My Speech Tomorrow

So, tomorrow is my first speech to an entire school. I've given some self-introduction speeches to teachers' rooms and small groups of students, but to the entire school!!? I will admit that I am pretty worried. :)

I wanted to put up my speech here, because I think its funny that I write in half Japanese lettering, and half Roman letters. My mind just isn't quick enough to do one or the other. Honestly, the Japanese is a lot easier for me in some parts. But not in others.

**I also wanted to make sure you know that they only want me to speak in Japanese to the assembly because they know I can. If I had never studied Japanese, I would be giving this in English, with maybe just the "Good Morning" and "nice to meet you" in Japanese. I put this disclaimer in, because if any of you friends who don't speak Japanese want to apply for the JET program, you totally should. I would say that 1/4 of the JETs here have never studied any Japanese for even 5 minutes in their life. And they're doing fine. Just try to study some when you're here, for sure! :)

Tatami Mat Catastrophe

I am told that there is nothing worse than a moldy tatami mat. And Tatami mats, although 3 by 6 feet long, about, are relatively small, one replacement would be more than 100 dollars. You can't walk on them with shoes. You can't spill on them. What the heck use is a tatami mat? I kind of like the way they look....makes my apartment cute. But handling the upkeep is very difficult for me...

Christina witnessed me drop an entire cup of beer during this episode. I saw it splash all over the mat, and just stood there with my mouth open. I had no idea what to do. Pat pat pat pat with a towel, and hairdryer time.

Mexican Food Night

So I'm trying desperately to clean out my desk at school. There are papers there from JETS like 4 years ago, and probably longer. There are 50 + textbooks,...I can't imagine even using 5 of them. I got frusterated, and just started throwing stuff away. I mean look... Who needs 3 fly swatters at their desk? 3? And I'm sorry, but I can't handle a Canadian flag chilling under my desk for a year. My co-workers got all anxious, and I apparently it would be best to save the flag, because "maybe the next JET will be Canadian". So I did what I could, and everyday I will secretly throw away a little more....

After a day of trying to tidy a desk...with nothing else to do...I really needed some Mexican food.

Here I am, waiting at the Station for my train to take me to Shin-Yamaguchi station, where I'm meeting my friends for Mexican food. I took this picture because the train was late!!!!!!! That just does not happen in Japan. The train was 6 minutes late!!! Some kind of announcement was made, but I couldn't understand it. Maybe someone died. Thats all I can think of that would make a train late here in Japan...

The owner of this restaraunt was Japanese, but had lived in L.A. for 10 years, so he knew what was up with Mexican. It was really good. We ordered chips and Salsa, and it came with like 5 chips and that little bucket of salsa I'm holding. And Hozumi to my right is holding our nachos. Not very many, but REALLY good, with real cheese.

Ryan was definitely digging the hot sauce on his tacos and enchiladas. I really liked this place, and besides the portion size and price..I think I may just go here every week. :) Its only 3 stops away by train, and will just make me so happy.

I don't think Ryan, Kholo, Hozumi and Brent will wanna go every time though. I have to rotate friends. :)

After eating Mexican food...we walked around for a while. We got ice cream (well I got bananas...which in retrospect is weird...they all got ice cream and I got bananas. But they were a GOOD price!)

There was not much to do around Shin-Yamaguchi station, so we just made our own fun.

Kholo and I are having some fun for the picture. The rest of the group refused to act so childish. :)

Engrish

Wow, they carefully did the best selection! :)

Needing no explanation...

Ueno Park

The last day that I was in Tokyo was kind of a wind-down day. We had been non-stop on the move, and we didn't have any set plans for this last day. So Christina and I went to Ueno Park. Christina wanted to spend her day in the Tokyo Museum (which in the picture below is way behind me). I on the other hand was running out of money, and just decided to stay outside.

In retrospect, I should have gone in for a little while...but I had so much fun exploring by myself, that I just justify my actions by saying "eeh, all museums are the same"...which I don't believe...but hey. If I went in the museum I would have missed one of my favorite days so far in Japan. I just felt so peaceful walking around the park. Stopping to sit in the shade and listen to a different performance. Meeting random strangers who wanted to talk for a couple minutes.

It was a great day. Well, of course, except until that night when I had to hop back onto the nightbus to Hiroshima (and then local train to my city). *shutter* Nighbuses.

