Race to the Finish

It's all coming to an end now, and it's sooner than I initially expected. I am excited to go back and see family and friends, go to once familiar places and even drive a car. I have decided to go back earlier for many reasons, but one of the big ones is that I am going to apply for college again and see about working towards a career, not just a short stop at a random employer.

This last week here has been quite hectic! Last weekend was Matsumoto Bon Bon, a very large festival here, and then a friend's birthday, followed by a bit of a going away party for me, but between those events I had to pack and clean as much as possible. This week I am trying to finish up stuff at work as well as continue packing and cleaning. My last day of work is Saturday, and I leave early Sunday morning for Narita and the States, so I don't have much time to spare. My good-byes have been many and rushed in order to fit them in, which has made them a bit easier to be honest. I know I'll miss a lot about Japan and the people that I have come to know, but I also know, I'll be back!

Living in Japan has made me see things differently, or clearer... or something along those lines. I know better what I want and what is important to me, which is why I'm returning to the States.

Three days from now I'll be back home, it's a weird felling. It feels very final.

At the Movies

I went to my first movie in Japan today, and it was almost unsettling. The theatre wasn't unlike the newer ones in America (much like Point Cinema or Lakeville 16) except for the fact that the seats didn't rock/recline at all, though that does seem like a fairly American thing now that I think about it. One difference here is that when you buy your ticket, you also select you seat (me and the friend I went with were basically told that the only remaining seats were on the side and found ourselves a bit removed from the bulk of the patrons... gaijin section?), and the people, or rather the way the people acted (and here en lies the unsettling bit). During the movie no one made barely any sounds. It didn't matter if it was funny or scary, the most I heard was a giggle, maybe two, during the funniest parts, or a slight intake of breath at the scariest part. I never heard a wrapper or whispering or anything... it was really weird, but also kinda nice. It was nice not having the person who's phone rings, or the people behind you who are talking, or the clapping at any part of the movie (I do not understand this), but the really weird part is that this silence carried on though the credits and while the people were filing out of the theatre. I have been at movies with only one other person in the theatre, and that was louder than this!

Too bad it cost 1800 yen (~$18) for a matinee!

Golden Week Sprint

Needless to say, this post has been a long time coming. I don't deny a combination of procrastination and simple laziness on my part, but also it has been relatively hectic here as of late (by which I more or less mean the last 2 months), but I'm already getting a head of myself.

In the end of April/beginning of May, for a week, is a period in Japan known as Golden Week, basically a week, mainly comprised of National Holidays, in which a large portion of Japan has off of work. During this time my parents made the trek to Japan! We spent a bit over a week together traveling and seeing the sights that we could reasonably fit in during that short stint. This was a great and amazing time, not only for the places that we went (of which I planned and was careful to include as many new things for me as I could) and things that we saw, but it was really great being able to see and talk with my parents again, (Skype is great and all, but it's not the same either) not to mention the things that I was able to show them and introduce them to.

The first few days of our journey together we spent in Tokyo, or at least relatively so. We went to Akihabara, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Mt. Fuji and Hakone. It was a very busy three days! To say that I saw much of Tokyo when I was there for three months is and absolute joke, but to try a general tour of it in about two days (Fuji and Hakone are further away and took a day trip) and say that you saw the area is borderline ridiculous!

Hereafter we took the two hour train ride to Matsumoto and I got the next five days or so to show my parents my current haunts and surrounding areas. I spent some days solely in Matsumoto to tour the castle, shops, my work, and other aspects of my daily life, as well as introduce them to a couple of friends and even a few students, albeit unplanned. Then we took a couple of day trips out to some really cool areas surrounding Matsumoto.

First we went to Takayama, which is a site of one of the old 'snowy villages' (the houses with really slanted and thick roofs). One of my favorite parts of that trip was the shops and morning markets in the town. The morning markets were the closest thing to a Farmers' Market that I've seen in Japan, and they had some pretty good eats! The snowy village was beautiful and I loved seeing the houses, but a really cool part of that was our luck of catching a Taiko group performance (the drummers).

The next day we went to Kamikochi, a very large National Park in the mountains (which is actually closed off to every one for almost half the year or so due to the small and winding roads being covered with snow and ice). The Kamikochi area was beautiful and a really great thing to see. Besides the wilderness we also saw a rather large group of monkeys hanging out, that was really cool!

