all night niigata
Last weekend it was decided that we would spend all night in Niigata drinking and having a good time after the musical. To be honest, I really wasn't feeling up for it after all the drinking I had been doing during the week. However we still headed to the play, the Jungle Book, put on by a bunch of ALT's and various Japanese people trying to raise money for education in Papau New Guinea. It was actually very well put together and I was impressed by the costumes and overall job everyone did. Also one of my JTE's (Japanese Teacher of English), Sachino, came with one of her friends, Yagi, and it was good to see her there.
After some Mos Burger and beers in Maki, I was easily convinced to head into Niigata the rest of the night. It seems that my friends, whether here or back home, always managed to energize me when it is time to have fun. First we headed to Immigrants, which is where the musical was having a fundraiser, in order to start out the night with bang. The place was packed so much so that you could barely make it to the bar to get a drink. We did some dancing and socializing before the party started to wind down. At that point it was off to Hot Spot for some more drinking fun and to check out a cute Japanese bartender. Little did we know that there was this huge thug rap fest going on in there. It was ridiculously crowed with Japanese gangsters and girls wearing clear heels with lace up pants... you read that right lace up pants. It was alright but the situation was a little overwhelming. When it was all said and done I was glad to get out of there. Before hopping the train back to Sanjo I managed to head to karaoke with Sachino and Yagi for an hour of singing. Then hopped the 5am train from Niigata to Sanjo and the rest is history.
wednesday drinking
Yesterday was my first day back to teaching after, what seemed like, a long weekend. Luckily it was my favorite school, Ojima Junior High School, and we pretty much played games all day. After class there was this huge meeting with the town about a specific project they have there, called Ojima Adventures (OA). It is basically to teach the students to respect one another and give more responsibility to the student body as a whole. For example the students make the school rules for the following school year. Not only is it interesting but it works wonders.
Anyway after the meeting there was an enkai (drinking party) at the Aqua Hotel, which is a local izakaiya. I figured I would stay an hour or so because I really like the teachers at the school. Well one hour turned into four and needless to say I am dragging ass today. It was totally worth it though because I got to hangout and shoot the shit with my teachers. To end out the night we played janken (paper, rock, scissors) for sushi. Fun stuff with my favorite school, you just can't beat that.
alt hoedown
Monday and Tuesday was the Niigata Prefecture Mid-year Seminar for ALT's. Which meant that every Assistant Language teacher in this prefecture was in Niigata city for a conference. It was surprisingly not too horrible and the only part that I really didn't like were the keynote speakers who really didn't talk about anything relevant. Other than that I got some really good teaching ideas from other ALT's and even managed to have some fun in the process.
There was a small party on Monday night which definitely got interesting. The seminar finished around 5 at which time Kate, Kayvohn, Melissa, and myself all headed back to Maki. After a quick change, and a couple of drinks, we caught the train back into Niigata. Once there we grabbed a taxi to a cheap little izakaiya (drinking and eating establishment) that we have come to frequent over the last few months. A few drinks and dinner passed so we headed to a bar called Hot Spot. Not exactly the place to be on a Monday night, unless you happen to want to take Japanese salsa lessons, but we were looking for hot bartender that has the hots for Melissa. Another couple of drinks down the hatch and we headed to Shame, which is the bar where the ALT party was that night, until it was time to go. I technically had four drinks but managed to spill my first while in talking to a friend. There was lots of drunkenness followed that night, beware of drop kicks from Kayvohn and Melissa, but it was good to have a fun night out in Niigata. We left at 11:30 because of the trains but that turned out to be a good thing since we ended up with hangovers the next day of the seminar.
just say snow
It was time again for me to visit my homestay. Shiozawa has definitely felt like my home away from home. Every time I go there it is filled with lots of relaxing, eating, and drinking. This time around Melissa came with to partake in the festivities. I am glad she got to experience the reason why I head down there so much although they probably think I have a girlfriend now. It seems like any girl and guy that walk around together or hang out are accused of dating in Japan. However it is perfectly acceptable for two boys or girls to walk around holding hands or have their arms around one another. Ironic?
