But seriously, how damned classy am I in that suit?
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Osaka for real
Jessica is here and I keep asking her to guest blog, but I guess she doesn't want to do that. She has been traveling all over the area, up to Kanazawa, down to Kyoto, around to different little towns and has many pictures and stories. I will keep bugging her I guess.
I, however, have had to work the past two weeks and therefore haven't been able to travel. But, we did get a three day weekend last weekend for the Emperor's birthday and we decided to go to Osaka. Osaka is about a two and a half hour train ride away, right on the edge of what I would classify as doable as a day trip. However, Osaka is one of the largest cities in Japan, third largest I think, behind Tokyo and another city that is connected to Tokyo, and has a famous nightlife so we decided to get a hotel and spend the night.
We started late because I went to the wrong platform for our train. So, we had to wait an hour at the train station for the next train. That sucked. And when the next train came the only open seats were on the smoking car. That sucked. Well, I need to clarify open seats, and this is something that kind of pisses me off quite frankly. In the unreserved cars people will sit and put their jacket and bag on the seat next to them instead of on the rack above the seats or on the floor between their feet.
Plenty of space for bags above the seats, and some people use them, but not many.
And granted, I know why they do this, so that they have more space and don't have to sit next to somebody. And I guess it is effective in Japan, they are so damned accommodating that they generally won't ask someone to move their stuff. Well, that shit is gonna end. There is no way I am either standing up for three hours or sitting in a smoking car for three hours on the way to and from Tokyo. Not gonna happen. Someone is gonna get looked at until they move their stuff. Damn being culturally appropriate.
Anyway, got to Osaka train station and man was it crowded! Got there on a Sunday evening at around 5 and it seemed like rush hour. I don't know if it was a light time but if it was I would hate to see it busy! Sooooo many people. The directions our hotel gave us told us to take a particular subway line, and one thing about Japan, generally really well marked in English, especially at train stations and in bigger cities. Not so much for our subway line. The rest of the subway lines had nice hanging signs from the ceiling so you could see them from far away and continue in the right direction as you were travelling. Our subway line, handwritten on cardboard and taped to the wall. Yeah, took us more than a couple of minutes to figure out where to go. And once we got to the subway place couldn't find where to buy tix. Luckily I have the amazing power of.....asking people. In English, not Japanese. Works everytime. "Where can I buy tickets?" "Over there [with a smile while grumbling something in Japanese that probably means retard]"
The subway ticket machines weren't so easy, as they were only in Japanese but we figured it out. The nice thing about Japanese trains/mass transit, you can pay the minimum fee to get thru the gate and then pay the extra on the way out. Very nice, all you have to do is figure out the minimum.
Speaking of nice, people in Japan are so nice. We weren't sure which way to go on the subway line and couldn't read any of the signs since they were in Kanji. So, using my amazing asking powers I asked someone standing in line for the train (I have mentioned they line up for the trains in neat little orderly lines, not just crammed on the platform, and the trains are so exact they have little spots to line up at knowing that is exactly where the train will stop every time) if they could tell us the direction to go in for our stop. Well, this couple was trying to help us so much that their train came and went and they didn't even pause to consider getting on it. Eventually we saw a sign and were able to figure out which way to go. And turns out the next train was about a minute behing the last train, so no biggie to have missed it, but still, pretty nice of them.
Got off the train, didn't know where to go, went out and used my superpowers once again. Lady I asked didn't know where hotel was, so she took it upon herself to ask three other people where the hotel was until someone knew exactly where to go. Amazing how helpful they are.
Got to the hotel no problem, got checked in and got a great room. Well, I considered it great. Twin beds, heated toilet, satellite radio. What more could you ask for? Speaking of the satellite radio, it was possibly the highlight of my trip. Not because it was so great, there were some good stations on there, they had a classic rock station, an all Beatles station, some live feeds from stations in LA and NYC (both "urban hits" stations unfortunately) but they also had entire stations dedicated to: the Happy Birthday song, over and over and over on a loop (Do you know how short the birthday song is and how much that must repeat, that is a good way to torture somebody, and I did for about 5 minutes until it was torturing me as well), the Rocky theme in case you need to get pumped up for a big meeting I guess, a station of birdcalls, a station called mother's heartbeat that sounded like you were in the womb, that is creepy as hell, a station called "music for pets," all these fantastic strange (okay, Japanese) things. I loved it and spent hours playing around with the different channels on the radio.
This is going to be the worst Osaka post ever, I am just going to talk about the hotel and the toilet.
