October 2005 Archives

Just a friendly Halloween message from your friends in Japan. Or at least just me and Uda sensei.

In other news... It seems like Japan, or at least the ruling party, is trying to change Japan's pesky anti-war constitution to allow them to have a standing army. If you're not familiar with the Japanese Constitution that was written entirely by the occupying US forces at the end of WWII heres the fun filled 'anti-war' bit.

"Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. 2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."

While this may surprise you, it should not surprise you that the US has been pressuring Japan into doing this for years, but the public backlash in Japan has always kept it in check. The US wants Japan to be a counter to China in the East as an ally, and Japan wants a seat on the UN Security Council. Now here my beef with it all. First off Japan has the worlds second largest economy, even with it being in a giant 15 year depression, but yet can't get a seat on the security council. The one thing holding them back, so say the US, is the fact that they don't have a standing army. But the problem with Asia is that everyone over here doesn't want Japan to have an army (including a large amount of Japanese). Even though its been over 50 years since WWII Asia is still pissed off at Japan for taking over a good chunk of it. More so for say the Chinese and the Koreas, who fought a very long and very bloody war with Japan for almost 20 years. So if the Japanese don't want to have a standing army (any more then the 275,000 Self Defense forces they already have) than give them a break. The last thing anyone wants is a destabilized Asia.

Even better is the fact that the US is pulling its forces out of Japan bit by bit. Okinawa is losing half its marines, which the Okinawaians like. Every year or so some marine goes out and does something bad to a school girl, or the base over exerts it power in the local area. But than again they will be losing out on a lot of income from the base as well. All I know is that some JETs in my area have had some bad experiences with Marines being dumbasses in Japan.

Speaking of dumbasses.... I've been checking out quite a few podcasts, many of which are in Japan. Theres a good one about being an English teacher in Japan, as well as one about learning natural Japanese. There are quite a few other Japanese audio and video podcasts, but I've yet to get around to even sampling many of them. Though I did find this independent cartoon podcast to be super cool. Graham and I really need to get working on our silly Japan videos...

Google Maps now has Japanese map info on it. Something that wasn't there two months ago. I'm quite sure they just bought the highly detailed map info from one of the many Japanese map software companies, because its all in Japanese. Due to the fact that roads in Japan do not have names having map software on your computer or highly detailed GPS in your car is very important. I'm quite impressed that my apartment block is listed on the map. Its in the middle, トータスホーム. Please don't stalk me. Unless you're cute.

Friday night Bill, Lynn, and I watched a few films over at my place. Had to show off fun filled apartment. No one ever visits me. Being Halloween and all we ended up watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Donnie Darko. Lynn had never seen Rocky and Bill had never seen Donnie. So all in all it was a nice science fiction double feature.

I went to a string concert up in Shin Ichi on Saturday. Ended up being a viola concert. Which was odd, seeing how you never actually see those. Viola I mean. In public. I headed up there by myself, and as expected I was the only white guy in the audience. A weird feeling. The ex-mayor of the city came over and spoke to me for a while (in English), which was cool. The concert was super nice, as the German guy and his Japanese wife both played viola. The concert ended with a Mozart string quintet. I'd tell you what they played, but I'm way too lazy to translate katakana. No really. I'm lazy. The cool thing was that I was able to talk to them for a moment afterwards.

Saturday night was an evening of Halloween bliss. I went dressed up as 'Mitch' from 'Crest Industries' thanks to a jump suit that I found at a second hand store. I also had a whole lot of tooth brushes and floss with me. Long story short any evening where I can see Hunter S. Thompson make out with Santa Clause is a good evening in my book.

So Apple released a cool front end to all their iApps called Front Row. Its meant to be used with a remote, and only with the new iMacs that just came out. It turns your iMac into a multimedia center, using the power of iTunes, iMove, iPhoto, and the internet. Its quite cool, but it sucks that it only runs on the new iMacs. Or does it. The program itself is available on a lot of torrent sites and easy to get. Installing it takes seconds, but the program doesn't run without a remote. Luckily I have a Bluetooth Nokia 6630 phone that also has Salling Clicker on it, and that turns my phone into the perfect remote. Thanks to a nice Salling Clicker script I was able to get Front Row running in no time. Here are some shots.

The program itself is a work of art. Things look nice, is what I'm saying. Everything moves gracefully across the screen and images reflect on the ground below the image. Things twirl, preview of movies play, and soothing sounds play when you click things. Actually functionally is a different thing. Everything Front Row does you already can do on your computer. Like playing music, or watching DVDs, or or doing iPhoto slide shows. All Front Row does is access these functions from the other programs through one nice interface, with a remote. Which does impress people. The one thing that really got me impressed was how it will access the Apple website and let you watch movie previews through Front Row. Quite cool.

The program runs fine on my 12in Powerbook 1.33 ghz with 768 RAM. Due to its GUI coolness you'll need at least a 1 ghz computer with at least 512 RAM to run it. Mostly because its also accessing iTunes, Quicktime, iPhoto, ect at the same time. So your computer probably will be bogged down. Anyhow, hope this helps some people.

So I've been super tired again. Looks like I need to be doing some sleeping in this weekend. In-between Halloween parties and such. Theresa is going to come stay at my place this weekend so she can attend the Halloween party, and in return she is going to be dragged along to a string quartet concert in Shin Ichi on Saturday. Some local peoples (foreigners actually) have one going on and I could really use some live music that doesn't kill my ear drums. I also want to make some connection in the local music scene as I might continue the playing of my VIOLA OF DEATH! Not quite death, but its a viola, so whatever. Also be sure to check out the picture above to see if your skirt is the proper length for school. Watch out.

