September 2005 Archives

A wonderful day at Joto Junior High, though I'm still doing self introductions there. Which I'm really bored with. But these third years were rather smart, so things went well, as usual. The interesting class the with the third year 'bad kids' class. Only 6 students, though at least one was running around elsewhere at any given time. The couple of students who wanted to learn had some fun. I spent the class period teaching them 'cool' English. Such as 'Whats up?' and 'Not much.' Or the all important word 'lame.' I actually stuck around for the next class (which wasn't mine) and gave them the same talk about 'cool' English, and they were more receptive. I'm just trying to get the kids away from all sticking to the 'How are you? I'm fine, and you?' which they all know by heart and can't break away from. One of them could be on the ground bleeding to death, and they would still be 'I'm fine, and you?'

I've been working on October's Fukuyama ALT newsletter, the Team Tribute. I've looked through past issues and well, they're really 'lame.' One former ALT talked about her boyfriend for two pages. Not very helpful or focused on English or education. So I've been using my newspaper skills from high school and the wonderful Pages software by Apple to make it. Add in some nice little pictures of students, many of them taken today when I had kids pose like the one above, and you have a nice looking newsletter. I'll post a PDF of it when its done and then you can all rip it to shreds. At least it won't suck.

On the way back from work I heard what appear to be Simon and Garfunkle, but from a pan flute. I was right. Two guys were playing in front of the train station. From what I gathered from their Japanese introductions, they're from Ecuador and were selling CDs. Things I never expected to see: Guys from Ecuador playing pan flute in from of the train station. I love this country. They were still there when I rode past again at around 8, still playing away. I broke out what little Spanish I still remembered and said buenos noches, and they seemed vaguely amused.

I need to get internet, so I can download Dreamcast games. I love my little Dreamcast. I ordered in a second controller tonight so I can take on Bill. Whats the use of having a nice big TV and a Dreamcast with only one controller?

I have just spent the last two days on the beach enjoying the good life. Well, I was really close to the beach. Across the street from it at one of my schools. But I could see it out all the windows. It was really cool. The last two days I've been teaching way out at Utsumi Middle School which is about a 45 minute bus ride away from down town, and then another 10 minute car ride from the bus stop to the school. Its well worth it because the school sits right on the ocean and the kids and teachers are great. Its a smaller school and I've been hitting it regularly enough that I'm starting to know some of the kids. I've also been enjoying the English teacher at the school who rocks. Not only is he a cool guy whose into photography, video, and Macintoshes; he's also a really cool teacher. We've already talked about making a movie with the kids for one of the English classes. Oooo all the fun we'll have. But on a really cool note I was able to take some fun photos on Monday when it was a beautiful day out. I really need to head down to the island some weekend and hit the beaches or do something fun out there. Its the kind of place that would be nice to live in, or nice to visit when sick of being in a city. Maybe this is a good enough reason for me to buy a little scooter.... maybe next year.

Monday night a group of us went to the local western sports bar Coaches for some burgers and football. Sure, the game had finished half a day before, and we could have looked up the score online, but where would the fun be in that. The bar, according to Graham, is an oasis in Japan for people who like sports. Graham is hoping for some hockey every now and then, and knowing him he would actually kill for some hockey. Those crazy Canadians. What won't they do. I'm also a bit happy about the place because I can always go there and get some internet. The owner is a really cool guy, who not only owns the bar but his main job is being a freelance composer. We talked tech for a while, and compared Macs (he owns like 5, lucky man). Clearly any place where I can grab a drink and get internet is a cool place for me.

Just found out my old friend Ramin from Iowa has landed in Tokyo for some serious studying at Tokyo Tech. Hmm... I should go back to Tokyo...

Jared Lee turned 22 today. Way to go Jared. For his birthday I got his webpage working for him. Its the gift that keeps on giving.

I had the good fortune to hang out with Helen on Friday night at her place. I had the bad fortune of ridding my bike back home, because it took around 50 minutes due to the fact that Helen lives out on the edge of town. Though being far away from the city center does have it benefits for Helen, her apartment is rather large and nice. We grilled up some burgers and enjoyed a healthy bounty of freshly bought Sprite (mmm.... refreshing). Good times. The long ride back was a nice healthy reminder as to why I bought a bike with gears, and why everyone here should buy one eventually.

Friday was the official start of Autumn in Japan, and this being Japan, Autumn was right on schedule. The evenings are now quite cool, even chilly, and the days are nice and mild. The odd thing was that Thursday was ungodly hot, and then BAM! Friday was cool. The real cold doesn't start around her until December which means I'll have a couple of months to enjoy this. Summers here really suck.

Tomo Middle School had its annual school festival Saturday and being the new English teacher I thought I should show up and see the kids in action. I convinced Loreen to come with me, tempting here with Tomo's scenic views of the ocean. We arrived around noon and were treated to a gaggle of my students who were overly joyed to see me, and rather intrigued with my friend (my mistake for having brought a female friend with me, who everyone thought was either my girlfriend or my wife). We had a nice complimentary lunch full of Udon, Yakisoba, and Rice Balls. Way too much for anyone to eat. We then watched a variety of student productions that included a brass band, PTA choir, student choir, a play that I didn't understand at all, and the taiko drums. Apparently all the third grade middle school kids take drum classes and they put on a really good show. Afterwards we looked at a bunch of exhibits in the library. Some nice paintings and drawings the students had done, as well as science reports and English reports. I'm alwasy rather impressed with the quality of the paintings and drawings I see at all my middle schools. For a country that often lacks creativity in its schools the children have a lot of talent. Tomo is a fun school to visit and to teach at, if for nothing else, the nice kids. Sadly due to the small number of students I don't go very often. All the more reason, I think, got Fukuyama to invest some money in more JETs.

We took a more scenic route back to town and enjoyed the really nice view of the inland sea that Tomo has. The day was nice and clear so you could see a large number of islands in the distance. We wound our way through town trying to get back to the main road, twisting and turning through the city streets. That is until we ran into a group of Japanese friends who were having a small backyard party. They invited us over for some drinks and food, and for some reason found us highly amusing. Only in Japan do you randomly get people inviting you in for drinks off the street. They were quite funny, and I had a good time using my Japanese skills, or acting like I knew what people were saying. Which happened a lot that day. Good drinks, good people, and rather weird octopus tentacles. Seriously.

I'm sorry to announce that I bought a new electric razor. Sorry Dale and Jared I just don't enjoy shaving off a layer of skin every day. It wasn't very expensive, and the power it has over my facial hair makes shaving quick. In comparison I can see now that my old razor had been going downhill for quite a while. I also broke down and bought a Dreamcast. For the uninformed its a 4 year old game system that was highly under appreciated in its time. But it was quite cheap (used) and the games are really cheap (also used), and now I actually have something to use my TV with. Mmmm.... video games.