Here is the sign on the bathroom. I love it "you will upset the other Hotel's clients" not this hotel's clients, the "other hotel's clients." I imagine the fire alarm going off in the hotel down the block and people getting mad.
The tiny yugata they give you to relax in. Basically like a light bathrobe except not absorbant. Also, maybe only tiny to me.
Oh yeah, and Osaka, epicenter of Yakuza, so no short sleeves for me there, EVER. Guess I won't be going back in the summer anytime soon.
The amazing fancy Japanese toilet. With heated seat and buttons for "bidet" and "shower." I can't express how much I love these toilets. They are so nice. Why don't we have these in America? Almost every hotel and many restaraunts have these toilets, and from what I can tell, most people's homes have them as well. they are just fantastic. Some even have automatic seats so you never have to touch the filthy filthy dirty toilet with your hands, just the buttons.
The control panel. It is like sitting on the Enterprise. I don't know if you can tell from this pic, but the bidet pic is water shooting up a man's ass. The knob on the front controls how strong you want the water, and the lights in the back control how warm the seat is, warm or hot. Yeah, fantastic!
Mind you, it is a bit disconcerting to feel the water hit you at first, but it is just nice and I feel so darned clean afterwards.
When that first stream hits you this is the face you make.
The one thing I don't like about the toilet, and this might be a small thing, but look at this
The seat of the toilet half overhangs the rim of the bowl. So, if you sit down with your ass centered you are going to pee on the rim of the toilet and then all over the floor and be disgusting. So, if you want to do both 1 and 2 (see mom, I am trying to keep it as clean as possible) you have to move around a lot, back and forth and that is just not the grand experience I am looking for. This has happened to me with many of these toilets, I think it is because the electronic part is an aftermarket add-on to a standard toilet bowl set up and the bowls are shorter than the seat contraption. Either way, not ideal.
Well, time to get going. My computer time for the day is up. Wasn't Osaka fun?
Last thing, apparently I brush my teeth funnily.
What?
and I guess this blog title is misleading. Oh well, will write more when I get a chance. Going to Tokyo tomorrow until after the new year so maybe not for quite a while. But at least I will have lots to write about when I get back.
I, however, have had to work the past two weeks and therefore haven't been able to travel. But, we did get a three day weekend last weekend for the Emperor's birthday and we decided to go to Osaka. Osaka is about a two and a half hour train ride away, right on the edge of what I would classify as doable as a day trip. However, Osaka is one of the largest cities in Japan, third largest I think, behind Tokyo and another city that is connected to Tokyo, and has a famous nightlife so we decided to get a hotel and spend the night.
We started late because I went to the wrong platform for our train. So, we had to wait an hour at the train station for the next train. That sucked. And when the next train came the only open seats were on the smoking car. That sucked. Well, I need to clarify open seats, and this is something that kind of pisses me off quite frankly. In the unreserved cars people will sit and put their jacket and bag on the seat next to them instead of on the rack above the seats or on the floor between their feet.
Plenty of space for bags above the seats, and some people use them, but not many.
And granted, I know why they do this, so that they have more space and don't have to sit next to somebody. And I guess it is effective in Japan, they are so damned accommodating that they generally won't ask someone to move their stuff. Well, that shit is gonna end. There is no way I am either standing up for three hours or sitting in a smoking car for three hours on the way to and from Tokyo. Not gonna happen. Someone is gonna get looked at until they move their stuff. Damn being culturally appropriate.
Anyway, got to Osaka train station and man was it crowded! Got there on a Sunday evening at around 5 and it seemed like rush hour. I don't know if it was a light time but if it was I would hate to see it busy! Sooooo many people. The directions our hotel gave us told us to take a particular subway line, and one thing about Japan, generally really well marked in English, especially at train stations and in bigger cities. Not so much for our subway line. The rest of the subway lines had nice hanging signs from the ceiling so you could see them from far away and continue in the right direction as you were travelling. Our subway line, handwritten on cardboard and taped to the wall. Yeah, took us more than a couple of minutes to figure out where to go. And once we got to the subway place couldn't find where to buy tix. Luckily I have the amazing power of.....asking people. In English, not Japanese. Works everytime. "Where can I buy tickets?" "Over there [with a smile while grumbling something in Japanese that probably means retard]"
The subway ticket machines weren't so easy, as they were only in Japanese but we figured it out. The nice thing about Japanese trains/mass transit, you can pay the minimum fee to get thru the gate and then pay the extra on the way out. Very nice, all you have to do is figure out the minimum.
