Ore no kanojo wa kirei, neh?/Merry Christmas
(My girlfriend is beautiful isn’t she?) How’s that for a weird title?
9am, Monday, December 18, 2006
Well, today is the first day I have seen snow in Japan. It just started snowing now and it made me think of how much colder it probably is at home and that made me realize that I haven’t written a full blog in a long time. Seeing as I don’t have any classes today I because Higashi is technically on winter holidays I figure this is the perfect time to write a blog that goes over the last week. Just a little note about the Japanese school system though. It’s winter break and right now every teachers is sitting at their desk reading the paper or whatever and most of the students are somewhere around the school doing god knows what. The teachers, I understand, they probably have some stuff to finish up, etc. But if I was a student there is NO WAY I would be here.
Anyway, Mo got here last Friday and we’ve had a lot of fun although I feel like I’ve failed in the whole giving her a truly “Japanese experience.” We really haven’t done anything cultural since she got here other than go to Ueno park on the 3rd day she was here. Hold on, maybe I should go through what we’ve done and then summarize my feelings about the whole thing.
So, she came on Friday the 8th. I took a bus from Fukushima to Narita Airport. I left Fuku at about 10:30am and arrived at Narita around 3:30pm. Mo’s flight was delayed 20 min or so and it landed around 5:10. She was out relatively quickly which apparently Narita is known for, or at least that’s what I was told by the Cardiologist that I chatted to for a little while when I was waiting. By 6 she was out and we had got the whole touchy feely thing out of the way. It was still weird for a bit, probably just for me, but hey whatever. We shipped all of her bags except one to my place in Fukushima, which I must say is a convenient service. They offered to have the bags there the next day at any time we wanted but instead we had them arrive on the Monday as that is when we’d be back in Fuku and for only 1500 yen a bag it’s an amazing service. After that, we got on the bus that took us directly to the Holiday Inn checked into our room and then grabbed a meal at the restaurant in the hotel. I had a cheeseburger, cuz I’m DYING for one, alas…it was not good. We crashed out around 12 or so and were up just in time to check out at 11am the next morning.
We took the bus back to Narita and hit the Keisei Skyline. I was worried about this part of the trip but it was soooo intensely easy. All in English, right to Ueno and waay cheaper than I had been told it was going to be. So we hopped the train, it took about an hour to get into Ueno (this is just a section of Tokyo). From there I attempted to locate the hotel in the cold rain that was coming down. After a few wrong turns, despite the two maps I had we arrived at the hotel. We checked in using my broken Japanese and the broken English of the woman at the front desk. The room “Western” style but definitely had some Japanese “flare” to it. It was triangle shaped and had some weird parts of the wall that just jutted out for no reason. What was the view like you ask? We drew back the curtains to check what it was like outside and WALA a concrete wall!! SWEET!! But that’s not all, no no, the other window gave us the view of some random balcony that was attached to the cleaning staff room and was like the hotel’s air conditioner graveyard, it was classy to say the least. The room was decent of all intensive purposes, there were just a few things that were not funny haha, but funny strange about it. We hung out for a bit and Mo experienced random Japanese game shows for the first time. Sidebar: I know, I know, we’re in Tokyo, in an exciting section of one of the biggest cities in the world and the first thing we do is flip on the tv, this is wrong I get it. It was raining though and Mo was still a bit lagged. So we headed out and went to get something to eat. There was this Italian place across from Ueno station that was on the third floor (I have pic’s of Mo drinking a huge beer at this place). Again, I know, not very Japanese, but at least there’s no kanji on an Italian restaurant’s menu and it’s all in katakana (the alphabet used for adopted foreign words) and I can read that and understand it. So we ordered after I struggled through a few things. The food was decent. After that we kinda walked around for a bit, and by a bit I mean a long time, checking out random izakayas and shops along the streets. We even found a street that was chalked full of motorcycle shops. I took some pictures of a Harley dealership for John to check out, so Mom just let him know. Anyway, we wandered around attempting to find a place to drink. I kept telling Mo I didn’t want to go to a place that was overly full with Japanese. Ueno is known for its cultural assets but not its night life. We found a pub eventually and I was like let’s try this place, as Mo was freezing. So we go into Doobie’s and the moment we walk in, I know it was a bad idea. The bar is absolutely packed full of Japanese all sitting at tables apparently waiting for a band to come on. The stage is directly beside the door and immediately they all turn and stare. The only open table is WAAAY at the back and people are not exactly moving to let us through, all the tables were blocking the way and the people in there did not look pleased to see us. So, I turned to Mo and was like….well, we’re done here. We walked out and I immediately felt better. We found a small izakaya and had some sake and beer. Which I ordered flawlessly….*shines nails on jacket.* What can I say, I can order alcohol like a pro. We drank for awhile and then were told it was last call (at 9:30 so we finished up and left). We grabbed some junk food and booze from the convenience store near the hotel and headed back. We just sat around and drank and talked and watched Japanese game shows and tried to figure out what was going on for awhile.