Looks like Mr. Sulu was gay all along. Which must have made that 5 year mission a bit weird for everyone. Him going where no man has gone before. You're still super cool.

The thing I love most about being a Mac user is the number of little cool applications that are amazingly written by average people. Such as the iTunes visualizer Jewel Case, which gives you a 3d spinning CD case with the album cover and tracks on it. Awesome. Or the super cool and super useless Disctop Pro, which shows any inserted CD or DVD on your desktop. Even cooler is that it now downloads the CD cover and put it over the image on your desktop. Useless, but really really really cool. Especially for users of the new iMac. PLus the weirdest and most old school thing ever, The MegaMan Effect. Whenever you open an application is give you an old school MegaMan Boss into, with the cheesy music and 8 bit graphics. Ok, so they're all useless. But even better is how they're all free.

Podcasts are my new TV and Radio. I love them to bits and it gives me a daily dose of fresh English media. Be it news, tech, or just weird Canadians who live in a Tiki Bar. Graham and I really need to get on making one of our own.

For some reason I woke up at around 5:40 am this morning to the sound of people talking and cats crying. I was a bit confused by it all, seeing how I figured it was still slightly too early for my neighbors to be out talking in the street. Though only slightly. So seeing as how I was up I put on my shoes and my jacket and walked outside. For some reason a pickup truck filled with all sorts of fish was just across the street from me. Well seeing as how I was already outside I walked on over, which probably confused the several people that were there more than me. The truck was filled with all sorts of fish. Squid, tuna, a full eel, and lots of random stuff. They were selling the fish to my neighbors, and the cats were begging for the fish. The old lady who appeared to be running the show was way too friendly for 5:45 am. After some really bad Japanese on my part (it was 5:45 am, believe me I could hardly speak English) she asked me if I liked Octopus Sushi. I said I did, so she then said 'Ahhhhh', like the way a doctor would if he was going to depress your tongue. So I did the same, and then she stuck a little Octopus Sushi keychain in my mouth. Yeah, so it was super super weird.

(By the way, the picture above is outside my train station and has nothing to do with the above story. I just don't have a lot to say about it. Its a guy in a hot pepper suit.)

Out at Tsunekane Junior High School I had another fun day with nature. When I got there the kids were preening their flowers for their upcoming school festival. They were having a great time applying some sort of flower brace to them. Beats me what they were really up to, probably something diabolically fiendish as usual. Between my classes some boys showed me a mantis that they had found. The little thing was half dead, as you can see from the photo. Its normally bright green shades had turned to a dark green (I hate colors). The upside was that I was able to take quite a few pictures of it. I've been surprised at the number of mantises I've seen around my house and out here at Tsunekane. I think I've seen five around my place, and three at this school. Which brings my lifetime total to about 8. I don't know what the habitat of the mantis is in North America, but I've never seen one in person before in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, or Wisconsin. Or any state I've visited before. No matter how you look at it I've had far more 'insect' experiences in Japan in the past 4 months than I have in the past 4 years in America. Roaches, butterflies, dragonflies, mantises, deadly caterpillars, evil centipedes, hornets, and wasps. They didn't cover any of this in the JET training manual. Then again my final class of the day was freaking out over a couple of stink bugs that had flown in the window. Sigh.....

I put up even more student comics today. I think this batch is the best so far. They're super funny, and I hope you enjoy the fun that I have in class with these. The kids are sooo funny. Especially when you conceder how badly I write this blog and that I'm actually attempting to teach people.

A really randomly interesting day for me out at Utsumi Junior High School. Really randomly odd, and really randomly amusing. Except for the fact I was dog tired all day, except for the 10-11 caffeine burst. I hate mornings where I have to catch a 7 am bus. They kill me. At least I'm not falling asleep anymore on my commute.

The first odd thing about today was that during lunch a group of my second year male students (think 8th grade boys) ushered me out behind the school. Seems they like me enough now to think I'm cool, or at least they're amused with me. For some reason they wanted to arm wrestle with me. Several of them. In a row. For little dudes they're rather strong. While I may not be the most 'in shape' person around, I can still hold my own against my students. Crazy Japanese. They later got another teacher out there to do the exact same thing, in which he completely kicked their little behinds.

The other odd thing that happened concerns this document that you see. My second years were learning how to compare things. Such as saying: this thing is bigger then this thing, or this thing is longer then this thing. My JTE had whipped up a worksheet about it with a sample dialogue for us to do. I had to really concentrate to stop myself from laughing the entire time. The whole "Which is bigger, yours or mine?" conversation was a non-stop inuendo. First off I am quite juvenile. Second, my students are smart enough that quite a few of them were thinking the exact same thing I was, and they were laughing their little asses off and making it clear they got it. The worksheet is complete comedy gold, and I seriously think its the funniest thing I've seen yet in Japan. Especially because it wasn't intended that way. Good lord it was fun.

The rest of our activity in that class revolved around balloons. See we had the kids each blow one up, and then compare sizes and write down their findings. For some reason these kids were having a very tough time blowing them up. Like I never expected that 14 year olds would have a tough time blowing up standard balloons, but there they were, having issues. Even worse was when we broke out the long skinny 'balloon animal' balloons, and several guys almost passed out trying to blow them up. Only my skillful JTE, Uda Sensei was able to do it. Clearly he's a man who knows his balloon animals.