Speaking of nice, people in Japan are so nice. We weren't sure which way to go on the subway line and couldn't read any of the signs since they were in Kanji. So, using my amazing asking powers I asked someone standing in line for the train (I have mentioned they line up for the trains in neat little orderly lines, not just crammed on the platform, and the trains are so exact they have little spots to line up at knowing that is exactly where the train will stop every time) if they could tell us the direction to go in for our stop. Well, this couple was trying to help us so much that their train came and went and they didn't even pause to consider getting on it. Eventually we saw a sign and were able to figure out which way to go. And turns out the next train was about a minute behing the last train, so no biggie to have missed it, but still, pretty nice of them.
Got off the train, didn't know where to go, went out and used my superpowers once again. Lady I asked didn't know where hotel was, so she took it upon herself to ask three other people where the hotel was until someone knew exactly where to go. Amazing how helpful they are.
Got to the hotel no problem, got checked in and got a great room. Well, I considered it great. Twin beds, heated toilet, satellite radio. What more could you ask for? Speaking of the satellite radio, it was possibly the highlight of my trip. Not because it was so great, there were some good stations on there, they had a classic rock station, an all Beatles station, some live feeds from stations in LA and NYC (both "urban hits" stations unfortunately) but they also had entire stations dedicated to: the Happy Birthday song, over and over and over on a loop (Do you know how short the birthday song is and how much that must repeat, that is a good way to torture somebody, and I did for about 5 minutes until it was torturing me as well), the Rocky theme in case you need to get pumped up for a big meeting I guess, a station of birdcalls, a station called mother's heartbeat that sounded like you were in the womb, that is creepy as hell, a station called "music for pets," all these fantastic strange (okay, Japanese) things. I loved it and spent hours playing around with the different channels on the radio.
This is going to be the worst Osaka post ever, I am just going to talk about the hotel and the toilet.
Here is the sign on the bathroom. I love it "you will upset the other Hotel's clients" not this hotel's clients, the "other hotel's clients." I imagine the fire alarm going off in the hotel down the block and people getting mad.
The tiny yugata they give you to relax in. Basically like a light bathrobe except not absorbant. Also, maybe only tiny to me.
Oh yeah, and Osaka, epicenter of Yakuza, so no short sleeves for me there, EVER. Guess I won't be going back in the summer anytime soon.
The amazing fancy Japanese toilet. With heated seat and buttons for "bidet" and "shower." I can't express how much I love these toilets. They are so nice. Why don't we have these in America? Almost every hotel and many restaraunts have these toilets, and from what I can tell, most people's homes have them as well. they are just fantastic. Some even have automatic seats so you never have to touch the filthy filthy dirty toilet with your hands, just the buttons.
The control panel. It is like sitting on the Enterprise. I don't know if you can tell from this pic, but the bidet pic is water shooting up a man's ass. The knob on the front controls how strong you want the water, and the lights in the back control how warm the seat is, warm or hot. Yeah, fantastic!
Mind you, it is a bit disconcerting to feel the water hit you at first, but it is just nice and I feel so darned clean afterwards.
When that first stream hits you this is the face you make.
The one thing I don't like about the toilet, and this might be a small thing, but look at this
The seat of the toilet half overhangs the rim of the bowl. So, if you sit down with your ass centered you are going to pee on the rim of the toilet and then all over the floor and be disgusting. So, if you want to do both 1 and 2 (see mom, I am trying to keep it as clean as possible) you have to move around a lot, back and forth and that is just not the grand experience I am looking for. This has happened to me with many of these toilets, I think it is because the electronic part is an aftermarket add-on to a standard toilet bowl set up and the bowls are shorter than the seat contraption. Either way, not ideal.
Well, time to get going. My computer time for the day is up. Wasn't Osaka fun?
Last thing, apparently I brush my teeth funnily.
What?
and I guess this blog title is misleading. Oh well, will write more when I get a chance. Going to Tokyo tomorrow until after the new year so maybe not for quite a while. But at least I will have lots to write about when I get back.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Osaka peeview
Jessica is here, and while we are having fun I don't really have any down time to write about it.
Well, she is having fun traveling (I am way jealous) and I am still at work.
However, had a three day weekend and got to go to Osaka.
Here's the preview!
Crazy lights!
Giant crab and Alex acting the fool, as usual.
Even the Japanese have racist Japanese depictions.
