I’ll explain the title in a bit, but I’m going to write all of this in chronological order from what I’ve done since the last blog. So deal with it.
Alright, so since February, I actually haven’t done much. Or at least it seems that way. I remember when I first got here and I wrote in one of my first blogs about the train ride to Nihonmatsu (where one of my visit schools is) and how the people on the train seemed to take the amazing view for granted. I am now that person. Yes, I still revel in the majestic mountains (yes, I wrote majestic mountains) around
Fukushima and everyday I still think, wow, amazing. But it just seems that life here has become, well, less noteworthy. Not to say that I’m not having fun or anything, cuz I am. It just seems like everything is less “shiny and new.” I no longer feel the need to articulate every moment of everything I do cuz it just seems so normal. As well, talking about things in my life requires a context to it, and as I haven’t really kept a running commentary on the daily happenings of things here, I really can’t just bust into stories about what happened at work or why this or that is amazing/dramatic/crazy/etc. I think it wouldn’t really be that interesting, but then again maybe it would be.
I’m definitely feeling like my run with Japan is kinda over. It just feels like regular life. I always wondered, why no one from home ever posted pics or vids or anything about what they’re doing on facebook and I realize it’s cuz it’s normal. Take Drew’s facebook page, he’s got nothing on there. Like 2 photo albums and that’s about it and I get it now, it’s cuz it’s just regular life. Two weekends ago, I was in Tokyo, I was in Shinjuku (biggest/busiest train station in the world), Shibuya (busiest intersection in the world), Akihabara (the geek capital of the world), Ueno park (huge and awesome) and the Imperial Palace. I had my camera for all of it…I took 2 pictures.
I’m not trying to say that the amount of pictures is directly proportional to the amount of fun I had or anything along those lines. Just trying to show that, you know, I just don’t think it’s noteworthy anymore. K, I feel like I’m rambling. Hopefully you get my point.
I will try to throw down more “real stuff” here, as in, stuff that is actually happening in my life opposed to soley talking about places I’ve gone or things that I’ve done.
First, I am gonna start with…the Viv (1993 Subaru Vivio), pictured here beside a regular car. Just to show how immensely small it is.
I feel like it’s dying on me, which is scary cuz I am totally not buying another car. I took it in about a month ago and had it looked at, which is a trip in itself just with the Japanese alone. I had them change the transmission fluid along with a few other things. The dude then came in and told me about the other problems. He was actually really really nice. Japanese Gas Station attendants/mechanics I think are the nicest people in Japan. They always try to use English and when this guy was using Japanese, he even stopped himself when he said more difficult words and tried to simplify it! That never happens, as a heads up. I didn’t want to spend a bajillion yen fixing everything. So, I asked him to write out all the problems so I could have them translated later. He said ok, and then disappeared into the back. Twenty minutes later…he’s back. With a FULL PAGE of stuff. Tire rotation, something about putting more water/fluid in the radiator…all sorts of stuff. SWEET. So, I’ll tackle those issues slowly. Since then I’ve driven the Viv about, oh you know, 2500km. In a month and a half.
February was um, horrible as far as snowboarding goes. We go to ALTs Bandai (a resort) every weekend and 3 weeks in a row it was crap. Either there was no snow so they decided to close pretty much every lift…OR…there was tons of snow but the winds were too high and they shut down pretty much all the lifts, stupid either way. So, instead, we partied. Here are a few pics of me…clean shaven, oooo, at a Shine Party in Aizu Wakamatsu
How I even made my face do that I’m not sure…meet Vicky, Gemma and Heather
I also went to a hardcore metal show in Koriyama, you know where they scream into the mic like crazy people. It’s not that I’m really into that stuff, it was more cuz I just wanted to see what a “hardcore show” in Japan would be like. It was fun and far less scary in the mosh pit than one of those shows would be back home. There was a really famous aussie band there and we actually hung out with them before and after the show which was kinda cool.
The beginning of March, was Graduation time. March 1st, a Sunday this year, was the Graduation ceremony. Which means, I had to work a Sunday, ha jeez. Why not just make Graduation the 1st weekday in March or something. Like, c’mon now. Anyway, all of the Senior High School ALTs had to work, so he’s a picture of us, outside a curry place where we had lunch…well, just the Fukusima city SHS ALTs.
Japanese Style - Vinnie, Mo, Me, Jay, Christian
Normal Style
After the Graduation weekends, I had set up a Ski Day in Inawashiro. I was supposed to have at least 50 people attending for sure and another 70 were registered as maybes…I even scored us a deal with the resort and everything. Then what happens on the Saturday that everything is supposed to go down…it rains…A LOT. Typhoon style rain, all Friday night and Saturday morning, so in total there were only 25 of us. The rain turned to heavy snow around 11am though, so it ended up being an ok day. A few people dressed up and obviously, we kept tradition alive doing the boxer run. It was A LOT colder this year than it was last year.