I added even more comics today, just because I can. I still have a stack of them left to go through, in which a large chunk are probably the best I've seen. I'll be doing some more comics in some of my classes next week seeing how Halloween is on Monday. Hmm... I should dress up for class. Mid-west style.

My apartment is now officially, in order. Or about as much order as I can ever expect it to be. Graham and Bill helped me put my big book shelves together on Sunday night which really helps bring the entire room together. I put some more things up on the wall to spruce it up a bit. And I cleaned my dishes! Be impressed! Maybe I should make a video about it... again...

I had to go over to Deo Deo to see what was up with my internet connection, or my lack there of to be more exact. After waiting for a long time as my reps called, called again, called a third time, called back a fourth time I eventually got word that MEGA EGG will be sending me the proper paperwork in one or two days. Then I can wait for a while longer as they put me in their schedule for actually installation.

While I was there I bought a scanner, and scanned in a few of my student's comics. I've made a page and stuck a few up. I need to scan the rest in when I have some time. Which would be most any night during the week. I also stuck up a video of me teaching. Or as they say in Japan "Corrupting the minds of the young with my filthy western ideas." Nothing that bad, but you get the drift of how things happen these days.

Speaking of teaching we did a mock 'store' with the kids, and my JTE brought along some western goodies. As you can probably see in the picture there are potato chips, peanuts, candy, and spam. Yes spam. Spam spam spam spam. Ever try explaining what Spam is to a group of 13 year olds? And then trying to explain that people actually enjoy eating it? Oh, its not pretty.

The book Memoirs of a Geisha has been made into a movie. Now the movie looks like its in Japan. The movie does contain Japanese actors. The movie appears to be true (from the preview) to Japanese society at that period in history. Too bad that many of the actors and actresses are either Chinese or Malaysian. Not that theres anything wrong with that, its just kind of weird, and wonder if anyone will actually notice. I also wonder if any Japanese at all is spoken in the film. It'll still be good, and the Japanese will still love it.

Woooo! What a time this weekend was. I'll spare you many of the details... or will I?

Friday night I went out to dinner with the other ALTs at city hall and my boss. We all went out to Fandango, which is a nice little Italian place downtown. They have actual stone oven roasted pizza. Good stuff. Really good stuff. We had a fun time, and eventually went off for some after hours karaoke. Which is something everyone must do on their Birthday, thanks to laws passed by the Pro Karaoke movement of the Democratic Party. Those bastards. I was given a bag full of fun gifts. Bread and sports drink, which carry a very special meaning to me. Deep in my heart. Though the evening was almost ruined when I found myself taking to Patricia in 'slow English teacher English'. I'm not sure if I was doing it out of habit, or because Patricia is Japanese(ish). Either way she almost killed me.

Saturday was a BBQ blast! A large group of us went up to Matt's place in Kanabe for a three way Birthday bash for myself, Matt, and Jenn. There ended up being over 20 people crammed into his little place, and quite a few people outside grilling. The weather had turned unusually cold, so much so that I was forced to put on jeans. I spent most of my time outside grilling in the cold, and then handing plates in the window. I made some super special and super good grilled veggies made from some sweet mushrooms, some onions, and some red and yellow peppers. Sadly zucchini is non existent in this country so I couldn't grill any of those up. Maybe I should grow my own. Anyways it was a crazy time with good grilled food, good drinks, and good company.

We all headed to Fukuyama around 9ish and hit the local scene. Quite the bash ensued as we we joined by quite a few random other English teacher we knew and quite a few crazy Japanese. Long story short it was fun. Thanks to everyone involved, and to Matt, for letting us destroy your place and piss your neighbors off.

I survived yet another year! Woooo! Its a testament to my ability to dodge cars and fast moving old people on bikes in this country. As of today I am now 23, and celebrating my second birthday in Japan. In a row. Odd how that works out. So far my birthday has been rather fun. I got an e-mail from my father at 4 am, which caused my cell phone to go off and freak me out. I got a pack from my mother yesterday, which I waited until 12:01 to open. Such a wonderful gift of black socks, white shirts, toothpaste, deodorant, and the movie Sideways on DVD. Everything I asked for. But an extra surprise was that I also got a new watch! And a stylish one at that. Now I will never have an excuse for being late. Too bad too.

I spent my day at Tomo Junior High School where we all sang The Monster Mash and did some more comics. Lets just say it was a graveyard smash. Which never ever get dull. I really need to find a scanner, because a couple of the comics the kids made almost got me crying. I also got the kids laughing by asking them questions about Godzilla and making them answer them in English. Even more laughs were had when I brought up Gamara. It was a good day at school. On my way back from work I ran across the old ladies walking their dogs who I see every now and then. See they put their dogs in baby strollers and walk them like that. I took a chance and was able amuse them with bad Japanese, and snap a photo or two. They were quite cute.

Tonight the group of us from work are going out for Italian, and tomorrow there is a nice big BBQ for a three way birthday party! Matt, myself, and Jen. Three birthdays, three times the fun. JET style.

Yesterday was productive, and very busy. I spent the morning at Chuo Junior High School where I had a surprisingly good time. The kids have really taken a liking to me for some reason, and I got a really great compliment from one of the teachers. She said that I was quite popular at the school, and that the last ALT wasn't really friendly and didn't like the school. Its probably my child like silliness that amuses the students. That or maybe I'm a bit crazy. Either way. During my off period I went outside and conversed with the 1st years who were having a day long sports contest. They were quite into the whole ordeal and there was even a 'injured' bench of sorts. I had my third years do some more comics and they actually enjoyed it. I always show the kid's work to the other ALTs at city hall and we laugh our asses off. Some of them are so good, and I really must make it a priority to find a scanner soon.

