Christmas has come and gone in Japan just like any other day. I spent my Christmas morning at school participating in the year end volunteer clean up. I was partially wrong about what I said before about it not actually being a volunteer event, but rather mandatory. For those who didn't have sports club practice it was voluntary, but for the students who were here practicing for sports, their participation was pretty much mandatory. I guess technically you could say you didn't want to do it, but your entire team would look down on your for it most likely.
I ended up on garbage duty with the baseball team. A couple 2nd year students and I walked about the small residential area behind the school for about an hour picking trash up. Halfway through we me the younger brother of another 2nd year student who was outside playing. With nothing else really to do, and probably wanting to look cool with the older kids, he decided to help us out. He was actually really into it as well, and was diving into narrow spaces trying to find any piece of trash he could.
The principal let me go home at 12:30 so I met up with Keiko and we went to an electronics store to get her Christmas present (DS Lite). Imagine that, shopping for a Christmas present, on Christmas! After we went for dinner to this really nice buffet style place. The shape of the buffet and style of plates is very American country buffet style, but the foods themselves are all very Japanese so it was pretty interesting, and delicious. Most of the ingredients and foods are all locally grown and handmade as well so it seemed very healthy.
Even though it didn't feel like Christmas at all, all in all it was a pretty decent day. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas as well. All the best for you and yours this holiday season.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
男のユーモア
Yesterday I made my last visit to elementary school for the year. This week's school was the closest of the four I visit so I can take my normal bus and it drops me relatively close to the school. Actually, 3 students from that school ride the same bus with me during the morning, so when I get to visit their school I also get the chance to walk with them to school from the bus stop.
Yesterday, the youngest of the three (a second grader 7 years old) started asking me about what certain words were in English. He started out with the normal stuff (foods, animals, etc.) but quickly moved into the territory of bodily functions. None of his questions were bad words, so in hopes to continue to foster interest in the English language among the youth of Japan I taught him how to say burp, pee, and poop. Then he asked about fart. and actually having to fart at the time I knew this was one of those moments where the timing is so perfect you've have no other choice, you've just gotta do it. Young boys, hell even grown men enjoy toilet humor, and nothing gets a group of young boys laughing like a majestic fart. I knew this the perfect chance. I told him first what the word was then held my hand up motioning for silence and proceeded to rip one. It was a pretty beastly one at that too if I do say so myself. Nice and deep with a classic fart ripple effect that carried for a couple of seconds. Being the young boys they are they ate it up and died laughing.
After a couple more minutes of walking we ran into one of their friends who joined us for the rest of the trip. The young kid who was questioning me started to tell his friend about all the new English words he had just learned, and of course eventually he came to fart. I must be blessed by the gods, because just as this boy was telling his friend how I taught him the word and then actually farted, I felt another one coming and held my hand up again asking for silence and blasted another one. Naturally, once again they all died laughing.
Then it hit me, this one kid is pretty talkative and before the day is over it's quite possible that everyone in the school will have heard of my farting exploits, which although interesting, is not the image I want to convey, especially if these kids decide then to go and tell their parents about what the English teacher is teaching their kids.
Luckily, I was yet again blessed by the gods and the kid asked me how I managed to fart with such perfect timing on two consecutive occasions. Without any hesitation I puffed out my coat pocket and told him I had actually had a whoopee cushion in my pocket. Having the whoopee cushion also explained why the first fart was more powerful than the second, since I had no chance to blow the cushion back up. Since he's seven he bought the story hook, line, and sinker, no questions asked leaving T-Mac to walk away scot-free with his image as the good English teacher intact.
Yesterday, the youngest of the three (a second grader 7 years old) started asking me about what certain words were in English. He started out with the normal stuff (foods, animals, etc.) but quickly moved into the territory of bodily functions. None of his questions were bad words, so in hopes to continue to foster interest in the English language among the youth of Japan I taught him how to say burp, pee, and poop. Then he asked about fart. and actually having to fart at the time I knew this was one of those moments where the timing is so perfect you've have no other choice, you've just gotta do it. Young boys, hell even grown men enjoy toilet humor, and nothing gets a group of young boys laughing like a majestic fart. I knew this the perfect chance. I told him first what the word was then held my hand up motioning for silence and proceeded to rip one. It was a pretty beastly one at that too if I do say so myself. Nice and deep with a classic fart ripple effect that carried for a couple of seconds. Being the young boys they are they ate it up and died laughing.