A very odd thing happened to me at the bar on Saturday night. I met a guy from Canada (not very odd) who has been living in Japan for a year (not odd either) and who is deaf (kind of odd). So I had a conversation at the bar with John using very few written words and a lot of nonverbal communication. Since I've come to Japan I've been using a lot of nonverbal communication to communicate with Japanese people (I'm dumb), but it was entirely different to have to resort completely to using nonverbal communication. I should do it more often. Its a skill that is handy no matter why you go, and something I don't get very much practice with. Something to think about in the future.

I got up a bit early on my day off so that I could video chat with my parents at the internet cafe. Good times to be had, seeing as I hadn't spoken to them in about two months. It also proved to be an amusement quite a few Japanese patrons that came around. Everyone at the cafe had to come over and wave at the camera. Weird enough. Long story short, the family is good, the dog is good, the cat is good, Milwaukee is good.

I updated the sidebar on all the sub-pages on my site and made a new area for Japan stuff. I also did minor changes here and there where I noticed little mistakes or bad links. Zach showed me how to update my online calendar via iCal and a nice php script. In non-techno mumbo jumbo my online schedule is up and running.

My razor broke. It had been acting funky for a while, so now I have to go buy a Japanese one. I don't know if it'll be able to handle my crazy western facial hair.

No big plans for the weekend. Just hanging out with some other JETs, maybe try and get internet (again), buy a razor. I'll probably head over to Tomo Middle school for their school fair. The kids will enjoy having me there and I can also bum around Tomo for an afternoon. Take in the scene and the open fish market. Fresh shrimp anyone?

Last night a group of us went out to Coaches for some fine western style burgers because it was Elli's birthday. She is now officially 22 years old, which really doesn't mean anything special here, but good for her. She's survived yet another year! May she survive many more.

I figured out how to make my DVD player region free thanks to some internet searching and me reading a bit of Japanese. Its really the perfect DVD player for JETs, as its only 5000¥ and really easy to make region free. Heres the rundown on the player. The model name is Avox ADS-200S and can be found at any DIK or most random big electronics stores. The cost is about 5,000¥ (at the two places I found it) and its a rather small player that comes with all the necessary cables and a remote. This isn't the highest quality player on the market, but it works rather well and is cheap. Out of the box it'll play region 2 dvds (Japan and England) but we want to make it play all regions.

Step 1: Hook it up to your TV and make sure it turns on.
Step 2: Get your remote and remove the little plastic bit by the battery case to activate it.
Step 3: Turn on and open the DVD try. (Leave it open)
Step 4: Click the yellow button on the middle right edge of your remote. This should bring up the 'Setup' menu.
Step 5: Enter in the number '1369'. This should take you to a separate 'hidden' menu (if not, wait a second and try again).
Step 6: Check subversion number. You should see a number that looks like 00.00.00.0x. If the last number is a 4, you're out of luck. If it says 6 or 9 (mine is a 9, online guides say 6 works fine) it should work. At the bottom there is a number in a box, that is your current region code. It should say 2 right now.
Step 7: Enter the number '3497340'.
Step 8: Close the tray, and turn off the Player.
Step 9: Repeat steps 3-6 again, and check to make sure the Region code has changed.
Step 10: Enjoy your movies.

It took me like 3 times to get this all to work. The remote buttons suck, so make sure you press firmly. You can also change the default language in the 'Setup' area. Just look for the 日本語 option about halfway down, the only other option is English so do that. I also changed my TV settings to widescreen because my TV is widescreen. I was able to get three US DVDs to work, and I assume any Japanese movies I rent will work as well. Simple and easy.

I made a girl cry today in class. Not really me that made her cry as much as the situation she was in. I was teaching a 3rd year middle school class, only 12 students and it was obvious that this was the 'slow' group of English students. They were going around and doing self intro, and all having a hard time with it, and about halfway through the class I noticed this girl crying. We skipped her, and she never did talk, but I felt bad. I went over to her and in Japanese explained how it was ok to be nervous, and that I had a very difficult time with learning Japanese. I don't think it helped. Even the JTE was a bit amiss about what to do in the situation. Sigh...

I received word that I can't get internet through my phone company or Yahoo BB due to how far away from the DSL node I am. The lame part is all the other ALTs at my school, all 5 of them and the CIR as well, have had no problems at all getting internet hooked up. So my only option is trying this other service, and I'll run over to one of the electronics store tomorrow and see if its possible. Its not that I don't like hanging out at the internet cafe all the time, because I do, its just that I want access at home for video chatting and for downloading. The cafe isn't open all the time and I need my fix of western culture! Its just annoying really. I've had high speed internet at my finger tips for the past 7 years and now I'm suddenly without it. I would honestly pay some good money just to get high speed DSL at my place. Who would have thought that being in a big city like Fukuyama that there would be dead spots for DSL. So weird.

I had some fun classes today. Two were great, two not so great. I've dome enough classes in the past two weeks so that I'm actually able to do something else besides my self introduction. I was so thrilled to do something different today besides the same lesson I've been doing the past. My mind has been fading away. But the fun part of class was when we were trying to do new verbs. Nothing too special: come, go, say, use, ect. Everything went well until we got to the word 'cook.' See, the students kept saying 'cock' and we had a long talk about the difference between the two. This is what I'm here for. To prevent kids from saying 'cock' when talking about making food. Good times.

I put up a bunch of pictures. Some of Fukuyama Castle and the park, some of my time at the Hiroshima Carps game, and the long awaited pictures of the Tokyo Game Show. Mmmmmm game show...

I bought a cheap DVD player. Theres a decent chance I can make it play my region 1 DVDs. I love you internet. Soon my setup will be complete....

We got into Tokyo about 6 am, a bit earlier then expected, and found ourselves in Shinjuku. We somehow managed to catch a train to Tokyo Station after a rather long and confusing time staring at the Tokyo train map. So then we later found ourselves outside the Tokyo train station, still highly confused, and hungry. Ben and Alun attempted to eat some strange sandwiches, while I eat some wonderful Jam Bread. It was still rather early yet, but we decided to get to the game show early. So after yet another train ride we found ourself at a massive complex of convention centers and lost in a crowd of gamers. Though it was only 9:00 and the doors didn't open until 10:00 there was already a massive line of people waiting to get in. We ditched our bags in a locker and got in line. About 45 minutes later we entered the Tokyo Game Show 2005.