After school I stopped at the Indian Restaurant and picked up some decorations for my apartment, took them home, and put them up. Now my room has a very cool Indian/ Giant Robot theme happening. After work, which I went back to eventually, I ran over to DIK and picked up quite a few items. Some shelves on stilts for above my washer, some shelves for next to my bed, a nice big bookshelf for my main room, and the one thing that has alluded me now for three months; a silverware holder for my drawer in the kitchen. I put everything up in my place except for the giant book shelves and the place looks good. I just need to wait until this weekend when Alun drops by and make him help me put the big shelves together.

And last night was my first Japanese lesson, in which I learned how to say things in a very apologetic manner. Man, I wish I would have known about that a couple of weeks ago....

I love this internet cafe. To which I am probably putting the owner's five year old daughter through private kindergarden schooling. I quickly drop in for some tea and toast and I find that I've been given a little Gundam figurine for my birthday. I love this place, and the little robot will do nicely on my new shelves. Tis be a good birthday.

Last evening I had a wonderful time eating some home made Tacos with Julia and Mike. Plus I got set up with some private Japanese lessons so I can actually attempt to improve my Japanese language skills beyond the basic bar scene. Which I need. And its cheap. And a lot of JETs take lessons from this lady. And she lives down the street from me. How lucky I am.

I traveled out to Tsunekane Junior High School today, which means I ended up an hour out into the countryside. I don't get to go to this school very often and I really enjoy my time there. I always end up seeing very weird random things. Weird things besides what my students do. I had my students do some more comics today in class, and some turned out really really funny. I need to find a scanner and get them online. I'll attempt to do that tomorrow. During lunch I wondered outside to see what the students were up to. Being such a nice day many of them were out playing baseball, tennis, or just talking. I was able to snatch a bat away from one of the students and got to play a little baseball, much to the amusement of all my students. I do enjoy these kids. County side kids are always the best because they don't get to see many foreigners, and I am such a big and silly one at that.

The school has the students growing all sorts of random plants around the building. Every student has a tall flower of some sort growing at the front of the school and I think each one has to take care of their own. As I was walking by one of the students got all excited and pointed out a little green frog, maybe two or three centimeters long on one of the plant leaves. The cute little guy has a seashell on his back for some reason, which made him even more cute. I then noticed a second frog in the next plant over. So I grabbed my camera and started taking lots of photos. Hopefully I can enter one of these into a photo contest. Ohhh if only I could win I'd buy a nice Canon SLR camera for myself. Used.

I put up my Tokyo Game Show 2005 video. Its a fun one. Filled with wonderful games, crazy cos-players, and attractive booth babes. The joys of being in Japan! Watch the video and be amazed by it all. Or maybe just the retro video game music I'm shamelessly using.

I only had one class at one of my far out schools today, and a late class at that. So I decided to take some time and sleep in a bit, eat some corn flakes, clean up, and measure my apartment for when I do spruce it up. Eventually. I actually had one of those morning, no, one of those days where I was just like 'I feel great!' A good mood has fallen over me lately for some reason and I need to ride it out for a bit. Maybe its because my Birthday is Friday, or the fact that the weather is so good. Who knows.

So when I did actually get on a train to my school I ran into a snag. I was just just siting there, listening to my iPod Shuffle, when the train just decided to stop and hang at a station for 5 minutes. The conductor told me that the train was heading back to Fukuyama, and that I should wait. Ok... so there I waited for half an hour for another train to come get me and take me 5 stops down to my station. Kind of odd just hanging out at a random train station in the middle of nowhere, with a really odd station manager who was eyeing me. I doubt he often gets randomly tall foreigners hanging out at his station. Always glad to freak people out. (I even freaked out a small child today. It was a good day)

I keep having issues getting to this one school. The total trip out there is around an hour, and having bus or train issues makes my trip a little strenuous. That and the fact that this was the same school where the buses didn't stop to pick me up a week ago, thanks to the bus schedule changing on me. (The only buses that did stop were some strange dog buses for school children) The one big downside of attending six school is that every day I have to remember a different bus or train, and a different time to be there. This ranges from 6:50 am some mornings to 8:30 on others. No wonder my sleeping is messed up a bit.

When it comes to roads, I'm a bit spoiled. Every town I've ever lived in has had a nice grid layout, and some good city planning. Not so much here in Japan. Roads curve all over, and most streets don't have names. I'm still finding stuff hidden on little side roads in my neighborhood and in the city center. Even more weird is that in the main part of the city we have things like lumber mills and little meat packing plants. Seriously, big trees sitting in packing lots waiting to be chopped up and people slicing up meat. At least the trains run on time.

So the Prime Minister of Japan is up to no good again. Every year Koizumi visits the Yasukuni shrine as a 'private citizen' and not as 'Prime Minister.' So now people are complaining, again. Then again other nations are pissed off in the area. See the shine has the ashes of dead soldiers in it, from many different wars, including ashes of certain 'war criminals' from WWII. Which then upsets people when your Prime Minister visits the shine to pay respect to the soldiers, some of whom are considered very bad. Then again he is paying respect to those who served their nation, for good or bad, and give their lives. Complicated things but hey, it could be worse. You could have a President who openly states that God speaks to him and tells him to invade countries.

Before I tell you my extremely good news I'll first make you read through my weekend. To kill whatever high spirits you might possibly have. This way my good news seems much much better.

