making new friends
Last weekend Melissa and I trucked it to Tokyo for me to visit Nichole and for Melissa to get a haircut, don't ask. Before I go into that, the previous Friday I was invited by Nichu to play volleyball with the PTA and teachers. I was really looking forward to finally play some real volleyball. Not that playing with the junior high school kids but there are only so many times you can slam a volleyball in their face before you start to feel bad. Anyway, I got there a little early to record a listening test with one of my teachers and work on my own Japanese test, yes I study. When I finally made my way down there I realized that they weren't using regular volleyballs. Instead I saw what appeared to be a ginormous dodge ball, like the kind you play with in elementary school. On top of that there were nine people on each side of the court. I figured I could deal with all that stuff but then when it was my teams turn to play they told me that I could not hit or block anything. Needless to say I played setter the entire game and those who have played volleyball with me in the past know that setter is not exactly my strongest position. Oh well it was still fun and afterwards I got some free dish soap and tissues out of the deal. In case you were wondering there was also an enkai afterwards which I got suckered into joining. Great idea the night before an 7 am wake up the next morning.
The next morning Melissa and I hoped the shinkansen (bullet train) down to Tokyo. We were supposed to meet Asuka, my homestay, for lunch but she had spent the night partying so we met up with her in Ginza. Instead we headed to Ueno to walk around the park and eventually headed to my old dorm to get Nichole. She wasn't there right away so I showed Melissa the university I used to study at and paid a visit to an old friend there, Michiyo. As our "advisor" Michiyo didn't go out with us too much but it was great to catch up with here and hopefully in the near future we will be able to hangout in Tokyo. Then we headed back to the dorm to find Nichole and managed to catch her and Katie before they headed out the door. Together we all went to Ginza to do some browsing. However Melissa had a haircut to get to so it was just Nichole, Katie, and me. It wasn't long before my homestay and old friend, Dondon, came to meet up with us.
After some good browsing through the ridiculously expensive department stores we headed to Shibuya to meet up with Melissa and more of Nichole's friends for dinner and drinks. Where did we get dinner? TGIFridays! That's right some good ole suburban American restaurant action but after four months without any it was great to have an ultimate long island to go along with a nice juicy burger and fries. Afterwards we got to hit up a nearby pub for some great drinks and volleyball on TV. I miss just being able to be out at a bar to tip a few back, watch some sports, and hang out with friends. It was amazing and to top it all off these random Japanese college students started talking to me. They invited me over but I doubt they thought I would actually come over and talk to them. It was a good chance for me to practice my Japanese and for them to see if they could still talk English. Ended up exchanging phone numbers and keitai emails so hopefully we can all enjoy some snowboarding and drinking together in the future.
The next day Melissa and I met Nichole at Korakuen for lunch. Sadly the mall wasn't open right when we got there so we had to wander a bit while we waited but for lunch we had a stellar Chinese meal before parting ways with Nichole, where she gave me a bag full of crap from the dorm. Anyway then Melissa and I did some casual browsing at Asakusa where I proceeded to buy Christmas presents for people. We decided to head back home about mid-afternoon since we thought it would be less crowded. However it was pretty packed and we ended up having to stand at the back of the train the whole way back to Sanjo. Oh well, we made a cute little Japanese friend that had a mullet who was shocked that we could speak English. Then to top the night off we saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! Granted it was way too much information to try and shove in a 2.5 hour movie but I think they did a good job with it. So much so that I read the Order of the Phoenix over again, I am such a dork.
thank-o-lanterns
As you may remember, on our way back from Nikko we got pumpkins for free! Melissa and I finally got to carve them out for Thanksgiving, hence the name thank-o-lanterns. We were going to try and make the Thanksgivingish but it just wasn't working for us so we reverted to Halloween designs. Note to all of you who carve cats into your pumpkins. Make sure that more than the tail is attacted to the rest of the pumpkin. Mine started to slump a little bit after a couple days. I suppose that is what happens when your knife slips and you detach the legs from the rest of the pumpkin. Anyway we also make pumpkin seeds in Melissa's mini toaster which made for some, slightly salty but, awesome snacks.
