This is just going to be another quick one. I just got home now and I’m off to my Sobetsukai (Farewell party) in a little bit. I went to my technical high school for my last day teaching in Japan. I love that school. So it was pretty rocking. When I walked out of my last class, which was the last period of the day, I looked down and realized that my pants were soaked through with sweat from the knees down…i’m pretty sure it was a combination of me being excited and jumping around the class and it being crazy hot out.
Anyway, my Oral Communication class of 4 students that I teach every Friday for 2 periods in a row gave me this. I think it’s pretty rockin, but I’m not quite sure how I’m going to pack it. LOL.
Really busy packing everything up and saying goodbye to everyone. It’s crazy. Came across this article today. Sums up what Japan is really like as far as technology goes. Just wanted to link it here. 12 days left in Japan.
I recently finished my 25 page letter/novel to my successor. I’m not going to post all of it here, but I’ve posted the advice/views/suggestion section in a couple of places, so why not put it here too. Enjoy, or just skip it. Below I’m going to put the video that I sent to Drew for his birthday. Oh ya, my replacement is a Singaporean female, hence the reference to it.
Ok, so I think that should be it. As I said, any questions you may have, hit me up. I’m going to use this next section to impart my senpai wisdom. Don’t take it as gospel or anything, these are just a few things that I think might help or are just good philosophies for getting through the rough patches, as well as anything I feel I might have missed. It might overlap with what’s above seeing as I started writing this short story about a month ago. So, here we go.
- First and foremost, when culture shock hits, and it most likely will in some way shape or form, realize that going home is not the answer. So many people come over, culture shock starts to hit them and they feel like they have to go home. Life, as I’m sure you know is not always amazing. The problem people encounter over here is that instead of just realizing, ok, I’m at a low point, they begin to think that if they were home, they’d be happy and everything would be amazing. It’s an added excuse that you generally don’t have at home, just ride it out and it will go away. Regardless of where you live, you’ll always hit low points. Don’t use a low point as an excuse to go home. It won’t be any better there and you’ll miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime. At the end of the day, YOU LIVE IN JAPAN AND THAT IS FUCKIN AMAZING!!!
- That being said, don’t be afraid to reach out to people. Everyone around you has either gone through or is going through exactly what you are. Make friends, go out, VENT. Talk shit. Who cares. JET is amazing because of the support group that exists here. USE IT. The moment you get to Fukushima, you just made 150 new friends. Sure, you won’t see all of them all the time, but there are always people doing something somewhere. There are always parties and activities. Go and talk to people. Everyone has been in the situation you have where they come and know no one. Embrace it and just put yourself out there. Maybe that’s not your style but just throw down. In the end it makes your time here that much better. When will you ever have such an international community at your disposal? Going out, looking around and seeing that over 10 nationalities are represented at a table of 15 people is FRIGGIN OUTRAGEOUS! There is something special about the bonds that you make here, so don’t miss out on that.
- Try everything! There are so many things that you can get involved in here and so many things you can do. Not just through FuJET with the trips but through the Japanese community, your schools, community centers, etc etc etc. Snowboard! Go canyoning and free fall down the face of a 15 meter waterfall, onsen, hike, go to temples, explore! There are things around the corner from the apartment that I didn’t even realize existed until my second year. There are cool things EVERYWHERE and you won’t find them unless you just try. Who cares about your Japanese ability or you athleticism or whatever. JUST DO IT! You’ll be happy you did.
- As for the job, don’t worry about it too much. BUT, work on learning the student’s English vocabulary. They don’t know all the words in the textbook OR the words in their vocab book and it does take a little while to get used to, as their English is very rigid. Right off the bat I realized that saying something like, “Wow that’s hard” makes little sense to them. “That is difficult,” on the other hand they totally get. It seems minimal but when you string together sentences with a bunch of words they don’t understand, then you’ll see what I mean.
- At the end of the day, the job, the placement, the city and your experience are what you make them. How you deal with issues you may have and how you approach each day is going to make all the difference in the world. There are a TON of things that are difficult about living in Japan, but there are a TON of amazing things as well. Your experience as a Singaporean woman will be very different to my experience here as a Canadian man. Japanese people are amazing, but you’ll find some things really really frustrating. Just accept it, you can hate it, but accept it. There will be other things that will BLOW YOUR MIND because of how amazing they are.