The show itself took up three massive halls. There were booths and stages and giant screens from all the major companies (except Nintendo, who never has a booth). There was way too much at the Game Show to try and comment on everything, so I'll just point out some of the highlights. Microsoft had a massive booth with a ton of XBOX 360s to play with, as well as a massive screen, and some mock ups of home theater systems for you to try out. Sony had a massive showing as well with a lot of PS2s and PSPs to play with. Interesting enough there were booths so you could update your PSP, if you so needed too. There were several stages by various game companies which had either 1) dancing girls 2) concerts 3) interviews and demos. Some had all three. The entire place was just a massive sensory overdose. Giant screens were everywhere, lights flashing, music blaring, game controls to play with! Crazy! One memorable booth had a 'virtual chain-saw controller' to work with several games. Yes it was cool. Bandai had gone all out promoting a Gundam game for almost every game system. The various booths all came with their various brand of 'Booth Babes' there to entice you to come closer. They were usually dressed up in the theme of the game or game system they were promoting. While this was very... interesting... I found the cos-players even more interesting. These would be the young Japanese people who had come to the show just to dress up like video game characters. They even had their own area just for cos-player 'fashion shows.' Very strange, yet very fun to watch. I was impressed by MS's balls. They were the only game company to actually have playable version of their new game systems, even if there were a few bugs. My conclusion: The new system is impressive but it all depends on the games that come out for it. More about that later.

Games I was most impressed by:

1) Fahrenheit: Its more of an interactive more then a game. For the PS2, and very cool. The entire game is set around you making decisions, which effect the actions of characters around you and events in the world. Very cool and very thrilling. There are so many things to do, and things to interact with, that it will keep you guessing for hours. It kept me guessing.

2) Dead Rising: For the XBOX 360, its the zombie game I've always wanted. I was able to play 10 minutes of the game, in English, and it was cool. Its set in a mall. A real mall. Everything is beautifully rendered and completely interactive. You can pick up almost anything and use it as a weapon, and I mean almost anything. At one point I was chucking fruit at hoards of zombies. The game felt like I was taking part in the original Dawn of the Dead, and I loved it.

3) Gundam: Ok, any Gundam game made by Bandai. They all looked cool, and there was like one for every system.

How to Survive the Tokyo Game Show:
1) Plan ahead: A game show is something that doesn't happen on its own, nor does going to one happen on its own.
2) Get there early: The sooner you get there the shorter the lines will be and the less people you'll have to fight.
3) Pack lightly: Carry as little as possible, the less you have weighing you down the better.
4) Have a good camera: A good digital camera is very important if you want to brag about it to your friends afterwards.
5) Stay hydrated: A game show is a very physical experience. You need to stay well hydrated in order to maximize your fun.
6) Stay focused: Know what you want to see, stay in the lines you want to be in, and don't get sidetracked by flashy gimmicks.
7) Carry a high energy snack: A candy bar in the pocket in handy when in a long line for a boost of power.
8) Go with a group: These things are much more fun with friends, especially geeky ones.
9) Enjoy the scenery: Umm... yeah... booth babes.
10) Get a swag bag: The most important thing you can do is grab a swag bag right away. Nothing is worse then walking around and having your hands full with stuff because you didn't pick up a bag. They're everywhere and critical for your gaming experience.

So all in all we had a great time. I was quite impressed with the stuff MS had and a whole lot of the games that are coming out. Plus it was a crazy experience to take part in. After the show we caught a train back to Shinjuku where we had dinner before catching the bus back to Fukuyama. I slept very well.

On Sunday I had some good times with Alun and his car. Or moreover Alun had a good time hauling stuff around for me. I bought a used TV for about $220. Its about 28 inches wide and about 24 inches tall. Perfect for watching movies. I also bought a TV stand from DIK. I also attempted to buy a region free DVD player, which is proving harder then I expected. I was told that I could buy a regular DVD player and find codes on line to change the factory settings so I can watch Japanese movies on it. All in all I spent way too much money over this 3 day weekend, and I have another 3 day weekend coming up, though I'll be taking it a bit easier this next time around.

I've got tons of video to edit and photos to label. I'll get around to all of it eventually. All in good time.

Friday was a long day for me. First off I had to get up very early to get to the bus station on time, and second off I had a long night. Our office had a second 'official' enkai (office party) for us new JETs. I say 'official' because it was a super secret enkai for us, in a kind of sort of way. See there was this professor from Hiroshima that was also in town, so 'officially' the party for for him. 'Unofficially' it was for us new JETs. I was really tired and in all honesty I wasn't too happy to have to go to a party where I would have to pay 6,000¥ (like $55 US) and then go out for some karaoke afterwards seeing as I had a very long weekend ahead of me. But it was fun. The most impressive thing about the evening was that when I sat down I was greeted by a giant crab on a plate. I can't say I remember ever having crab, especially a whole on in this manner, and I had to ask for help on the proper way to eat it, and the proper tools to do so with. It was good. Really good. Then afterwards it was out for an some karaoke with all the co-workers. Nothing like seeing your boss, and his boss, and the superintendent of the school distract belt out tunes to make you feel better about life. No really. It was an impressive sight to see. I opted not to go on for more karaoke with the other JETs and instead headed over to bar Flower, where I was happy to find only two other people. It was nice to be in a bar with only two white guys and the bartender, it helped cool me down after a long night of work related eating and drinking.

The next morning was the start of a long day. I got up very early for a Saturday and headed to the train station to meet up with a bunch of other JETs. After some fun Mr. Donut breakfast a group of us headed via bus to Hiroshima city to catch a baseball game. We were off to see the famous Hiroshima Carps in action. Well, kind of action. They are in dead last place this season, but really, who can pass up a baseball game! Quite a few of us had shown up for the game, 10 in all, and we were all quite pumped. There was Matt, Mark, Nicki, Bill, Helen, Jennifer, Mercedes, Robb (who used to work at Cartoon Network, you lucky dog you), and a friend of Helen's. While baseball is the national pass time in the United States, its the National Sport here in Japan and you can see it in how crazy the fans are. Both the Carps fans and the rival Dragon fans spared no expense or energy to support their team. It felt more like a college football game then a professional baseball game. Each section had their own big flags, songs, clappers, cheers, drums, cheerleaders, and trumpet players going non-stop. Seriously. They love this game. At one point the entire Carps section (like half the stadium) had all blown up big balloons and let them off at the same time. Crazy stuff. The game itself went by very quickly. Non stop playing, no breaks for commercials or silly side games. Just baseball. But the one thing that all of us JETs were impressed with were the beer girls. They were all dressed in bright yellow and carried a beer keg on their back so that you could have fresh keg beer on demand at a very reasonable price. We also found it hilarious when a little 6 year old girl came over and got a big cup of beer (for her father) all by herself. Truly this is a great county. And to make the game even better, the Carps came around and scored 4 runs in the 8th to gain a lead over the Dragons 4-1 and actually win a game.

I had to leave in the 9th to catch a bus back to Fukuyama because my day of traveling had yet to really begin. I was to meet Alun and Ben for our Tokyo trip in Fukuyama at 8:30, so I had a bit of time to head home and get myself realy. I had booked us a couple of tickets on an overnight bus and we had about a 9 hour bus ride ahead of us. We were all a bit tentative about taking an overnight bus, until we got on it. These buses are the best I've ever seen and by far the most comfortable. It only had three chairs per row, and each chair was large and reclined a long ways back, plus the set in front of it had a section that fulled down so you could stretch out your legs. It was more like the kind of setup you'd have on an airplane then on a bus, there was even a headphone jack so you could listen to music on the way up to Tokyo. We all slept really well, and arrived in Tokyo the next morning at 6 am.