Soon here after we had to return to Tokyo for a few days before my parents return flight. During this time we were able to spend some time in Tsukiji, Asakusa and even take a trip to Nikko! Tsukiji is always a great place to go. It's an amazing place to see, but beyond that they have really great (and fresh) sushi for a good price. We took a day and went up to Nikko and toured the shrines there for a while. Even though it rained it was a fun trip and we were able to see some really amazing buildings!

The departure was a bit tough. The main problems were the trains. Trains in Tokyo are seldom late at all, but of course on this day they were. almost all of the trains to and from Narita airport were about fifteen minutes late, except for the ones that we were to catch from one train to another. Basically we go to one place, arrive fifteen minutes late, thereby just missing the next train and having to wait another 30 minutes or so. By the time we got to the airport I had to run back onto a train to 'maybe' be able to get to Shinjuku just in time to catch my last train to Matsumoto. I had barely enough time to buy my ticket and say goodbye to my parents before having to run, and the train got to Shinjuku with just enough time for me to find and board my next train about a minute before the doors closed and it took off.

All in all the trip was a blast. It was an odd feeling introducing them to the areas that I have come to know so well, or not, over the previous seven months, but it was really cool too.

24 in Japan

This last week was my birthday, and it was interesting to have it in Japan. The lack of the friends and family that I have in America definitely made it's approach a bit somber, but overall I had a pretty good time.

The day of was a bit of a disappointment, but that's mostly because I had to work, and the rest because a couple of the kids in those classes were so much worse, rude and difficult than they ever have been. but I took off early and hit up a couple of bakeries for pastries and coffee (I very much enjoy both!). After work I went to a really cool, small restaurant for some food then to the bar to meet up with a couple of friends for a bit, not too much due to work the next day. I even got a couple of present from some people, which was very ice and completely unexpected.

Once my week was over it was off to the bars, for the real party this time. i went to dinner with a friend and we decided to get started early with sake at the restaurant, actually restaurants, but that'll come later. Come 12:30 we met up with more friends at the bar and started our all-nighter, I'll leave the rest up to your imagination as to what happened through the remaining 6 hours of fun stuffs.

The Cherry Blossoms (さくら) are out, or rather were out over this last week, and the people of all surrounding areas knew about it! all week long last week people had been flocking to Matsumoto from pretty much anywhere, it was quite surprising. Flower viewing (specifically Cherry Blossoms) is huge in Japan! it's the beginning of spring, and that's all the more reason for the people to get out and (as you may guess from early 90's movies of Japanese tourists) they bring their cameras. All around the castle was packed full of people taking pictures of the trees and also families and friends having picnics under the trees. it was actually fairly cool to see so many people out and relaxing, which I just haven't seen much of in Japan. I have pictures of all of this on my picasa site too. but I'm done here. bye bye

Familiarity

I realize that it's been a while, but I honestly don't find much about my day-to-day working life worth writing about (I really doubt that those of you that read this want to read my rants of the annoying kids that are peppered throughout my week's classes). I do realize that I am already taking many things for granted that are alien to our own culture, but it's hard to step back and see what those things are on my own. Anyway, I know I have a decent amount to say now and will do so.

Familiar Things

I have spent the last two months getting accustomed to my daily life and the city that I now live in. I will admit that this has proved harder than I expected and hoped, but is now the less going well. I have met a few friends here, but most all of them are foreigners (I've learned that the Japanese people tend to form fairly tight-knit groups and it can be quite difficult to get into one, especially when they wont approach me assuming that I can't speak Japanese). But along with the new people that I have met I have been shown different parts of the city (one of the foreigners has a car). Since I am now aware of more places I decided to spring for a bike so I can actually get around more. On top of now having the familiarity of a bike, I just had steak yesterday for the first time in over six months, which was pretty cool and delicious. I have also since found a restaurant that serves hamburgers fairly close to American style of hamburgers, because everything else available doesn't come close.

