Sorry, its been a while since I've written about the wonderful world of Japanese TV. I've seen a couple interesting shows, but have been too lazy to type about them. Tonight, however, is the show called Lincoln. I might have mentioned it before. It's hosted by the very popular manzai duo Downtown, supported by a large array of various other comedians. I'm not really sure what the premise of the show is, but it usually seems to revolve around some sort of one off game show hosted by Downtown. One of the more memorable ones involved a 2 hour special, the centerpiece of which was a $160,000 dollar prop that exploded 15 minutes into the show. Last week's show had a segment celebrating all famous people with a born in March. They rented out a big banquet room in a hotel, but only a couple people showed up, three of which were members of the show. A special guest comedian congratulated them from the stage and sang a song that went something like 'Chinko, unko, hitomoji shika chigainai, megane, oshiri, zenzen chigau,' which loosely translated means 'Penis, poop, have only one character that is different (using Japanese characters), glasses, butt, are totally different.' An old, classical singing lady in the audience who was celebrating her birthday looked very confused.
Tonight's show is a parody of the once popular show "Toribia no Izumi", which had a short run in America as "Hey! Spring of Trivia." The original show starred two hosts and a panel of 5 judges that explored various pieces of extremely random trivia. Each trivia point was awarded a number of 'hey's, which is kind of like 'wow' in Japanese. The parody show tonight substitutes 'dondake's for 'hey's. I have no idea what 'dondake' means, but I'm assuming its some strange word in the Osaka dialect, something Downtown are famous for using. Anyway, the interesting things they showed were one comedian's house that he burned down accidentally bc he was careless with his cigarettes, an impression of Mr. Bean miming strange, vaguely sexual actions, and another comedian changing his clothes in under 10 seconds. In true Lincoln style, they introduced the final bit of trivia only to stop short of the last word and leave the viewers hanging until next week to find out what the final trivia tidbit was. Boo. So that's it for tonight's update. Hopefully I'll be back after celebrating Golden Week by driving around Kyushu in a rented utility van.
5.01.2007
4.17.2007
hello
So I'm watching one of the many 'Wow, look how strange this animal is!' shows on TV, and various animals are being explained, e.g. a tiny little frog that was really cute, as well as some elephants recorded using a special 'bouldercam' that rolled around. One moment in the elephant part was entertaining: two of the male elephants were fighting, and one lost. He walked away towards the bouldercam, looked at it for minute, then kicked it and walked away. He had excellent comedic timing.
Following the elephants, the show focused on tornadoes and storm chasers. They showed a video of some tornadoes that occur over water in Malawi (what's up kevin) then cut to commercial. After the commercial break, they revealed that the tornadoes aren't actual tornadoes but are really enormous clouds of insects! They sent a reporter to Malawi to investigate. The reporter talked to one of the local villagers and he said that if you go into one of the clouds of bugs, you will die. So the TV producer decided it would be a good idea to send him into one of the enormous clouds of insects. It took them a couple of days to get a good cloud of bugs, so in the meantime he called his family back at home. When he asked his wife how life was with him not home, she said she was thoroughly enjoying it. When he asked his son how life was with dad not home, he said it wasn't much different. When he asked him what he thought of his dad going into a bug tornado, he thought it was a stupid idea, but that it wouldn't be good if his dad died. So the next day a bug tornado was spotted, and they set out in a boat. Before they reached the tornado, they cut to commercial and changed the subject of the show. I'm not sure if they're saving the tornado encounter for another show or if they're saving it for the end of tonight's show. Now they're talking about The Touch, a pair of very famous comedy twins.
Following the elephants, the show focused on tornadoes and storm chasers. They showed a video of some tornadoes that occur over water in Malawi (what's up kevin) then cut to commercial. After the commercial break, they revealed that the tornadoes aren't actual tornadoes but are really enormous clouds of insects! They sent a reporter to Malawi to investigate. The reporter talked to one of the local villagers and he said that if you go into one of the clouds of bugs, you will die. So the TV producer decided it would be a good idea to send him into one of the enormous clouds of insects. It took them a couple of days to get a good cloud of bugs, so in the meantime he called his family back at home. When he asked his wife how life was with him not home, she said she was thoroughly enjoying it. When he asked his son how life was with dad not home, he said it wasn't much different. When he asked him what he thought of his dad going into a bug tornado, he thought it was a stupid idea, but that it wouldn't be good if his dad died. So the next day a bug tornado was spotted, and they set out in a boat. Before they reached the tornado, they cut to commercial and changed the subject of the show. I'm not sure if they're saving the tornado encounter for another show or if they're saving it for the end of tonight's show. Now they're talking about The Touch, a pair of very famous comedy twins.
4.16.2007
I love SMAP but I'm not sure if it's for the right reasons
Tonight is everyone's favorite night, SMAPxSMAP night! I think I explained the phenomenon that is SMAP in an earlier post, if not, use wikipedia. SMAPxSMAP (pronounced 'smasma') is SMAP's weekly TV show where they have various famous people on the show, talk about stuff, do comedy sketches and finish the show off by doing a performance with another famous musician. One time they had Stevie Wonder on the show and they sang a group duet with him. Stevie played the keyboards and SMAP danced. Stevie couldn't see them, which I guess was for the better. SMAP are getting kind of old so they're like 35 year olds dancing around like teenage N'Sync kids. They also have pretty terrible Japanese accents when singing so it was kind of painful hearing them trade verses with Stevie, who can push the limits in his own right ('Isn't She Lovely' is a marathon sanity check). Tonight they performed with some dance troupe and it was kind of weird.
Coming up next is Ainori! Hooray!