- Japanese is definitely important. My Japanese to be honest is crap. But having the ability to get around and be independent is important. Definitely work your Japanese ability to a point that you can at least have conversations with people. It makes SUCH A HUGE DIFFERENCE.
- GO TO ENKAIS (Work drinking parties). Higashi is a WICKED SCHOOL for partying. Go to the 2nd party (nijikai) and the 3rd (sanjikai) and the 4th if there is one. This is how you bond with people. Just make sure you’re good to go in the morning if they’re on a weekday, I’ve definitely overdone it a few times and that’s never good. You’ll be amazed in the difference in the people that sit around you in an office all day deathly silent. Talk to everyone, pour everyone drinks, socialize. They are all stealth English teachers anyway and it’s the best chance to practice your Japanese, (mine gets infinitely better after a few drinks, or at least I think so).
- Anything AWESOME you hear about me is a TOTAL FACT! Anything that paints me in a negative light, totally untrue. Slap that person around.
- Embrace your foreigness (ya, that’s right, I made that word up). There are negatives and positives to be a foreigner in Japan. You’re a rock star sometimes, other times you’re stopped and questioned by the police. Just go with it. At the end of the day, I think the positives far outweigh the negatives. Embrace the fact that yes, you are foreign and yes you do live in Japan and sometimes that makes things awkward but at other times it allows for the gaijin smash. This rule applies with your co-workers as well. You don’t have to keep up with them. You play by a different set of rules and don’t feel bad when you’re the last person to show up in the morning and the first person to leave at the end of the day. It’s a different system with different rules.
- Ask questions about EVERYTHING. This um, 24 page novel I’ve written you is just the tip of the iceberg. Ask everyone about everything. Ask JTEs anything you want, ask your supervisor, ask sempais, ask whoever! No one is going to sit you down and explain everything to you and the only way you’ll learn anything here is by pushing a little bit and asking. Every situation is different, but the people that know the most about yours are those around you. Don’t be afraid to throw yourself out there and ask them. If you want to go somewhere or do something, chances are someone else has done it before you and they’ll have answers. There are no stupid questions, only stupid people that DON’T ASK. That being said, sometimes just going at something is way more of an adventure.
- Use Japanese in class. I don’t care what anyone tells you. Using you Japanese in class is a positive. I’m not saying use it all the time. But every once in awhile throw it down. Sometimes Japanese people are under the impression that there is no way foreigners can read, write or speak Japanese. Even people that I speak to IN JAPANESE come out with questions like, can you read katakana. As well, using Japanese shows that yes, learning a foreign language is totally possible.
- Pick your battles. There will be disagreements and problems with your job sometimes. Don’t feel like you just have to do everything you’re told to do. You have a contract and yes, sometimes, there will be things that fall outside of that. Like, English club, it runs until about 5:30 or 6pm one night a week. Meaning, you don’t technically have to do it, but c’mon now, it’s English club. On the flip side, there will be things that the school, the BOE or whoever will ask of you that are just out of bounds. All I’m saying is, fight for things when you feel it’s necessary but be careful about the battles you choose, because you won’t win them all.
- In the end, the above are just suggestions that have been given to me or I’ve given to people in the past and you can make your time here whatever you want it to be. Just always take time to look around and go HOLY SHIT, I LIVE IN JAPAN!! It’s amazing right? After 4 years, even to this day, as I’m driving home, I’ll look up at the mountains and go, OMFG, how crazy is this?
Next up, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DREW!! This was a bit of a bitch to make, but whatever, it was worth it. Check it out. Also, check out the other linked vid at the end of the video.
Here’s the description I put along with the video.
Drew it’s your birthday! Happy Birthday Drew! After 4 years away, i figured I should spice this one up a bit.
Here are the locations in order.
Tsugura Castle in Aizu-Wakamatsu
Mt. Shinobu lookout point in Fukushima
My balcony in Fukushima
Fukushima Inari jinja
In my car (Matsukawa I think)
Ichigaya Station in Tokyo
Akabeko (red cow)statue in Fukushima
Mt. Shinobu
Samurai statue in the middle of nowhere (Adachi maybe)
A classroom
Ichigaya station in tokyo 2
Rice field in Nihonmatsu
Kamakura Buddha
Nango ski resort in Minami-Aizu
Abukuma river in Fukushima
Kasumiga Castle in Nihonmatsu
That’s all I’ve got. Now back to packing up the last 4 years of my life.