You have to take pictures in front of fountains. Its a rule. :)

I didn't actually go into the natural history museum, because I found it too close to the time that Christina was going to be done with her museum...but I love the blue whale. :)

The reason this guy was cool was because he talked to "us" a lot. I say " " because obviously I couldn't understand him. But he was very interactive with his audience. He had pictures, there on the ground, of all the places he has gone with his mobile drum set. There are pictures of him in like Pantagonia and stuff. Crazy! I mean, who was there to listen to him play? I person and some sideways trees?

Watch this guy playing his drum set! I was lucky because I was around when he rode up on his bike. He had his entire drum kit scrunched up on little bags hanging all over his bike. You can't even see the extent of his set...he kept changing the wood slab things that he was hitting (sorry, don't know the name of the instrument)...It took him over 30 minutes to set up his space. On the next post you will see a guy playing his guitar. I was watching the guy play his guitar, but I was more intrigued by watching this guy set up his drum area...with such care.

Last day of Tokyo Trip

Ueno Park is very large. I spend over 3 hours walking around, and probably didn't see half of it. But I did get distracted by the wonderful performances, and buying of snow cones and wanting to finish my US magazine. I can't believe Ed cheated on Jillian. hehe.

There were shrines, zoos, magic shows, balloon acts, popcorn stands, homeless people, artists, museums, universities, and everything else you could think of....just chilling in and on the border of Ueno Park. I think it should be its own city.

Ueno Park in Toyko is just so lovely. I think everyone who ever goes to Japan should just spend a few hours walking through, and enjoying life.

This is a picture of some student, most likely, that was chilling in Ueno park. This picture was taken by me before he gathered a large audience. By the end, he may have been famous. :) He was kind of annoying to me...acting like he was G-d's gift to women, and taking a tiny sip of his water after every song...a sip that took him like 30 seconds. But it was wonderful to listen to him.

In this video, you can hear a guy playing his guitar in the park. It was an artsy little corner of the park. His singing was really good, and he was pretty cute. There were a bunch of women that got pulled over to this performance, as even when he was playing his guitar, he seemed to be flirting with everyone.

Night at the Museum 2

I thought this movie was laugh out loud funny. And when I say laugh out loud, I mean my crazy Steffanie laugh.

Was it really that funny, or have I been starved of American humor? All us JETs are still in the getting to know you-friend-courtship phase, so we don't exactly use our sharp wit. Really really really nice people can't really be funny, ya know?

I think, once again, that Christina and I laughed more than the rest of the theatre put together.

By the way: Japanese popcorn is really bad. I've never imagine so much salt can fit on one popcorn. I guess the surface area is quite large, as there are many creases, such as in the human brain, but I digress. Salty.

Now here is a movie that I am VERY interested in:

I think in English they called it "20th Century Men" or something like that.

This movie looks sooooooo incredibly cool, but its all in Japanese, without subtitles.

And its a part 3. Does anyone know about the first 2 parts? Did they ever come

out in the United States, to video or anything? I'm gonna go try to rent the

first two, to see the third on the 29th...but I guess I have to learn Japanese real quick. :)

Disney Time

If you haven't already noticed...I trust that all of you know that I'm not a photogenic person...and I'm just putting my pics up, and not really using my ugly-sensor. Haha, so there is weird face me up above...This may be the only time in my life that I get to stand in front of the Tokyo Disneyland sign, so there you go.

Tokyo Disney was cool. I didn't see much difference between Tokyo Disney and California Disney. Maybe Tokyo was a little smaller.

I had a very fun time, but it really did annoy me that Disney didn't put more regional influence into this park. Signs were in English. There were no Japanese princesses. I mean, if I were a parent of a half-Japanese kid, I would never want to take them here, because it promotes Westernism over all else. Wait, why does my kid have to be half-Japanese!? If I was a parent of ANY kid, I'd want my kid to learn about diversity...and not believe that whatever this is, is ideal.

I suppose I just have a problem with Disney. Suing school districts...ahh but thats another story. I suppose I have a problem with a lot of things theoretically, but I can put those ideas to the side to have a fun day like a nice normal person. Emphasis on the like.

2nd to last day in Tokyo!

Something that Christina and I thought was very strange is that we barely saw ANY white people. I think we may have saw 2. The only caucasian people were the paid characters! This snow-white was very nice, and seemed SOOOO happy to get to speak English with someone.

It was just so weird because we saw so many foreigners per minute in Tokyo. You'd think they'd check out Tokyo Disney on this beautiful Saturday! (btw this was back on Sat. the 15th...I'm behind on my blogging)

This is me in line at Star Tours. I've never seen a line like this! We walked straight up to "the boarding zone". Our flight went a little off course though....

