Burento in Japan

k, so even though I’m trying to save money i’ve been out like every day this week. I’m not very good at this stuff. This is going to be short as I don’t have anything prepared. Uhh….so it’s halloween. The Japanese know about halloween…some places even have like plastic pumpkins and stuff to decorate, but that’s as far as they go with it. No trick or treating, dressing up, etc. The JET community obviously goes full out. There are parties this weekend and parties next weekend. I think I’m just going to the one in fukushima, which is tomorrow. The lack of participation in halloween makes costumes difficult to come by. I bought a little kid’s commando set complete with goggles, binoculars, gun, knife, 2 grenades, walkie talkie, watch, head set, military handcuffs, whistle and watch. So I should be good to go I guess. It’s ridiculous enough that I’ll probably get by. As usual a ton of people are going to end up crashing here tomorrow, or at least I’m pretty sure they are. As well, tonight I bought an amazing hat. I am going to try and add pics to my actual blog opposed to just uploading a pic to my picture site. So here goes….oh, and I took one of me wearing some of the commando stuff. Here goes nothing….

12:20pm Thursday, October 19, 2006

            Well, today is picture day, so I feel that it’s only fitting to give my reflections towards my experience here thus far (get it, picture, reflection, hahahaha…maybe not).  Anyway, I’m at Higashi today, after the week of 4, 5, or 6 classes a day at my country school, Adachi-Higashi in Nihonmatsu it’s back to the regular life of Higashi.  I have no classes in Higashi this week…AGAIN.  I’ve figured out that this is the 4^th week in my some 10 weeks of teaching that I have not had any classes in Higashi.  Now at my other two schools that I go to regularly I still have classes which is nice.  But man, why am I even at Higashi?

            K, I’m getting off track.  My weekend was pretty much a toga party which there are pictures of up on my pic site.  It was a good time, I brought a 3 litre beer…yes you read that right, 3 LITRES…go check the pics.  It was awesome had a screw top and a handle. 

            Anyway, on Monday, with no classes, I pretty much just puttered around and tried to look busy surfed the internet etc.  My supervisor then told me I have to be quiet at home…apparently my landlord called the school on top of me getting a note on my door.  As well, as my luck would have it my supervisor informed me that I had a new landlord at my building, it is no longer the person from 201 but instead the person from 301, the apartment directly below me and the same people that probably wrote me the lovely letter.  This has led me to believe that 301 asked 201 to get me evicted or something and they decided they couldn’t do that so they resigned and 301 took over.  Now I know that I’m naturally a paranoid person, but it’s very strange that 201 isn’t moving out and just decided mid-month to not be the building manager/landlord anymore.

            It’s strange to feel racism after being in the majority for so long.  I’m an educated white male and here that’s extremely problematic apparently.  Now generally people are impressed that I’m a teacher here, unlike back home, but the fact that I’m white and teaching Japanese children may put them off a little bit.  Ever since the heart-felt letter I received from my neighbour below I have been utterly quiet and have listened to the building.  I have realized that without insulation in Japanese buildings not only are they cold but the walls and floors are literally like paper.  Now I have very noisy neighbours, loud music, loud screaming children, etc etc.  The fact that I have been loud 2 nights in the just over 2 months that I have been here does not warrant a note and a call to my school.  The only thing I can think of is intense racism.  I remember reading that it is difficult to find a place for foreigners to live as most Japanese do not want to live near them.  I feel that I am in this position in my own home and that is not the coolest.  I mean, I’m just as loud or as quiet as the next Japanese person (I know, hard to believe but I’ve really been trying since I got here and really, I live alone…not many people to talk to or anything) yet I’m still pounced on for the smallest thing…it just really pisses me off.

            Now I’m starting to feel that this racism or at least fear/hatred of foreigners spills over into my workplace.  One, I don’t get classes in Higashi, I don’t know why.  There are English classes going on every period yet I’m told to sit at my desk.  Then when I surf the net they begin to despise me even more, even though I have nothing to do.  I’ve gone to English teachers and said, I have no classes today would you like me to go to class with you, this is the English teachers that I have never had a class with…apparently I only teach with some teachers and others I don’t teach with at all.  This I don’t understand either.  So, because of this lack of me being out in the school and being cooped up in the office all the time the kids go nuts when they see me…STILL after 2 months.  A great job of internationalization I’m doing here eh?  16, 17 and 18 year old kids can’t lay eyes on a foreigner without screaming or giggling or whatever.  It’s as if I am literally a freak and the office is my cage and every once in a while a JTE puts a leash on me and takes me out for a walk down the hall and into a class room and then is like….dance monkey dance!!! All the kids laugh and shout, etc etc and then they’re like ok, good monkey and bring me back to the office.  I feel like the next class the JTE sits in there and talks with the kids about how weird and strange the “foreigner” is…”did you see him….he was sooooo white and he sat down in an empty desk!!! Who would do that?? Crazy foreigner!” 

