes me of course more tired and depressed. in the end it will work out but it is one more thing to worry about. the first thing i did after murata-sensei left was strip out of my suit and put on the simplest coolest clothing i could think of. i am soo hot. its just insane. i'm sweating out of every pore. monique said it was bad but optimism told me not to believe her, "i'll be fine, i can handle anything". and yes i can handle it but i was already sick of it in portland. but anyways, murata-sensei is very very nice. her english is great! she already gave me a great gift of my hanka (signature stamp). it has two kanji on it that sound out to lewis (sorta) and it means owner of fort or small castle as she chose them. very cool. kakoii! this probably cost anywhere form $50 to $100, so gaa. very very nice. she is going to take me to the supermarket by bus to help me figure out how to do that tomorrow when i have to go to the BOE (board of education) induction ceremony. i feel bad and have no idea how to say that i am interested in looking at other apartments. this one is on the second floor. there is a dining room, tatami room/bedroom and bath. it is all filthy, not realy that bas but not the way i would expect any 'new' apartment to be. i can't believe that it wasn't cleaned before i got it, but it is cheap housing. the flight over here was bumpy. i sat next to a very nice girl, rose, from the u.k. she and i talked politics and background of each-other and boys. i'll see her tomorrow at the induction ceremony. i feel like it was a completely different day, but this morning i called mom. got to catch up on where i am and what's going on. i woke up around six and packed the little i still needed to and fed the myspace addiction. breakfast i finally figured out and ate mostly honey-do and french fries. i talked to a nice kid from hawaii who's going to gunen (i think). he'd been to hiroshima many times and loved it. we traded info. i checked out with my roommate, did all that stuff then took the bus to haneta airport. murata-sensei was the only one at the airport in hiroshima, which was great, and helped with my very heavy bag. we drove by the school and then to the apartment building. being two floors below her for this first bit is great but i just can't imagine staying here, but i think that will be okay. i just need to start looking and maybe come up with some money for key money (like a deposit but soo much more). now i'm going to run upstairs and give her omiyage (gifts) and hopefully take the bus out successfully. i'm so happy to be here, but i'm starting to get really nervous about all the details.

so i'm listening to moldy peaches-lucky number nine and i'm starting to feel okay. well kinda. murata-sensei is taking me out to dinner with her family. i'm very grateful. we went to the grocery store and i had no idea what to buy. i got some expensive fruit--although the bananas were still cheapest which is annoyingly useful. being environmentally and world conscious here is going to be a lot harder than in portland. i also got yogurt, again not organic, probably lots of sugar and artificial crap. japanese snacks. bottled water. and some bread. plus band-aids at the hyaku-en shop (dollar store) for my sad blistered and cut foot. (iron and wine came on and i miss the people who i used to listen to that with). the bus ride to and from the store was challenging just because i kept zoning out. i can definitely find it again but i'll have to pay attention. i'm feeling more negative now just because i'm realizing how little japanese i know and that maybe i shoulda studied before hand. then again i'm also realizing how much my host mom held my hand and how little i really had to do on my own. also i'm not going to have internet till i move of course but even then it'll probably take a month to set up. so this blog is probably very outdated. also calling people is very hard right now because i'm near anything. a pay phone is quite a walk and i won't have a cell phone or the amazingly cheap yahoo bb (ip phone) for quite some time. mad am i negative ned right now. i guess i'm in that part of the culture shock. the down i miss home stage. silly as that is being the forth day, but it feels like i've been here for at least a week.

dinner, it was good. murata-senei's husband is also a english teacher. they make a very attractive couple and their kids are cute, a little chubby, but cute. we went to the kind of place i'm always afraid to go to, but it was good. it as a resturant chain with a photo menu. i had cold udon with shredded radish and other very japanese stuff and a side of rice with tiny raw fish. too much food, but all good. they kindly paid and then took me to a su-pa (supermarket) so i could get an alarm clock. they were impressed that i opened the back seat for the kids wih out being asked and mr. murata bought me my clock. very nice! the whole time o was feeling off because of the beer with dinner, but it was good. we also looked at air conditioners, the cheapest was $500. i really don't want to pay that, but i might have to. then the rice cookers were around $50. we'll see about all this later. grr i wish i was in my permanent place. they then took me home and now i'm here (post-shower). murata-senei oned me a fan so i'm not totally dying but its probably still around 90F. i need to crash. another big day at the induction tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

the beginning of a time without internet.