Anyway, after getting there late Friday night we were immediately feed and headed to bed at a decent hour so that we could spend a full day snowboarding the next day. We went to a place called Maiko which was a completely different experience than Gala, the ski resort we went to last time I was in Shiozawa. This place was a lot bigger and on top of that it was quite as crowded. When it was all said and done we ended up spending around 6 hours on the slopes. Needless to say my legs were so tired at the end I started to fall over for no good reason. There was no need to go to the gym after that one but we did hit up the onsen. That too was pretty empty which is the way I like it so that I can have some time to relax in peace and quiet. Afterwards we obviously came home to plenty of food and drinks. It was a really good day of snowboarding and every time I go out it is getting easier, thank god!
Twelve hours of sleep later I woke up for some breakfast and to lazily start my day. Just after lunch I took a shower right before we were bombarded with the neighbors and by neighbors I mean their cute little children. It always amazes me how amused kids can stay. We must have played with balloons for a good twenty minutes before taking a walk outside on a gorgeous day. Shiozawa got hit with a lot of snow, around four meters worth, while I was away and this is the area that is having all the avalanches. Thankfully we weren't near the mountain on our little walk but we still got to play with all the snow and icicles. Later we were invited to their house where we ate some snacks and played playstation 2 with the kids. Of course we got a little interrupted when the Mom called to have us come back for dinner. It was great to over stuff ourselves one last time before packing and catching the train to Sanjo. Of course it managed to start snowing again and our trains were slightly delay but we made it home in one piece. I can't wait to go back!
snowballin
Just when you thought that I might be done with the natural disasters the snow started to fall and 3 meters later decided to stop. Thankfully all this happened right after I left for Tokyo, which was lucky because the next day the trains and buses were all shut down because of the snowfall. The prefecture actually made world news yet again and if you want to read the article you can click on the link.
Actually Sanjo is not in the part of the prefecture that was hit the worst but every time I want to go snowboarding it is like entering snow world. This upcoming weekend I am going back to my homestay in order to partake in some more snowboarding. Shiozawa is actually one of the main areas that the avalanches have been happening so if you don't hear from me after next weekend, you know why. Just kidding. My homestay is way too over protective of me to go anywhere near an avalanche zone and it is just exciting to have the opportunity to go snowboarding again.
Traveling to go snowboarding last weekend reminded me a lot of the first time I went to Colorado with my dad to go skiing. The snow is so high that they measure it with huge poles on the side of the road. Needless to say the little sprinklers do not manage to do the trick, instead they have huge trucks that are like gigantic snow blowers. Pretty cool but you would never want to be in the path of one. Those coupled with actual snow plows apparently does the trick in these neck of the woods. Melissa and I were lucky last weekend to never really get slowed down by any of the machinery. Hopefully it will stay that way the rest of the winter.
to be or nabe
This weekend was filled with plenty of good times and catching up. It was the first time that I got to see Melissa and Kate since we have all been home. As you can see, we wasted no time in getting back into our normal ridiculousness. Friday we were all at Kate's place to have nabe, which is maybe best described as a Japanese crockpot of meat and vegetables in a broth. Thankfully some of Kate and Melissa's Japanese friends had come over to make it, which was very nice of them to do. There was so much food that even I couldn't finish it. Plus we got to get back into drinking Japanese beer, which by the way is a lot stronger than American beer, so much so that I was buzzed after a few tall cans. It was great to make some new friends and catch up with the old ones.
The next day Melissa and I got up early to head 2 hours south, almost into Nagano, for snowboarding. After all the rain that we had encountered on the way down we were almost positive that it would be a bad day for boarding. Low and behold there was no rain all morning and perfect weather for snowboarding, warm and clear skies. It was a welcome surprise that it was easier for me to snowboard despite it only being my second time every boarding and it had been about a month since last time I tried. We were having so much fun that there was even time for pseudo graduation picture on the slopes. Sadly the afternoon was quite rainy and we ended up stopping a couple hours shy of what we had initially planned. Not to worry though, we headed back to Maki to indulge in the onsen at Iwamuro and grab some misochyashu (miso flavored soup with slices of pork) ramen with beer at Komadori, which is famous in these parts. It was great to put back on the weight we had lost while on the mountain. I have absoulutely no regrets about that one though!