I’ve always heard stories of kids bursting into tears from other JETs but most the kids that I deal with are between the ages of 15 to 18 and I never even dreamed it would be an issue. Most of the stories come from ALTs that are dealing with Junior High School students or younger and that makes sense. But today, going over a girl’s speech, which was well written and informative about gender equality in Japan I asked her about one sentence because I wasn’t sure what she was trying to say. When she wasn’t very responsive I asked Red Eye sensei to give me a hand. He asked her what she meant by the one sentence and she kinda went even more quiet if that’s possible. I look down at the sheet to try and figure out what she means and then look back up to see tears just gushing down her face. She wasn’t wailing or anything but all I could think was…HOLY CRAP she’s crying. I tried to tell her that she could come back later and I’d have it all figured out by then but she just stood there and kept crying harder. So, I quickly scribbled down what I took the sentence to mean with proper grammar this time handed it to her, she stood there and cried a bit more and then eventually left. God it was messy. Not overly dramatic or anything but it just threw me off a bit. Last week I told one girl I understood absolutely nothing that she had written and that she’d have to re-write the WHOLE thing for me to understand it. She giggled, smiled and bounded away.
But this other girl, who had clearly done some research into her topic and had made it relatively interesting in her second language just breaks down in front of me for one poorly structured sentence. I was so close to not having made a kid cry. Dammit.
About an hour after that I was handed a student teacher’s lesson plan to proof. For some reason English teachers have to write their lesson plans in English and then distribute them to the staff so they know what’s going on should they choose to observe the student teacher’s demo lesson. Not quite sure how that works with English but whatevs. Anyway, it took me longer to correct than any of the speeches written by 2 nensei (grade 11) students that I’ve been marking. I thought it was so bad I copied down just the first page and you know, emailed it to some people and obviously I’m going to post it here and potentially on facebook for some of the new people coming in to see. The lesson is about Mr. Hibino who was a baseball player and then a team manager, a job in which he rose to infamy. So, the lesson talks about him and his views of Dreamers and Achievers. Here’s this student teacher’s plan. All of the punctuation, grammar, etc is copied exactly.
Viewpoints of material
In Japan, few people was acclaimed as “star” performers. Mr. hoshino is one of “the star” and called people “Dreams and Achiever” . This lesson, high school students had the opportunity to interview Mr. Hoshino. through reading this interview, to have students notice the importantly of effort and imagine their future.
Viewpoints of students
students usually set about classes very moderate. I felt them to be obedently. they can practice actively at reading lesson. Almost all of them finish preparation at home. Sometimes some students looks like downcast.
Viewpoints of teaching
1) To teach what person Mr. Hoshino is
2) To teach the life of Mr. Hoshino
3) To have the students consider life of Mr. Hoshino
4) To have students consider Dreamer and Achiever
5) To help students imagine their future
Aims of this lesson
The students will
1) learn about Mr. Hosino’s life as a Dreamers Achievers.
2) be able to put text into Japanese and answer some question .
3) be able to read text fluently and train their ability of reading.
And somehow the Japanese government wonders why Japanese students have difficulty with English. Some university actually gave this person a DEGREE in English. How friggin crazy is that?
Two weeks ago, Mo and I spent our last weekend out in Tokyo. Even though we still have 2 months to go before we leave. We probably won’t be down there again, in an effort to save money. The Friday night we rocked Ageha, the supposed biggest club in Asia, but for some reason I don’t believe that it is. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a big club, but it’s not gigantic. Regardless of all of that, it is a mission seeing as it’s outside of Tokyo and you can’t exactly get back into the city without paying a massive cab fare. So, when you go, it is like a sporting event. It’s not just a go out and enjoy your evening. You have to time it so that you can stay awake until the first train at 5am. Ageha itself doesn’t even open until 11:30. And I’m happy to say that I made it through in relatively good condition as well. The music was epic and we all had a pretty good time with minimum drama and everything. There were about 30 of us in total out there for Vinnie and Liz’s birthdays.