Big man in a little bathrobe.
March of the pengis!
These cheese fries taste neither cheesy nor fry-y. They taste like stale paper.
Hello sexy!
Purple jellyfish!
I like turtles!
Osaka Castle
Awesome heated seat toilet in the hotel room. And has a bidet too!
Rat statue!
They had Dr. Pepper in Osaka. I want to live in Osaka and drown myself in Peppery goodness!
More crazy neon. If Osaka is the third largest city in Japan and is this lit up every night I can't wait to see what Tokyo is like.
Jessica says "Don't take my picture, nerd." Also, Starbucks overpriced gingerbread latte deliciousness.
Well, she is having fun traveling (I am way jealous) and I am still at work.
However, had a three day weekend and got to go to Osaka.
Here's the preview!
Crazy lights!
Giant crab and Alex acting the fool, as usual.
Even the Japanese have racist Japanese depictions.
Big man in a little bathrobe.
March of the pengis!
These cheese fries taste neither cheesy nor fry-y. They taste like stale paper.
Hello sexy!
Purple jellyfish!
I like turtles!
Osaka Castle
Awesome heated seat toilet in the hotel room. And has a bidet too!
Rat statue!
They had Dr. Pepper in Osaka. I want to live in Osaka and drown myself in Peppery goodness!
More crazy neon. If Osaka is the third largest city in Japan and is this lit up every night I can't wait to see what Tokyo is like.
Jessica says "Don't take my picture, nerd." Also, Starbucks overpriced gingerbread latte deliciousness.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
A Riches of Embarrassment!
It has been crazy busy this week at school, but not in any fun or funny way. I had a new student sign up (yay! Money coming into the school makes my manager happy, money makes Geos happy, I am happy because I didn't scare off a potential new student like I felt I have done before. Boo! More work for me) and she comes in at 9pm twice a week, meaning I don't get home until 10:30-11:00 three out of five days a week now. Yuck! And that isn't even the big problem, the big problem is that there are two grocery stores in Tsuruga within walking distance of my apartment. One of them closes at 9, the other at 10. When I don't get out of school until after 10 I have to make sure I already have food at home or got spend 1000 yen for chicken and curry. Which quite frankly I love, but fried chicken every night, even I know that isn't good for you.
Oh, and they closed the Lawson's convienence store that is a block away from my house! That place was open 24 hours and push comes to shove I could always go there and pick up something to eat. But not now! Closed for remodeling is what I have heard, but they closed another one for remodeling and tore the whole building down and now it is an empty lot and has been that way for three months. (yes, closed down the week after I got to Tsuruga for anyone keeping track of time) Biggest problem, I pay my bills at that Lawson's so now I have to walk to the other side of town to pay my bills. Today. Because they are due this week and I won't have time otherwise. Man, hope it isn't raining out.
Speaking of which, got a new pair of waterproof boots! Thanks, Mom!
Check out these badass boots!
Well, one of them anyway. Not enough room in the front of the apt. to photograph both boots at once. Yeah, they are sweet! And comfy too.
Anyway, busy at school. This week was Challenge Kids week where we gave tests to the kid students so they could see their progress. Well, mostly their parents could see their progress. The tests were easy peasy and most of the kids did great on them. Well, that and the fact is that there is one table in my room and it is impossible for me to keep them from cheating. Plus I can't speak Japanese and they are constantly chattering about in their native language. Apparently I have no authority and when I say, "shhhh," or, "No talking," it means no talking in English.
Anyway, the tests went fine for the most part. My pre-school class didn't really feel like taking the test, shocker three and four year olds don't want to sit down and listen to me talk for 40 minutes while they circle things on their paper. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I mean, just look at my face, that is the face of shock right there.
Yeah.
One of my pre-schoolers simply circled every single picture on his test, and when that was done he folded it up into a little square and pushed it onto the floor and then proceeded to walk around the class for the next 20 minutes asking when we would sing the "pokey pokey" song (hokey pokey, but come on, the pokey pokey, how cute is that?). Another one simply drew on the test instead of completing the questions. Yeah, so written tests for 3 year olds, not the best idea. In my humble opinion that is.