So, this week's Ainori is about the group's activities in the Dominican Republic. The big theme of the show is Bambi's 'Water Diet' that she's following in an attempt to get skinny and get over her unfounded hatred of herself and her body. Mind you she's perfectly normal sized, but somehow got it into her head that she's hideous and needs to lose weight. So everyone's in the DR, and the food is really good, but Bambi is trying to restrain herself at each meal by only drinking water. Some kind of drama goes down bc DR tap water isn't safe to drink so Bambi would have to buy all of her water, which would be kind of expensive. So Bambi ends up giving in and by general consensus pigs out at the next couple of meals. The group gets together and has an intervention with Bambi, and she comes forward with her problems to the group, and one of the guys says something that makes Bambi get all emotional, causing her to hyperventilate and die on camera. Well she didn't die, I was lying, but you can imagine how uncomfortable that would have been. Anyway, not much happens with the Sanchan-Bambi connection, but I think the new guy Oga, through his genuinely nice personality and demeanor, is inadvertently pushing Sanchan out of the picture. Bambi was super-impressed when he picked up a fly and through it out of the Love Van, and was an all-around giggly flirty ditzy girl the rest of the time they were together. Luckily for Sanchan, Oga doesn't really seem to have an overt interest in Bambi, so maybe she'll have to settle for Sanchan. We shall see next week!
Coming up next is Ainori! Hooray!
So, this week's Ainori is about the group's activities in the Dominican Republic. The big theme of the show is Bambi's 'Water Diet' that she's following in an attempt to get skinny and get over her unfounded hatred of herself and her body. Mind you she's perfectly normal sized, but somehow got it into her head that she's hideous and needs to lose weight. So everyone's in the DR, and the food is really good, but Bambi is trying to restrain herself at each meal by only drinking water. Some kind of drama goes down bc DR tap water isn't safe to drink so Bambi would have to buy all of her water, which would be kind of expensive. So Bambi ends up giving in and by general consensus pigs out at the next couple of meals. The group gets together and has an intervention with Bambi, and she comes forward with her problems to the group, and one of the guys says something that makes Bambi get all emotional, causing her to hyperventilate and die on camera. Well she didn't die, I was lying, but you can imagine how uncomfortable that would have been. Anyway, not much happens with the Sanchan-Bambi connection, but I think the new guy Oga, through his genuinely nice personality and demeanor, is inadvertently pushing Sanchan out of the picture. Bambi was super-impressed when he picked up a fly and through it out of the Love Van, and was an all-around giggly flirty ditzy girl the rest of the time they were together. Luckily for Sanchan, Oga doesn't really seem to have an overt interest in Bambi, so maybe she'll have to settle for Sanchan. We shall see next week!
4.13.2007
It's that time again
Tonight's show is the one led by Mr. Masahiro Nakai, member of the ubiquitous pop group SMAP (which means Sports Music Assemble People, for obvious reasons), that focuses on women. Let me start off by saying that I think Nakai is a creepy guy who has a Mao-like grip of terror on Japanese TV. He's on at least 4 or 5 primetime shows a week regardless of the fact that he is severely lacking any sort of entertaining personality or marketable skills (each of the current five SMAP members has a singular feature that defines them: the cute one, the romantic one, the crazy one; Nakai is known as the one who isn't very good at singing). Why this guy is on so many shows is beyond me. He's not funny, he's not particularly attractive, and he's pretty dumb from what I gather. Yet he's one of the highest paid entertainers in Japan. I don't get it.
Anyway, back to TV. So Nakai hosts this weekly show called 'KinSma,' meaning Gold SMAP, again for obvious reasons. For what I understand the show has two recurring features. The show is set up with a couple celebrities on stage, surrounded by an audience of 20 something ladies all wearing red pantsuits. Nakai is wearing a weird, over-the-top Napoleon style uniform. The first feature involves telling the scandalous story of some random young Japanese lady that does something weird. One episode I saw was about a lady that really enjoyed getting making other people angry, so she got hired and fired at a rather rapid pace and ran through boyfriends quickly. This week's feature is showing the lives of a couple really really old ladies who are bedridden. It's accompanied by the ever present picture-in-picture showing the faces of the various celebrities as they are watching the feature. It's not interesting, and it seems the celebrities agree with me.
Finally, the show closes out with the ever popular 'Find the Hottest Mom in a Certain Area of Japan' game. The show sends a camera crew to some random area in Japan, and they ask around for some hot middle-aged women. They find three and bring them back to the studio where they get all dressed up. They are then presented to the celebrities, usually accompanied with a home cooked specialty, and one of the mom's is chosen as the hottest of the three by Mr. Nakai. They win a prize or something and the show ends. It's as creepy as it sounds.
On a separate note, QVC is selling these. It rocks back and forth and, even though they seem to be the next big thing in Japan, every woman that gives it a ride looks very embarrassed.
Anyway, back to TV. So Nakai hosts this weekly show called 'KinSma,' meaning Gold SMAP, again for obvious reasons. For what I understand the show has two recurring features. The show is set up with a couple celebrities on stage, surrounded by an audience of 20 something ladies all wearing red pantsuits. Nakai is wearing a weird, over-the-top Napoleon style uniform. The first feature involves telling the scandalous story of some random young Japanese lady that does something weird. One episode I saw was about a lady that really enjoyed getting making other people angry, so she got hired and fired at a rather rapid pace and ran through boyfriends quickly. This week's feature is showing the lives of a couple really really old ladies who are bedridden. It's accompanied by the ever present picture-in-picture showing the faces of the various celebrities as they are watching the feature. It's not interesting, and it seems the celebrities agree with me.
Finally, the show closes out with the ever popular 'Find the Hottest Mom in a Certain Area of Japan' game. The show sends a camera crew to some random area in Japan, and they ask around for some hot middle-aged women. They find three and bring them back to the studio where they get all dressed up. They are then presented to the celebrities, usually accompanied with a home cooked specialty, and one of the mom's is chosen as the hottest of the three by Mr. Nakai. They win a prize or something and the show ends. It's as creepy as it sounds.
On a separate note, QVC is selling these. It rocks back and forth and, even though they seem to be the next big thing in Japan, every woman that gives it a ride looks very embarrassed.
4.10.2007
Jump Rope
Part of some weird kids show led by popular and strange comedic trio Yasuda Dai Circus (please look them up on wikipedia). Some of the kids on the show were brought to a jump rope demonstration by some pro jump ropers, and they were very impressed. The jump ropers then said they'd teach the kids and get them good enough to join the school double dutch team. A couple of the kids were visibly distressed bc they hadn't jumped rope before. So each kid gave it a try, and the coach singled out the three kids that couldn't do it so they could work separate from the 7 or so other kids that could jump rope. The littlest of the can't jump rope group was having a rough time and was getting visibly frustrated, so they shoved a camera in his face. He excused himself from the room and had himself a good cry, again with camera shoved in face. He was very cute. Ganbare!