A couple days later, on yet another random Japanese holiday, we all had the day off and had a good ole Thanksgiving dinner. Ok, let's be honest, it was really really ghetto. There aren't really turkeys in Japan unless you are in Hokkaido so we had KFC. Yeah, you read it right. Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sadly that was the closest thing to turkey we could find and it meant that none of us had to try and cook a bird, the next problem would be trying to find an oven. Maybe next year we will try for something a bit different but despite the KFC it was actually a really good dinner. Melissa went all domestic and made bruschetta, Kate made mashed potatoes, and Emily brought baked green beans. Believe it or not we had enough food to render me full but that didn't stop me from eating later on in the evening. For those that have been labeling me an alcoholic lately, I only had one glass of wine the whole night because I had to drive home that night. Later we watched Napolean Dynamite which was a hilarious. Granted I have never felt that uncomfortable for an entire movie in my whole life but it was still funny. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
taco wednesday
Granted it wasn't Tuesday, like back at the La, but I decided to have a couple people over for tacos. On top of the fact that it was Mexican food, which we don't really have here, it was just like being at a small town Minnesota fair. That's right, tacos in a bag! Apparently the rest of the country doesn't really have tacos in a bag. However a lot of towns in Minnesota, if not all of them, have a festival during some summer weekend. Obviously they have lots of food stands around and some of them sell tacos in a bag. For those of you who don't know what tacos in a bag are, they are doritos in the bag and all the fixings are dumped in and shaken up and everything is eaten out of the bag with a fork. When you are a guy that just graduated college you find ways to eat food without making of a mess for yourself later. Melissa, Kate, and Emily all thought I was crazy the whole time we were eating it for even knowing that there was such a thing as tacos in a bag but I didn't care because it was so good!
never say never
If you had asked me the first month of my stay in Japan if I would stay another year I would have told you, "hell no". Now I am actually toying with the thought of it all. It is crazy how the changes in a situation and just personal growth can affect a decision. Lately the people at my schools have been amazing. Ok, some schools more than other but overall the students are finally opening up to me. Recently my one of my JTE's (Japanese Teacher of English) suggested I do a newsletter and allow students to write journals to me. It has been a good way to get students to talk to me outside of class. Plus I finally am getting all my classes to have name cards so maybe I will finally learn some of my students names. In talking to some of my friends here who have stayed second and third years, they think the optimal amount of time for ALT's (Assistant Language Teachers) to stay is at least two years. In fact that is the average amount of time that people on the JET program stay for. Plus I eventually want to be a teacher, although I will have to go back to school to become one, and what better experience than actually teaching in a foreign country. Granted I want to teach Art, not English, and elementary or high school, instead of junior high, but experience is experience. I am not making any final decision until after Christmas break, which is when we have to tell them if we are recontracting, but it is never too early to toss ideas around.
monkey business
The best thing to do night before you have to leave the next day for a weekend excursion to Nikko is go to a Japanese party and stay up all night. That is exactly what happened because some friends from the language salon invited me out to their friends place for some cheap food and drink Friday night. The main reason I went was because the party was at a ceramics studio and I have been searching for a ceramics studio in Sanjo since I got here. Talk about exciting! Eventually I got the tour of the studio that night and found out that I could take lessons there for 1500 yen (around $15) everyday I came. Needless to say I will be trying it out this week. Anyway the party itself was a good time and it definitely put my Japanese to the test. It was really difficult to understand the men in the group, especially once we had a few, because men here tend to speak a slightly different and rougher dialect. Finally around 3 am I wound up back at my apartment after taking a daiko (a taxi service that drives your car home for you) home.