After a couple more minutes of walking we ran into one of their friends who joined us for the rest of the trip. The young kid who was questioning me started to tell his friend about all the new English words he had just learned, and of course eventually he came to fart. I must be blessed by the gods, because just as this boy was telling his friend how I taught him the word and then actually farted, I felt another one coming and held my hand up again asking for silence and blasted another one. Naturally, once again they all died laughing.
Then it hit me, this one kid is pretty talkative and before the day is over it's quite possible that everyone in the school will have heard of my farting exploits, which although interesting, is not the image I want to convey, especially if these kids decide then to go and tell their parents about what the English teacher is teaching their kids.
Luckily, I was yet again blessed by the gods and the kid asked me how I managed to fart with such perfect timing on two consecutive occasions. Without any hesitation I puffed out my coat pocket and told him I had actually had a whoopee cushion in my pocket. Having the whoopee cushion also explained why the first fart was more powerful than the second, since I had no chance to blow the cushion back up. Since he's seven he bought the story hook, line, and sinker, no questions asked leaving T-Mac to walk away scot-free with his image as the good English teacher intact.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
運転免許
Four months after arriving in Japan and two months since my last appointment at the DMV, I finally received my Japanese driver's license on Tuesday.
When I went Tuesday morning I handed over all the forms I had ordered from Ontario and translated as well as a a little paper I prepared on the Ontario licensing system. I was told to wait in the same room I did last time. This time however, there were no questions though. The lady (the one I wrote about last time that I wished I would have had then) told me she just had to confirm the forms. After that I signed a paper saying I had no illnesses that should preclude me from operating a car/bike. I had my picture taken, took my eye test and paid my fees. 45 minutes later I had my license in hand. If only it could have been so easy last time.
The design of the Japanese license is pretty nice, but it's made with fairly thin plastic. I was playing the newest Initial D game in the arcade the same day, and got a "license" with my saved info on it from the game and it was considerably thicker and sturdier than my actual license which was a little surprising.
When I went Tuesday morning I handed over all the forms I had ordered from Ontario and translated as well as a a little paper I prepared on the Ontario licensing system. I was told to wait in the same room I did last time. This time however, there were no questions though. The lady (the one I wrote about last time that I wished I would have had then) told me she just had to confirm the forms. After that I signed a paper saying I had no illnesses that should preclude me from operating a car/bike. I had my picture taken, took my eye test and paid my fees. 45 minutes later I had my license in hand. If only it could have been so easy last time.
The design of the Japanese license is pretty nice, but it's made with fairly thin plastic. I was playing the newest Initial D game in the arcade the same day, and got a "license" with my saved info on it from the game and it was considerably thicker and sturdier than my actual license which was a little surprising.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
変なの
Strangest thing I've seen in Japan since I've been here happened last weekend. I was in the bathroom at the train station and a guy came up beside me to take a pee as well. He pressed the button to flush as soon as he got there, once more during the middle of his pee, and then yet again at the very end.
3 times for one pee!
The flush at the end is a given, even the one before urinating is understandable, but a flush mid-pee is just crazy.
3 times for one pee!
The flush at the end is a given, even the one before urinating is understandable, but a flush mid-pee is just crazy.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Dir en Grey
This past weekend I headed to Kyoto with my friend to see Dir en Grey play at KBS Hall in Kyoto. The show was all standing and KBS Hall isn't really that huge. There were probably about 1300 people and even though I had ticket 1253, being a foot taller than everyone else standing at the back was no problem. By the time Dir en Grey came on stage the crowd had packed so tight up front I could move halfway up no problem as well.
I'm not sure if this is correct or not, but I think this is the first Japanese tour they've done where they had an opening band. In Toronto, they had 2, neither which were really anything special. Interestingly enough, the opening act was an American band called 10 Years, and they were actually decent. Best song they played was called Actions & Motives, but it turns out it's from a new upcoming, unreleased album, so there are no samples to be found anywhere yet.
The concert itself was fantastic, mostly new stuff, but they threw in a pretty old song in there as well and it threw off the Japanese fans. See they have this thing, where basically everyone in the audience is co-ordinated. Everyone knows exactly when and how to move at each part of each song. This is also a little strange for me, but standing at the back I can just do my own thing and not attract evil eyes from the synchronised fans, not that I would really care, but whatever. So, when they threw in this really old song no one knew what to do. Many had probably never been to a show where they played the song, and for the few who had it had been to long ago for them to remember what to do. So I'm standing at the back, doing my own thing, and everyone else is standing completely still, just watching.