On the Saturday we met up with some friends of ours who have recently had a son, like, 2 weeks old. I felt very adult sitting in their apartment with a 2 week old child just chillin out. Mo cooed and was bursting at the seams with AWWW HE’S SO CUTE feelings. I on the other hand felt no need to be close to something that I feel like I can break so easily. I told Yasmin and Andy that I won’t deal with babies until they’re old enough that I can’t break them, cuz as the old saying goes, “You break it, you bought it.” And no one wants to be the guy that breaks someone else’s baby. Saturday night was pretty chilled out as we hadn’t even been up that long by the time the sun went down. We went for beers and fish and chips with Christian and Cathy at a Scottish bar in Shinjuku and then pretty much called it. Met up with Vinnie and a few others at the hostel and had a bit of a night cap.
Sunday was “get Kamakura out of the way” day. It’s the only place I haven’t been that’s just outside of Tokyo so I really wanted to go. But we couldn’t just leave Tokyo without a trip to….FOREVER 21. So, the first 3 hours of the day were spent in a packed store following Mo from rack to rack. But eventually we made it to Kamakura. It was pretty sweet but it was POURING RAIN. So, I really didn’t get to see all that I wanted to. We were still pretty wrecked from the all nighter at Ageha so we pretty much trained in, went to the Hase Kannon and then to the Daibutsu (big Buddha) statue and that was pretty much it. Then we rocked back to Fukushima on the Shinkansen. All in all it was pretty chilled out. Here are the pics.
Part of a Jizo Shrine at the Hase Kannon
I'm so artsy
Mo and the Daibutsu
In other news, I am now rocking anywhere from 4 to 6 classes a day at Higashi because of my Leavers’ Survey responses. My super is a pretty cool dude and wasn’t aware of the fact that he was the one that had to make my schedule. The classes are NOT good or anything, but at least I’m in there. I can tell some of the teachers are not happy about it, but FUCK them. I’m busy as hell now though and my visit schools now seem like nothing compared to the amount of work I’m doing at Higashi. Hopefully this keeps up and continues on for the next person.
Every leaving JET has to fill out a survey. Questions about Japan, the prefecture, the JET programme, etc. It’s a confidential survey or at least it’s supposed to be. There’s no spot for a name or anything. But in mine, seeing as my base school has sucked like crazy for the last oh, let’s say 2 years to be nice, I referenced it quite a few times in my reply to the question,
“Please tell us concrete and tangible ways in which you think the use of JETs in schools and local areas can be improved.”
To save time, I’m just going to copy and paste my entire response. A few acronyms you might need to know. SHS = Senior High School and ALT = Assistant Language Teacher (that’s me).
Ok, check it. I’ll put it in italics, so you know when it ends. I’m also going to bold a few things that are um, pretty harsh, so you pay attention to them.
The SHS JET system is flawed in my opinion. Schools that do not use or deserve ALTs are given an ALT who then sits at a desk and does nothing. I have spent the last 2 years at Fukushima Higashi SHS where I have been used less than 20 times in classes. This is a complete waste of prefectural resources. The schools that I visit once a week use me effectively but are only given an ALT for one day a week, whereas a school that is supposed to be highly academic but does not use an ALT is continually given access and funding. I feel that all schools should be assessed before they are simply given an ALT and this assessment should be performed on a regular basis. There are many Senior High Schools that wish to have an ALT but are denied while schools that don’t use ALTs are continually given access to them. This results in the ALT losing motivation in their job. Situations where the ALT simply sits at a desk are unbelievably difficult and I wonder how the system has continued on this path as long as it has. Despite multiple reviews where I have written about the lack of classes and general failure of Fukushima Higashi SHS to use me effectively, the prefecture has continued with business as usual. The last 3 ALTs at Fukushima Higashi SHS have complained of the school’s attitude towards ALTs yet nothing has been done. This shows a complete lack of respect for the ALT and the JET programme in general. Either schools should be monitored for how much they use ALTs or the ALT’s opinions should be taken more seriously. The only reason I have continued to stay at Fukushima Higashi is because of the enjoyment I get out of living in Japan. But in all honestly, my position at Fukushima Higashi SHS can only be described as insulting. I do want to stress that the assessment above in no way reflects my visit schools as they are all very good at using me effectively.