            Ok, I get it, maybe some teachers are afraid of having to speak English or whatever…but….I mean seriously…get over that shit!  I’m going to approach my super on Monday and ask if I’m doing a good job, she will say yes regardless of what actual answer is and then I’m going to ask for more classes, or ask why I don’t have classes.  Even next week I only have 4 classes in the 3 days I’m here….like seriously??  OOOOOO guess what I just got the lesson plan for Monday….awesome….I have to do nothing for it, there was nothing discussed.  Ha jeez.  K, I just realized I sound like a whiney school girl but seriously everyday I think “all dressed up and nowhere to go.”  Like what the hell.  And I know that this is completely justified because I’ve talked to my predecessor’s predecessor and he’s still here and he felt exactly the same thing.  He actually has his blog archived back to when he first got here.  He set it up just like me to keep in touch with people back home and then it ended up being like a guide for JETs all around
Japan.  I have yet to check it out, but his email back to me about Higashi pretty much confirmed all the stuff I’ve been saying.  As well, the fact that NO ONE and I mean NO ONE talks to me unless it’s to slap the leash on or talk about when we’re slapping the leash on kinda sux.  Now I know…most of them speak Japanese, I speak English…that’s a problem.  But fuck….I know how to say Good Morning in Japanese and How are you?  Whatever, I started studying Japanese full out at my desk today, which actually got some teachers talking to me.  Which was kinda nice.  Ryan (my pred’s pred) told me to just study it like crazy at school and you’ll get a ton of teachers talking to you.  I always thought like…hey….i really shouldn’t be studying myself at school I should be reading teaching books, etc etc. or at least looking busy on the net.  Apparently I’m wrong.  So I will continue to study Japanese. 

            One other thing…the internet is all sketchy at work cuz they got rid of the wireless router I was connecting too and haven’t given me the new Ip or anything for the other ones….so I have all the old info inputted so sometimes it lets me on the net and a lot of the time it cuts me off.  I’ll try and get that fixed soon, but I think it’s a good idea not to have the net as then I’ll just study Japanese.  Oh, as well, I’m pretty much going to be home every weekend from now until when Mo gets here in an attempt to save a crapload of money.  So look for me on the weekends, which I will spend studying Japanese, getting drunk and on the net with people while drunk.  LOL.  Actually everyone is going camping this weekend except me…so I’ll probably just be around and studying…so mom, if u’r looking to talk…any time this weekend.  K, bye for now.

B

Found out it’s like -2 or -3 there and snowing, just wanted to say that I was just on my balcony in my boxers and was a little bit too warm so I had to come inside, it’s about 20 degrees here….

 that is all.

Love

Brent

Tuesday, October 10, 2006, 11:20am

            So I’m finally here at Adachi-Higashi, not that it’s confusing enough that I teach at Higashi and Adachi, I also teach at Adachi-Higashi.  But anyway, a few things about my weekend first, screw all of you for getting to have turkey!  That is all.  I did have a pretty good weekend.  There were festivals everywhere, including in Fukushima city which wasn’t bad, it was just some floats with lanterns and a bunch of booths down the main strip that were selling all types of things.  I had 3 people stay at my place pretty much all weekend.  Saturday night we went to another town where they had a pretty cool festival.  They built these huge shrine like things and then smashed them into each other.  There were like six and they had to be carried by at least 50 guys.  Then they ran them at each other like a sumo match or something.  It was nuts.  I went to
Sendai (the big city in the North) which is like an hour north of Fukushima.  It was sweet, we just did a day thing but it is the place you want to go for shopping.  They pretty much took a ton of streets that had lots of shops on them and covered the streets over making it like a mall.  CRAZY!! 