4.09.2007
Ainori
"Ainori" is kind of Japan's answer to Real World and maybe Road Rules plus a little bit of Japanese strangeness. The name is a play on words, normally meaning something like 'carpool', but also can mean 'love ride'. The premise of the show is a mix of 7 guys and girls ride on a bus together all around the world. The catch is that the object of the show is to make couples. All the members are single and they are looking for love. When one member thinks they have a shot with one of the other members, they ask them if they would like to return to Japan together. If the person says yes, the new couple gets a pair of return tickets to Japan. If they say no, the person that got shot down returns to Japan by themselves. The other catch is that the members are not allowed to talk about their feelings about one another to anyone else. They keep video diaries so that the viewers know what's up, but they can't talk with anyone else on the bus. The show is fairly proud of its past successes, which have resulted in 7 marriages and 2 babies. They also had a problem when one of the members fell in love with one of the cameramen.
Last week, a successful couple was made and they headed back to Japan. This week saw two new arrivals, but I think the main focus of the show is on San-chan and his hot crush Bambi. San-chan is about the goofiest looking guy, scrawny with an overbite and a pretty annoying voice, but he's really awkward and affectionate and kind of cute. Bambi is a pretty normal young lady, but I think she gets the vibe that San-chan has the hots for her and she thinks he's sweet and very naive in the ways of love. The way things are going now, I doubt San-chan will have the guts to pop the question, so I'm guessing it will be a couple more weeks til Bambi makes his dreams come true. Let's watch and see...
Quick update!: One of the new guys, named Oga, is evidently pretty cool and is moving in on Bambi! They showed a shot of San-chan counting money for some reason while the announcer wondered what the future of San-chan and Bambi might be. Next week's teaser showed the cast in a club and the girls being reduced to tears after being forced to grind on the dance floor with some gross random dudes. Men: going where no woman wants them to. What shall happen next week?
Last week, a successful couple was made and they headed back to Japan. This week saw two new arrivals, but I think the main focus of the show is on San-chan and his hot crush Bambi. San-chan is about the goofiest looking guy, scrawny with an overbite and a pretty annoying voice, but he's really awkward and affectionate and kind of cute. Bambi is a pretty normal young lady, but I think she gets the vibe that San-chan has the hots for her and she thinks he's sweet and very naive in the ways of love. The way things are going now, I doubt San-chan will have the guts to pop the question, so I'm guessing it will be a couple more weeks til Bambi makes his dreams come true. Let's watch and see...
Quick update!: One of the new guys, named Oga, is evidently pretty cool and is moving in on Bambi! They showed a shot of San-chan counting money for some reason while the announcer wondered what the future of San-chan and Bambi might be. Next week's teaser showed the cast in a club and the girls being reduced to tears after being forced to grind on the dance floor with some gross random dudes. Men: going where no woman wants them to. What shall happen next week?
4.05.2007
Tonight on Japanese TV:
Welcome, welcome, whoever reads my profile! I have moved my oft updated "Tonight on Japanese TV" feature here bc AIM places a limit on the size of one's profile and I fear I will run over one of the days. Ok, so on with the TV:
Tonight's TV show seems like a one-off kind of affair. I started watching when there were 6 well known comedians sitting around in a hostess bar, each sitting next to their own personal hostess. The comedians were wearing sumo wrestler diapers while the hostesses were wearing bikinis. They were talking and flirting and drinking, and after a short while the girls all stood in the middle of the room in a line, spread their legs, and had the guys crawl between them. The guys enjoyed this, and it was at this point that I noticed one of the comedians was being focused on more than the others. Next, the focused-on comedian and another of the comedians were taken into the 'VIP' room by two of the hostesses. They were then laid out on two separate beds, and strapped down by their hands and feet. After agreeing between themselves that this truly was heaven, the non-focused-on comedian undid his straps and got up. The focused on comedian noticed that he couldn't undo his own straps and looked very confused. At that point, the walls of the VIP room fell down and the comedian realized he was outside, strapped to a bed, and that there were about 20 people waiting to carry him around. So they picked him up and carted him around downtown Tokyo while he was strapped down wearing a diaper. After a while they dumped him onto a stage in front of a large number of young women. He then told a joke but none of the people laughed.
Tonight's TV show seems like a one-off kind of affair. I started watching when there were 6 well known comedians sitting around in a hostess bar, each sitting next to their own personal hostess. The comedians were wearing sumo wrestler diapers while the hostesses were wearing bikinis. They were talking and flirting and drinking, and after a short while the girls all stood in the middle of the room in a line, spread their legs, and had the guys crawl between them. The guys enjoyed this, and it was at this point that I noticed one of the comedians was being focused on more than the others. Next, the focused-on comedian and another of the comedians were taken into the 'VIP' room by two of the hostesses. They were then laid out on two separate beds, and strapped down by their hands and feet. After agreeing between themselves that this truly was heaven, the non-focused-on comedian undid his straps and got up. The focused on comedian noticed that he couldn't undo his own straps and looked very confused. At that point, the walls of the VIP room fell down and the comedian realized he was outside, strapped to a bed, and that there were about 20 people waiting to carry him around. So they picked him up and carted him around downtown Tokyo while he was strapped down wearing a diaper. After a while they dumped him onto a stage in front of a large number of young women. He then told a joke but none of the people laughed.
3.20.2007
Synopsis
Here are a bunch of random pictures from the past few months. I warn you they are in no particular chronological order. The crappier pictures were taken with my cell phone camera because my regular camera's batteries always seem to die.
Part of the Aso Fire Festival. They made two big "Fire" kanji on thesides of the mountain. It's pretty hard to tell from this picture how
absolutely massive the big kanji actually is. After the sun went down,
there was a good old-fashioned fireworks show.
Picture from the lift at the Ashikita Roller Luge Park. It's located aboutan hour by car from my house, and on the side of a mountain facing the Ariake
Sea. The view was amazing and luging was fun too. There were three tracks
and it was satisfyingly dangerous. In the summer they also have Zorbs.