Bright and early at 7 am my alarm started beeping and I had to get up in order to shower and pack before Melissa, Kate, and Kayvohn arrived to pick me up. Originally they were supposed to be there at 8:30 but ended up showing up to my door around 9, which was fine because we all know that I am rarely ready on time. The Japanese weather forecasters said it would be raining all weekend but once we got on the road, it didn't rain until we got back to Sanjo at the end of our trip. Note to self: never listen to Japanese meteorologists. Needless to say I was exhausted on the drive down to Nikko so despite it being gorgeous out I actually slept most of the way down to Nikko.
Once we got near Nikko we stopped at Lake Chuzenji, which is a massive lake just out side of the main part of the city. When I was here two years ago all of us wanted to visit here but it was too far for the group to travel in the amount of time we had. That obviously made it a huge priority for me to see this time around. Across the road from Lake Chuzenji was the Futarasan Shrine. Somehow we managed to go in the back way, not a surprise since we were using the Lonely Planet, but it meant we got in for free. It was this cool little shrine that overlooked the lake and we got to practice our karate kicks.
Kegon Falls was our next tourist attraction and was about a five minute drive down the road from the shrine. It has a spectacular waterfall and we even took the elevator down 100 meters to get a better view. Once there we realized that there were just more than the major water fall that could be seen from the top but lots of surrounding falls as well. The main waterfall was obviously the most stunning and it actually one of the most photographed places in Japan.
Afterwards we headed into central Nikko to find our ryokan, which took a little bit because of the map we had gotten. Once we got there we decided it was time to relax a bit so Kayvohn and I headed to the conbini (convenience store) in search of some booze and snacks. On the way back, as we approached our ryokan Kayvohn saw a monkey. At first I really didn't believe him but after a little bit more of him yelling, "monkey, monkey, monkey" I got the picture and pulled over. It was awesome to see the monkeys that are so famous in Nikko, especially because up to that point I had never seen them there. We ran back and got Melissa and Kate so they could see them to. Together we tried to get some good pictures but they were really hard to take because "they're not in cages". Can you see the monkeys?
The ryokan was fabulous and it basically consisted of eating, drinking, relaxing and sleeping. All my favorite things. First we had a couple beers before dinner and then sat down to a typical Japanese enkai-type meal. The best part about it was that we could talk amongst each other to find out what tasted good or bad and we didn't have to try everything in front of us. At least for me, when I am in the enkai setting, I try to taste everything once before deciding how disgusting it is. After dinner we headed to the onsen for some great hot spring action after a brisk day. Then it was time for more drinking and craziness once we all got back to the room. Some of the highlights were JCPenny modeling, playing dead and the pyramid.
Breakfast the next morning was sadly of the Japanese style which meant that all we really ate off our plates was the salad, miso soup, rice, egg and bacon. Not bad for me since I rarely eat breakfast in the first place. Then it was off to the traditional sites of Nikko. We went to the Toshogu Shrine area, which is where I visited last time so it was a lot easier to navigate and know what to see. In the lower part of the Toshogu shrine there were the famous three monkeys, hear, speak and say no evil, that are carved into the wood of one of the buildings. Then we had to pass through the Yomeimon gate, which is this elaborate white gate in order to see the main part of the temple. We passed through the gate of the sleeping cat and walked up a ton of steps, there was little girl counting behind us but I forgot to listen at the top, in order to see the shrine at the top.
After leaving the Toshogu shrine area we grabbed some yakitori (grilled chicken on a stick) we viewed a wonderful little garden in the Rinnoji Shrine area. We didn't actually go into the buildings here because they all start to look the same after a while, especially when you don't know the meaning behind them. Then it was off to another very famous icon of Nikko the Shinkyo bridge (snake bridge). This structure was under construction two years ago so it was very exciting to see the uncovered bridge that day. Of course the whole time it was a clear sky and we had perfect pictures but my battery died halfway through the day to I had to start taking some with Kate's camera. I think they turned out alright though.