Sunday was a beautiful day, so on our walk through Ueno park to the train station we decided to ditch our stuff in a locker and walk around the park for awhile. This is where most of the sweet pics came from that I put up. Mo’s camera died so she used mine to take pictures. Apparently it’s overtly evident which pictures she took and which pictures I took but I don’t see a difference, we’re both VERY artistically inclined…at least that’s what I keep saying myself. I was doing my best to try to get pictures of her but I had to delete a ton cuz she would hide her head at the last second, WHO DOES THAT? Anyway, it was a beautiful afternoon. We then hit the Shinkansen (bullet train), another scary moment. I had printed out the track times etc for the Shink that went to Fukushima, regardless of what you may think, Fukushima….not that important of a city. The Shink sometimes blows right through it. So it’s important to get on the right train. If I hadn’t printed out the schedule I would have been completely lost. The good thing is we got the last train on the schedule I had printed out. One and a half hours later we were in Fukushima (normally a 4 and a half to 5 hour drive). We went to my place, ditched our stuff and went back into the city. We hit this little sushi place that I like and Will met up with us eventually. After that we went home and I got ready to go to work.
Last week was a hectic schedule for me. I went to all 5 of my schools. Higashi the first day, I actually had some classes for a change. I also had to write a little thing for the school newspaper on Japan and Higashi and my experiences thus far. It was a bit of a lie, but I’m not going to come out in a school newspaper that goes to students and say, actually I hate your school. I really don’t hate it that much anymore, when I come back from Thailand I will attempt to worm my way in to the teacher’s hearts or something like that. Monday night, I just stopped at the grocery store and brought a bunch of stuff home, sushi, maki, okinomiyaki, noodles, etc. We kinda just hung out and at a ton of stuff.
Adachi on Tuesday was pretty standard, although Mo came to my English club which was a lot of fun. She even got to Nihonmatsu on the train all by herself…Wow. The kids were excited and they told us about Japanese New Years and we (I) told them about Canadian (Western) New Years. They brought in food and green tea etc (they never do this for me) and they even taught Mo origami. We stayed for about 30 min longer than I normally stay and they asked Mo some questions. Well, 2 questions….do you love him? To which she answered yes…and their follow up?? Why? She didn’t answer that one….I’m pretty sure it was because she doesn’t know the answer to it. After that we had dinner with Paul at the ramen place that he and I always go to and that was about the end of that evening.
Wednesday I went to Idai Bunko (the school in the hospital) I showed up there around 10:30 and left around 1:50 or so even though they told me that I could leave at 12:30, I’d rather mess around with the kids. So we sang bingo in Japanese and then in English and played UNO in my primary school class. I had to say all the numbers and colours in Japanese and they had to say everything in English. It was a lot of fun. I brought my camera along this time and if anyone has been checking the site they’ve already seen the pictures I took. Next I had junior high school in which we did show and tell. I didn’t know about this and at least I had my camera with pictures of my longboard on it. After that I did bedside classes…which aren’t really classes I just go in, say hi and that’s about it. I stopped and played UNO with these other two kids, the JTE was shocked or something like that. She kept saying oh your bus, oh your bus, and I was like…look I can play UNO with these kids. UNO is apparently all the rage at Idai Bunko. Oh ya, there was also this nurse there for Uzbekistan (sp?) who is studying just for a bit. Her English was decent and she translated a lot for me.
Wednesday night is our general night out for dinner. Generally Will and I plus whoever else wants to come go out for dinner. So, we all hit Café Repaco for a coffee, then Ducca (an Italian place, AGAIN, I know) at the station, and then went to the place that I have discussed but never given specifics about. It’s called Ichigo and we decided that we didn’t really like the food there the last time but it’s such a nice view we went just for drinks. It’s on the 12th floor of a building and looks out over the entire west side of the city and is quite swank. We had already gone through 3 bottles of wine at dinner, oh ya, it was Alex, Katie, Will, Moody (driving), Mo and myself. So we had a few more drinks at Ichigo and then headed back, see pictures to understand our evening. Shaun (moody) gave us a ride home, needless to say, Thursday morning….not so much fun.
So, Thursday I went to Adachi-Higashi in Nihonmastsu. This is the school that is in the middle of the country and I brought my camera this time and took some pictures which are also up on bubbleshare. I taught 4 classes talking about Christmas and New Years in Canada and had them make Christmas cards and snow flakes. You know, where you fold a piece of paper a couple of times and cut pieces out, then unfold it and WALA snowflake. I told them it was like Canadian origami. LOL. So ya, Thursday night I can’t remember what we did. I imagine not too much given Wednesday night’s debacle.