Here's the view from the Roller Luge lift of the Ariake Sea. The mountains in the
distance are in Amakusa.
Sea. The view was amazing and luging was fun too. There were three tracks
and it was satisfyingly dangerous. In the summer they also have Zorbs.
Here's the view from the Roller Luge lift of the Ariake Sea. The mountains in thedistance are in Amakusa.
The Family eating Korean Barbecue in Kyoto.
This and the following few pictures perfectly illustrate the madnessthat is the Dress Up Game.
Some of my tough and cool 9th grade boys that just graduated. I'll miss them,they were quite an interesting bunch.
One of my English teachers, Mr. Susami, and his kids. Rie is the youngest,sitting on Mr. Susami's shoulders, and she's very cute. Seishin is the middle child,
standing in front. He's pretty crazy and loves Pokemon. Yuka is the oldest,
and she's very smart. They're a very fun group.
Seishin and Rie in action.
A group of especially talkative 6th graders from Kawachi Elementary School.I had never heard so much Kumamoto-ben. It was quite a fun school though.
One of the fifth graders at one of the elementary schools I went to. This elementary schoolhad about 40 kids spread throughout 6 grades. There were 8 fifth graders.
7th Graders playing a grade-wide game of Karuta. One of the teachersreads the first half of a classic Japanese poem, and the students have
to slap the card with the correct second half of the poem.
3.05.2007
Nightmare In Korea
So here's a story I finally feel is worth writing up. It's been a while since I've added a real working update to this blog, so here goes:
Quite a long time ago I was invited to participate with the Izumi JHS teachers in the prefecture-wide junior high school faculty soccer tournament to be held on March 4th. About a week and a half ago, I was informed that the Izumi Minami JHS teachers would be going to Pusan, Korea for a two day/one night trip from March 4th to March 5th. I regretfully canceled my plans with Izumi and quickly signed up for the Korea trip because I really wanted to go to Korea and I hadn't had the chance to hang out with any of the Izumi Minami teachers outside of school. So everything was in order, we were scheduled to do a quick tour/fast ferry/well-known, posh hotel package and it sounded pretty fun although I didn't really know the specifics of what we were doing. I was just hoping to have a fun night out with the teachers, eating, drinking and maybe doing karaoke.
So the plan was that I'd meet up with a few of the teachers at the school, we'd pile in one of the teacher's vans, then drive up to Fukuoka Port. After a quick stop back at my apartment bc I forgot my passport, we were on our way. The trip up was uneventful and the weather looked nice as we arrived at the Fukuoka International Ferry Port. Our plans were to take the quick , 3 hour hydrofoil 'Beetle' ferry that morning, then take it back to Fukuoka the following evening. After checking in and getting our tickets, the problems started. We found out that the weather for the following day was going to be less than stellar, and that there would be a pretty good chance that the Beetle would not be running at all that day. We had a couple other options for getting back at that point, either we could take an overnight boat back that night or possibly be able to book a flight back to Fukuoka, so we figured it might be ok. If, on the off chance the boats were canceled, we had a couple other means of returning. Also, if we canceled our trip right then and there or didn't use the Beetle to return, we'd lose some of our money, so someone said to hell with it, and we hopped on the Beetle.
The Beetle ride was pleasant and quick, and bc it was a hydrofoil, it wasn't really affected by the waves and made for a nice smooth ride. We arrived in Pusan around 1:00 and met up with our tour guide. While waiting for the rest of our tour members to show up, a couple somewhat shady looking individuals saddled up to us and offered their services to exchange yen into Korean wan. I had no idea what a decent exchange rate was and they only spoke Japanese so I opted out/had no idea what was going on. Unfortunately, I guess that was how I was supposed to exchange money as we quickly loaded onto the tour bus before I could exchange any money. We were quickly whisked away to the famous International Market and got off the bus to a light rain and worsening weather. The tour lady, complete with Japanese tour lady flag, led us to some random, unmarked building and herded us inside. We found ourselves in a fairly small store filled with 'high-quality' fake goods. Louis Vuitton bags, Gucci glasses, mugs with that nerd from Winter Sonata, etc, it was all there, and the tour lady said we were to meet back inside the store in 45 minutes and then promptly disappeared into a back room. Even I in my bewildered state realized we were being had and that the tour lady was getting paid to bring people to this random store, but no one really got angry. So we looked around in the store for a bit, and, not having eaten anything for a while, asked if there were any restaurants nearby. The staff said no, so we loitered in the store a bit longer and then I set out with one of my other English teachers, Mr. Naraki. We walked for about 2 minutes and found a couple restaurants and realized we had been blatantly lied to. However, only having 15 mins or so until we were supposed to meet up again in the store, we couldn't get anything to eat. So we strolled for a couple minutes in the real International Market, then made our way back to the pitiful little imitation good store.
Next, we walked from the store down to the waterfront and walked through a couple pretty crazy fish markets. We made a quick photo op stop on the waterfront and took a couple somewhat wet pictures together, then walked through a couple more fish markets then got back on the bus.
While on the bus, it was decided that our situation was getting kind of down to the wire and that we should figure out what we were going to do that night and the following day. The Beetle evidently has a deadline at 4PM where they say if the boats will be running the next day, and they had said the waves would be too high and that there would be no boats running the following day and probably wouldn't be anything the day after. The tour lady also said that there wasn't room for 12 people on any of the flights going back to Fukuoka, so we would have to take a boat back. We decided to take the overnight boat 'New Camellia' back that night. The New Camellia is quite an enormous boat with cabins, a restaurant, karaoke, a public bath and a couple other amenities, so we booked a 12 person cabin and paid the extra 10,000 yen (about 85 bucks) to get our tickets. Our trip originally had been to arrive in Pusan early Sunday, take a tour, have a good dinner, go out, then spend the night at a very nice hotel, then have most of Monday to do other things, then take a later ferry back that evening. Now, we would have to be back on a boat at 7 on Sunday for a 10 hour overnight trip back to Fukuoka at an extra 85 dollars. We were all pretty sad but figured we'd have a good dinner, get on the boat, then maybe do some karaoke and have a nice pleasant sleep.