The students at Fukushima Higashi are the ones who suffer from the current structure, as they graduate from high school with the least internationalized outlooks of all the students at all the schools that I teach at. As well, their English conversational skills are sub-par comparative to schools that are seen as lesser educational institutions. The JET programme exists because English teachers in Japan lack solid English abilities and I have seen this first hand. Teachers that can barely string together sentences are allowed to simply leave me at a desk and instruct students in a language that they can barely have a conversation in. This, I have found is more of the rule than the exception. If the tax payers of Fukushima prefecture were made aware of this practice of leaving out the ALT, I believe they would be rather upset. I understand that the Japanese system has major problems as far as the subject of English is concerned but schools like Fukushima Higashi SHS continually lower the bar with their abuse of the ALT system. The prefecture needs to pay more attention to ALT’s assessments of their own school. So much pressure is exerted on teachers to teach for the University entrance exam that actual English skills are seen as a secondary goal to grammar and vocabulary. The English ability of graduating students after 6 years of English instruction is not what it should be and there should be a complete re-evaluation of the system at least at a SHS level.
I could continue to discuss major problems within the JET programme for pages on end, but I will stop here. I know that no program is going to be perfect. But to have an educated native English speaker sit at a desk and do nothing for months on end is NOT effective and is frankly, soul crushing.
Needless to say, it’s probably not exactly the BEST thing for Higashi to have sent to the prefectural offices and the governor. But hey, it’s there. Long story short, my new supervisor who came from a school that didn’t have an ALT and pretty much has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to dealing with me decided that this confidential survey was alright to show to…um, every single English teacher in the school. I’ve already had a few teachers come up to me and apologize. Ha jeez awkward. And a too little too late with the “apologies.”
On the plus side I do have classes scheduled everyday but I’m pretty sure that’s more or less because the English teachers are all saying to one another, OMG, we need to have classes with him now so that when the governor or his aide, or his aide’s aide sees that we don’t get our asses handed to us.
Should be an interesting 10 weeks or so. I swear to god, if I start to like this job a lot before I leave I’m gonna be pissed.
Quick heads up, I actually wrote this a week ago and just didn’t put it up until now.
With Golden Week just finishing up, I figure a blog is probably necessary to document my first Golden Week that I didn’t go anywhere. First of all, it’s way shorter when you don’t take any vacation days. Although, 4 days off isn’t too bad at all. Why don’t other countries have this going on? It’s like Spring break for everyone! After a little bit of research (e.g. asking my students) I did find that most kids have no idea what the holidays are about or what they’re for. Showa day (April 29th) is the birthday of the Showa Emperor who was the emperor prior to Japan’s current emperor. When I asked some kids who was the emperor prior to Heisei (the current one) they had no clue. One kid actually said Meiji, he was the emperor from 1867 to sometime around 1920 or so (1920 is just a guess). How could they be so clueless?? But ya, anyway, moving on.
Mo and I spent Showa Day with her boss Dane and her co-workers doing a mama-cheri race at a track in Nihonmatsu. It was an endurance race around a 2km track and it went for 4 hours. Mama-cheri’s are the common type of bikes that Japanese people ride. Think the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz when she’s in the tornado…the bike turns to a broom. It’s just like that. So, it made for some comical moments in the pits. I did one lap and I was dead. Legally, I wasn’t supposed to participate, but I figured one lap wouldn’t hurt. Out of 54 teams, we came 53rd…which was just one shy of the goal to come last. It was weird cuz Dane and Damo were pumping it too, the plan of, everyone do a lap and then sit around and bbq went out the window when their manly competitive spirits took hold. Some teams were hardcore augmenting bikes with lightweight frames and seats, wearing spandex to cut down on wind resistance. Just nutty stuff. I thought it was all for fun, but apparently some people were out to WIN!
The track and the pits
Dane making a switch in the pits
Check out the scenery and Mo's awesome face in this one
Following Showa Day, I worked. And then the 5 day stint of being off began. On the Saturday, I did absolutely NOTHING. It was beautiful. The next day we rocked out to 五色沼 (5 coloured ponds). For some reason it’s always translated as 5 coloured lakes, but the kanji is pond and these “lakes” are the smallest, pond looking lakes I have ever seen. That night, we met up with Scott, an old JET who came at the same time as I did who is back now on Interac (pretty much JET, but run by Mormons with a lower salary). We hung out, had Indian and then got WASTED at a snack bar run by the most flamboyantly gay man I have ever met in my life. It was a rockin good time and my new best friend only charged us 1000 yen for 4 hours of drinking. Gay men love me.
Here’s a link to the whole golden week album. But there will be pictures below
Lake number 1...there were more than 5 though
Ooooo, look how artsy!
Green!