Friday night I had the good fortune of being invited over to dinner with the owner of the Internet Cafe, to which I spend so much time in. To tell you the truth I was thrilled to have a home cooked meal and hang out with a family. I got to meet his wife and his five year old daughter, who played the piano for me. It was a fun evening and I left their place feeling very full and with a gift of a Gundam Model. It seems that my favorite owner is quite the Gundam model maker in his spare time, and his wife and I joked about it for a bit. My Japanese is improving, or at least it was out in full force that evening. What usually happens is that when I break out a lot of bad Japanese the people I'm talking to break out a lot of bad English and somehow it all works out.

Saturday night I went out with Bill and a couple of other English teachers (non-JETS). It was a bit odd, because I was the youngest person there and they all made fun of me. While there are quite a few college grad aged English teachers here there is also the strange group of people over 30 who have wondered into Japanese life. I know quite a few of them and even work with a couple. Not that theres anything wrong with being over 30, its just that for once in my life everyone seems rather amused by my lack of age. Plus they all say that I have a baby face. Now thats a first. Actually I got the same reaction the night before....

Sunday was a wonderful day. The weather was sunny and cool. Graham dragged me down to the train station to help him with a video he's making for his High School students. I played the part of Rick who was having issues at the train station and had to make a phone call. Oh me and my over acting. Speaking of which Graham wants to make some funny videos, and I really want to do some funny videos about Japanese life. Maybe we can come up with a video podcast or something about silly foreigners in Japan.

I love hanging at the train station on busy days. So many strange Japanese people pass by. While the three of us were at the train station a bunch of really scary Japanese women walked by in either ultra goth outfits or maybe just Halloween outfits. I can never tell. The young people of this country are really weird.

I ended up doing some shopping and bought myself an iPod Shuffle. I needed something really small for taking around with me, and also a USB flash drive for my constant traveling to all my schools. I kind of figure its a birthday gift to myself. Its so cute. I went out for a couple of plates of sushi with Jess, Patricia, Graham, and Natasha. Even better was that after that I met up with John, a Geos English teacher from England, and one of his adult students for some Indian food. John and I have been trying to meet up for Indian food for a while and we finally found time. John would know Indian food best, as he spent a couple of years working there. Theres a nice little Indian joint just downtown that also has a nice shop in it. The food was wonderful and rather cheap, but the thing that interested me was all the fun stuff they had at their shop. I really need to decorate my apartment and I think having my bedroom with an Indian theme. Make it look less dorm like. Maybe I need more shelves.

Ok, so as to my really great day. I got up in a good mood, something that never actually happens at 6 am on a Monday. I managed to stay awake on the bus all the way to my school, which is a plus. I even had quite a nice day at Utsumi in the nice nice weather. I even recorded some fun audio for an upcoming test with Uda sensei. I even had an OK time at the bank sending home a large chunk of money. Rather painless. But at work was such a nice surprise, another chunk of cash. Seems that the department had allocated a certain chunk of money for our orientation in Tokyo, and the difference was being given back to us. Surprisingly enough the money is just the amount that a new video iPod costs. But even better news, in my book, was that I got the OK from my building owner to get the new line that allows me to get internet. So in probably 3 weeks I'll have internet, or at least in theory I will baring any unforeseen snags. Oooo I can use this new cash to decorate my apartment. Such joys of joys.

As I pull into my apartment parking lot tonight I hear this cat crying. Crying a lot. So I look around thinking maybe someone's cat is injured. What I find is this little kitten, maybe two months old, crawling around by my neighbors house. The poor little guy was a little beat up and one of his eyes looked like it had an infection. The little dude was quite friendly and eventually one of my neighbors came over and picked it up and dropped it off down the street. Some kids then played with him for a bit, and I was left wondering what would happen to the little guy. I'm not sure if theres an animal shelter like thing here in Japan, but what I do know is that I can't have animals in my apartment and also that I wouldn't now what to do with a kitten. Not that I wasn't super tempted to take him up to my place and nurse him back to health. Sigh.... poor little dude...

I've found it quite difficult to explain Halloween to my students, especially the younger ones. With such a limited vocabulary its tough to actually explain the origins of the holiday, which a lot of my teachers want me to do. Bill has found himself in much the same situation, but instead of just having some subtle apathy towards it he actually did some hard core internet research. His results were quite funny. He found a nice description of the history of Halloween and how it was a harvest festival that the Celts observed to mark the end of summer. They got dressed up to scare away evil spirits, and then ran around with lanterns made out of turnips. This was the nice version. The second version he found talked about how the Celts worshiped some god (with the wonderful subtitle to his name 'the lord of darkness'), and that the Celts dressed up and worshiped witches and evil spirits and even sacrificed people to appease their angry gods. This is kind of disturbing until you realize its a publication by an online Baptist organization, oddly enough based out of Milwaukee. Crazy Baptists trying to demonize yet anything fun activity. I still find it funny that I know people who refuse to take part in any Halloween festivities, or let their kids take part in it, because of religious reasons. Honestly people, try and find any religious connection in Halloween these days. The only result you'll get is your kids resenting you for not letting them take part in the same fun everyone else is taking part in.

Going to a Japanese movie was much like you'd expect. It was a movie theater, a small one by most people's standards. Tickets are sold for specific seats, so you have to pick out where you want to sit ahead of time. Which was a bit odd last night because there were only about 12 other people at the movie besides us foreigners, so seating didn't matter. Their food selection is rather nice, at least at this place. Pop corn galore, candy, chips, sweet rolls, and beer. I was surprised by that one, and not too expensive either. Maybe next time. I was happy to find that there were quite a few US movies showing up in the next month so I'll probably go to a couple more. The Thursday "guys night" tickets were only 1000¥, which is currently less then $9 USD, so around what I was paying in Milwaukee for an evening ticket. Poor Elli, she had to pay 1800¥ for her ticket. The price she pays for hanging with three cool guys.