The real problem with the tests was not administering them, although that was a pain in my ass since I had to speak the whole thing. Geos is cutting costs, in past years they made a cd of the spoken parts but this year left it up to the teachers to speak the whole thing. The real hassle was having to grade the tests and leave feedback for the students. Grading easy, 3-5 minutes per test, adding the evaluations, yeah those take 5-10 minutes per student, so about 15 minutes a test, multiply by 30 tests and suddenly all of my time is being eaten away by grading. Which means I am hurrying to prep for other classes and am basically work working for the entire time I am at school instead of working and having some downtime to get something to eat or go shopping etc. Yeah, very busy week. And while the tests aren't technically due back until two weeks from now allowing for next week for grading as well, my manager got transferred to a different school and was leaving Saturday so I had to get the tests done so she could translate them into Japanese.
Yeah, my manager got transferred back to her hometown this week. It was a good thing, she needed to go home to help her mom take care of their animals. Her mom took a job in another city so she would be gone during the week with no one to look after the pets so my manager had to go take care of em. Yeah, that is weird right, that people in Japan live where they work during the week and then come "home" during the weekend. I have a student who is doing that now, he lives in an apartment in Osaka during the week and them comes home to his family on the weekend. And in his Osaka apartment, no bathroom. Shared bathroom. Eech! Sharing a bathroom with a floor full of other guys, I assume it is like a dorm situation, but lord knows after college, who would want to live like that?
So my manager transferred. She found out about it on Friday and moved Sunday. Yeah, that's a lot of notice. A bunch of us went out on Saturday night to say goodbye to her. That was fun. Honestly, I am going to miss her. She was a good manager and a good person. She was always willing to help me out, not just with work things but with my personal stuff too. Helping me get my mail, showing me how and where to get things done. And besides, she was the very first person I met here.
Also, the JET, the Japanese English Teacher, quit last week. Quit for real. She had talked about wanting to quit for awhile now, and has been "sick" for the last three weeks after the company asked her to stay on through the new year until they could find a replacement. Guess that wasn't what she was looking to do and so she quit this week.
What does that all mean for ol' Alex? I am the old timer in Tsuruga now! After three months. Wow. I know that Geos has a high turnover rate, well once a year pretty much, but this is ridiculous.
Then, on Sunday I went to a former student's wedding party. She got married two or so months ago and Sunday was her party for her friends (and former teachers apparently). I was supposed to go with Steven and therefore have someone to talk to in English. Well, Steven did attend the party but was completely hung over and not in the mood to converse so I was forced to talk to other people. Nice to get outside of the comfort zone. Had to try to make conversation with other people, and Japanese people will tell you they can't speak English, but many many can speak some English and enough to communicate. I met a girl who could speak English very well, and she helped me out most of the evening by translating when there were speeches and helping me to read when ordering booze. In my defense, I can pretty much read Hiragana and Katakana at this point (not Kanji) but it takes me forever to read and then half the time I don't know what the word means in Japanese so still tough to read. However she was helping me out, having a good time, good conversation, she is studying to be an English teacher so that was something else to talk about. Plus, she lives in Tsuruga. That is cool. Ask her if she wants to hang out sometime in Tsuruga, practice English conversation and then Japanese conversation for me. Says she'll have to ask her dad (huh?) because she is only 17 and doesn't have a driver's license yet. Whahuh?
Yup. Hitting on a 17 year old. Smart. Dammit, I told you that I can't tell anyone's age in this country!
Well, soon (but not soon enough) after that embarrassment, the party wound down and most of the people went home or whatnot. But a few people were going to go out and have some more drinks at a bar and my former student, let's call her Nami because that is her name, invited me along.
Of course I wanted to have some more drinks! In this group the only people who could speak English with any kind of ability were myself and Nami so as we sat and drank and ate (in Japan you don't just go out for drinks, you go out drinking and eat too) she was appointed the translator between the rest of the group and myself. There we are sitting in this tiny little room (that is another thing I love about Japan, at most restaurants and bars they have little rooms for each table so you can't see the other parties in the place (which would have been fantastic for my ex who refused to go to places that didn't have other people in them, she didn't trust the quality of food I guess, but she would never be able to tell in Japan. Bwahahaha!) and they just feel cozier, you can relax and have a good time because the only people that can see you are the people in your group. I like that idea a lot.) and drinking and having a good time when one of the guys in the group asks me a question and Nami's face goes red, she doesn't know how to translate it. Or rather, she knows how to translate it, but it is completely filthy and she doesn't want to say it to me. And this then became the game dujour. Tell Alex something inappropriate and make Nami translate it for him. I learned many many dirty words and phrases last night and also saw perhaps the most embarrassed woman in the world. One of the most fun nights I have had since I got here.