august 8th
(wrote this after i left the fabulous 5 star hotel and decided to blob obsessively).



second day of the conference i decided that was not going to waste time at the sessions that really were repeating information. looking back i'm glad i didn't go to the female JET one because that was repeat information. but the independent study of japanese one seems much more useful now. oh well i should be able to find that info again easily. but the day went as such breakfast a little later than usual, around 8:15. i spent the time before that interneting and just getting ready. the first two sessions were on teaching in a high school. apparently everyone else's was crap, but mine was really useful. great info and fun games including the creation of an entertaining story based on a picture of a hiker near bushes and an angry snake (find story below). lunch was next wear we had pasta and i talked to a nice guy from the u.k. about the basics (where are you going, why are you doing JET, ect). i then escaped to mine room put on a cooler dress and ran in to my roommate, jan. i asked if she'd go with me to a bank or the post office to exchange travelers checks. we grabbed kathleen (who is from salem, sprague high) and headed out--skipping the first session. took a while but we found a bank with a good rate and kathleen and i exchanged our checks. jan ended up going back before us so as not to be late. i realize quite quickly that these are not the kind of girls that i fit in with. too much clothing, boy and inane talk, at least from kathleen. she seems very young, although she's also twenty-two. and ironically kept going on about how she looked so old and it was emabarassing. we walked back and got a little lost, but i successfully asked for directions. i then went to the hiroshima-ken meeting and got some info about the next days travel and the following orientation in hiroshima. i planned on going out to wonder during the next session but decided to get packed and take a nap. the absolute exhaustion at this point was just amazing. my lord. so a nap was great but i had a hard time getting up and then went to the session on volunteering and making friends. some good info, but most of it was on the handout. and then there was a quikie japanese lesson. the only interesting part was trying to figure out if the session leader was flirting with me or just pity flirting. he was pretty classically handsome, but with the australian accent (?) he got a couple extra brownie points. but yeah...JET definitely feels like a dating service at certain points. this was followed by running up to get my pre-packed bag and then waiting for a half hour for the doors to open so i could actually check. having to check your only bag the night before a flight is very inconvenient. so in a little bit of desperation for human contact that i already knew (to some extent) i knocked on kate's (who's also in hiroshima-ken) and ivy's (who is just north of hiroshima) door. they were in, i waited for them to pack we checked their bags and headed out. first was a search for food, which was actually an escapade in wondering tokyo (shinjuku) and taking pictures during a sunset and finally finding a crepe shop. after our sweet tooth was satisfied we went on to find real food. of course right next to the crepes was a really cheap noodle shop but we decided to look first. we could never find that place again and kept going in circles but eventually found a 24hr restaurant and ivy and i had soba, kate had tempura udon. we then figured it would take an hour to find the hotel after all our circles but actually found it in 10 min. right across from the hotel was the tallest free view of tokyo so of course we had to go. after many crappy pictures that could not capture the amazing expanse, and an exploration of the omiyage, we sat for a bit. i deleted pics form my camera, ivy and kate people watched, then ivy and i headed back. jan was already home and ex had to some over to drop stuff off. i took a shower after he left and then interneted again, organized then went to sleep. long day, but actually got to bed pretty early and definitely feeling pretty good.

activity for mid level japanese english students:

Patrick likes to go hiking.
He's been hiking many times and has never gotten hurt.
But one day, while crossing the freeway he heard a rustling behind him in the shrubs.
"what could that be?" asked Patrick. A snake emerged and cried,
"It is I, Vern the vindictive snake!"
"What and interesting name. Why are you so vindictive?"
"In my travels as a snake I have been injured by thoughtless hikers with big feet, like you. hisss..."
"Where were you hurt dear Vern?"
"My neck hurts. hisss..."
"We should call a doctor. Do you have a cell phone?"
"No, I swallowed it. Do you?"
"Yes. I just got a new plan and I have a doctor's number programed in."
"Great! Thanks. What is your name?"
"Patrick Dempsy."
"Thanks Patrick."
The doctor arrived and healed Vern's neck.
Patrick and Vern became great friends.
THE END

Monday, August 07, 2006

i'm high on findng a community.