Familiar Faces

Almost two weeks ago a friend of mine came to Japan for about a weeks visit, during which I spent what time I could showing him the sights that I have become familiar with. It was pretty cool not only being able to share the stuff I've seen with someone, but also (and probably more so) being able to actually talk and joke with a friend. I showed him around Matsumoto, during which we stopped by a sake brewery that does tours.. Since it was a holiday they apparently weren't doing the tours that day, but we walked around for a little bit then went to the 'gift shop' for a once over. As we walked in, one of the shop ladies took out 12 bottles of sake and said that we should help ourselves to tasting them, which we did with gusto! Now, my friend isn't a heavy drinker, but he none the less was more than willing to give some of the free sake a try. I, on the other hand, was happily about halfway through the twelve bottles in front of me when the shop lady mentioned a special sake that I could try, but this one cost 300 yen, I gladly accepted (300 yen, ~$3, doesn't mean much here) and she brought forth a big sake glass full of it. It was more than worth it, but that wasn't going to deter me from finishing my quest of tasting the rest of the twelve bottles in front of me! By the time we left the shop, my friend was weighed down with one bottle of sake while I was laden with not only the two bottles that I bought (one of which was the special bottle) as well as a reasonable buzz. After our day in Matsumoto Jon went on to Kyoto then next day as I had to return to work.

Familiar Places

Sunday morning I met up with Jon in Tokyo and I showed him what I could of the bustling metropolitan in the day and a half the followed. Although it was an extremely busy day and a half, I really enjoyed it, again not only because of the company, but the places that I was seeing again. I will freely admit that living in Tokyo would be quite hard, and that working there would be crazy, but I became quite fond to the places and crazy people that are there. I relished in being able to walk around the places that had become familiar to me in my first three months in Japan. On Sunday alone I showed Jon the 'goths in Harajuku, the electronic shops of Akihabara, the crossing at Shibuya, all ending with sushi in Tsukiji. We all but ran from place to place trying to catch all of the highlights that Tokyo holds while having to skip the more relaxed and subtle nooks and crannies of which Tokyo holds many! By the time we said our good byes on Monday (me heading back to Matsumoto for work the next day, him to explore the remaining bits of Tokyo on his own) I was exhausted and quite disappointed in leaving a friend again, it felt sadly similar to my initial departure to Japan, minus most of the excitement of the unknown, but also the despair and fear of it.

Mountians, Tree Houses and Technology

I made it. I spent the few days at training just south of Tokyo (near Yokohama) then jumped the train to Matsumoto. It's been a crazy few weeks with many little problems (some of them not so little), thus the delay in updates, but overall I'm happy with how things have turned out. The trip out here was pretty amazing. I got on the train (not quite a shinkansen but damn close) and rode that for almost three hours through the mountains, and I do mean through. Getting here was cool, but it was already dark so I couldn't see the scenery when I arrived, but the next day I got up and on my walk into work (that's right I started work the very next day) I realized that the town is completely surrounded by mountains, any direction you look you can see mountains, about half of which are snow capped, and they're quite close too.

The apartment is small. Now don't get me wrong, I was quite prepared to live in a small apartment, but was looking forward to having a space where I could still cook and relax. This place is about half of what I expected though. the kitchen is all but non existent, it takes up part of the wall in the 'entryway' of the apartment (shared with the washing machine), the other side of which is the bathroom and shower. I don't have an oven, which I hoped for but hardly expected or even counted on, and I only have one electric burner/hot plate, and the refrigerator just barely beats out your average hotel room fridge,, but on top of that there is almost no room for storage of food and such. Then there's room, not rooms just the one. I was thinking that I would have a living room and bedroom, no matter how small the two may be, but instead there is just the one main living area with a loft for the futon (Japanese style, not American futon) and no room for anything but. Now all of this is rather frustrating, but doable, not ideal, but I can manage (after all I'll be spending much of my time out of the apartment anyway), however the real kicker is that I was told that the apartment would be furnished, promises were made of table and chair, sheets, futon, dishes and all other necessary accouterments. When I arrived in the apartment I found myself looking in on an empty living area, save for a chair (no legs just a padded floor level frame that would lock at different degrees, but was broken so it could only hold 180, 40, and 60 degrees) and a small coffee table that reaches a height of about one foot off of the ground. the futon was old and stained and only had one set of sheets that were... less than appealing. The first week of living here was much like the nights that I spent in the tree house that my brother and I built in our back yard, except if I remember correctly the tree house had insulation. I have since contacted the head office and complained, a lot (the gas had accidentally been shut off in my apartment that night due to miss communication between the head office and the gas company and I was cold, the gas heat the apartment as well as the water!). the next day action was taken by the head office and a few days later they sent someone up to help me out. A real table and chair was bought, along with a new futon, sheets, pillow, and toaster oven. I then went out and bought some shelves and drawers and have gotten reasonably comfortable here, though it still seems like a tree house.