            Anyway, I knew today was going to be a bad day when I realized that I forgot my laptop cable at home.  I knew that that was a bad omen.  Then on top of that cuz I’m stupid sometimes I was standing on the wrong platform to come to Nihonmatsu and almost missed the train because I had to run up and over and on to it as it pulled into the station.  Guess I had a Canadian moment and forgot that everything drives on the left here, not the right.  So, then I had to take a bus…So I get off at Nihonmatsu station and head to the bus stop.  Some kids from Adachi are there and I ask them is this the bus that is the blah blah blah line…(I had it written down) and they’re like you want to go to school and I’m like ya…but I want to go to Adachi-Higashi, not Adachi.  They’re like yes yes, get on this bus.  Ya well, they get off the bus keeps going and finally I’m like…I should really tell the driver where I want to get off.  So I walk up and say, “sumimasen, watashi wa Fuji-stopu iku tai, Adachi-Higashi koko.”  This, I think, translates into, “excuse me, I want to go to Fuji stop, Adachi-Higashi high school.”  He turns to me in shock starts crossing his arms and is like da-meh, da-meh! (obviously not how you spell it, but how you say it)  ya, so I quickly figure out I’m on the wrong bus.  SWEET.  He stops at a random train station on the edge of Nihonmatsu city and gets a woman that works in a slipper store to call me a cab.  The cab shows up and this guy takes me on the journey of a lifetime into the city.  I had called my supervisor twice being like…uhh can u call adachi-higashi and tell them what’s going on.  Then being like…uhh…I’m in a cab and I’m in the country and I don’t know if this dude knows where he’s going.  He kept saying ah minami fukushima to me.  Which made me think that he was going to drive me back to minami fukushima.  Eventually I ended up at the school realizing that it is waaaay in the country.  Like there is nothing around this place except for trees.  I went for a little walk and the scenery is really cool.  All hills everywhere, brand new roads….I wish I had my board.  So, a teacher was supposed to be waiting for me at the bus stop and when I got here she showed up.  It was ok…but I was just pissed that I didn’t ask the driver of the bus before I got on.  Obviously I’m not doing my job well enough at Adachi cuz the kids had no clue.  Anyway, I’ve had a class it went really well. For some reason I think that a teacher here is trying to hook up with me and that the other teacher is trying to facilitate it.  Like, my supervisor here took off as soon as I got here and this young English teacher came over and started talking to me and asked me like right off the bat if I had a g/f and then was like…it must be very difficult for you.  Which is par for the course, but then another teacher brought over tea and chocolates and then took off again….and this young English teacher was like, well, you only have two classes so we can spend the day together….and I was like….uhh….ok…then she even came to my first class, which wasn’t even hers.  How weird is that?  Maybe I’m reading into it too much which could be the case, but from what I’ve heard this is how the Japanese roll.  I’ll know for sure if I show up to school tomorrow and she’s laying in the entrance way naked.  LOL.  Whatever, this school, much like all the N.M schools kicks Higashi’s ass.  Everyone is nice, the Kyoto-sensei speaks a fair bit of English and the teachers are nice, I imagine that teacher isn’t hitting on me, she’s just being nice…but how funny would it be if she is??  I mean really, how can she resist me, have you seen me lately?  And I know you’re thinking…what, Brent…there’s no way, but then take a second to realize that I’m wearing a full out suit with a tie right now….like I’d try and get with me too right now….but that wouldn’t be appropriate at work, not only hitting on one of your co-workers but the fact that that co-worker is myself wouldn’t be too good.  LOL.  Anyway, I bought a random bread thing from 7-11 before I came not knowing that I was going to be in the middle of nowhere…I just ate it, and I’m probably here for another 5 hours.  So this should be fun.  Maybe the flirty teacher will take me for lunch…and yes I am not above using her for a ride for food.  LOL.  K, I’m gonna go walk around the school randomly.

Brent

 P.S. This place is soo country that even in JAPAN my cell doesn’t get reception here.  I think that this place is so far away from civilization I may not even be in Japan anymore

Tuesday, October 3, 2006, 8:38am

So, we got on the bus around 6pm in
Fukushima.  There were about 8 of us by this point.  I had already been out to buy soccer shorts, socks, shin guards (nike, I was pissed to have to buy them, but whatever, it’s impossible to stay away from brands in soccer).  My “football boots” were being hooked up by this guy Neal who had some that he didn’t use.  So we piled on the bus.  I had 10 beers in my bag and two 26ers, one of tequila and one of whiskey but the night before I had poured them both out and mixed them and then poured the booze back in.  So in essence I had 2 bottles of half tequila, half whiskey.  The bus was pure bling.  When you check the pics look at the chandelier we had at the back and all the lights had big jewels on them.  So I drank a few beers on the way and we made stops in Koriyama (I know the kanji for yama now, and it means mountain) and Aizu to pick up the rest of the Fuku JETs.  After Aizu I obviously passed one of my bottles around the bus, yes it wasn’t very sanitary…but whatever.  So most people got in on it and I got tipsy enough that just as I finished it I passed out.  Apparently everyone else had the same idea and the entire bus was asleep fairly quickly.  By this time it was about 11 or so and the next thing you know, we all wake up in Nagano and its 2am.  It made the trip so much more enjoyable because it was perfect, every hour or so after 6 new people got on, we had a chat with them and then the next group got on.  So always new people, always drinking, then everyone was asleep.  We all stumbled to our rooms that were huge with about 4 normal beds and then a raised tatami mat floor for futons, which could fit about 4 across.  Other rooms were bigger and smaller then ours.  We all passed out so we could get up around 7:30 go down for breakfast which consisted of lettuce, just straight up, rice, just straight up, hard boiled eggs and some weird sausages.  We piled on the bus at 8:45am or so and headed for the pitches (the word for soccer field in British, no one called it a field all weekend, the fields were even labeled, pitch A, pitch B, and so on).  So, we had 26 on our team in total, a ton of Brits and Aussies who everyone knows love footie and even some Americans that were talented.  So we obviously went with the talent.  Like everyone did play, even I played and I SUCK at soccer/football.  The first game I just watched to regain my limited knowledge of the game and we won in penalty kicks but we did not look like that good of a team, granted this was the first time we (and I use the term “we” loosely) had all played together.  Anyway, the 2^nd game we won something like 4 to 0 and I got to play a bit, I touched the ball once….kicking it directly to the other team, I am such a superstar. 