Last night I attempted to rent the movie Constintine from my local video store. I tried to rent the VHS, but the only version they had on VHS was the dubbed Japanese version. So then I rented the DVD knowing full well that it was Region 2 encoded and my laptop was Region 1 (damn you bastards with your region codes which are really only there to hamper honest consumers). I figured I could either use VLC to circumvent the Region Code, or rip the data off it and strip it of the code. Neither of these options worked for me, which was surprising. So I took a leap and switched my laptops code (something you can only do 4 times before it becomes locked in one code), and then switched it back when I was done. This whole endeavor has only caused me to put aside some money so that I can buy a DVD player, a region free DVD player. I was going to buy something electronic this month, maybe a used Gamecube or N64, but in all reality a DVD player would be really handy. Maybe next month I can snoop around for a bigger TV, the 10 inch one I currently have is worthless for most things.

One cool thing is how I can rent CDs from the video store as well, under 100¥ (less then $1 US) for overnight use. Which works fine for me. Rent the CD, go to internet cafe, rip CD, return CD. Thanks to some handy coupons I got the rental of a CD was only 45¥. Now thats what I call cheap music. Ohhh how my music collection is going to grow while I'm in this country.

I headed out to Tomo Middle School today which is located about a 40 minute bus ride away from the center of the city. Tomo is located out along the coast, way out along the coast, and is a rather scenic spot to be. I took the 8:30 bus out of my area, which was a large mistake, as I wasn't getting picked up at the bus stop until 10, so I had an hour to kill. So I walked along the the coast, or along the road along the coast for an hour. It was rather interesting to see a little open air sea food market full of fresh fish, crabs, shrimp, and octopus. I think the people were rather amused by my presence, and then just ignored me. I did get a great view of the ocean and some of the little island around. Fun times. The school is located on top of the very steep hill that is Tomo, and luckily I was driven up there. The view from the school was very nice and it was actually cooler being up a bit higher. I only taught one class today, third years, because all the students were practicing for the school festival that was going on this weekend. Class went surprisingly well and the students and after the students warmed up to me, which took a long time, we were all having fun talking in English and doing all sorts of groovy things.

Umm.. yeah.. my afternoon was spent at the Board of Education looking busy again. Doing lots of small paper work things, discussing school stuff with the other ALTs, and well, doing even more paper work. My job is a bunch of fun.

I had to be at the bus stop at 7:10 this morning for a trip out to Utsumi Middle School, which was a 40 minute bus ride and a 10 minute car ride away. Luckily I enjoy conversing with bus drivers or else I wouldn't have gotten off at the right stop. They're good people. Utsumi is located on a little island just off the main land, and you have to take a curvy bridge to get there. Yes, a bridge that curves and has a really great view. The island itself feels more like California then Japan at first glance. There are palm trees and beaches galore, and I felt like taking the day off and spending the day on the sand. But no, it was teaching time. The classes were quite a bit of fun and Uda Sensei pulled out his guitar and played some Beatles for the students. I think the high point of my day was the Elective English class for the third year students. The class was only nine students, and really, the experience of watching nine students trying to say "Sea sells sea shells by the sea shore" made my day. Oh, and there were doing it quite good. Next time I'm out there I'll take some time over lunch and snap a few pictures. Heck, I should just head out there some Saturday for some fun times. Now, if only I had a scooter.... (maybe next year)

I'm starting to miss certain things from the States. Little things really. Such as the 'Free Refill' at all dinning establishments. Even US food chains in Japan don't give you free refills, which makes it hard to justify paying that $2 for the large coke. They'll give you a glass of ice water, which is weird because ice is more expensive then coke, but you'll never get another glass of soda. Ever. I also miss the idea of 'big' things. Like big door ways, big clothing, big bikes. Japan is a country for short people, which is why Tom Cruse did so well in The Last Samurai. I on the other hand have to be careful not to wreck any clothing or shoes because I'll never be able to replace them. I also miss smoke alarms. You'd think someone, somewhere, would have marketed smoke alarms to Japan. But no. It confuses me. I miss cheap fruit. Sure, having a massive sized and perfectly round apple is nice, paying $3 for it isn't nice. All fruit is expensive. But its big. Like someone enrolled all the fruit in Japan in the MLBA. They're unusually big. Then again, as much as it pains me to say so, I miss 'Super Stores.' I miss having a Target or a Shopco around the corner from me. Having a 'one stop' place to shop would save me a lot of bike ridding. Then again, not like I could fit all of it on my bike. The major thing I miss is having signs and shirts and everything really, in English that makes sense. Everyone uses English advertising, has English shirts, and owns random shit with English on it. Please, someone hire a guy from abroad just to check spelling and to make sure stuff makes sense. Please. I really miss trash cans. Like, trash cans in any location. Its always a great task to find a trash cash on the street, in malls, in train stations, on trains. Its like they're trying to hide them from you. I also miss being able to read. Being illiterate is rather annoying, but then again the fault is all my own. I should get around to studying more.

So I've been playing some Fallout 2 lately, a game thats a good 8 years old, and I love it. This game reminds me of whats wrong with video games these days. The video game industry makes more money each year then Hollywood, and much like Hollywood few games are actually good. The two industries have fallen into the exact same rut recently and consumers are partially to blame. The video game industry once relied on very little technology and it only took a few people to make a game. Due to the fact that you only had 16 colors to deal with and 4 MBs of RAM to work with people took time to make intelligent, creative, and weird games. In recent days video games tend to take millions upon millions of dollar to make and all that matters is how good the graphics are. Do people care so much about how a game looks that we've traded game play for game looks? Plus if a game is a hit, in a new and cool way, you can expect about 50 carbon copies of it to come out as well as two or three sequel which offer nothing new. This is the main reason why I have been so unimpressed with the last batch of game systems. There were a whole lot of remake games which did nothing for me, uninspiring crap. There were a few gems, but most of them left me wondering why my room mate spent $50 on a game which was a souped up version of something he already had. Point and case for a game company gone bad: Lucas Arts. The company which had in the past brought us such fun games as Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle, and Loom. Now all it does is pop out a new Star Wars game every month. Doe we need yet another first person Star Wars shooter? Or X-Wing sim? Seriously, how much worse can it get? I would rather trade great looks for great game play any day, and a lot of other people would as well. Look at how big the ROM community is, trading old NES, SNES, and Gameboy games online. There are tons of people who still enjoy old games because they're still good games. Maybe some game company will realize this and hire some better writes and developers for their games. But thats as likely as hollywood ditching massive CGI eyecandy feasts in favor of good acting and good writing. But I can dream, can't I?

