Slurp a Little Louder

Ichimura-sensei (the principal whose title is kocho-sensei) showed me around the Usuda schools and area today. He explained many things about the schools, including giving me a mini tour of the one because it was built on the site of an old castle called Tatuoka Castle constructed at the end of the Edo period. To add to the historical value of this place, the head of the castle, Matsudaira Norikata, was the founder of the Red Cross in Japan. It is cool to think that every month I will be visiting this place, crossing the moat of a star-shaped castle grounds (only one other star/pentagon shaped castle existed in Japan), and giving English lessons to small Japanese children who are literally at history’s front doorstep.

Ichimura-sensei then took me for cold Soba at a fantastic lookout point in Saku. From here you can see all the peaks in the area. I really wish I had my camera on my at that moment for it really was a sight to see. The Soba was delicious. Soba is buckwheat noodles that can be served in soups but in this instance, we ate them in a more traditional sense, ice cold and with tsuyu sauce. Basically you dip the noodles into this soy sauce like sauce and slurp away making as much noise as possible. If you thought that was a joke about the Japanese slurping to show enjoyment, you should try going to a noodle joint, holy bajezus! Then afterwards, when all your noodles have been lapped up, they give you the water (errr…broth, if you can call it that) of the noodles when they were boiled, and you sip on that. It was a very enjoyable experience eating with the principal of my school and hearing all the things that he had to say. He really went out of his way for me, I must say.

That evening, I went to Erika’s for a cooking session, which consisted of Erika and myself doing the cooking for a quite a many people, mostly JETs from the surrounding area. I made Miso and Udon soups, my udon being the stronger of the two. I explained how to prepare things and cook them properly, what to look for in the super market, how to select the right things, and then served it up to everyone’s content. I was even complimented by a Japanese woman who asked where I learned all of my cooking skills and was thoroughly impressed at the way I pay attention to detail and remember ways to keep things fresh. She said that I know more about Japanese cooking than Japanese people my age and many other Japanese as well. I don’t want to toot my own horn here but I am pretty sure that anyone who has had my udon (you know who you are) can attest to the fact that it is not bad.

Showing others how to make Miso and Udon soups.

Beware! Child-snatching Bunnies are loose in Japan!

Today, we went shopping at Jusco, which is apparently this really big shopping mall in the area. Saku has the largest one in the whole area or something. Anyway, I was shocked at the way it was all laid out. For the most part, malls in America have individual shops, with gates that pull down at the end of the day. Well, not so common here. Instead stores are free-flowing one into the next and like hell if you would see a gate or a way to cover the goods at the end of the day, which leads me to believe that either they have a real problem with theft or they just really are the most honest people I have ever met.

Another stop that day was to Cainz, which is a DIY hardware/everything store. Seriously, falling short of electronics and food, you could probably find it at this place. Wait, I take that back, I do remember passing food at some point. Anyway, this store was pretty cool for your one stop ‘oooh, I could use one of those’ shopping needs. The nest highlight was my DS Lite purchase. Went to Yamada Denki, which is an electronics superstore and got myself the akai (red) DS Lite. It is sleek and now can do all of my kanji to English conversion needs. Definitely need to buy myself a few games to pass the time as well as Japan is loaded with cool games that Nintendo fan boys in the U.S. would trade their limited edition NES games for.

Useful information from today: Plastic displays in restaurant windows are not always accurate, though many times better. Also, alcohol is cheaper here than elsewhere. Malibu Rum was dirt-cheap and American whiskey is cheaper here than in America. Sorry to those of your who like to bargain shop for your boos.

That's him...the hardware store bunny...sneaking up on those poor unsuspecting kids.

Oh shit! He's got one, quick call 119!

And I was originally going to by a lawnmower.

(Note: 'goodliness life' - what dictionary has the word goodliness in it because it should be burned!)

Oh yes, me likey!

Just maybe

They know Harrisburg?!

It's true, I tried some.

My new DS Lite. :)

上田 Love

Here are some pics/vids from a night out in 上田 (Ueda) and then the day after when we hit up a Kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) place.

At our favorite bar in Ueda, Kamikaze.

Joey's made his mark on all of us.

This one is lame compared to some of the t-shirts on the shelf.

Looks like Communist Party ads. こわい！(Scary!)

スポーツをする？ Sure do!

So, not much happened the past few days. Hung out with the people in Saku. Went to dinner a few times, chatted it up nice and long with some of them. School was pretty much going in, looking busy, pretending to do something that I “should” be doing, and then after an hour of watching the students play sports or practice for the band, I went home. Today, though, I actually played tennis with the girl’s tennis team. It was so strange at first. They use a soft tennis ball. Kind of like a big squishy ball, something you would play “red butt” with. To top that off, there were no doubles alleys. So while I was playing doubles with them, I was like shit I can’t hit it to the outsides like that. Ended up winning 2 games and losing 1 with the various teammates I had. I would say I adapted well because they enjoyed playing with me and the one girl was so adamant about giving me a high five every time anything happened ever. I scored...high five. Ok, that makes sense. She makes a good hit and scores, again makes sense. They score. Why are we high fiving? I hit the ball wide and interrupt the soccer game happening in the field over from us. Surely, this does not deserve a high five! Standing there just after having switched sides, yah…sure…what the hell, gimme a ‘high five-u.’

Relax, Take It Easy...