In between these games we went to the combini (convenient store) to grab some lunch.  We get there and….OH YA looks like the 17 other guys teams along with their girl counterparts had the same idea and had cleared out all the combini’s in the town.  Yes, we were in Nagano, but it was like a small little section of it tucked away in the mountains so it was more like a little town.  We never actually were in Nagano proper I think.  So we had to attempt to make meals out of whatever was left.  I ate some funky things but damn I was soo hungry it didn’t matter.

The third game was close, we went up 1-0 but ended up having the other team come back and win 2-1, I touched the ball 3 times and made sure that my teammates were aware of it each time.  I figured hey if I’m not going to contribute in a playing capacity I may as well give a little comic relief.  Our fourth game was just like the third and we went down again.  We were doing relatively well and then we just went to crap. 

So we finished with a record of 2-2 and were placed in the loser’s bracket for the next day.  It really didn’t matter because Saturday night is what most of us went to Nagano for anyway.  We went back to the hotel and hit the showers.  They were selling beer in the lobby when we got there, 3 for 1000 yen.  I bought a six to help with my other bottle of whisky and tequila, showered and then cracked the bottle.  We had dinner which was provided quickly between 6 and 7 and then back to our rooms.  I ended up in 3 different rooms with my special mix and it was finished just before we went downstairs around 9.  Now all of the JETs…or at least most were staying at this one hotel and they had cleared out like a banquet room of sorts for us to party in.  The place was packed and it was 1000 yen for 3 beer tickets.  So the normal drunken evening followed complete with 3 guys kissing one girl to see who was the best kisser etc etc…I did not take part in that little tourney.  I have no clue what time I went to bed, but it was not early…I’d say like 4:30 or so.  We were up and going at 7:30am as we played first at 9:30.  We were in the losers bracket and we were high up so we started the first game with all the people that had barely played.  I touched the ball 4 times during this game….yay me and I bailed once pretty bad running backwards.  They scored early on us and we couldn’t come back on them even when we put our good players in.  So we were out of the tournament pretty early.  We stuck around for curry lunch, which was amazing.  Two trucks pulled up with the back of each either full of pots of rice or pots of curry and two old Japanese women just dished it out, all you could eat.  After we stuffed ourselves it was back on the bus for the drive home.  I slept for a bit, but not very much.  The drive was amazing, leaving Nagano there were mountains everywhere and the roads winded around and through them and then I got to see the Sea of Japan which was really cool.  We had some bus troubles along the way and had to stop for about half an hour and have a mechanic try and fix it.  We were home about 8:30 or so after leaving at around 12:30….not a very short drive.  I was just happy to be home when I got there.  Ya, so that’s my weekend.  Right now I’m at Adachi High School and I’ve almost figured out the internet here….wireless says I’m connected but it says that internet is disabled….i’m not too sure.  I have no classes in Higashi all week as they have tests and how could an ALT possibly help with that.  Tomorrow there’s a lantern festival in Nihonmatsu (where I am now) and apparently it’s huge, so I’m coming with Will to meet up with Paul.  Should be a good time.  Peace for now.

Brent

I forgot this….I received a letter from Idai Bunko with a bunch of the pics that they took printed on one piece of paper as well as a letter from a little girl named Kaeda who wrote it of her own accord thanking me for the pen and for coming to the school which was really cool.  I wrote them a letter back thanking them and asking if they were posting the pics on the net anywhere so that I could get a hold of them.  Hopefully they are and I will have them up within the week.

I still have to write a blog for Nagano, which will probably happen tomorrow.  I’m uploading pics right now that I scored from someone else cuz I took 8 pics the entire weekend.  As well…go back and look at the canyoning pics.  I just scored some off of desiree and they’re fun for the whole family…from the 3L beer shots to Paul doing fire poi which u have to see in real life to truly appreciate but desiree has some sick pics of it (they’re about the last 30 or so).  I’ll get to labelling everything.  I also realized that I don’t have Fukushima orientation pics up as I didn’t take any but they are on my computer.  So I am going to upload them as a kind of back up just in case something happens to my comp.  So, even though the fukushima orientation album is at the top it doesn’t mean that that is the most recent thing to happen.  It just means that I’m getting everything in order. 

http://www.bubbleshare.com/users/profile/45393

 Brent