At the end of the Boxer Run
Here’s my costume…a monkey…and the idiot to my right is Mickey Mouse (Christian)
Here’s the album of the day, although, I don’t remember taking many pictures, I mostly took video, which I am still adding into my snowboarding video…that could be awhile.
Ski Day Album
In between there was my birthday, but I decided to take it easy this year and not do anything major. So, that’s what I did. I also got myself a nice little gift…an X-Box 360 and after that, I bought a brand new Burton Custom 162 Wide ICS Snowboard with Burton C02 EST Bindings. Retails for 130,000 yen, and I got it for 85,000, so that’s a sweet deal. Although, I only got to ride it 3 times before the season ended. Still totally worth it, for next year.
The weekend of March 21st was a long weekend and I drove something like 500km in the Viv as well as taking the bullet train to and from Tokyo. Jen (Barton) came into Tokyo on the Friday which was a holiday so I went down and picked her up. She got a job in Koriyama working at a pre-school. So, I grabbed her, showed her around Tokyo, took 2 pictures…see what I mean about things not being noteworthy…and then brought her to Koriyama. That night I drove the 200 km from Koriyama to Tadami and then boarded all day Saturday. We got rained out on the Sunday, which I’m kinda used to after this past season. But it was totally worth it anyway. Nango (the ski place) is pretty much all park. They have 4 half pipes, huge jumps, tiny jumps, rails boxes, EVERYTHING! It’s amazing. So just getting to go once was awesome. We don’t go that often because Minami Aizu is the middle of nowhere and in the winter the snow down there is NUTS, and I don’t necessarily want to drive down there in the death trap I call a car.
There were about 8 enkais (work drinking parties) after that week until now. I exaggerate, probably 4. So I’ve been busy doing that lately. Uh, oh and this past weekend we went down to Tokyo to see…PUNKSPRING. It was wicked. We spent Saturday looking at the blooming cherry blossom trees, the act is called 花見 (Hanami), in Ueno Park, at the Yasukuni Shrine and around the Imperial Palace. There were a billion people EVERYWHERE!
Sunday, we rocked out to Punkspring. A ton of awesome bands were there, it was a wicked day, other than taking the last bullet train back from Tokyo and having to miss the last bit of NOFX. Here’s the album of the whole weekend.
Punkspring Album
The rest of this week has been..um…boring as hell. Today is the opening ceremony/entrance ceremony for the new students. Wow, who loves sitting through speech after speech in a foreign language…I do, I do.
As for the Teacher Who Has Yet To Be Named…my school woes continue. If it wasn’t for my visit schools I’d go completely insane. April is the beginning of the school year and all the teachers get shifted around. Just at whim. Sometimes they can teach at a school for 10, 12, 15 years, and sometimes each year, they get moved. Anywhere in the prefecture!!! So, 14 teachers left Higashi (my base school) this year. I did lose a few teachers that were friends and even one that everyone called my little brother. The English teachers that left I’m really not too broken up about or anything….but the ones that have replaced them…are….wow, um, horrible. First, we have…Red Eye sensei. He came from Mo’s base school. I’m calling him Red Eye, cuz he does Judo and when he first came, I guess someone had poked him in the eye in Judo and it was ALL red. And a nickname is born. Uh, apparently he’s failed his teacher’s license test 7 times. And he couldn’t ask me how I come to school in English. He has also pointed to his elbow and called it his knee. Awesome, I shudder when I think that he is instructing students in English. Oh, did I mention that he now sits beside me as well….YES!! Next, we have another English teacher, I have yet to meet him, he came from one of Mo’s visit schools and is old. That is all I know. Last, but not least, we have, The Teacher Who Has Yet To Be Named. He comes from one of my visit schools. That is pretty much all I can tell you about the guy, cuz I’ve NEVER EVER had a class with him…EVER. He actually asked my supervisor at that specific school to NOT schedule me for classes with him. When we did have classes on my schedule, he just NEVER SHOWED, EVER. In 2 and a half years, I have never said a word to him. Well, now, he’s at Higashi, and guess who my new supervisor is….ya, that’s right…this guy. When am I gonna catch a break here. Jesus. So, I have yet to create a nickname for him, but one is coming soon. I just don’t know what it’ll be. I foresee a very boring year at Higashi. I guess that’s all for now, teachers are starting to file out, and I guess that means that the next ceremony is starting.