Today is my first day at school officially working that is. And well by officially I mean more like come in, have the head English teacher show me around the school, in total taking I’d say 45 minutes, and then being told I could leave and to have a good day. Still felt lost and confused after all of that and really was unsure about what the hell I was supposed to do with myself at school the next week or so before the students came back from vacation. Decided not to care so much. After all, I am getting paid.

My dinner that night. Cucumber salad, fried mushrooms, and curry with rice.

Matsumoto Bon Bon (no, you can't eat it)

Today, after what seemed like the start to an interesting day, became the highlight of the week. Tom, Joey, Emma, Erika, and myself piled into Erika’s car and jetted or shall I say putted our way up the mountains and back down to Matsumoto. Crammed into this tiny tiny tiny tiny (can I stress tiny in any other way) little thing with four wheels and a rubber band engine we eventually made it only after alternating using the air conditioner so the car would have more power going uphill. What a trip! So we arrived and went into the city to an Japanese style restaurant where we ate and drank with some lovely Japanese people, got robed in fluorescent orange outfit, complete with headband and prepared ourselves for the complete unexpected…the Matsumoto Bon Bon Festival. Now, let me explain. Every year, for the hell of it (or so everyone kept telling us), the Japanese in the Matsumoto area hoard together in mass of about 100,000 people, close off pretty much every street in the city and for 3 full hours dance. Now, let me clarify. This is not some crazy free for all or party in the streets. Ohhhh no, this is true Japanese spirit. They blast out of speakers overhead this song, a song that is now imbedded permanently in my eardrums, over and over the entire time. And what do we do you may ask? Easy, we dance this same dance for the full three hours. I shit you not. There are breaks every half hour or so where you grab and drink, chat for a minute or two and jump into formation for another round. Now, putting aside the pain in my legs and the complete insanity that was brewing in my head from the repetition of song and dance, it was a pretty awesome experience. I mean how often do you get to see so many people willing to do something completely mind-numbing for the hell of it. Better yet, to be part of such an experience. Sugoi! After this, I chatted it up with some Japanese guy on the way back. We had some more to eat and drink, which was not nearly enough to replenish what I had just burned and went to Alex’s place (he is a 2^nd year JET). At his place, we all pretty much crashed, which in total ended up being something like 30 people. We were literally laying side-by-side, end-to-end, all on tatami flooring with futons and even someone who decided to sleep in the closet. Drinking, talking, socializing ensued as did a conversation about British guys buying girls drinks and this being some unwritten law that you are agreeing to sex. Well, this brought about a rousing conversation involving me and two other people at the party that night. Ended in some misunderstanding between some people and perhaps a conversation for a time when people were not too drunk to remember what other people were saying (needless to say I was completely sober and one of the few people who actually can remember what was said that night). The next morning after a large group of people left for their homes, I stuck around and had pancakes with about 6/7 others and it was fantastic. We kind of started a new tradition that morning of crashing at someone’s place and making pancakes in the morning. I don’t like pancakes but hell I am all up for tradition making. To add to fun, I tried what the British eat on their pancakes, lemon juice and sugar. Trust me all you Americans, it is not nearly a fraction of what those Brits make it out to be. Give me my sweet, sugary syrup or blueberry topping any day.

My girl Nicole and I in out Bonbonalicious threads.

Unlike me, they knew what the heck to do.

Would not be complete without Kelly & some Japanese schools girls.

Takoyaki Taking on Physics

Wow, it is already August. Cannot believe it! Went into school for the first time today. I am working at Usuda Jr. High School (臼田中学校, usudachyugakkou) as my main place of residence. I will also be teaching at four elementary schools in the area on rotation. I met the principal of the school and he was very nice, Ichimura-sensei. He is a very proud man who is very proud of the school that he runs. In some ways, it makes me even more proud to be teaching there. We had a nice little chat and went on our way, Nagaoka-san showing me the way to get from my house to the school. Ended the day fairly early, which was great news because it had been a long week.

That evening Erika, Tom, Joey, and myself all went to Ueda where there was pretty much a hippie fest happening. It was aptly named Joint Fest and was held at the old castle grounds in Ueda…very scenic place for bands to be playing. It was neat because there were traditional festival type foods there for consuming. Personally, I loved it. The sights, sounds, smells, people…it was all that and more. The Japanese youth were all over dancing. There were few people who were standing that were not bopping to the beat and I don’t just mean nodding their heads or shuffling their feet but outright dancing. Such energy and spirit in everyone as opposed to just a few back in the states. Now, having walked around the stands and scoped out the food, nothing caught our attention more than the guy making takoyaki, which for those who may not know is fried octopus. It is basically octopus and a batter that is fried in a ball shape. It starts out flat on the griddle and with lightning fast chopstick maneuvers that Hollywood can’t even mimic, the artist (had way to much talent to be called a cook), formed the batter into perfect little balls and without skipping a beat, tossed them off into containers. If the idea of trying fried octopus hadn’t sold me already, this display of talent got the money out of my pocket without a problem…well I did ask to see if they had dairy in them first. :P

The rest of the evening was a great time. We hit up a traditional Japanese-style bar, where we met a few new people and had a decent time aside from some chain smokers who nearly killed me and another girl at our table. Took the train back into lovely Saku and had ourselves a good sleep.

Ueda Train Station (complete with  Joey's head)

At JointFest with Erika, Karen, Brynn, Joey, Wes, & Tom