Friday, I was at Matsuko in Nihonmatsu. I had one class where we did crosswords cuz the JTE was tired and I had no problem with that. I remember being really tired, but I think it’s because we just stayed up late watching movies Thursday night. Astoundingly I asked if I could go early (everyone at this school likes me) and was actually allowed to go. I came home and we chilled out for a bit and then headed into the city to check some stuff out before meeting up with everyone for dinner. So we shopped a bit, Mo bought a pair of shoes (2000 yen, 20 bux) and I bought a beginner guide to learning Kanji. Unfortunately, at the end of the evening we (one of us, not sure who was in charge) left the bag in a cab that dropped us off around the corner from my place, so they have no way of knowing where I live or who I am, and I can’t remember the company. CRAP eh? So ya, we met Dave, another ALT in the city for coffee and then hit a restaurant that I can’t remember the name of. We were joined by Alex, Katie, Dave’s g/f Jess, (they were leaving for Thailand that night, they’re actually staying on Ko Samui as well) and Will with his 2 Japanese buddies. One of them speaks decent English and the other one barely speaks English at all. So we ate and drank and then went to an izakaya and drank some more. Check the pictures.
Saturday I slept till about 3 because Saturday night was Alex’s birthday party and I knew I had to bring my A-game. Anyway, we once again started the night with coffee at Repaco with Moody and Kate. A group slowly massed at Repaco of about 15 people and we headed over to an izakaya. We all ate and got drunk, etc, etc. And then hit karaoke. Now, before you go and look at the pictures of Saturday night, I just want to say that there is a lot of male nudity going on. Nothing too crude, but hey, just be ready for it. The karaoke room was pretty funky and I turned the flash of my camera off a few times so that you could see what it actually looked like. The pictures that are up on the site are from both Mo’s and my cameras. Speaking of, thanks a lot for the camera mom, john, nanny and drew, it rocks. I’ve been using it a lot too as you may be able to see from the amount of albums I’ve put up over the past week. So ya, I’m not writing much about Friday and Saturday cuz the pictures tell the story. And yes, Dom, the dude with the strange undies was like that for quite some time, it’s not that we just snapped a ton of pics of him like that. So yesterday we had Denny’s with Kate and Will for breakfast/lunch and then layed in bed all day and watched sopranos. The perfect hangover day. Now here I am at work, doing nothing. I’m going to have lunch with Alex at a ramen place in the city. Some guys were coming to clean my pipes or something like that today and Mo hasn’t called my cell so everything must have went ok.
We leave for Thailand Wednesday night at 12:30am the bus arrives at Narita at 6am and our flight is at 4. We’ll arrive in Bangkok around 9pm. We’re going to stay at this hotel http://www.precisionreservations.com/ph-aspx-hotel_id.10679-db-hoteldatabase/HotelDisplay.htm and we’ll fly out of Bangkok at 6:30am on the 22nd and into Ko Samui airport. Then we’ll be staying here…. http://www.samui-hotels.com/samuiburi/accommodations.htm from December 22nd to January 3rd. January 3rd we’ll fly out of Surat Thani Airport which is on the mainland and back to Bangkok. We haven’t booked the hotels for that yet, but I’ll post them when we do. We come back in January 5th and will be staying in Tokyo for 2 days and then Mo will head back to Canada.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks so much for all of the Christmas gifts. I’m enjoying all of them. I have no idea what I’m going to do with those Christmas lights Mom, but I’ll put them to use. Betty and Grandad thank you for the card. “The Stirlings” I got your e-card today, thank you. Mr. and Mrs. Barry thank you for the books I’m already into Guns, Germs and Steel and I’ve found it fascinating thus far. I even tried to recommend it to a history teacher at Higashi today who has very limited English. I imagine there will be a Japanese translation soon enough as it has become pretty popular. To the rest of Mo’s family, I hope you’re not too upset I stole Mo for Christmas (this is directed at you Kathleen, cuz I know you’re going to read this eventually….that’s right…Mo tells me things). Bowie, I’m loving all the things you sent, that CD is amazing. To the rest of the boys, westdale and S.C hope everything is going well, have a Merry Christmas and all that stuff…..and…..doesn’t it suck that I’m going to be on a beach hangin’ out and drinking while you guys freeze your asses off….I’m debating not wearing a shirt for the entire trip cuz you know…it might be too hot. LOL. Mom, Drew, Nanny, and John thanks for the camera as I already said, I hope that Christmas is good for all of you even though I won’t be there…and we all know next to Nanny I’m the life of the party. Everyone have a great holiday, cuz I know I will.
Love,
Brent
P.S – I have my Hep shots mom, so don’t worry anymore.
Oh and here are some of the pics from the weekend, you can obviously go to the site. There are other albums from schools and from the Tokyo weekend that aren’t shown here.
Friday Night
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Saturday Night
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