I like teaching. So far so good. What I can't really stand is the heat. While I was able to cope with some very large classes of somewhat energetic kids, I was not able to cope very well with very attentive kids in a very hot classroom. Then again the kids were having the same problems. This will probably be the only time I ever say this, but I can't wait for winter. Teaching has been going quite well, nothing too interesting to really say about it. I just give a variation on the same introduction lesson every time. I'll be doing this for another two weeks or so. The nice thing is that at least for the first couple of times I meet a group of students they'll pay attention to me just because of the weird factor. Yes, thats why I'm here. To be weird. I'll post some photos and some videos when I take some. I just don't feel right video taping kids on my first day, or taking excessive photos. At least not yet.

Which makes me wonder. Is the JET program really about 'internationalizing' Japan, or is it here just to reenforce cultural stereotypes? Or does one just naturally cause the other? Such as me sharing a drink of root beer with a female friend on the street, and how it caused an old lady to give me a very dirty look. I've heard criticism from Japanese people that the JET program is a waste of government money and that we don't really do anything. Why that isn't completely true (except for Helen who really doesn't do anything. Ever.) some JETs have slack jobs or their schools don't know what to do with them. Then there are others such as Ben, who is the only foreigner on his little island. Clearly he is a much greater vehicle for cultural exchange then I am in Fukuyama, where there are thousands of white people.

I'm one step closer to getting internet. Turns out that my place has an ISDN line which works great if you want high speed dial-up, but the downside is you can't get ADSL over it. So half of us at work have ISDN lines at our place, and the other half already have internet over regular phone lines. So before I even attempt to get ADSL again I need to pay about 10,000¥ to have my line changed. I'm OK with that, spread out over two years thats like nothing to even get upset about, especially when you're surfing the net or view chatting at super fast speeds.

If you're not up on the recent Japanese special election know that the leading party, the LDP, gained 47 seats giving the party a grand total of 296 seats. Plus if you add in the various coalitions it easily gives them a 2/3rds majority. If you remember the wonderful 'Lion hair' Koizumi dissolved the Diet (parliament) and called for a new election because they wouldn't pass his privatization of the Post Office system. Way to go 'Lion hair.' My kids love it when I say I like his hair. What I found interesting was the 67% voter turnout for this special election. I wish we could get those numbers in the US. Another weird thing is that there are 50,000 US troops in Japan at any given time. Wow. Thats a lot of troops.

Apple came out with yet another new iPod. The iPod Nano replaces the Mini as its super small mp3 player. While the new Nano is super small and has a color screen and uses flash memory to no skipping, it lacks the cool different color bodies and the bigger hard drive and lower price. No doubt that this will not at all hamper its selling, in fact just by looking at ti you can tell that the little guy is going to be a major seller. Sure it may be smaller in size but the $250 model does lose 2 gigs, as does the $200 model. What I don't get is the new phone that Apple sort of developed with Motorola. Its like someone took a Motorola cell phone and shoved a 512MB iPod shuffle up its ass. The mp3 interface does look like an iPod's classic interface, but it lacks the oh so useful iPod wheel that we've all grown to love. Sure its an overall nice phone but its a lot less then I expected from Apple. Plus apparently you can't directly download songs to your phone from the iTunes music store, nor can you use your mp3s as ring tones. This would only make sense, until you realize that it would probably undercut the mili-million $ industry that sold ring tones at $5 a pop, where as the iTunes Music Store sells them for only $1. Plus from what I've seen from my former room mate's phones Motorola's user interface is nothing to brag about. My Nokia 6630 is extremely handy once you've gotten past the initial learning curve. I can only wonder what would have happened if Apple had just developed a phone on their own?

The old saying goes 'Twos company, threes a crowd." This usually holds true, except when you're talking about bike gears. I now have six more gears then I did before, and I'm super pumped about it. I walked over to DIK on Friday night and bought a bike I'd looked at before. Nothing too super special, but a whole lot better then the one I had been using. My new bike, besides sporting a nice fresh coat of black paint, has six gears, a bell, a padded seat (yeah!), a basket, a big light, and a luggage rack. Clearly the best bike anyone could buy for 12,000¥. At least now I have a decent bike to go around town in, as well as a 'loaner' bike for when people come to visit.

Speaking of visits, Theresa came and visited on Saturday. She'd been hankering for some time in Fukuyama due to her somewhat dull life in Mihara. I can't blame here. Fukuyama 福山 is the happening place to be. At least in comparison to many places around here. We bummed around town, and then headed over to the Fukuyama Castle. I pass this castle at least once a day, yet this was my first time going inside. The castle was completed in 1622 to guard the western counties. It had double moats, a seven story castle, and multiple turrets. The moats were filled up in 1870 and many of the turrets were destroyed. The rest of the castle was burnt to the ground on August 8, 1945 during a firebombing of the city. Luckily several parts of the castle had been moved to Kyoto and were later restored when the castle was rebuild in 1966. The inside is now a rather nice museum and if nothing else the view from the top is worth the climb. It was worth the 200¥ to get in. It was also worth the effort to let Theresa ride my extra bike, because she is extremely funny to watch.

Theresa could only stay for a short while due to the restrictive bus services in Mihara. I think she was happy to leave because all the Japanese though we were dating. Thus is Theresa constant struggle between her being an Asian American and everyone in Japan thinking she is Japanese. While I can get away with doing stupid things because I am tall and white, everyone thinks she knows whats going on and that she knows Japanese. Oh well. The sad thing was that she missed out on Rory's birthday party! Nothing like 20+ JETs mixed in with some Japanese at an all you can drink and eat joint for a good birthday bash. The evening continued at the local 'foreigner bar' where our birthday party mixed with another birthday party. Now comes the part where I embarrass Nickie on my weblog because she complained that I never mentioned her on the page. Lets just say Nickie has magical powers to wake up slightly drunk people from bar coaches. Way to go Nickie, that was quite the sight.

Sunday I went and played a fun filled game of frisbee with Helen, Nik, and four very confused Japanese high school students who just happened to be watching us. I felt that sense we were here to 'internationalize' the young people of Japan we might as well teach them our crazy games. Way to go Japan. Also way to go random late night ice cream while hanging out in Fukuyama with Helen. I really need to explore more of the downtown, except when I'm usually around all the stores are closed. So much good food, so little time.

I got a mass e-mail the other night which contained a picture of all this years Hiroshima JETs that was taken at our Saijo orientation. You should take a look, seeing as how we're such a cool group of crazy foreigners. Well, maybe more crazy then cool if we took this job, but I'll give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Except for James. Ooooh, he knows what I mean. But if you're really bored at home, or at school, or just up at 2 am viewing this site, you cal always play a game of 'Wheres Josh." Its like Wheres Waldo except I'm not wearing that gay stripped outfit.