On the Monday (Constitution Day), after having a little bit of a sleep in, we headed out to the coast for a very very late lunch on the beach. We arrived around 4, had a bonfire and stayed until about 8pm. Then we headed into the bumping town/village of Tomioka for a night of adult like fun. We all went to just hang out and drink before going out on the town and the next thing I know, it’s like 12am, we’re all sitting around a kotatsu playing some kind of brain teasing/scategories/trivial pursuit like game. What is this a dinner party? Then we were forced (I say forced, but I was drunk and it was fun) to play some kinda of clapping, knee slapping, do actions type game that I was horrible at. The next thing you know, it is once again 4am. After crashing out JET styles (a billion people in one room spread across a few futons) we got up and headed out after a some sweet katsudon, they don’t have Denny’s in the middle of nowhere so katsudon it was for me.
BBQ
The plan for Green Day (that’s actually what it’s called) was to drive the 3 hours back to Fukushima from the south east coast of the prefecture and then continue to drive west up to the Azuma crater. After driving through the mountains for about 2 and a half hours all I could think about was laying down. My shoulders hurt like crazy, the mountain road that links the southern coastal area with Fukushima is like driving in a rally race. You know those ones through the mountains where they’re sliding all over the place and a co-pilot is required because otherwise they would die a horrible horrible death….ya, it’s like that. With the threat of crazy Japanese drivers driving 6 feet behind your car the entire time, I don’t exactly take it too easy through there, but, the Viv isn’t exactly a rally car, although I do maintain she is a beast!
While driving back we drove through Iino-machi a little tiny town on the outskirts of Fukushima famous for UFO sightings. Yup, that’s what they’re famous for. So, when Mo suggested we stop, it was like the greatest idea that has ever come to pass because I needed a break! We exited the car and followed this little path up a hill/mountain that was marked by different types of alien heads. All which had names beside them. I’m not totally sure, but I’ve never heard or alien classifications in English, I mean they must exist, but it was still weird to see names beside the heads like…um, ya, this random merman/fish looking alien is called “Tanpo” don’cha know (totally just making that one up). After getting to the top, which was about 500m up, we realized, there was pretty much nothing there. Not worth it and being as hungover as I was, not too much fun. But after our trek down and went into the UFO mountain museum. Now that was fun. After paying the 400 yen entry fee we walked through a curtain that had rope lights all around it into a black light lit corridor. Right away we knew we were in for a treat. The models in glass sections of the corridors looked like they came from that show Thunderbirds from the 60s or 70s. You know the one where they were all marionettes. It was AMAZING! After getting through this “mysterious” corridor we came into a big open room that in the center possessed the most authentic looking flying saucer like space ship I have ever seen. Can you just feel the sarcasm in that last sentence? This thing made from silver spray painted cardboard was AMAZING! Completed with rope lights duct taped to the edges it was a phenomenal creation. And no flying saucer can ever be complete without little tiny Christmas lights going around the bottom that range in colour from orange to blue to red. AMAZING! There were articles on the walls about different aliens that had been discovered all over the world, as well as scaled down models of flying saucers that floated in the air and rotated after you pushed a button to reveal the inside of the saucer so you could get an idea of how the inside must look. It was epic to say the least. Each different kind of UFO was outlined and named in a little display as well as maps showing the countless sightings of UFOs within the Iino-machi borders. Oh and I cannot forget the models that stood beside the central flying saucer that gave one the idea of what martians must look like. Little green amphibious looking creatures as well as tiny blue men and something that resembled the robot from Lost in Space, “DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!! DANGER!!!!”
Moritan
DANGER, DANGER WILL ROBINSON!
Soon after this a man came out of nowhere to excitedly tell us about a 3D MOVIE that was about to begin!!! OMFGROFLCOPTER!!!!! 3D MOVIE!!!!! Wow, what an epic epic movie it was, trust me, you are jealous you missed it. Between the flashing warning that the projector kept putting up about the lamp needing to be changed and the sketchy sketchy jumpiness (is that a word?) of the picture on the screen, I was barely able to catch the POWER TRIANGLES of Iino that linked a bunch of sightings together as well as the IINO mountain and 2 other shrines power triangle. How it was powerful or why it was powerful I’m not really sure. BUT THERE WERE 3D TRIANGLES AND THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS!!
