Snowboarding

On Friday, after work, I went to Iwakuni to spend the night. I did this because, Iwakuni is 2 hours closer to Hiroshima than my house, and me and some friends needed to be in Hiroshima before 7a.m. So we needed to take a 5:30 train from Iwakuni, is how it worked out. I had Mike's again (only Mexican food around), which I do whenever I go to Iwakuni. I then slept early, to get up for the long day ahead of me!

We got to Hiroshima around 6:30 and immediately headed for Starbucks, which was CLOSED! What kind of Starbucks doesn't open until 10a.m??? Japan is ridiculous sometimes. :) We got on the bus at Hiroshima station, to be driven another prefecture north, to Shimane prefecture. Here I would have my first snowboarding experience ever!!!

Today, I am putting this post up with pain all-over. But not as much pain as I anticipated. It's kind of a good pain. I can feel every muscle in my body pain. The only pain which is actually a very very bad pain is in my right arm, right up near the top, the top 5 or 6 centimeters of my arm, where it attaches. If I try to raise my hand, well, lets just say it's not pretty.

Here is video of my first trip up the ski-lift.

Here is video of some of the beginning practice, still at the bottom of the resort (not up the chair lift yet). I got better than this, I promise!

My friend Kris set this all up for us. I'd love to do it every weekend, but boy, would that be expensive! It is at least 25 dollars to get to Hiroshima. And would be 25 to get back....except when you are so exhausted that you are willing to pay double for the Shinkansen (bullet train). And when I say you, I mean of course, me. :) The food up the mountain is super expensive. Oh, and the meat of the trip: the actual snowboarding (hehe) was about 120 bucks (including 5 hour busride [roundtrip] and all the gear rental, except gloves which I had to buy).

Jenga

Jenga almost seems more popular in Japan, than in the U.S. Most bars have Jenga, for instance (with druken patrons knocking over towers every few minutes). And it's always brought to any get together, like this one above! :) But hey, where is Jenga NOT popular? That's a crazy place, there.

Pic of the Day 1

Here is a lovely picture of my Grammy holding a picture of herself from when she was 18 years old! Makes me think about a lot of things...the past, the future. You know. Introspective stuff. ;)

Yellow yellow...

Yes. I have NOT the most attractive hands or fingers in the world. Anyways, here is my new mood ring. :) I like it.

So "sumimasen" (sorry) to whoever I am about to talk about. Three different people said the same thing to me, that kind of annoys me, so to you three people, and others:

I understand that mood rings don't work.

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There. I've been mentioning to people about my new ring, and my corresponding mood. Mostly because it's usually shining yellow/yellowish. According to the box I bought it from on Saturday, that means I'm feeling anxious. And I think it's a cool coincidence that my mood ring is right.

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Steffanie: My new mood ring says I'm feeling anxiety.

People: You know those don't work.

Steffanie: Really. Really? How stupid do you think I am? Do you think that I think that I have a magical ring? Do you think that I believe that my month will be controlled by my zodiac sign too? You know what? I'm not sure if I believe you that they don't work. Let me call 1-900-psychic right now. Don't worry, it won't take long...it's on speed-dial. Oh, crap, my mood ring is changing to "I'm gonna kick you upside the ass" color now.

People: You know that there really is no color for "I'm gonna kick you upside the ass"....

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Anyways. I AM feeling a lot of anxiety. And sadness (purple!). I have to make my decision on whether or not to stay another year in Japan---by Feb. 4th---the absolute final deadline. I feel like I'm going to wait until the last possible minute. And then even then...I might as well just flip a coin. I'm already too torn, and if I think anymore, I will simply be ripped into two.

July 2011 or July 2012. Both are okay. And both are not.

hmmmmm

Now lets see...... it's probably a little too late to talk about my Halloween.

I'm so backed up. What can I do?

Ah! I know! Sai Seiichi! He is a wonderful violinist who I saw live in my city. I can pretend it was just yesterday! And that I shall do....

So 'yesterday', my friend Junko's son came to Hofu, and did a free live performance at a local mall. He is pretty famous, and people pay a lot of money to see him, but since he was visiting his small hometown, he must have just been feeling generous.

Many many girls are in love with him. He is quite beautiful. But I will leave him for you Christina... I prefer brass instrument type men. ;)

Below is a video of him playing. If anyone wants to buy his CD, I can help you out with that. :) He composes all his own music and such. Cheers!

Japanese Food

Christina and I were just talking about this. In my honest opinion, most Japanese food is better in California. And for Christina-New York. Maybe middle America doesn't get good Japanese food. But California does!!! And sushi in America is complex and tasty. Not just one piece of fish on top of some rice.

At the Japanese (American) restaurant above, Jamie and I ate row of "Sexy Rolls". I don't know what it comprised of exactly, but it was SOOO sexy compared to any of the simple things offered here. I miss sushi with tempura bits, and avocado, and spicy stuff.

But then again, to go to a nice sushi restaurant here in Hofu, it would cost me at least $100-$150 bucks, so I stick to the cheap restaurants. Still...I'm sure that there is nothing here in Yamaguchi Prefecture resembling the 'Sexy Rolls' Jamie and I ate (in Tustin at Honda-ya).

Shoes pt. 2

This is a part 2, in reference to a post I made well over a year ago: SHHHoes

I've now been here a year and a half. But 'Japanese people and their shoes' is a subject that never ceases to intrigue. Every grade level has a unique color of slippers. In the picture above, the student's slippers are the ones that have a white part on the top (the other ones are guest shoes). The white parts have the student's names written on them.

It is convenient for me to figure out what grade the students are in, based on their slippers.