After settling the various mishaps with the apartment, I went out and set up a bank account and got me a phone. The phone companies are a bigger pain here than I remember them being in America too! to get a phone, I not only had to buy the phone upfront (which was expected), but I also had to sign up for a bunch of ridiculous extras for the first month. I kept telling them I just wanted the basic package, but apparently new accounts have to come with all of the bells and whistles for a month, which costs over 4,500 yen more than the package I wanted. Even so, the phone is pretty awesome! I can watch live TV, do the whole internet thing, make video calls, and a lot more (I'm not yet sure of all the features, the guide book is in Japanese and I'm still making my way through it).

All problems aside, I have been enjoying the last few weeks more and more. The drama of the move is settling down and I've been getting comfortable in my new surroundings. I have managed to make myself a regular at a local Spanish bar (yes, Spanish bar in the middle of Japan), which isn't as bad as it sounds. The thing to do after work in Japan is to go to a bar for a bit and hang out with the other regulars, and since past GEOS teachers have been going to this bar it's the obvious choice for me. The bartenders and regulars are really cool and we all partied quite well for the holidays. After bar time they were asking everyone to leave, but asked the adult GEOS teacher, Chris from England, and myself to stay. Then a few more regulars showed up and we had the bar to our selves for over two more hours, and drinks became free (so all in all, good time had by all), although it still wasn't quite up there with the night we went to karaoke until 5am and worked the next day, a tough day! Along with the friends I have also been introduced to some new foods including basashi and inago (horse and grasshopper respectively), and am eagerly awaiting the first bites of kujura and fugu (whale and blow fish).

It's definitely been an adventure, but I think that the adventure is just beginning!

Who's excited? Me's excited!

So I just found out that I'll be moving out of Ray's English Club (the place I've been staying at for the past month and a half or so for those of you who may be a bit behind) on December fourth, just under two weeks! Now don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed my time here, I like the teachers and the students and the free time that it yields, but I've been feeling as though I'm in a constant state of flux, just waiting to move to Matsumoto and have my own place.

Anyway I should probably fill you in on some of the past happenings before I get too carried away here.

I haven't been doing too much as of late, although I did go to Tsukiji Fish Market (one of the biggest fish markets in the world) and the Imperial Palace (the place where the emperor lives). Tsukiji was awesome and a sight to behold for sure! The area was huge and there were tons of different vendors peddling their fish and other wares. Some of the fish were huge and crazy (they resorted to cutting the blue fin tuna with an over-sized ban saw), but one of the best things was that attached to the Fish Market was another big area reserved for vegetables and fruits (basically a Farmers Market) which had some stuff for better prices than most of the supermarkets including strawberries! I walked around there for a bit then had to go to a sushi shop for some good eats! They had the freshest sushi that I've ever had and at really good prices, it was amazing!

After Tsukiji I headed to the Imperial Palace with Taylor (another one of the teachers) and wee walked around the palace moat and through out the adjoined garden, although we couldn't even see the Imperial Palace itself, apparently the emperor doesn't want to be observed by the public all day every day... go figure. One of the coolest things about the palace area was that it is a huge garden and grassy area smack dab in the middle of Tokyo, which isn't exactly known for it's grass and nature scenery. Actually one of the worst/most inconvenient things about the train system in Tokyo is that all trains go around the palace, so it takes longer and looks more cluttered.

And now back to the move! Fun stuff and I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'm not yet sure how I'm going to get my stuff to Matsumoto, but I'll figure something out. I just have to see if I'm able to re pack it all again, now there's the tough part! Right now I think I'm most excited about having something to do during the day and a place of my own that I can really start to cook in and actually get comfortable. That's all I really have to say now, so I'm outta here!