We grabbed ice cream after that and headed home. Azuma avoided for the day (thank god for that). The last day of Golden Week was the Wednesday, Children’s Day. We had planned to rock the crater in the morning and then head out to Iwanuma in Miyagi ken, just north of Fukushima to go to the 2nd oldest Inari shrine in Japan. And that kind of stuff is RIGHT UP MY ALLEY. We had been informed that there was TONS to do in Iwanuma. It was apparently a hotbed of Japanese historical sites and tradition even without the Takekoma Jinja (that’s the name).
Well, as always, I enjoy sleeping and BAM next thing you know it was 1pm. So, we skipped the crater to leave it for…potentially this coming weekend and instead just headed straight to Iwanuma. Now, Iwanuma is about 80km north of Fuku so it took about an hour and a half to get there on the local roads. Immediately as we entered the “city” I noticed the huge factories along the river and the distinct Iwa-stank. Wow, this place was already amazing. It didn’t take long to locate the shrine. And you know what, it was pretty cool, although, it didn’t look very old. There were sections that were clearly pretty old as they were fenced over with chicken wire like fencing that um, keeps birds away or something? But the main shrine part looked BRAND SPANKING NEW, but still a very nice shrine. But you know, after about 45 minutes we had our fill. So we moved on to find that next AMAZING treasure in Iwanuma. You know what…unless the Iwanuma post office is a popular thing to check out, there was pretty much nothing left in Iwanuma. Total bust! I mean, don’t get me wrong. The temple was really nice. But for 3 hours of driving, 45 minutes at a shrine didn’t cut it for me. Screw you Alex Whitters and your glowing recommendation. Also, I do want to add that Iwanuma was the most like Hamilton of any Japanese city I have ever been to. You know, nice parts mixed in with factories on the water. We figured out afterwards that they were paper factories which obviously make it slightly different, but it was still pretty similar as far as Canadian and Japanese cities go.
Pretty sure this part wasn`t the old part
(sidebar: I feel like I’ve put enough pictures in this post, check the link above for the rest)
So, we came back to Fukushima had dinner and then rocked out to Clash of the Titans. Oh, sidebar: I saw Alice in Wonderland a few weeks ago. The 3d was more like 2.5D wasn’t it?? Like not out in your face or anything. I mean, I guess it was ok but it took me like 20 min just to get used to looking at it. K, anyway, Clash of the Titans was balls. So horrible! And we had been told it was going to suck and we still went anyway, just cause we figured, hey, why not go to a movie. Friggin horrible! Have I said horrible enough times for you to realize it’s horrible? I hope so.
That was pretty much Golden Week for me. I worked the Thursday and the Friday and then this past weekend we had a farewell party for Gustavo, a Brazilian buddy that left for New Zealand. It was as all farewell parties are…messy but fun.
Today I’m at Yanagawa, the school I generally hate that doesn’t have internet and recently Commander Asshole Sensei from Higashi was transferred here, so I assumed today would be the worst of all my visits here but for some reason, both classes that I’ve had were really good. So that was a pleasant surprise. Vinnie’s birthday is this weekend coming up and the following weekend we’re going to Ageha in Tokyo to celebrate after we celebrate it this coming weekend. How does the Burninator get 2 birthdays? I’m not quite sure, but it’s his party and he’ll have 2 if he wants to, two if he wants to….you would have two if it happened to you! Sidebar: Can you tell I didn’t sleep that well last night?? LOL
I guess that’s all for now. I’ve stopped freaking out over the tattoo and I’ve accepted it as it is and I like it. Although I did link a bunch of people to my last entry asking them what they thought just cause I was in a bit of a freak out mode. Ok, I’m going to stop typing. How I’m going to kill the next 3 and a bit hours I have no clue. But here goes.
Well, here are the final pics of my tattoo, not completely healed, but pretty much there.
Now, I’m pretty happy with it. But I’m currently debating how I feel about the scales above the back right leg and the front left leg. If you look, they’re kinda a different colour. This is probably because they should fade a bit before the stomach right? At least that’s what I’m telling myself, but I’m not sold on it. I can’t really decide if I want to go back in and be like…ya, I want these scales the same colour as all the other ones. I just can’t decide though, cuz if I do it and then don’t like it…well, i’m stuck with it. But I feel like it would look better right??? I dunno, it’s driving me insane. You can see close up pics of the dragon here.
Or just look at this.
Is that weird? or normal? or am I looking at it too much?
I’ll put up links to pics from golden week around fukushima when I’ve actually put them up on the net.