This day in Tokyo was very hot! I carried my sweat rag with me everywhere... Luckily one of the dancing shows sprayed water everywhere!

I DID wear sunscreen, but I must have sweat it all off. Luckily the sunburn wasn't bad enough to cause me discomfort the next day...

Tokyo Disney

Christina and I had a blast!

Tokyo Disney was fun! Fun like Anaheim Disney though... There was nothing special about the park, except the pizza topping options were very Japanese in the food court.

If only my foot didn't hurt so bad...

I LOVE MONSTER'S INC!!! It is tradition to bring back "omiage" for all of your co-workers whenever you go on vacation, which is usually food, so I bought my co-workers Monster's Inc. cookies.

The electric parade was beautiful. I was very upset that the first half of it was completely in English. The talking, the songs, everything. But I felt a little better that the second half was Japanese.

Vampire Bar

The 2nd full night in Tokyo, we went to this Vampire Cafe. It was really really really cool. We couldn't stop talking about how cool it was. It definitely cast a shadow over Alcatraz. The pictures of course won't do this place justice. The vampire guy did some order-taking and serving...but mostly he just glided around as part of the setting...Looking at our necks longingly, and being sexy sexy. :) Definitely a highlight of our whole trip.

Yep...these cool kitsch places in Tokyo...they really pick a theme and stick with it. I think there were bats or crosses in everything we ate.

Who doesn't like a good ole' piece of toast shaped like a cross?

One of the tables, that you can't really see because it's too blurry, is actually a coffin. Coffee, I mean Coffin Table. hehehe.

More Tokyo Photos

These next three pics are some of the many we took at "Alcatraz"..a fun themed place in Tokyo. In theory, you go in, you are handcuffed, thrown in a cell, and have to enjoy your dinner in a cell. The whole place is decorated like some crazy insane asylum...with blood all over the walls, and all the servers were beautiful mad-scientists. We weren't lucky enough to be given star treatment...no private cell, and no handcuffs. We had to share a cell with 2 other tables. It was all you can eat, all you can drink for 3000 Yen per person. For 100 minutes I think. Or 130. Something like that. But however much time we had, we definitely got our money's worth. Directly below...bloody cheesecake. Some of the shots to drink came in syringes...

There were so many cool shops. Common, who wouldn't want to buy an expensive replica of the Terminator all banged up???

You gotta love the Tokyo cafes. 480 Yen for the tiniest cup of coffee ever! But they only charge that much when there is good scenery outside. Well, there was always good scenery out the windows, so I have no control cafe to base my conclusion on.

G.I. Joe

Hi! I just wanted to put up a quick post about my day today (I know I still have lots of Tokyo pictures to put up)....

After work today I went to see G.I. Joe in the theatre. Its women's day, so I got a discounted ticket...to 1000 Yen ($10 bucks). BTW I think I'm only gonna talk in Yen now, so just remember to move the decimal over 2 to the left!!!

So, yes, I went by myself. I don't mind seeing movies by myself. I go to buy the ticket, and the lady is pointing at a seating chart, asking me where I want to sit?

Can't I sit anywhere!!? Oh no, its like the night-bus of dread...its assigned seating! :) So I sat in J-9. I just thought that it is an interesting little tidbit for ya'll that movies are assigned seating.

One other thing of interest...when the movie ended, no one got up. It was a pretty full theatre. 2 people left. 2. I counted. The rest of the entire theatre stayed until all the credits were completely over, and the lights turned back on. Pretty interesting. Of course I stayed too...gotta feel out the culture and stuff. Do as they do. :)

One other thing, that I hear about from lots of other English teachers here too...is that it is very common for the foreigner to be the only one laughing, because so many jokes in movies are insinuated....or you have to have a strong command of English to get it.

Which I'm sure is absolutely true with every language and culture. Even today, when I was talking on the phone to my sister, she used a Japanese colloquialism that I didn't get at all, because she watches so much anime. I think she said "I like my food raw" or something like that when I wasn't talking about food at all...its just a phrase i've never heard of that means something or another. "I like my food raw." vs "needle in a haystack" yep. language is weird.

Oh, and btw, I didn't think the movie was terrible. But I do feel that the movie would not have been as good without the genius of Christopher Eccleston. I just love that actor. Love him. I would volunteer to have nanobots put in my brain and evil'fy me to be able to kiss him too!