I've been invited to dinner at the Internet Cafe Owner's home, with him and his family. I knew being extra nice to everyone I meet would pay off eventually. My first Japanese Dinner! I've missed you home cooked meals, so much. This is a nice start to a weekend, one where I once again have no real plans. Yet. I'm thinking of taking a small day trip somewhere random. Just cuz.

I stuck up a little photo album of my different schools and the kids. Enjoy the fun that is my job.

Thanks Apple. I've been planning on getting a new iPod this next Spring or Summer to replace my old 10 Gig (somewhat giant) reversion B iPod. Now Apple has released a Video iPod line to replace their iPod Colors, meaning my next iPod will be a video. The interesting thing is that the new iPod Video is 45% thinner then my iPod, and has over twice the battery life that mine does (or did when I first got it). The iTunes Music Store video content is rather slim right now. 2000 some music videos, some ABC TV shows, and some Pixar shorts. Word on the street says that they all look great when viewed from the iPod Video. The downside is that they don't look so great when viewed on a nice big computer screen. We'll have to wait and see what happens with the online content in the next couple of weeks. But this weekend I'm going to buy myself an iPod Shuffle as a sort of birthday gift to myself. I need something small for going to and from school, plus it doubles as a USB flash drive which I need when going to all these schools and also because I can't hook my computer up to any school network. Sigh... At least the upside is that with recent conversion rates I pay like $3 more here in Japan for the Shuffle. I hate converting stuff.

Heres a good article from the people at ilounge.com on the new iPod and some of the new features Apple announced yesterday.

I bought an album last night off the iTunes Music Store. Something I'd been trying to find in local stores back home, but to no success. So I went online and got it. Ahhh... so good. I should pick up this movie sometimes as well. Rock musicals are great.

I went out to Tomo today. It was such a nice day out, even a bit warm for the season. I snapped a couple of pictures from the top floor of the school. Last week I was in a pinch for stuff to do in a class, so I went online to pvponline.com and grabbed a comic and erased all the text, then gave it to the students as homework. Much to my surprise they actually did their homework, and did it well. Some was quite good, some was quite creative, and some was just funny. I need to find a scanner and get these online. I plan on handing some more out next week. Maybe with a Halloween theme to them. I love my kids.

I put a video up of the baseball game I went to late last month. I really need to get more editing done these days... I hope you enjoy Bill's wild dancing to Euro punk music.

Speaking of Bill... we're heading out to Kanabe later tonight to catch a movie with Matt. Thursday is 'Guy's night' so tickets are only 1000 yen. I'm always up for seeing Sin City again. Even if it is kind of silly at times.

I headed out to Utsumi today, and what a day it was. Yet another wonderful day outside. Clear and sunny, and actually a little warm. Not a problem for me as I'm loving this weather way too much. I had some free time today after lunch, and instead of just surfing the web or editing some video I decided to take a walk along the beach and around my school. So I walked along the beach and talked to some people fishing. I also noticed a super large number of sea weed farms that had been planted in the last week or so. In the winter the fishermen in these parts grow sea weed. Seriously. Its kind of good. Anyways I continued walking around and snapping some pictures because it was so nice. My students saw me out the window and were yelling at me. I love those kids. I eventually walked down the road a couple of blocks and ran into an old lady who had been out digging up clams. Which she then showed me, and explained to me in very fast and very incomprehensible Japanese. I just smiled and said "so so so so." Ahhh yes, the wonders of clam season are on us. No beach story would be complete without a panoramic shot.

I walked back to school and around the building for a while. Directly behind the school is a little shrine. I walked over to it and looked around for a bit. I attempted to snap a couple of pictures of one of the very large black butterflies that I keep seeing around, but I had a tough time. Very fast little insects. The interesting thing about this temple is that the main path to it goes right through the schoolyard. Something you'd never find in the US. I went back to the school and took some more pictures around the school just for the heck of it all. I've found that my picture taking has decreased this time around in Japan. I hopefully can change that by sticking my camera in my pocket more often. To think I actually forget it some days.

Speaking of cameras... I should probably do some video editing tonight. I was sidetracked by playing some Dreamcast and going to be early last night. I honestly and super pleased with my Dreamcast buy, seeing as how it was 5,000¥ (less then $50) and most all my games are under 500¥ (under $5), with the exception of one or two which were brand new when I bought them. Plus on an upside, dispite the fact that these are the Japanese versions of games most everything is in English. Like the game Crazy Taxi is entirely in English, and Sonic Adventures let me pick English as my language. A couple games I took a chance on, Res Evil (AKA Biohazard) and Gundam Online are unplayable until I learn more Japanese. All the more motivation I guess. Now if only I could find a copy if Jet Grind Radio and Chu Chu Rockets I'd be set....

Being without internet at home cuts down my OS X Software fun time. Like I missed out on a new version of DiscTop, the most useless but super cool program ever. What it does is put a big CD or DVD image on your desktop whenever you stick a CD in. The new version searches amazon.com and picked up the CD art and sticks it on the CD images that appears on your desktop when you put a CD in. Its the most fun for people using G5 iMacs, but its still great for everyone else. Plus its free. I also missed out on the new release of Salling Clicker which lets you remote control your Mac from any bluetooth based phone. This program is basically the reason I got a BT phone here in Japan. I've been waiting for the new release before I would buy it, and so today I got myself a copy. Mmmm.... Bluetooth bliss.