Typhoon be damned yet again! Turns out that my apartment did not escape without damage after all in this week's typhoon. I went to go hang up some laundry last night on my little balcony and the hangy thing that I clip all my socks onto had fallen down and broken in half. Looks like I'll have to buy a new one. On that note I think I'll buy myself a new bike tonight. I was going to wait until I get paid next Friday, but now I realize that I have more then enough to last me for the next week, so whats the difference between buying it now and buying it a week from now? The difference is a week full of gears. The Josh needs gears.

Gears would have been helpful this morning as I kind of woke up a bit late, and had to bike super fast to catch my bus. No problem, as I had a full two minutes to spare. I traveled out into the mountains to spend my day at Ashida middle school. Not as much in the countryside as Tsunekane, but its still out there. Once again the students were extremely friendly and quite good at english. I had a good time eating my bento lunch with the other teachers and conversing in both Japanese and English. I tried to use as much Japanese as possible, but the frustrating thing was that most of the time I understand like half of what they're saying but get confused by the other half. Either way I'm learning. In an odd note my day concluded with another giant dragonfly. This one was thrown out of the building by one of the JTEs. Better her then me.

I stopped at a barber shop on my way home because my hair was feeling a bit shaggy. Plus I hate shaving and had let myself grow a nice clump of hair on my face. So with the help of Patrica (everyone calls her 'Trish the dish') who wrote down some Japanese for me to say I embarked on a great hair journey. Lets just say I was pampered for 40 minutes with a haircut, a shave, a shampoo, and various other wonderful things. Now I understand why women like going to get their hair done. It feels good to be pampered. Even if it was 3,500¥ to do so.

Through a wonderful quark in Japanese culture everyone is able to get cheap birthday plane tickets for themselves and for like three or four friends. Whats nice is that Matt, Jennifer, and I all have birthdays the same weekend and thus a group of like 12 of us can travel to Okinawa for only $150 US. I'm game for it, and so are several of my friends. I'm always up for cheap travel.

So its Thursday and I'm finally teaching my second day of classes (damn typhoon). Unlike my last school which was in the main part of 福山 (Fukuyama), my school today is way out in the country side. On an up note I didn't have to be at the train station until 8:40, as opposed to some days where I have to catch a bus at 7:10. The other nice thing is that the train I need to catch is the one that goes right by my apartment, so I can just catch it at the train station thats half a block away. Which lets me be lazy if need be, or if I wake up late. So I caught the train, sat there for half an hour, got off and was picked up by the assistant principal of Tsunekane Middle school. Due to the location of the school its rather small, and so are its classes, which is nice. I only had to do three classes today, one for each grade level.

Overall I've been very impressed with the English skills of most all the Japanese students I've come across. I personally know how difficult it is to pick up a language, so I've been making an extra effort to speak slowly and clearly. So much so that my JTE commented on it. Way to go me. I've been trying to get the students to think of their own questions and write them down, thus allowing them some creativity and also helping their writing skills. In the past Japanese students have only been tested on their reading ability, but recent changes to the testing system here in Hiroshima now has the students tested on their speaking ability.

Being in the countryside is a bit different then being in the city (even though this place is still technically part of 福山 (Fukuyama)). Like having your class interrupted by a giant dragonfly that swoops in and buzzes the students. That was fun. Even more fun was me using a computer and having another big one come in and start buzzing me. Seriously, this sucker was like 6 inches long with a good 4-5 inch wingspan. Plus I was informed that they bite. Ok. Even better then both of those was the large praying mantas that one of the teachers caught, stuck in a plastic bread bag, and then sat on his desk over lunch. Seriously, it was cool.

Right before I left with the vice principal for the train station a group of students came over and beckoned me to follow them into the nurses office. It seems they didn't believe me about how tall I was and wanted to measure me. Ok, so maybe I told them I was 2 meters tall (which is like 3 inches taller then what I really am), but it was much easier for them to understand then me saying I was 6'2" tall. No matter how you look at it, I'm tall in Japan. Every day in the elevator I'm always a head above everyone else, and it feels exactly like that one scene in Lost in Translation. Now I know how Bill Murry feels. Except without the whole movie star, SNL, funny, good looking, and bags full of money things weighing me down.

When I got back to work I found an envelope from Joto middle school, which contained my next lesson plan and a big laminated sheet of paper. What is this mysterious paper thing? Well to my surprise it had a nice big picture of me teaching and several copies of the write ups the students did about me. "His favorite color is blue, so he is wearing a blue shirt." "He plays the violin and likes classical music." "Mr. Zimmerman looks kind and cool. I want to enjoy studying English with him." I love my kids.

Last evening, after a wonderfully dull day at the office where I tried not to go crazy and jump out the window out of shear boredom, I went out to dinner with Bill and Helen. Dinner was quite cool because we found a really nice Italian pizza place and ate some great food. So much cheese... it made me super happy. Plus Helen pointed out that a couple of girls walking down the street were 'clearly men.' I guess Helen has great gay-dar, or is just very adapt at spotting the Philippineo Lady Boys. They must have had the night off hitting on Rory and Andrew, who attract a fair number of them.

こんにちわベチエス！

What could be more fun then a typhoon? A typhoon party! Which is what ended up happening the other evening. The typhoon was scheduled to hit 福山 (Fukuyama) around 8 pm, and somehow a big group of us ended up being at Graham and Natasha's place about that time. I was over there stealing internet off Jess for a bit because the internet cafe was closed (damn typhoon) and I had several blog entries and videos to post. (Which is why several of the appeared all at once the other day) It was a good time, eating dinner, watching a movie, Graham and I having to go get ice cream for all the ladies in the rain. To tell you the truth the typhoon was a bit of a letdown around here. It would storm for 20 minutes, then stop for 20 minutes. Off and on all night long. I eventually made a break for it around 10:30 in between storm surges, and dodged getting wet. The typhoon was not without its downsides. I woke up at 3 am due to massive winds pounding my little apartment, and in the morning the wind made my bike ride to work rather difficult.

I once again had all my classes canceled for the day, which then meant that I had to spend my work day at city hall trying to look busy. It did give me ample time to do some light studying, write a lot of e-mails, and many attempts for me to make small talk in Japanese with my co-works. It kind of worked.

I've been attempting to figure out a way to update the Fukuyama Board of Education's English Teacher Support webpage. Right now it looks horrible, but has a lot of information on it. (It looks like 1997 threw up all over the webapage) The main issue has been me trying to figure out a system where teachers can leave comments or questions directly on the page. The big road block for me is the Board of Education's massive internet security paranoia which prevents us from doing most everything. At first I figured that it would be easy to set up a blogger account, and have the posts displayed on the Education Support webpage. Easy enough, except that the main blogger page is blocked by the internet filter. Shoot, even setting up an e-mail account for the teachers to e-mail us was rejected. Sigh... I'm sure I can get something worked out eventually.

