I was heading to Kyoto over the past weekend for a party with a couple old Kyoto University friends and a bunch of their friends as well. I planned my trip out, figuring out exactly which trains to take to get there on time and it was all perfect, until I stepped outside that is.
To my surprise, I found my bike tire completely flat. I tried pumping it up, but could easily hear the air escaping. I ran back inside checking the bus schedule. Next bus at 3:15, what time is it now, 3:16. Damn. Even if the bus is a couple minutes late, which it generally is, I couldn't make it even running full out. The next bus wouldn't be around for another hour or so either. So, with my options exhausted I did the only thing I could. Walk 6 km to the train station. Sure I'd be late for my train, and ultimately late for my meeting, and perhaps I could have ran or taken a taxi, but I checked the train schedules on my phone and found out I could take another train that would only have me arriving 10 minutes after I was supposed to meet. I didn't want to be all sweaty, and spending 3000 yen on a taxi so I wouldn't be 10 minutes late wasn't an attractive option either, so I just hoofed it. I figured the return trip would be good exercise after and all you can eat/drink party as well.
Turns out I ended up staying out all night. I took the bus home in the morning and slept till 2 in the afternoon which messed up my sleeping schedule for a couple days, but that's a different story. This one is about the bike.
A couple of days ago I took my bike to the repair shop and got my tire patched. It was riding fine when I rode to the station the yesterday again going to Kyoto, this time to see Masahiro who is back from Hong Kong for a while, as well as Aki and Asumi. I come back last night just after midnight and find my bike tire once again flat. Dead tired, and fed up I started to walk home when the tire fell of the rim completely. I put the bike back in the lot at the train station, left the key in it and found a taxi.
I knew the thing was on its last legs. Recently the chain had been falling off a fair bit (once or twice a week) and it's considerably rusted. I figured I could hold on to it until the chain rusted through and snapped, but the tire was just the final straw. Two times in one week. Unacceptable. So I'm gonna have to break down and get a new bike now. Not that it's a real hefty expense or anything. Considering the old bike was here when I got here, I've got my share of free rides out of it anyway. Better to have a new bike I can depend on so I don't end up having to take any surprise expensive taxi rides back home in the middle of the night.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
謹賀新年
Today was my first day back at work since the New Year holidays. New Year's in Japan is like Christmas in Canada. People get together with their families, sharing stories and having big meals. Instead of church there is the first visit to a Shinto shrine for the New Year.
I spent my New Year's in Hikone at Keiko's house. Her brother and his family were there as well so I got to meet her niece and nephew while I was there. New Year's Eve, Keiko and I were in Taga, a nearby town with a large shrine for our New Year's shrine visit. I managed to see a few of my students as well and when I went to say hi, it always took them about 10 seconds to realize who I was. I think perhaps it was difficult for them to believe that I exist outside of the school environment, but then again it was most likely because I haven't shaved in a while.
Actually, I arrived in Taga quite early so I spent a fair bit of time just walking around the town at night. Taga is small town Japan at it's finest. Tons of old houses, narrow winding roads, a stream running through the town and a huge shrine to boot. Create an image in your head of what you think the stereotypical Japanese small town looks like right now. That's Taga.
A big thing in Japan for the New Year is the first time you do certain things and there are certain words for these special things. The top three are probably the first sunrise, first dream, and first shrine visit. I wasn't up to see the sunrise, and I can't remember my dream, but I did manage to get the shrine visit. Another big first happened on that day as well. We got our first snowfall of the year. It had snowed before, but only on the mountains, and never stayed long. This time it was snowing everywhere and actually sticking. It's all melted now where I live though, but we did have a good 5 cm or so.