After getting our tickets, we got back on the bus for the dinner included in the tour. From what I could understand, the tour guide was playing up the restaurant, making it seem like it was an all-you-can-eat-and-drink affair with really good authentic Korean barbecue and lots of beer where we could forget our misfortune and have a good meal. So once again we pulled up to an unmarked building and were herded into a restaurant whose only other guests were hapless tour members. We sat down ready to kampai (cheers! in japanese) and filled up our glasses with some strange beer called OB, which was the palest beer I've ever seen. So we kampaied, and drank our first glass. The beer had no flavor and was quite a let down. Sigh. Another pleasantry snatched out from under my nose. Oh well, anyway, next came the food, which was some halfway decent kimchee, fairly low quality beef, lettuce and no rice. I really wanted rice and was pretty sure it was a necessary component of Korean barbecue, but it was nowhere to be found. So we ate a little bit, and it was OK but tasted a lot better bc we were all very hungry. Next they brought out a plate of something that was wiggling. Upon closer inspection, it was raw octopus that had been killed fairly recently and was still moving. I tried it, it was kind of gross, but at least I can say I've had moving sushi. By this time, the wait staff seemed to be getting reluctant to bring out new bottles of beer, and we got the impression it wasn't so much an all-you-can-eat as an all-we'll-bring-you-before-you-have-to-get-on-your-boat. So we ate what they gave us and then the tour lady popped out to tell us we had to hurry back to the port to catch our boat. So we loaded back on the bus.
Back at the port we waited around for an hour or so (damn you tour lady!) and then we boarded. The boat was quite large and I was looking forward to a nice, smooth ride back to Fukuoka bc I figured the boat would be big enough to cut through the whatever size waves we were going to meet. We went to our room to find out it was essentially the size of a quarter of a tennis court for 12 people. We were given a very thin futon, a blanket and a weird vinyl pillow the size and shape of a Saltines box. Each person had kind of a cubby to put their head in along the wall while everyone's feet pointed into the middle of the room. Even though we had to board the boat at 7, the boat didn't leave until 10:30 so we just sat in the port for a couple hours. Everyone sat in the room for the first hour or so, complaining about our ill luck over a couple beers and snacks, then most people decided to take a walk and see what the boat looked like. The boat was pretty big, it had 3 decks with maybe 40 rooms or so. It was during my boat exploration that I found out our room was across the hall from some absolutely ridiculously crazy old Korean ladies. These ladies had a big room to themselves and, I can only assume they were very drunk, found it very amusing to sit in a circle and yell at the top of their lungs. I saw a couple of them and they looked absolutely crazy. I think they were singing or something, but they didn't really follow any commonly accepted rhythms or musical scales, so I'm only guessing. They did this for at least a good 4 or 5 hours straight, until at least 1 in the morning. Thankfully the noises the ship was making drowned them out pretty well, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
So anyway, during my explorations, I happened upon one of the other English teachers, Ms. Tango, and sat down with her in the lounge and we talked for a good hour or so. This was the highlight of my trip, as I genuinely enjoyed the company and made the decision that I'm a big fan of Tango-sensei. We talked about all sorts of things and I had a good time. Finally, the clock struck 10:30 and the boat left the dock. The water was quite calm in the bay area, and I figured it would stay that way for the rest of the trip. We navigated the bay for a few minutes, and then it was immediately obvious when we hit the open ocean because the boat began to pitch and list in all sorts of directions. Tango-sensei noticed that my face immediately changed from bright and happy to pale and scared for my life. The realization that I'd have to put up with 10 hours of this crazy movement didn't take long to enter my head and make me sad. So I sat there for and then we decided we'd try to go to sleep. Walking back to the cabin was quite difficult as the boat would pitch about 20 feet at a time and I'm not used to walking in rapid oscillations between zero and double gravity. It would have been kind of funny had I not been so scared. So I went back to the room and got down to sleep, only to realize I wasn't particularly tired and that the movement of the ship and loud banging resonating from somewhere in the bowels of the ship weren't contributing to a sleep-conducive environment (the loud banging did drown out the crazy Korean old ladies though, which was good). So I got back up with a book and headed to the lobby which was closer to the middle of the ship where the ship movements weren't as great and attempted to read to get my mind off things. This didn't really work, so I soon got up for a walk. While walking, I passed a pair of unlucky boatmates carrying something that looked like barf bags. This triggered something in my head and I spent the next hour or so in the bathroom trying to throw up because it would make me feel better but also trying not to throw up because I don't like throwing up.
Luckily, all that time in the bathroom made me kind of tired so I headed back to the cabin in an attempt to get some sleep. Surprisingly the vinyl Saltines box was pretty comfortable but I was still too scared to sleep. It was then that I kind of had a semi-realization that I just had to get over being scared, stop caring about it and remember to breathe deeply. I calmed down a bit and was able to fall asleep in 10 minute intervals between the excessively loud banging of the ship. I think I finally fell asleep for good around 4am or so, just in time to get up at 6 when the ship arrived in Fukuoka.
So we arrived in Fukuoka, with everyone pretty exhausted and sad. We took a couple pictures showing our sad state and then piled back in the van. We stopped at a rest stop on the way where I had a delicious lunch. It was a ham, cheese and pizza sauce on white bread sandwich that had been breaded and deep fried. It was delicious and a highlight of the trip. Upon arriving back, I made the windy and cold bike ride back to my apartment from school in my shorts and slept for 5 hours.
High points of the trip, in order:
1. Talk with Tango-sensei
2. Rest stop sandwich
3. Octopus live sushi
I tried to think of a 4th positive thing, but I couldn't :-(.
This trip was so unfortunate and we all felt so pitiful that it was so funny that it wasn't funny anymore. Ok, now I have to do my homework and go to bed. Goodnight!
Quite a long time ago I was invited to participate with the Izumi JHS teachers in the prefecture-wide junior high school faculty soccer tournament to be held on March 4th. About a week and a half ago, I was informed that the Izumi Minami JHS teachers would be going to Pusan, Korea for a two day/one night trip from March 4th to March 5th. I regretfully canceled my plans with Izumi and quickly signed up for the Korea trip because I really wanted to go to Korea and I hadn't had the chance to hang out with any of the Izumi Minami teachers outside of school. So everything was in order, we were scheduled to do a quick tour/fast ferry/well-known, posh hotel package and it sounded pretty fun although I didn't really know the specifics of what we were doing. I was just hoping to have a fun night out with the teachers, eating, drinking and maybe doing karaoke.