One thing I enjoy about getting random traffic on my blog is the fact that people correct me. I've got people correcting my horrible Japanese, correcting my tech support, correcting my spelling, and now correcting my history. I apparently was mistaken about the history of the Battleship Yamato, which I posted the other day after going to the Kure museum. The ship did not get destroyed sailing out of the harbor (different ship that was a partially completed Yamoto class that was being refit as an air craft carrior), but had a long operational history during WWII. I'd go into more detail, but this webpage tells the whole story. I'm a bad history major.

If you want an idea of how much flooding is happening in New Orleans, just look at some satellite imagery.

Due to the impending typhoon classes at all schools in Fukuyama were canceled for the day. Sadly this didn't mean that I get a day off, it just means that we had to come into city hall and look busy for the day. Again. The wind on the way over here was crazy, and once again reminded me that I need a bike with gears. I seriously thought that the typhoon had already hit, as we had such crazy wind and rain last night. But oh no. That was just a front that was being pushed up thanks to the typhoon. The real typhoon will hit sometime today and continue into tomorrow. I probably won't have class tomorrow, but I won't actually know if I do or not until 6:30 tomorrow. Either way I'll have to come into city hall and look busy again.

I ran into Helen, Julia, and Mike around lunch today. Turns out the high schools were all shut down and they sent the JETs home because the trains were going offline around 1 o'clock. I wonder if anyone around the office realizes that all of us city hall JETs rode bikes to work and that ridding home is going to be a lot of fun. Watching the TV across the office Southern Japan is getting pounded right now. Those poor weather girls who are sent out in the massive wind and rain. Its a harsh life they lead.

The upside to having nothing to do at work is that I can write lengthy e-mails, fun blog entries, edit photos, and make some albums. If only I could get away with playing CIV 3 at work, I'd be set for like the next week strait. I understand now why there are so many disgruntled JETs out there. I can see how a year of doing nothing for most of the day would really get to some people, especially if all they do is sit at work and surf the internet. If only I was so lucky as to be able to surf the net at work.

I think tonight will be another day of laundry and CIV 3. I should also go to bed quite early due to my very early wake up time. I have to catch a bus at 7:10 am, so I'll probably be getting up around 6.

I knew my first day of teaching was going to be good when I looked outside and saw it was pouring rain. Wind and rain make for great traveling when you're on a bike. I managed to take the right bus to school, and arrive on time. Japanese schools are depressing. The look and feel of any Japanese school is such a polar opposite from US schools. They all looks like giant concrete blocks. No color, no feeling, no life. Luckily the kids were instantly excited having me around, and a bit confused by the tall blond guy invading their school. I had forgotten to buy 'indoor' shoes to put on 'the loaner' slippers, which were made for someone with feet half my size. I didn't really know what I was doing, or where I was going, so I just kind of stood in the entrance way, looking confused, until an English teacher came over and showed me to my desk. I was introduced to the principal and vice principal, to whom I attempted to say a nice introduction. Soon after I sat down I had to introduce myself, in Japanese, to the entire office. Fun fun fun. I didn't have much time to catch my breath before I was led to my first ever class!

My first class was with 一年生, first year middle school students, who were the silent type. They also had only done one semester of English and were a bit afraid to talk. The main activity for them was writing down questions, in groups, and asking me questions. I then had a chance to show off my pictures to the students and try and explain about Wisconsin and the US. I was highly nervous and really fumbled my way through the entire ordeal. My second class went much better. They were 二年生, second year middle school students, and they had a much better grasp of English and were very amusing. They spent the period asking me questions and writing down the answers. They then had to do a little write up about me, and the JTE and I went around and helped them out. My final class was with another group of 一年生, first year middle school students. These guys were a bit wild, but very enthusiastic. They were much more responsive then my last group of first years, and asked some very silly questions. By this point in the day I had finally shed my nervous state of being and was communicating much better. I figure that after a week or so of doing this I should have my act down.

Early in the day I was handed a stack of little papers which were welcome messages from my students. They're really damn cute. Some of the kids had gone a bit overboard and drawn all sorts of things on the page, and some of them had fantastic bits of English on them. Then again, others did not. For example one first year student had written the following: "Hello! Welcome to Joto Junior High School! My name is *****. I was born in Fukuyama. I live in Fukuyama. I like table tennis. Call me ***. I'm on the table tennis team. Please come see our club activity." This is an example of a good one. Some bad lines I saw in one were "I like teber tenis so I'm in the teber tenis club. I practice it hard. I like Boa, I like make a secret." Ok, so overall they were very good. There were a few gems though. Pure class. "Probably you are great teacher. So I'm happy to study with you." This kid hadn't met me, yet he already knew what I liked to hear. Another student commented on the tennis instructor at the school, "I'm in the tennis club. Mr. *** is very strict. He is our tennis instructor." I must say though that I am super impressed with their English skills thus far, and I really enjoyed the welcome messages. I think I might put a few up on my wall at home. They're so cute.

The last guy to teach here was Rick, and I was told several times that he was "the best teacher ever," so I've got that to look forward to. On the upside Rick's Japanese was so good that he never spoke English to the English teachers, so they hardly ever got practice. If nothing else I can use my lack of Japanese to help further their English! I really need to be on the ball at this school due to the act which I am forced to follow.

After my classes I had to catch a bus back to City Hall to fill out a bunch of paper work. I hate paper work, but its the fuel that moves this country. I'm surprised that there are any trees left in this country with all the paper they use just on random paperwork things. It was raining quite a bit harder on my way home as well. Typhoons suck. It should hit tomorrow sometime, which is why class was canceled for me. I guess it'll be another dull day in the office.

A large group of JETs headed up to Mount. Fuji this weekend in an attempt at a 'night climb'. This meant that a lot of people were not around to hang out with in Fukuyama, so I had to make my own fun. Jess and I decided to do a little traveling of our own on Saturday. We took a look in one of the many tour guides we had at our disposal and decided to head on over to the island of Innoshima, which was about an hour's bus ride away. Much to my surprise I was able to find out which bus to take, and an hour later we ended up on Innoshima. Sadly we were not able to figure out the bus system in Innoshima so we took a cab to the Innoshima Navy Castle.

The castle sits on top of a steep hill, and it a bit of a climb. At the bottom was a cool little Buddhist temple, as well as a grave yard. On our way up the hill we ran into a Japanese couple who talked to us for a bit. The guy had apparently spend time in New Zealand and I think he was making fun of Jess because of all the sheep there. The top of the hill contained several small buildings which had info on the castle and the time period it was built. One building contained a scene of samurai hanging around a table, one contained a fun museum with lots of swords and armor, and another contained a lot of little models of various ships from around the world. The most impressive things were the really cool suits of armor in the museum. They were completely scary. The oddest thing was a model of the Spaceship Yamato in the little ship model collection, seeing as how it is fictional, and looked out of place next to the Spanish Gallon. The view from the top of the hill was quite nice, though the entire region was covered in a haze thinks to an impending typhoon.