For Mom

Momma...! This coach store, actually, I think I found in the Hiroshima JR Station....But while in a taxi in Tokyo, I saw the biggest Coach store of my life!!!! I promise next time I see one, I will make time to stop in and find out if they have any different product from our Coach's in S. Cali. :)

Walking around Tokyo

It seemed like wherever we went, there was some kind of performance going on. Here was some kind of Kids corner in the Subway station. There were booths everywhere...like Fishing for prizes, and just lots of carnivale kids stuff. The power ranger performance was actually amazing. I'm sad i didn't get video of it.

There are sooooooo many people in Tokyo. And it seemed like they were all out and about.

This is what any given corner could look like. So many people. We ended up playing Slug-Bug, but with Gaijin (foreigners)...So between me, Christina, Kris, and another girl we met up with Kelsey, there was a lot of hitting going on. I may have a bruise on my arm. I never spotted the white people first, but I would hear people speaking Korean or Chinese, and would slug for that.

Softbank ads were everywhere...

Softbank is the main Cell-phone provider. Usually the ads had this 5 guys in it...I think they are the most famous band here? But I also saw Softbank ads featuring Cameron Diaz, and some other person...like Paris Hilton maybe?

This square watermelon costs $150 dollars. Who would buy that? And would they eat it, or what?

Guess What I found in Tokyo??????????

They had every season of Stargate!!!!!!!!! So as soon as I run out of the Stargate that I brought with me, I know where to go to buy more seasons.... I mean 50% off! Common! Yes! Oh wait....its 50% off 19,740 Yen. Its still $100 bucks with the 50% off! But with shipping rates, I don't know whats cheaper...buying one season for $100 bucks here, or paying the shipping from the United States. '

And, according to the Katakana...I shan't call it Stargate anymore. I must call it:

Su-taa-ge-i-to

Money! :)

The Most Terrible Night of my Life

So we get to our busing area at the Hiroshima train station, to be picked up for our long journey to Tokyo. Christina and I meet our friend Kris there. 3 foreigner girls all taking this random night-bus to Tokyo.

Christina and I booked our tickets at the same exact time, and Kris booked separately. It took us about 20 minutes to figure out what was going on. Thank gosh for Christina's great Japanese.

So....sigh.... They stuck Christina and Kris on one bus. And they stuck me on a bus by myself. The story gets crazier, trust me. hahaha. (It was really crazy as it was happening! I'm sure there are no mouths dropping open while reading this.)

Of course everyone was looking at me, but no one said anything. So I sat down. Thats what you do in a bus right? I was so happy because for an hour and a half I had a window seat, and and EMPTY aisle seat next to me, and I didn't know that my bus had another pickup. So when the next pickup happened, the Japanese girl was looking at me like "Get out of my seat, bi***". Its so funny that the people that worked for the bus line couldn't just use nice body language to ask me to change seats. Its like 10 min of them talking on their radios, trying to figure out what to do with the foreigner.

So I finally found my assigned seat. In the far far back of the bus, window. This is the worst seat there is. Can't recline. Can't rest head on window because we are over some kind of weird vent. I must have been right over a wheel. I don't know, but it was HOT, and even without resting my head, it was hot. It was seriously the most uncomfortable thing ever.

Okay...so...MY PHONE RUNS OUT OF BATTERIES! It didn't give me any kind of warning beeping or anything. It just turns off. I didn't have time to warn Christina or Kris on the other bus...which was btw an hour and half ahead of me because of our stupid second pickup.

haha. I'm laughing right now, but its not yet fun laughing, like maybe it will be in a few years...its crying laughing, like that SUCKED.

So I was able to get my phone on long enough to grab Christina's phone number. So every payphone I saw at every rest stop, I tried to call her, but we were never at rest stops at the same time, and we can't have our phones on in the bus.

I get into Tokyo, at this point not knowing that Christina is an hour an a half ahead of me. The stupid bus man just wanted me gone. I tried saying "Watashi no tomodachi wa doko desu ka?" Which should mean: where are my friends...and he knew darn well who my friends were...we were the only foreigners, and he knew. We all talked to him before we left. He just pointed at some bus, like to get me away. That bus was DEFINITELY not the right bus. Sigh.

I honestly had this cross through my mind: "I am going to have to sleep here on the street for 3 or 4 days until the bus comes back". I was just so lost. I had gotten no sleep. No one speaks English. I got a hold of Christina, and they were under the impression that I got there first, so they thought I went to the hostel.

It was really hard to find my way around the subway system and meet them at that hostel.