Finally, after we were all templed out, it was time to head back to Sanjo and Maki. Of course we hit some major traffic jams on the way back so it took a lot longer than it should have but we made it back in one piece. We managed to keep our sanity by singing karaoke to Melissa's ipod most of the way. Plus on the way back we found pumpkins!!! Of course they didn't have them in Niigata and we were actually told that they didn't grow them in Japan, what a lie. We stopped at one of the vendors where they actually gave them to us for free, maybe because it is past Halloween, so we will be using those in the near future. Stay tuned for more on that. The weekend couldn't have been more fun and it was great taking a road trip with people travel well together. There will definitely be more trips like that in the future.
flower power
Yesterday was the chrysanthemum festival at Mount Yahiko. However, last Thursday was my good friend Jamie's birthday so we obviously had to celebrate Wednesday night, especially since we had Thursday off. Afterall it had been way to long since I had seen the crazies, also known as Jamie, Michelle, and Megan. Michelle and Megan decided to surprise Jamie and bring her to Sanjo to meet some of us for dinner. We went to a great little izakaiya (a bar that serves food) called, Japanese Good Tasty. I had never been there before but it was recommended by a friend. A few drinks later and some good tasty food we were well on our way to partying. Later a few more people joined in and headed to karaoke for some great fun as usual. We headed back for some well deserved sleep on our day off. The next morning I awoke to omelettes, fresh fruit, toast, and orange juice. Obviously it was for Jamie, who was on her keitai (cell phone) practically the whole time, but everyone got a great breakfast out of the deal.
Then Saturday rolled around and about mid-afternoon Melissa and I rolled up to Mount Yahiko to see the famous chrysanthemum festival. Before we could even get to a see the flowers we had to walk through the yakuza (Japanese Mafia) food and game stands portion of this event. Back home all the usual carnival area attractions are obviously run by the carnies but here they are run by the yakuza. Of course we contributed to the yakuza fund enjoying chocolate covered bananas, hot dogs without the buns on a stick, and corn on the cob. All these things are made especially convenient but of course there is absolutely no where to put your garbage! I still am shocked at how clean this country stays without the use of garbage cans.
As you can see from the pictures there was quite the variety of chrysanthemums at the festival, even an entire miniature landscape made out of them. Many of the flowers received prizes, for being the most beautiful I would imagine. The whole shrine was practically surrounded by these things, as if they were taking over. It looked completely different than last time I was here with Gavin.
Recently I found out that the chrysanthemum is traditionally a funeral flower in Japan so it is not really nice to be handing these things out to friends or family, well unless you want to imply that they should die. Not really the kind of festival I thought it was but at least we found out all this information afterwards so it wasn't depressing to walk through at the time. Considering most festivals in this area are so happy and are just celebrating the seasons or a city. Too bad I will be thinking of death next time chrysanthemums cross my path.
To finish off a beautiful day we decided to grab some drinks before heading to another izakaiya called Samurai. This one had a trendy ambiance and we had actually tried a few times before to get in but hadn't made reservations, at least it wasn't because of the way I was dressed. Before heading out Melissa and I made some white Russians (kahlua, milk, and vodka) to get things started since our company could be a little tense at times. Then, in true broha/soha form, we drank chuhai's (the Japanese version of the wine cooler) on the train into Niigata city. To sum up the event, it was great food but there was some bad company. In fact, it was so bad that we ended up leaving the group early because one of the guys, who shall remain nameless, was being a douche bag. Which was fine because we headed back to Maki, had a few more drinks and some drunken fun. By fun I mean we talked about life and how interesting people can make it. The next day we went to Melissa's shogakko (elementary school) bunkasai. Going hung over to these things unshowered and in pajamas is not really appropriate attire but we survived. Overall another fun weekend in Japan and I didn't even leave the greater Sanjo area.