So the plan was that I'd meet up with a few of the teachers at the school, we'd pile in one of the teacher's vans, then drive up to Fukuoka Port. After a quick stop back at my apartment bc I forgot my passport, we were on our way. The trip up was uneventful and the weather looked nice as we arrived at the Fukuoka International Ferry Port. Our plans were to take the quick , 3 hour hydrofoil 'Beetle' ferry that morning, then take it back to Fukuoka the following evening. After checking in and getting our tickets, the problems started. We found out that the weather for the following day was going to be less than stellar, and that there would be a pretty good chance that the Beetle would not be running at all that day. We had a couple other options for getting back at that point, either we could take an overnight boat back that night or possibly be able to book a flight back to Fukuoka, so we figured it might be ok. If, on the off chance the boats were canceled, we had a couple other means of returning. Also, if we canceled our trip right then and there or didn't use the Beetle to return, we'd lose some of our money, so someone said to hell with it, and we hopped on the Beetle.
The Beetle ride was pleasant and quick, and bc it was a hydrofoil, it wasn't really affected by the waves and made for a nice smooth ride. We arrived in Pusan around 1:00 and met up with our tour guide. While waiting for the rest of our tour members to show up, a couple somewhat shady looking individuals saddled up to us and offered their services to exchange yen into Korean wan. I had no idea what a decent exchange rate was and they only spoke Japanese so I opted out/had no idea what was going on. Unfortunately, I guess that was how I was supposed to exchange money as we quickly loaded onto the tour bus before I could exchange any money. We were quickly whisked away to the famous International Market and got off the bus to a light rain and worsening weather. The tour lady, complete with Japanese tour lady flag, led us to some random, unmarked building and herded us inside. We found ourselves in a fairly small store filled with 'high-quality' fake goods. Louis Vuitton bags, Gucci glasses, mugs with that nerd from Winter Sonata, etc, it was all there, and the tour lady said we were to meet back inside the store in 45 minutes and then promptly disappeared into a back room. Even I in my bewildered state realized we were being had and that the tour lady was getting paid to bring people to this random store, but no one really got angry. So we looked around in the store for a bit, and, not having eaten anything for a while, asked if there were any restaurants nearby. The staff said no, so we loitered in the store a bit longer and then I set out with one of my other English teachers, Mr. Naraki. We walked for about 2 minutes and found a couple restaurants and realized we had been blatantly lied to. However, only having 15 mins or so until we were supposed to meet up again in the store, we couldn't get anything to eat. So we strolled for a couple minutes in the real International Market, then made our way back to the pitiful little imitation good store.
Next, we walked from the store down to the waterfront and walked through a couple pretty crazy fish markets. We made a quick photo op stop on the waterfront and took a couple somewhat wet pictures together, then walked through a couple more fish markets then got back on the bus.
While on the bus, it was decided that our situation was getting kind of down to the wire and that we should figure out what we were going to do that night and the following day. The Beetle evidently has a deadline at 4PM where they say if the boats will be running the next day, and they had said the waves would be too high and that there would be no boats running the following day and probably wouldn't be anything the day after. The tour lady also said that there wasn't room for 12 people on any of the flights going back to Fukuoka, so we would have to take a boat back. We decided to take the overnight boat 'New Camellia' back that night. The New Camellia is quite an enormous boat with cabins, a restaurant, karaoke, a public bath and a couple other amenities, so we booked a 12 person cabin and paid the extra 10,000 yen (about 85 bucks) to get our tickets. Our trip originally had been to arrive in Pusan early Sunday, take a tour, have a good dinner, go out, then spend the night at a very nice hotel, then have most of Monday to do other things, then take a later ferry back that evening. Now, we would have to be back on a boat at 7 on Sunday for a 10 hour overnight trip back to Fukuoka at an extra 85 dollars. We were all pretty sad but figured we'd have a good dinner, get on the boat, then maybe do some karaoke and have a nice pleasant sleep.
After getting our tickets, we got back on the bus for the dinner included in the tour. From what I could understand, the tour guide was playing up the restaurant, making it seem like it was an all-you-can-eat-and-drink affair with really good authentic Korean barbecue and lots of beer where we could forget our misfortune and have a good meal. So once again we pulled up to an unmarked building and were herded into a restaurant whose only other guests were hapless tour members. We sat down ready to kampai (cheers! in japanese) and filled up our glasses with some strange beer called OB, which was the palest beer I've ever seen. So we kampaied, and drank our first glass. The beer had no flavor and was quite a let down. Sigh. Another pleasantry snatched out from under my nose. Oh well, anyway, next came the food, which was some halfway decent kimchee, fairly low quality beef, lettuce and no rice. I really wanted rice and was pretty sure it was a necessary component of Korean barbecue, but it was nowhere to be found. So we ate a little bit, and it was OK but tasted a lot better bc we were all very hungry. Next they brought out a plate of something that was wiggling. Upon closer inspection, it was raw octopus that had been killed fairly recently and was still moving. I tried it, it was kind of gross, but at least I can say I've had moving sushi. By this time, the wait staff seemed to be getting reluctant to bring out new bottles of beer, and we got the impression it wasn't so much an all-you-can-eat as an all-we'll-bring-you-before-you-have-to-get-on-your-boat. So we ate what they gave us and then the tour lady popped out to tell us we had to hurry back to the port to catch our boat. So we loaded back on the bus.