Sadly it is Sunday and I have to work again tomorrow. Being lazy was definitely the theme today but seeing as I barely got 8 hours of sleep before I went back to work after traveling last week, I felt like I deserved a day of rest. Hopefully this week will go by fairly quickly because I am heading back down to Shiozawa next week to hang out with my homestay and do some more snowboarding. Eat, drink, and snowboard... the only things to do in Niigata during the winter.
home and the unexpected
I made it back safe and sound. It all started back on the 22nd when I had to live that day twice, travel to a different hemisphere, and participated in the Blaine High School alumni swim meet all in a day. Only to be topped the next day with second row tickets to the Timberwolves game in which Mark, Ben, Reid, and I all got drunk for. That night I also got my mom's cell phone stolen, but she needed a new one anyway. In some ways it is difficult to believe that I was home for as long as I was because of how quickly it all went by. Having said that it is hard for me to keep track of all the things I did and when they all exactly happened. Good thing I have this to keep track of the stuff I did in Japan of the last few months otherwise who knows what I would actually remember.
Most of the first week actually went by fairly slow, which was fine by me, so I spent a lot of time at home relaxing and being generally lazy. It gave me plenty of time to decorate our Christmas tree and spend an afternoon making Christmas cookies with the family. I spent Christmas Eve at my grandparents and it was great to see all my relatives again for plenty of food, presents and games. For once all of my cousins were in the same place at the same time so we had to get the grandchildren picture in, as it becomes more and more infrequent that the ten of us are all there. The next day I spent with my family as well and for once I woke up my sister instead of the other way around. Thankfully I got pretty much everything I wanted, which included plenty of warm clothes since Japan, despite being a modernized country, lacks central heating.
After picking up a few extra hours at work, which was basically so I had money to fuel my eating, drinking and spending habits over break, and then New Years had suddenly arrived. I had to work on the morning of New Years Eve but got off in time to head back, take a shower and then head to Uptown for a few afternoon cocktails. Later that evening I had a party at my parents place and had a decent showing of people there to enjoy it. It basically consisted of a bunch of good friends eating, drinking and catching up on life. Anyone noticing a re-occurring theme? The party was also amusing in the fact that there was only one couple there so when the ball dropped most of us just toasted and gave hugs all around. Clearly I wasn't wasted enough since I wasn't making out with everyone in the room and my shirt was still on but I still managed to have a great time.
The next day Jennie, Joy, Ben, Brad, Mark, and myself all got some hungover Perkins. Let me just say that I didn't know Perkins actually got busy before midnight. It was nice just to get some food in our bellies though. Later that day, I went to my grandparents for more food, drinks and games. However, I only stayed a few hours because I had a date with Matt later that night where I kept my tradition of loosing at Scrabble. Honestly, who comes back from a 50 point deficit to win? Matt does. Someday I will win that game, I just hope it is against Ben and Mark.
Then it was Ben's birthday, the big 23. Somehow it had been decided to have his party in Anoka so a few of us got together and vowed to get Ben trashed despite him having to work the next day. A football game, lei and ten shots later Ben was drunk talking in the bathroom stall to his little brother. Pretty amusing. Yes, I was the one to lei Ben. Oddly enough we ran into another Johnnie who was home from Japan. He did the JET program the previous year and was now studying Japanese near Osaka. Apparently he was at a really violent school so he had no qualms about only staying a year, I wish I had something like that to solidify my decision.
Finally I come to the fun part, Matt. I actually met Matt the Thursday before New Years at a gay bar called Boom in Northeast Minneapolis through a mutual friend. We ended up talking most of the night but never even exchanged phone numbers. I had only told him I was working New Years Eve at the Sunny Side-Up Cafe and sure enough he showed up that very morning. It was an interesting morning since a couple groups of friends also swung through that morning and got to see me trying to flirt with him, probably pretty amusing for anyone watching. Needless to say we exchanged phone numbers and emails before the morning was over and proceeded to have an amazing week together. He is an brilliant guy that I was fortunate enough to meet and spend a week with while I was home. The last night I was home he traveled to and from St. Cloud with me to see a bunch of my high school friends, drank too much and stayed up with me the rest of the night. I am going to miss him a lot.