Speaking of shoes....the shoes students wear outside of school are ridiculous. Japanese students all seem to wear CraZY BriGhT sneakers, with crazy un-matching shoelaces. I think it is in backlash to having to conform so much at school...? Or bright neon green shoes with one bright orange and one bright purple shoelace is just "in". :)

Home Fries

My vacation home this year was really really excellent. It makes my decision on whether or not to re-contract here in Japan, SUPER hard. Much harder than last year. Because now, I love Japan soooo much.

I got to hang out with my grandma and granddad. Here is a pic of my grandma at 18 years old!!

I watched a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Kyle. :) Spent New Year's Eve at my best friend Diana's house. Saw a lot of her baby....little Leena, whom I love like my own. :)

I had Tamale Day with my family... I always love my Saturday before Christmas at my Grandmas. Too bad I can't eat tamales. :(

And I saw lots of friends at a kickin' party that I threw at my house.

I also saw lots of friends for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, coffees, late-night snacks (really late!!!), etc. I could go on about how much I love each one of my friends...and perhaps I will, but later, later. I have some laundry to do.

Japanese

Here are some of the people that went out our Japanese class 'end of the year party'. Most of those guys are my classmates...

There are people from Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Brazil that are regular members of the class.

So I just thought I'd update you on my language progress. Basically: I suck. :) I generally still go to a 2-hour class, twice a week (although its not as beneficial as you'd think because they are two completely separate once-a-week classes). I also study on my own with flash cards, and use a VERY nifty site called smart.fm to study.

I can feel my listening getting better all the time. But I'm not convinced that my speaking has improved since I started my first Japanese class 8 years ago!

Okay, I'm being a little facetious, but dude....any ideas on how to start speaking better? :)

But, I do get super annoyed when certain people judge me on not being able to speak. I'm not a missionary or something, whose job it is to learn Japanese and spread the word! I'm an ENGLISH teacher! As far as all my schools are concerned, I shouldn't ever be speaking any Japanese!

That being said, I really should be speaking more. Maybe one of these days I should try writing one of these blogs in Japanese. ...or maybe I'll just get back to watching Friends. Dr. Drake Romero has just woken up from his years-long coma. ;)

Naked Man Festival

My school's Naked Man team. Intrigued? Read on.... ;)

Naked Man Festival---thank you Japan, for being such a crazy place to live.

If you type in "Naked Man Festival" on google's server, you will be bombarded with many different accounts of Japan's traditional "Hadaka Matsuri". But none of them did justice to my experience with Naked Man Festival...and I believe that every festival, every year, in every place is probably pretty different. Because this is one festival that is less about the tradition, and more about 'the man' getting drunk and belligerent and rambunctious.

Go ahead and read a little about it on Wikipedia (or other sites that google gives you) because they probably have some better photos (I am not a photographer, and would never claim even one good shot!) Wikipedia entry here: click.

Last year, I didn't go to my city's Naked Man festival, because I was in Korea with my good friend Anna. But this year, there was no keeping me from it. My school asked if I would like to participate, so I said "sure!" They told me to be at my school by 3p.m. No problem. Upon leaving my house, and waiting at the crosswalk, I have my first experience with the Naked Men. Here they are:

Now, why is it called Naked Men? Well, I have a feeling that over the centuries, the men started putting on more and more clothing, because death just isn't as cool anymore. In other Naked Man Festivals though, the men must jump in a freezing river before chasing a ball, or a person, or a stick. It changes a lot depending on how drunk the organizer gets on the day, I suppose.

Men in Hofu never look at me. They keep their heads down and try to do anything they can to avoid even glancing at me. But all was different on the 4th Saturday of November. As soon as they were clad in their white garments, and had probably had a half a dozen beers already, they were all about talking to me. Talking.....more like grunting and jumping up and down. Really. Men are crazy on this day.

So I met up with my school at 3p.m. Our school had its own portable shrine. It's a shrine that takes about 10 men to carry. Every school in Hofu, and every business, and every organization, basically builds a shrine. I'll only talk about our school for the convenience of trying to be clear. So our school got 10 sponsors. Small businesses donated to our school, somewhere in the vicinity of $300 to $500 dollars, I was told. So now, on this fateful Saturday afternoon, all the teachers at my school were there. Men clad in white, women in whatever- were all ready to go pay respects to these 10 businesses that supported our school.

Only men carry the shrine. The women walk behind, helping with the chant. So everywhere we walked, we chanted/screamed loudly. Kyoudai, Wasshai, Kyoudai, Wasshai!!!. Still can't get a hold on what it really means. The Kyoudai definitely means "brother", but the Wasshai is just like a scream of goodness....like "YEAH!". Or something. :) We get to one of the supporting businesses, and wait for the staff to come outside... then all hell breaks loose. My teachers carrying the shrine act like they just had an adrenaline shot into their heart and start screaming and running in circles, shrine in hand.

This goes on at various locations, until it is time to travel up to the main shrine in town, up on one of our mountains. Remember, that there are over 100 portable shrines meandering all around the city, and to all the businesses. So when they converge on the main shrine, there is quite a traffic jam.

The hundreds of steps leading up to the shrine are lined with on-lookers, cheering each shrine on it's way up. But it's not any normal ascension. Each "team" such as team "my school" get a mark, a set, and a go....and they have to RACE THE HELL up like their lives depend on it. Holding a huge shrine on their backs. Drunk. When they reach the top, they do one last crazy shaking and running-in-circle-of the shrine. I saw men having to be taken away in ambulances because it gets so rowdy and drunken. What is the point of all this? I'm still not sure. But I do love you, Japan.

I really hope that you watched and enjoyed these videos! But there's nothing like being there... :) See you guys later! I know I have a lot to catch up on.