Back at the port we waited around for an hour or so (damn you tour lady!) and then we boarded. The boat was quite large and I was looking forward to a nice, smooth ride back to Fukuoka bc I figured the boat would be big enough to cut through the whatever size waves we were going to meet. We went to our room to find out it was essentially the size of a quarter of a tennis court for 12 people. We were given a very thin futon, a blanket and a weird vinyl pillow the size and shape of a Saltines box. Each person had kind of a cubby to put their head in along the wall while everyone's feet pointed into the middle of the room. Even though we had to board the boat at 7, the boat didn't leave until 10:30 so we just sat in the port for a couple hours. Everyone sat in the room for the first hour or so, complaining about our ill luck over a couple beers and snacks, then most people decided to take a walk and see what the boat looked like. The boat was pretty big, it had 3 decks with maybe 40 rooms or so. It was during my boat exploration that I found out our room was across the hall from some absolutely ridiculously crazy old Korean ladies. These ladies had a big room to themselves and, I can only assume they were very drunk, found it very amusing to sit in a circle and yell at the top of their lungs. I saw a couple of them and they looked absolutely crazy. I think they were singing or something, but they didn't really follow any commonly accepted rhythms or musical scales, so I'm only guessing. They did this for at least a good 4 or 5 hours straight, until at least 1 in the morning. Thankfully the noises the ship was making drowned them out pretty well, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
So anyway, during my explorations, I happened upon one of the other English teachers, Ms. Tango, and sat down with her in the lounge and we talked for a good hour or so. This was the highlight of my trip, as I genuinely enjoyed the company and made the decision that I'm a big fan of Tango-sensei. We talked about all sorts of things and I had a good time. Finally, the clock struck 10:30 and the boat left the dock. The water was quite calm in the bay area, and I figured it would stay that way for the rest of the trip. We navigated the bay for a few minutes, and then it was immediately obvious when we hit the open ocean because the boat began to pitch and list in all sorts of directions. Tango-sensei noticed that my face immediately changed from bright and happy to pale and scared for my life. The realization that I'd have to put up with 10 hours of this crazy movement didn't take long to enter my head and make me sad. So I sat there for and then we decided we'd try to go to sleep. Walking back to the cabin was quite difficult as the boat would pitch about 20 feet at a time and I'm not used to walking in rapid oscillations between zero and double gravity. It would have been kind of funny had I not been so scared. So I went back to the room and got down to sleep, only to realize I wasn't particularly tired and that the movement of the ship and loud banging resonating from somewhere in the bowels of the ship weren't contributing to a sleep-conducive environment (the loud banging did drown out the crazy Korean old ladies though, which was good). So I got back up with a book and headed to the lobby which was closer to the middle of the ship where the ship movements weren't as great and attempted to read to get my mind off things. This didn't really work, so I soon got up for a walk. While walking, I passed a pair of unlucky boatmates carrying something that looked like barf bags. This triggered something in my head and I spent the next hour or so in the bathroom trying to throw up because it would make me feel better but also trying not to throw up because I don't like throwing up.
Luckily, all that time in the bathroom made me kind of tired so I headed back to the cabin in an attempt to get some sleep. Surprisingly the vinyl Saltines box was pretty comfortable but I was still too scared to sleep. It was then that I kind of had a semi-realization that I just had to get over being scared, stop caring about it and remember to breathe deeply. I calmed down a bit and was able to fall asleep in 10 minute intervals between the excessively loud banging of the ship. I think I finally fell asleep for good around 4am or so, just in time to get up at 6 when the ship arrived in Fukuoka.
So we arrived in Fukuoka, with everyone pretty exhausted and sad. We took a couple pictures showing our sad state and then piled back in the van. We stopped at a rest stop on the way where I had a delicious lunch. It was a ham, cheese and pizza sauce on white bread sandwich that had been breaded and deep fried. It was delicious and a highlight of the trip. Upon arriving back, I made the windy and cold bike ride back to my apartment from school in my shorts and slept for 5 hours.
High points of the trip, in order:
1. Talk with Tango-sensei
2. Rest stop sandwich
3. Octopus live sushi
I tried to think of a 4th positive thing, but I couldn't :-(.
This trip was so unfortunate and we all felt so pitiful that it was so funny that it wasn't funny anymore. Ok, now I have to do my homework and go to bed. Goodnight!
10.30.2006
Bad Update
Ok, here's a bad update. I'll start from the beginning or something. So I live in Kumamoto, Japan. I teach English at two junior high schools and a random elementary school once a month for a week. My two JHSs are Izumi and Izumi Minami, commonly referred to as Izunan. My fellow JTEs at Izumi are Mr. Kitazato, Mr. Susami, Mr. Nakata, Ms. Matsumoto and Ms. Yamasaki. My Izunan JTEs are Mr. Sakata, Mr. Naraki, Ms. Tango and Ms. Yamamoto. So far I've spent one 3 week period at each JHS and am in the middle of a two week stint at Izumi. The elementary schools I've visited are Nishibaru, Akita Higashi, Ezu and Kurokami. Very interesting, eh? This is more for the far future. Ok, maybe it will get interesting now. I'm finally finished my self intro at my schools, so I'm doing normal stuff now, getting into classes and exploring what I can do inside the schools. So far I've played some taiko and some 'volleyball', but not too much yet. I spent a good week and a half helping some students prepare for a speech contest where they had to write their own speeches, memorize them and recite them. I turned out writing 2 of the 3, as the students wrote them in Japanese and translated them online, which is a terrible idea and its easier for me to understand the original Japanese. So I had to rewrite 2 of them, one turned out pretty well, but the girl unfortunately didn't place at the contest. We should have practiced a bit more.
On the weekends I've done a bit of traveling, we visited Aso a while ago, we visited Austin on Yakushima the weekend after that, then I met up with everyone in Osaka for the epic weekend fantastically captured in pictures and on Chris's blog. I'm settled in quite nicely here in my apartment, although I seem to have a mold problem or something is killing my allergies. Cait recently bought a DS for me, that sweetheart that she is, and I've been playing it because it is fun. These past two weeks I've been helping another set of students practice for a recitation contest, this time of material from their textbooks. Today was the competition, and while it was tedious and long, the post before this shows the most triumphant of my students, the middle two holding certificates took second place in their grade and get to go on to the prefectural meeting. Two of my other groups from Izunan placed in the top seven in their grade levels, so I'm also very proud of them. It was quite fun and now I have experience so I'll kick ass next year.
When I get around to it I'll post pictures somewhere, but not here bc blogger gives me a hard time uploading pics. Until then, or until my next post, which could be a while, I'll see you later.