The encore was crazy. Non-stop rocking with everything cranked up to 11. It was during this part that I was hit on the forehead by a pick thrown by Die, on of the guitarists. I couldn't catch it, but I knew where it landed on the floor and quickly managed to step on it and drag it closer so I could retrieve it.
A couple of other random things:
I was surprised at the number of older women (40+) fans in the crowd. There was actually a lady standing right next to me who could be 50 and was wearing this crazy short, tight, leather dress. It was actually quite off-putting and threw off my mojo for a little bit.
After the show as we were waiting in line to get our coat check stuff back there were two girls who must have been boiling or just trying to draw some eyes, because they proceeded to take off their shirts, and wait in the line, wearing only their bras and short mini-skirts. Very nice, but also very strange. Completely throwing that shy, Japanese girl stereotype out the window.
All in all, an excellent night.
I'm not sure if this is correct or not, but I think this is the first Japanese tour they've done where they had an opening band. In Toronto, they had 2, neither which were really anything special. Interestingly enough, the opening act was an American band called 10 Years, and they were actually decent. Best song they played was called Actions & Motives, but it turns out it's from a new upcoming, unreleased album, so there are no samples to be found anywhere yet.
The concert itself was fantastic, mostly new stuff, but they threw in a pretty old song in there as well and it threw off the Japanese fans. See they have this thing, where basically everyone in the audience is co-ordinated. Everyone knows exactly when and how to move at each part of each song. This is also a little strange for me, but standing at the back I can just do my own thing and not attract evil eyes from the synchronised fans, not that I would really care, but whatever. So, when they threw in this really old song no one knew what to do. Many had probably never been to a show where they played the song, and for the few who had it had been to long ago for them to remember what to do. So I'm standing at the back, doing my own thing, and everyone else is standing completely still, just watching.
The encore was crazy. Non-stop rocking with everything cranked up to 11. It was during this part that I was hit on the forehead by a pick thrown by Die, on of the guitarists. I couldn't catch it, but I knew where it landed on the floor and quickly managed to step on it and drag it closer so I could retrieve it.
A couple of other random things:
I was surprised at the number of older women (40+) fans in the crowd. There was actually a lady standing right next to me who could be 50 and was wearing this crazy short, tight, leather dress. It was actually quite off-putting and threw off my mojo for a little bit.
After the show as we were waiting in line to get our coat check stuff back there were two girls who must have been boiling or just trying to draw some eyes, because they proceeded to take off their shirts, and wait in the line, wearing only their bras and short mini-skirts. Very nice, but also very strange. Completely throwing that shy, Japanese girl stereotype out the window.
All in all, an excellent night.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
違う雰囲気
In my town there is a main road that runs from West to East basically splitting the town in half. In the main part of town most of the shops, the train station, and schools lie north of the road. Once you get past that main section of town the north and south sides of that road are like two different towns.
Normally, I am heading to the main section of the town so I ride there on a street a couple of blocks north of the main road. Riding this road all you will see is small patches of houses in between blocks of fields. There's an electric substation on the way as well, but that's about it. It's a pretty quiet road and you can ride it straight into the city though so it's very convenient and easy for me to use. As a result, I had never really ventured into the area south of the main road until about a month ago.
Riding a road about an equal distance south of the main road as the one I ride on the north side I was very surprised to find that the south side of the town is like a completely different world. There are no fields, houses both new and old dominate the landscape. There are also a bunch of small shops, restaurants, and little bars all along the way. There are a couple of factories on the south side as well. It just generally has a much busier feel to it. The first time I was riding back home down the south side I was just blown away by how the atmosphere was completely different from the north side. It was if I had discovered a whole new town in the town I thought I had pretty much seen everything in.
Normally, I am heading to the main section of the town so I ride there on a street a couple of blocks north of the main road. Riding this road all you will see is small patches of houses in between blocks of fields. There's an electric substation on the way as well, but that's about it. It's a pretty quiet road and you can ride it straight into the city though so it's very convenient and easy for me to use. As a result, I had never really ventured into the area south of the main road until about a month ago.
Riding a road about an equal distance south of the main road as the one I ride on the north side I was very surprised to find that the south side of the town is like a completely different world. There are no fields, houses both new and old dominate the landscape. There are also a bunch of small shops, restaurants, and little bars all along the way. There are a couple of factories on the south side as well. It just generally has a much busier feel to it. The first time I was riding back home down the south side I was just blown away by how the atmosphere was completely different from the north side. It was if I had discovered a whole new town in the town I thought I had pretty much seen everything in.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)