While you may not think the Japanese like to party down, once you live here you realize that the entire culture is set up around a party lifestyle. This weekend was a good example of the Japanese lifestyle at its best, non-stop festivals going on everywhere. On Saturday night a group of us took part in a bit of the Autumn Festival in our local town. Actually Jess signed us all up to put on a skit of some sort, and we all figured it was a good thing to do to fit in around here. So we all sang a song with Graham on guitar, and I held up a big poster with a pumpkin on it and said a pumpkin poem. Don't worry, I have video. I just need to edit it all. We were one of many performances that night by local peoples, though I think we lacked the flair of the over 40 (years old) Hula girl show. The kids were a blast to be around, because they found us all very amusing and we all ended up being swarmed. After the skit we all went back to Graham and Natasha's place and played cards. Later Graham, Natasha, and I all went out for some karaoke fun and then a bit of dancing. Ooooh the fun of Japan. The party was still on Sunday morning as groups of people went around my little bit of town carrying a portable shrine and handing out food. I was highly amused by the guy in the fun mask, who was also highly amused with me being amused by him. I was given a nice explanation of the event by one of the older Japanese men who spoke some English. With any luck I'm working my way into my neighborhood and will soon be invited to many a dinner party. My cooking skills really need working on.

Later on Sunday was yet another festival to go to, this time up in Saijo. Alun drove down to my place and we then took a train up to Saijo. This was the major sake fest of the year in this area and all the best breweries from all over Japan were in Saijo to show off their stuff. This event is also popular amongst JETs because of the 1500 Yen all you can drink area, where on Saturday many a JET had found out exactly how much sake they actually could drink. We meet up with Bill, who the day before had enjoyed the sake to the fullest, and we wondered around taste testing sake and going into local breweries. I was super impressed to find some sake ice-cream (so good) as well as a lot of grilled meat on sticks. At one food area Bill made some new friends who were more then happy to share some sake and jokes with us. Japanese sake is an interesting drink. Its like wine in the way that no two breweries make it the same way or have it taste the same way. Its like hard alcohol in the fact that its super potent and you don't need to drink very much of it to feel good. The event closed down around 5 and we headed back to Fukuyama for dinner and an evening out. We concluded the evening by watching the Japanese movie Battle Royal, which features lots of school children killing lots of other school children. To quote me "This is why I became a teacher in Japan." The three of us hung out again on Monday (day off) and traveled around Fukuyama doing some fun filled tech shopping. I bought myself a few more Dreamcast games, because I can't really pass up games that are only 450 yen ($4).

Going back to Saturday morning... the whole office of ALTs were forced to wake up ungodly early for a city wide speech competition. Except for Lynne, this was the first speech competition for all of us. An English speech competition works this way: Children get up on stage, say a speech from memory, and then the 6 of us score them. There is nothing quite like hearing the same speeches for two hours in a row, and then racking your brain out at the end of each one trying to give the poor student some number that accurately ranks how they spoke. My brain hurt. A lot.

In my ongoing struggle for internet... So the only company who can give me internet is MEGAEGG, which runs internet over fiber optics. This is good because its super fast, and also because they're the only ones who are available in my area. The downside is that they have to run a cable to my apartment, which means drilling a hole in my wall, which means getting it approved by my land lord, which means asking my boss to ask my land lord, which means that there is the possibility that I'll still get a big NO in a week. I told my boss today exactly why I needed high speed internet; mostly in order to stay in contact with my family and friends though audio and video chatting, and the necessity that is being able to stay up to date with Western Culture. I also told him that if I couldn't get high speed internet at my current place that I would have to move somewhere else, and that the next JET in my place would end up wanting the same thing. Oh the drama.

So I think tonight I'll finally get around to editing a lot of video I've built up. Tokyo game show, the baseball game, the autumn festival, and some video from one of my schools. That and playing some Dreamcast while waiting for laundry. Yet another full evening for me here in Japan.

Behold the wonder of Japanese t-shirt folding technology. Really. Its weird. I love this country.

Today the kids and I did 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' lesson. Besides the usual 'doctor, lawyer, backer, ect' I added in my own ideas here and there. Like 'Pirate' and 'Ninja.' But giving the kids a bit of freedom to explain why they wanted to do a certain job proved to be rather fun. "I want to be a lawyer because I want to be rich." At least he's honest. "I want to be a junior high English teacher because I like English. My favorite teacher is Mr. Josh." Yeah, suck ups. "I want to be a pro baseball player. My favorite player is Ichiro (NY Yankees) because he sportsmanship observe." We worked on that one for a bit. Then again "I want to be a florist because I like flowers. I like hibiscus best." So overall the students did a good job and used their dictionaries quite well. I always love their answers.

One cool thing is that another teacher video taped the lesson, so next week I'll bring the proper cables and get the video. Then you can see how cool my teaching skillz are. Or just how silly I am.

I'm adding a few helpful Japan links to my 'Japan' area. Some more JET blogs and some useful JET resources. The kind of thing everyone needs now and then.

This is my wild day with Uda Sensei. Or should I say my bogus journey that some of you will never actually believe, mostly because you're lame, and mostly because some of it is rather odd. Not odd in the 'I ran into a male Russian stripper' sort of weird, but weird in a Japanese sort of weird. This day can only really be shown in pictures, so thats why there are so many. Maybe now you'll believe me.