On the weekends I've done a bit of traveling, we visited Aso a while ago, we visited Austin on Yakushima the weekend after that, then I met up with everyone in Osaka for the epic weekend fantastically captured in pictures and on Chris's blog. I'm settled in quite nicely here in my apartment, although I seem to have a mold problem or something is killing my allergies. Cait recently bought a DS for me, that sweetheart that she is, and I've been playing it because it is fun. These past two weeks I've been helping another set of students practice for a recitation contest, this time of material from their textbooks. Today was the competition, and while it was tedious and long, the post before this shows the most triumphant of my students, the middle two holding certificates took second place in their grade and get to go on to the prefectural meeting. Two of my other groups from Izunan placed in the top seven in their grade levels, so I'm also very proud of them. It was quite fun and now I have experience so I'll kick ass next year.
When I get around to it I'll post pictures somewhere, but not here bc blogger gives me a hard time uploading pics. Until then, or until my next post, which could be a while, I'll see you later.
9.24.2006
More pictures
View from my house, not very pretty
Suizenji Park
Suizenji Park
Ready to travel up Mt. Aso, that's Dawn on the left, Natalee on the right. Not Pictured: Cait
View from the ropeway up Mt. Aso, aobut halfway up at this point
9.18.2006
i have the internets!
I finally received my modem from yahoo BB on saturday, so more frequent updates of this blog are sure to come. I guess I'll do a quick run through of what has happened up until now. Here goes:
So I we got to Tokyo ok, long flight and whatever. We got to the grand Keio Plaza hotel around 8, and went out to get something to eat. I ate, then promptly returned to my room and died. The next day we had meetings scheduled from 10 to 8, and it proved to be a very tiring day. The next day, we all flew/rode to our respective prefectures, where we got another prefectural orientation. Me and the other two new Kumamoto JETs, Dawn and Natalee, were very tired, but did our best to stay awake. After sitting around for a while, we found we were invited to our city opening ceremony. We showed up, having no idea what was going on, and were quickly whisked on stage. We were all very tired, but the food was good and we met most of the people we would be working with, so it was fun, but a little sudden. Next I stayed over at one of the veteran ALTs' houses for a night, followed by a night at a host family's house. The host family was very nice, and I had fun hanging out with their two kids Daiki and Cota (I remember their names!). They gave me their email, so maybe they'll be able to show me around some of the places near Kumamoto.
After a whirlwind first week, I moved into my own apartment in the Izumi area of Kumamoto on Sunday. Its a brand new building, and I'm the first person to live here, so its in great shape but I don't have any hand me downs from previous ALTs. So much of my first week was spent buying items for my house, eg a toaster, towels, eating things, a futon, etc. The next week I began school at Nishibaru Elementary School, for one of my solo, random elementary school stints. They happen approx once a month and are probably going to be quite fun. I'll stop here bc I have to go to bed, but I'll give a full report up to now in my next update.
So I we got to Tokyo ok, long flight and whatever. We got to the grand Keio Plaza hotel around 8, and went out to get something to eat. I ate, then promptly returned to my room and died. The next day we had meetings scheduled from 10 to 8, and it proved to be a very tiring day. The next day, we all flew/rode to our respective prefectures, where we got another prefectural orientation. Me and the other two new Kumamoto JETs, Dawn and Natalee, were very tired, but did our best to stay awake. After sitting around for a while, we found we were invited to our city opening ceremony. We showed up, having no idea what was going on, and were quickly whisked on stage. We were all very tired, but the food was good and we met most of the people we would be working with, so it was fun, but a little sudden. Next I stayed over at one of the veteran ALTs' houses for a night, followed by a night at a host family's house. The host family was very nice, and I had fun hanging out with their two kids Daiki and Cota (I remember their names!). They gave me their email, so maybe they'll be able to show me around some of the places near Kumamoto.
After a whirlwind first week, I moved into my own apartment in the Izumi area of Kumamoto on Sunday. Its a brand new building, and I'm the first person to live here, so its in great shape but I don't have any hand me downs from previous ALTs. So much of my first week was spent buying items for my house, eg a toaster, towels, eating things, a futon, etc. The next week I began school at Nishibaru Elementary School, for one of my solo, random elementary school stints. They happen approx once a month and are probably going to be quite fun. I'll stop here bc I have to go to bed, but I'll give a full report up to now in my next update.
8.14.2006
First trip pictures
Bridge in Takayama, home of good ramen and very expensive microbrews
My favorite little guy, directing traffic all through the night
Dead fish in Tsukiji Fish Market, the coolest thing in Tokyo. Evidently, some of the tuna can sell for 10's of thousands of dollars. Because they are so tasty.Welcome to the Orient!
Hello,
Here I will journalize my excursions in Japan, and hopefully some of the nearby nations. Hopefully I'll do it mostly picture style, but if I have a good story I'll write it down.
I just returned home from a ~2 week trip to Tokyo, Takayama and Hakuba to see off my JET peeps, see some scenery and chill with Hashimoto. I was kind of bored and lonely when I was in Tokyo, as I didn't have much to do. It was really hot and it seems that Japanese people have higher sweat points than I do. Wasting a day in Shinjuku Gyoen was fun though, I got to read and sit on the grass and sleep and be afraid of ants crawling up my pants. Maybe I'll put some pictures up! I wonder how editable this blog is, when I feel like it I'll try to tinker with the html and see what I can do. For now, peace out!
I am actually posting at this ridiculous hour in the morning. I am not in Japan, but my sleep schedule is still screwed.
Here I will journalize my excursions in Japan, and hopefully some of the nearby nations. Hopefully I'll do it mostly picture style, but if I have a good story I'll write it down.
I just returned home from a ~2 week trip to Tokyo, Takayama and Hakuba to see off my JET peeps, see some scenery and chill with Hashimoto. I was kind of bored and lonely when I was in Tokyo, as I didn't have much to do. It was really hot and it seems that Japanese people have higher sweat points than I do. Wasting a day in Shinjuku Gyoen was fun though, I got to read and sit on the grass and sleep and be afraid of ants crawling up my pants. Maybe I'll put some pictures up! I wonder how editable this blog is, when I feel like it I'll try to tinker with the html and see what I can do. For now, peace out!
I am actually posting at this ridiculous hour in the morning. I am not in Japan, but my sleep schedule is still screwed.
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