so...i flew in on sunday (japan time), got in at 5pm. on the flight i watched "lucky number slevin"-good with really cool editing and mise en sen but too much explanation, "friends with money"-comment on consumerism, depressing and anti-climatic, "over the hedge"-waste of time, "akeelah and the bee"-starbucks has taken the place of disney as maker of sappy ridiculous stereotype reenforcing movies, then part of the "the incredibles"-genius. getting off the plane did not feel as scary as last time i was in japan. once past customs the 'tokyo orientation assistants' guided us all to the buses. i gave up two of my bags, which will hopefully find me in hiroshima-shi, and got on a bus. i sat next to corinna, who is a nice girl going to otaru (a small seaside town in hokkaido that i've been to), she also came from portland. it took three hours to get through tokyo to our hotel (keio plaza, which if you were japanese would be very impressive). a very swanky place with i think 47 floors and two towers. the whole orientation (conference) takes place in the hotel. there are 1250 of us here or so. there was orientation 'a' just a couple days ago, so there are 2500 new JETs this year. we were guided in and given name tags, packets of info, more packets of info, room cards, then collected our bags that were under the bus and navigated our way to the correct bay of elevators. i'm on the 30th floor, room oh-six. i'm rooming with a girl who flew out from portland and is also going to hiroshima-ken. she's originally form texas though, graduated from u of o. the hotel is western style. there are two beds (a lot of the other rooms have three people in them) and a couple chairs, tv, internet (hence me posting now), a nice bathroom with the fancy japanese toilet (two bidets, one for front one for the back) and an awesome view. today (monday) has been conference all fucking day. i'm so tired. i was falling asleep in the morning opening. we had a couple sessions on teaching, some optional ones on different topics ( i went to travel, saving yen, and GLBT). the GLBT is where i felt at home. going to this session i felt soo much better about this whole situation; just seeing the people of like mind that are here. the travel one had some info, the yen one was basically useless. after this was the banquet which was horrible greasy food and no seats. we were supposed to mingle, but hell i'd been up since 5:30am because i couldn't sleep the night before so i skipped out and took a nap. in the evening (9:30pm) i was supposed to go to my prefectural gathering, i said screw that and went out with the GLBT group at 9. omg! so great. we walked over to the gay-district. first i immediately get pulled down to a table of gay men at the advocate (this is a small bar, as most are, and the tables are mostly outside). they admire my dress and ask where i'm from, how long i've been here, and what i'm doing. mind you there are all gaijin (foreigners). one guy was from florida the other from sydney. i got tips for where to go in hiroshima, made out with the guy from florida (who was a very gay bi guy) and flirted with the other men at the table. it felt like hanging out the drama boys at home (the gay boys, my uncle). then the gals in the JET group went to the quiet lesbian bar that was around the corner. really cute bartender and patron. barowin (from south africa and our guide) bought us drinks and we settled in for the next couple hours. it was great! we took a taxi back around 12:30am (only 1140 yen-$11.40) and now i'm about to shower and crash. today got soo much better. meeting the other cool girls on this trip and falling into a hag role. *sigh* i feel better.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

nihon ni imasu.



in tokyo. so tired. its 4:12am, according to my computer(therefore portland time), and all i want to do is sleep. but my stomach grumbles. and i'm in tokyo. i hear my mother's voice, if i get sleep tonight i'll have a better experience the next two days. i think for once i'm going to abide by that advice without complaint. maybe i quick trip to the conbini (7/11) for some onigiri (rice ball) so i don't feel sick in the morning. and yes i am incredibly calm and completely in denial to the fact that this is not a brief vacation. its so fucking sureal. thats the first thing all the JETs say to eachother. "it just hasn't clicked". and btw (that B-T-W the way our dear lucas says it) i hate katie and elena for making me cry on the plane. whores.

yeah so i did go out momentarily last night. ivy (my new friend) and i went out to 7/ll and found onigiri and only got lost for a second. i can't believe that i'm actually in tokyo. it just seems like a mini tokyo that is really a hollywood set. maybe after i go out tonight it will click.

Friday, August 04, 2006

so...

i leave tomorrow. i'll get there the day after tomorrow (their time, soon to be my time). i'm tired and still hung over and i still have packing. i said good-bye to people today--elena, katie, lucas, anyone i ran into--but it still wasn't enough. i want another day with each of them at least. one on one time to really connect, or something. i don't know. i'm going to miss those kids soo much. after orientation today i realized that i really am going to to miss my parents, my cat, and that home as well as portland. i wish i had more time to curl up and enjoy being 22, post-college with my mom and my tigard home.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

i want a bike.

people who buy convertibles live for the days when the top is down. people who buy hardtops live in fear of the day when the top should be up.