It started out as a rainy Wednesday morning. Rain is good. It makes it cooler here, and also clears some of the nasty small away from around the Lots building. After my 40 minute bus ride Uda Sensei gives me a ride to school. We chat, and we laugh, and we have fun. At school he points out the 'old' school building where yesterday guys in has-mat suits came and removed a hornet nest. A big one. According to him the hornet is the most deadly of Japanese insects, yet the Japanese love them. Some 2000 years ago a Chinese doctor discovered that eating the larva of hornets was good for you. To quote Uda "Like natural Viagra." I'll take is word on it. I was thinking to myself "Right, this is joke or insane." Then he showed me the pictures of the nest. The giant nest. Then he showed me pictures of a plate full of larva. Then the Chinese websites selling the stuff. It makes you feel young and warm all over. Luckily I wasn't at that school yesterday and so wasn't given the opportunity to eat these larva, because I just might have. And then died. This is by far the strangest thing I've seen in Japan thus far.

Class was entertaining. We sang, talked of cats, made small jokes about Spider-man. The usual stuff. But after school was the real treat. Uda drive me around the two islands that make up Utsumi. He first showed me the old ALT house that the JET of the island used to have, before Utsumi was swallowed up by Fukuyama. It was big. Real big. And had a nice view. This panoramic shows how cool it was.

We drove around on a very narrow road, in the rain, and I saw several really nice beaches. All the more reason for me to get a scooter. There is no way I could get to them by bike or bus. Clearly better means of transportation are in order for me. The view was once again cool, and I need to go back to the island sometime soon.

If anyone is wondering what I eat in my day, let me introduce you to my lunch. A nice bento lunch proved to me by my school. Very filling, but I don't know what a lot of it is. Every day its something different. Sometimes very good, sometimes kind of interesting. But its filling and very cheap. Some schools even pay for it. You can't beat a free lunch.

Then again this was my dinner at the internet cafe. Good stuff. Very good stuff, and cheap. Bill even tried his hand at it and loved it. What you see before you is a salad. A bowl of hot potato soup. A bowl of veggies. A big plate of rice. And a plate of teriyaki chicken. Very good for what ends up being $5.50. I can't cook food for that price. Plus I get internet.

Rice harvest season is here. Even in the city the little rice fields are being chopped up. This is just a block away from my place, and the guy was going full speed. Its always interesting to see this done, and see it done by hand. I saw quite a few fields in various stages of being harvested out by Utsumi, but I was surprised to find them behind my place. Seeing as how I'm in the city. I need to ride around more. There are so many tinny nooks and side streets. All in good time.

I took my 7 Am train towards Fuchu today. Then waited in the rain for my bus to show up. I saw buses pass my bus stop, but none stopped. Figuring the bus was late I waited longer. Then I noticed a Japanese woman being very angry that her bus also drove right past her. No idea why this was happening, but my boss eventually called a teacher at my school to come pick me up. But just the start of a long day. I had four classes, with only a lunch break, which wasn't too bad, except my last class was an 'open' class and there were quite a few mothers watching me teach their students. I made extra sure not to curse at them. I didn't end up back at city hall until after 4:30, and I was a bit annoyed by it all. Just a long day.

I filled out my Japanese census. There should have been an English guide to it, but for some reason I didn't have that part. Luckily a regular at the Internet Cafe was able to help me. I feel so illiterate. Which is mostly true all the time.

I ended up talking to Ramin last night for a while. He's getting all setup in Tokyo, and we're trying to figure out a good time for him to come visit me or for me to come visit him. Go working. I stuck up my full school schedule for the year on my webpage earlier, but it also made me realize how much of the semester is already gone and how much I have yet to work.

Anyhow still trying to figure out all my bills and get caught up on random stuff. Still not long before my Birthday, which means I need to plan something out. Eventually. I should rent a movie tonight.

So my weekend was rather fun filled, without being too crazy and or expensive. The best kind in my book this month. I ended up watching a movie on Friday with Helen and Julie. Oh King Arthur. How your movie could have been so much better had it not been neutered.

Saturday I went up to Fuchu for Eric's birthday BBQ. Quite a few people had headed up there for his birthday bash, and the food was good. Alan drove Helen and I back to Fukuyama, and Alan ended up crashing at my place for the night (after I kicked his sorry English butt at Super Smash Brothers!). I also picked up a couple of Dreamcast games for about 300¥ each. Even if they suck, they're cheaper then renting a game.

Sunday the whole group of us from City Hall went to an 'International BBQ' set up by city hall for all sorts of foreigners in the Fukuyama area. There were people there from China, Vietnam, Korea, China, Europe, and North America. The best part was the Japanese style BBQ. Sure the pieces of meat were small, but there was a ton of it, and like 10 different types. The Japanese love meat, and they love to grill, and then eat a lot. They also love to drink. Oh how misunderstood you are Japan.

I had a really fun time teaching today. Mostly because I got to play the Japanese harp! In-between classes I was wondering around and went into the music room and talked to the music teacher. She had me try it out, and I totally shocked the kids by being able to play it. Not tough, and I do enjoying shocking the kids now and then. Class was good, and we played a game of BS with cards that had the months of the years on it. Yeah, I owned my group of kids. Oh yeah.

I'll probably have internet in a month through MEGA EGG. Hopefully. Or else I would cry. In other tech news one of the Japanese teachers at my school today gave me a skin for my Camera. A Macintosh OSX skin for my Nokia 6630 phone. Ahhh... the universal language of guys and toys. Its handy.

My birthday is soon. Send gifts.