What was funny is that the couple times I tried to ask for directions, I spoke VERY slowly and pointed at the address...and the person would speak perfect English back. I wish everyone wore nametags with what languages they speak, so I wouldn't sound dumb going "Dooooo yooooou knoooooow wheeeeeere thiiiiiiis plaaaaaaace iiiiis?" But no one knew where this crazy hostel was.

I found an AU, which is my cell-phone company, so I tried to go in and buy a new battery. He wasn't getting me. He plugged in my phone, and after being on the radio/phone (like the bus guy) for 10 min..he stuttered out "It just ran out of batteries" like I was an idiot. haha. He thought that I thought my phone was broken.

Sigh.

Almost my entire time in Tokyo, I had the worst back pain, and right-foot pain of my life. Back pain probably from that Night-bus...foot pain...because G-d hates me. I did have a good time...but why why why did I have to have that good time with so much pain??? I feel bad for my friends that had to walk near the really really old lady that had some kind of condition that made her look 25 and white.

Hiroshima

When we first got to Hiroshima, we went to eat Okonomiyaki. Well, I don't really like Okonomiyaki (too hard to explain what type of food succinctly...like a noodle pancake). So Christina ate Okonomiyaki at this pretty famous place called "Okonomi-mura" which is like 3 floors of dozens of restaurants all serving Okonomiyaki. It was really strange and cool. Imagine 30 burger places all right next to each-other, all busy busy busy, and all trying to draw more customers in. I ate there too, but just had a kimchi appetizer which really really upset my stomach later. Thats what I get...!

After that, we spent the rest of the day reverently exploring Peace Memorial Park...the spot where the atomic bomb hit on August 6th, 1945.

This is called "The A-Bomb Dome". It is the only ruins left intact, as ruins, as a site to show how important peace is. There are little paper cranes attached to it, as a symbol of peace.

These are thousands and thousands, probably millions of paper cranes. The boat picture that you see on the front window is all

made out of tiny cranes.

It is too sad of a story, and I just got weepy again thinking about it, but if you are interested in this Children's Memorial Park crane exhibit, you should look it up...:

Find: Sadako and the thousand paper cranes. You can search via google, or wikipedia, and can find out more about why this is so touching.

The last picture..you can probably barely see it...showcases a flame, that burns continually. This is a flame that will continue to burn until all the nuclear weapons on the earth have been safely neutralized.

Far in back you can see the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum...reminiscent of the Museum of Tolerance (although of course totally different)...insomuch as it had artifacts like burned clothing, replicas of Hiroshima

before and after the A-bomb, etc. I spent my biggest chunk of the day in there (this was August 12th). It was very sad...

Overall, I'm very happy that I made this visit to Hiroshima. The city has a lot to offer, and it was...wait for it.... actually.... A beautiful day! I pray weather like that hits Hofu.

Start of Obon and off to Hiroshima

So I'm not going to claim to know all about Obon, or even if I'm spelling that anywhere near right. I was heartily laughed at when I mistakenly called it: Udon, a type of food here. So Obon is something like a national holiday for all government workers, I'd assume. Its 3-5 days of summer vacation, that can be taken from a certain time of summer, to another certain time of summer. I don't know, anyways, its cool, and I spent my Obon, or Odon, or however you say it in Tokyo. But the Shinkansen (fast train) tickets were super super expensive, because EVERYONE travels during Obon...so we took a NIGHT BUS, departing from Hiroshima at 7:30p, and arriving in Tokyo sometime the next morning. This night-bus up was TERRIBLE, but more about that later.

Because our bus didn't depart until the evening, we decided to go early in the morning, and spend the day in Hiroshima. This lush green countryside is a view from our train, on the way up to Hiroshima. Hiroshima is about 2 and a half hours by local train from Hofu.

A Couple Apartment pics

Hello! I just got home from my Tokyo trip, so I'm going to put up as many pictures as I can before I keel over and die. (I think I've been traveling for about 18 hours).

This is one of the rooms of my apartment. Behind that sliding glass in back, there is another little storage room, and a door that leads to a small balcony where I can wash my cloths, and hang dry them.

I sort of like having to

hang my cloths to dry. Sorta. Sometimes. Other times I am really annoyed because I have to do such small loads, because the washer is tiny, and there is not enough space to hang a whole "real" load of cloths. So if I want to get some laundry done, it

is an all day affair...washing, hanging, rotating, hanging, etc etc. Also every once in a while, an entrepren

eurial spider will start a business on one of my shirts, calling his friends over to his hastily spun mess, with high hopes.

I will try to put of pics of the rest of my apartment later. No energy to get up and do it now.

And now to start blogging my Tokyo adventure...this may take a while....