New Year's day the family headed to Nagashima in Mie prefecture. In Nagashima there is an amusement park, hotel, onsen, and outlet shopping mall. The purpose of our visit that day was for the outlet mall. From far away it looked like a normal Canadian mall which is pretty rare in Japan, but when I got close I could see, that while it still looked like a Western mall, it was set up more like a mall you would see in California or Florida. It was all open air, with covered sidewalks. The colours were brighter pastel colours I associate with warm climates in the States, a lot of bright white. Even the pavement was reminiscent of something you'd see in the States. The stores, were by and large famous American brand name outlet stores with some European top brands and a few Japanese stores thrown in for good measure. Keiko was the only one who bought anything, although I did sample the Cold Stone Creamery they had there. It was pretty good, but too expensive to warrant another go. Not that there are any stores around here I could actually go to...
After Nagashima we headed to a place called Nabana, also in Mie which has the most famous light display in Japan. It costs 2000 yen to get in, which I thought was a bit steep, but once I saw the amount of lights in this place I realized the power bill to run this place for an hour must be equivalent to at least a full year of my power usage. It's gorgeous no doubt, but I can't even begin to think about the number of man-hours used to make it or the price of upkeep. They also give you a 1000 yen coupon you can use to buy anything inside, which is decent. Most of the lights they use look like the normal Christmas light variety and I couldn't help but thinking, what if one bulb blew and then everything just went dark. It would suck for whoever had to find that blown bulb, but since it wouldn't be me, I'd be laughing.
Happy New Year everyone! Hope you have a great one.
Taga
The Outlet Mall and Nabana
I spent my New Year's in Hikone at Keiko's house. Her brother and his family were there as well so I got to meet her niece and nephew while I was there. New Year's Eve, Keiko and I were in Taga, a nearby town with a large shrine for our New Year's shrine visit. I managed to see a few of my students as well and when I went to say hi, it always took them about 10 seconds to realize who I was. I think perhaps it was difficult for them to believe that I exist outside of the school environment, but then again it was most likely because I haven't shaved in a while.
Actually, I arrived in Taga quite early so I spent a fair bit of time just walking around the town at night. Taga is small town Japan at it's finest. Tons of old houses, narrow winding roads, a stream running through the town and a huge shrine to boot. Create an image in your head of what you think the stereotypical Japanese small town looks like right now. That's Taga.
A big thing in Japan for the New Year is the first time you do certain things and there are certain words for these special things. The top three are probably the first sunrise, first dream, and first shrine visit. I wasn't up to see the sunrise, and I can't remember my dream, but I did manage to get the shrine visit. Another big first happened on that day as well. We got our first snowfall of the year. It had snowed before, but only on the mountains, and never stayed long. This time it was snowing everywhere and actually sticking. It's all melted now where I live though, but we did have a good 5 cm or so.
New Year's day the family headed to Nagashima in Mie prefecture. In Nagashima there is an amusement park, hotel, onsen, and outlet shopping mall. The purpose of our visit that day was for the outlet mall. From far away it looked like a normal Canadian mall which is pretty rare in Japan, but when I got close I could see, that while it still looked like a Western mall, it was set up more like a mall you would see in California or Florida. It was all open air, with covered sidewalks. The colours were brighter pastel colours I associate with warm climates in the States, a lot of bright white. Even the pavement was reminiscent of something you'd see in the States. The stores, were by and large famous American brand name outlet stores with some European top brands and a few Japanese stores thrown in for good measure. Keiko was the only one who bought anything, although I did sample the Cold Stone Creamery they had there. It was pretty good, but too expensive to warrant another go. Not that there are any stores around here I could actually go to...
After Nagashima we headed to a place called Nabana, also in Mie which has the most famous light display in Japan. It costs 2000 yen to get in, which I thought was a bit steep, but once I saw the amount of lights in this place I realized the power bill to run this place for an hour must be equivalent to at least a full year of my power usage. It's gorgeous no doubt, but I can't even begin to think about the number of man-hours used to make it or the price of upkeep. They also give you a 1000 yen coupon you can use to buy anything inside, which is decent. Most of the lights they use look like the normal Christmas light variety and I couldn't help but thinking, what if one bulb blew and then everything just went dark. It would suck for whoever had to find that blown bulb, but since it wouldn't be me, I'd be laughing.
Happy New Year everyone! Hope you have a great one.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
クリスマス
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)