We then attempted to catch a bus back to the main section of town, but once again couldn't read the sign. So I then attempted to communicate with a Takoyaki (たこやき) vender for directions. This sort of worked, but we ended up in a very odd situation. While we were waiting at the bus stop the vender came down to hang out with us. It turned out that he had called a friend, who spoke great English, to come and drive us around in his van. I was initially a bit wary of entering into any strange vans, but then remember that this is Japan and these things are always fine. Yoshitaka Saeki told us that he had traveled to the US back in the mid 70s, when he was a teenager, and that he was more then happy to hang out with us for a few hours. He took us to our next destination (its a small island), the top of Mt. Shirataki. This was the tallest mountain on the island (300 Meters) and also home to a very cool temple. Though we drove most of the way, the climb we did do made me glad that I hadn't gone to Fuji (my knee hurt). Our buddy told us that he had climbed all the way up here, from the bottom, with his high school class mates back in the day. Impressive. At one point an old couple lived on the top of this mountain and maintained the place, but now their house remains empty. What we had come to see where the hundreds of stone statues and carvings of Buddhas on the ridge. The impressive thing is that these were all carried up hundreds of years ago, by hand.

The view from the top made the entire trip worth while. You could see all the surrounding islands, ocean, and mainland. I'm sure the view would have been even better if not for the haze. Typhoons suck. It was also very cool to be able to see a couple of the massive bridges that connected the islands to each other. Very very cool. It was also quite apparent at that point that none of this would have been possible without the help of our new friend Mr. Yoshitaka. Japan is great. Mr. Yoshitaka noticed that I had my Kansai Gaidai shirt on, and told us that one of his daughters went to the Kyoto campus where she studied english. I love me shirt, if not for the fact that someone always notices it when I'm on trips.

Sunday was yet another trip for me. Julia had informed me that a group of JETs were heading to Kure to see 'some submarine museum.' I figured that was a good enough reason to head out, so at 10:30 am we headed down the coast. Though the ride was long it was very scenic. We had to switch trains at Mihara, and the new line ran alone the coast and gave us a really cool view. It would have been better if not for the rain and haze from the impending typhoon. Typhoons suck. We gathered more people along the way and met up with Travis, our official Kure JET guide. Kure is the 3rd largest city in Hiroshima Prefecture and looks like a fun place to hang out. Due to the rain we bummed around in a mall, where we pondered the usefulness of Japanese fuzzy toilet seat covers (don't they get dirty?) and several people bought shirts with Engrish on them. Its the gift that keeps on giving.

The so called 'submarine museum' was actually the brand new Kure Maritime Museum, whose main focus was on the battleship Yamato. The ship has a certain significance in both Japanese and ship building history. The Yamato (やまと）was the last great battleship the Japanese ever built. Not only was it the largest battleship the Japanese had ever made, it is still the largest battleship made in world wide Naval history. The ship was almost 300 Meters long, and held an impressive array of guns and modern technology. The true tragedy of it all was that the ship was sunk by a US submarine as it was sailing out of the harbor on its maiden voyage. The museum was just completed this past summer, and at its center is a 1/10 scale model of the Yamato (1/10 being 30 Meters, which is like 100 feet). Very impressive, and very big. The museum also contained history on the Japanese navy during WWII, a lot of little ship models, and historical artifacts from different times in navel history. The things I personally really enjoyed were seeing a Japanese Zero bomber, a Japanese suicide maned torpedo sub, and a Japanese mini-sub. Even today these are impressive pieces of technology.

Though all the WWII stuff was historical and fun, everyone enjoyed the 'Future Technology' section. Not because it was littered with fun sci-fi stuff, but because it all centered around the 'Spaceship Yamato.' A while back, probably like 20-30 years ago, there was a Japanese comic whose premise was that some guys in the future dug up the Yamato and turned it into a spaceship. Of corse this meant that they had to battle space pirates, who had equally silly ships and space pirate outfits. Naturally this comic spawned an animated series and firmly planted itself in Japanese culture. We all enjoyed watching a video, all in Japanese, about this kid who saved Mars from being hit by a comet. What the point of this thing was in the museum is beyond me.

After the museum we headed back to the mall for some Chinese food, and then took the fun 2 and a half hour train ride home. Once again I slept most of the way home, which really isn't that comfortable on a train. Back in Fukuyama I tried throwing a 100 Yen in a video game, only to get my ass kicked by a 12 year old. So is my life.

I found out the other day that I can get IDSN internet from my phone company at my home. Japan is really weird about internet. At my parents house in Wisconsin, their cable modem's speed is 4 Megabits. Which is really damn fast for the US. All my friends were amazed by the speed. Here in Japan they advertise internet access up to 50+ Megabits. But depending on the plan, the company, and the service you could get anywhere between dial- up to the 50+ megabits. The thing is I don't think its physically possible for someone to get a full 50 megabits coming into their computer these days. Anyways, I'm happy I can get a connection that is more then adequate enough for video conferencing and downloading, it just won't be super crazy speeds like whats being advertise Otherwise I'd go crazy.

I also made a video out of my weekend, just cuz. The fun of Innoshima and Kure, in video form! Also for your viewing pleasure photo albums from both Innoshima and Kure! Ooooooo!

Many people have the misconception that Japan is a polite country. It most certain isn't a polite country, its a hyper polite country. Words can not describe how polite Japanese people can be in just random situations. To quote a speaker I head last month "Americans start out their speeches with a joke, Japanese start out their speeches with an apology." Near my place there is some road construction, and I was a little taken back by one of the signs. Only in Japan do you have signs showing someone bowing and apologizing for the construction. You really never believe these things until you actually start seeing them every day. My only hope is that I'm still confused and fascinated by these things in a year.

Thank goodness its Friday. I seriously didn't know if I could take much more 'doing nothing' this week at work. Those darn chairs hurt my back. I start teaching on Monday and that at least motivates me to be somewhat prepared. I think I'm kind of lucky in my situation. I go to a different school every day, and teach 2 or three classes there. After talking with Helen the other day, my situation rocks. Helen works at a local high school and teaches 3 classes a day, one week a month. So for the rest of the month she does nothing. Nothing at all. I would go out of my mind.

My plans this weekend are very open. A lot of people are taking a trip to Mont. Fuji for a 'night hike' and thus will be gone. I opted out of this one for several reasons. First off is the 12 hour bus ride there. Second is the long hike in the cold, high altitude, night air. Third is the 12 hour bus ride home. Lastly, I start teaching on Monday. A bit too much work for me right now. I'm sure I'll do it eventually, when I have proper gear and am in slightly better shape.

My parents are apparently holding up in Milwaukee without me. While I would be sad that I'm not around them, the thought of not having a job and living at home doesn't appeal to me. Though I do miss the cats. And the little things in life. Like Wendy's, or cheap movies in english. Small price to pay to be in the land of Tempura and KFC. No really, they love KFC here. Its super weird.

Anyways I need to run and return some stuff to DIK. Maybe I'll post some fun school videos and pictures soon. Maybe.