All in all, busy week, but good. And Jessica comes this Friday! Very excited! Friendly face from back home! Christmas company! My good friend coming to visit me and we get to go around Japan doing touristy stuff! I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to seeing her and getting to go to Tokyo and Mt. Fuji (even if it is the middle of the winter and we won't be all that close to Mt. Fuji, and certainly not able to climb it).
Oh, and they closed the Lawson's convienence store that is a block away from my house! That place was open 24 hours and push comes to shove I could always go there and pick up something to eat. But not now! Closed for remodeling is what I have heard, but they closed another one for remodeling and tore the whole building down and now it is an empty lot and has been that way for three months. (yes, closed down the week after I got to Tsuruga for anyone keeping track of time) Biggest problem, I pay my bills at that Lawson's so now I have to walk to the other side of town to pay my bills. Today. Because they are due this week and I won't have time otherwise. Man, hope it isn't raining out.
Speaking of which, got a new pair of waterproof boots! Thanks, Mom!
Check out these badass boots!
Well, one of them anyway. Not enough room in the front of the apt. to photograph both boots at once. Yeah, they are sweet! And comfy too.
Anyway, busy at school. This week was Challenge Kids week where we gave tests to the kid students so they could see their progress. Well, mostly their parents could see their progress. The tests were easy peasy and most of the kids did great on them. Well, that and the fact is that there is one table in my room and it is impossible for me to keep them from cheating. Plus I can't speak Japanese and they are constantly chattering about in their native language. Apparently I have no authority and when I say, "shhhh," or, "No talking," it means no talking in English.
Anyway, the tests went fine for the most part. My pre-school class didn't really feel like taking the test, shocker three and four year olds don't want to sit down and listen to me talk for 40 minutes while they circle things on their paper. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I mean, just look at my face, that is the face of shock right there.
Yeah.
One of my pre-schoolers simply circled every single picture on his test, and when that was done he folded it up into a little square and pushed it onto the floor and then proceeded to walk around the class for the next 20 minutes asking when we would sing the "pokey pokey" song (hokey pokey, but come on, the pokey pokey, how cute is that?). Another one simply drew on the test instead of completing the questions. Yeah, so written tests for 3 year olds, not the best idea. In my humble opinion that is.
The real problem with the tests was not administering them, although that was a pain in my ass since I had to speak the whole thing. Geos is cutting costs, in past years they made a cd of the spoken parts but this year left it up to the teachers to speak the whole thing. The real hassle was having to grade the tests and leave feedback for the students. Grading easy, 3-5 minutes per test, adding the evaluations, yeah those take 5-10 minutes per student, so about 15 minutes a test, multiply by 30 tests and suddenly all of my time is being eaten away by grading. Which means I am hurrying to prep for other classes and am basically work working for the entire time I am at school instead of working and having some downtime to get something to eat or go shopping etc. Yeah, very busy week. And while the tests aren't technically due back until two weeks from now allowing for next week for grading as well, my manager got transferred to a different school and was leaving Saturday so I had to get the tests done so she could translate them into Japanese.
Yeah, my manager got transferred back to her hometown this week. It was a good thing, she needed to go home to help her mom take care of their animals. Her mom took a job in another city so she would be gone during the week with no one to look after the pets so my manager had to go take care of em. Yeah, that is weird right, that people in Japan live where they work during the week and then come "home" during the weekend. I have a student who is doing that now, he lives in an apartment in Osaka during the week and them comes home to his family on the weekend. And in his Osaka apartment, no bathroom. Shared bathroom. Eech! Sharing a bathroom with a floor full of other guys, I assume it is like a dorm situation, but lord knows after college, who would want to live like that?
So my manager transferred. She found out about it on Friday and moved Sunday. Yeah, that's a lot of notice. A bunch of us went out on Saturday night to say goodbye to her. That was fun. Honestly, I am going to miss her. She was a good manager and a good person. She was always willing to help me out, not just with work things but with my personal stuff too. Helping me get my mail, showing me how and where to get things done. And besides, she was the very first person I met here.
Also, the JET, the Japanese English Teacher, quit last week. Quit for real. She had talked about wanting to quit for awhile now, and has been "sick" for the last three weeks after the company asked her to stay on through the new year until they could find a replacement. Guess that wasn't what she was looking to do and so she quit this week.
What does that all mean for ol' Alex? I am the old timer in Tsuruga now! After three months. Wow. I know that Geos has a high turnover rate, well once a year pretty much, but this is ridiculous.
Then, on Sunday I went to a former student's wedding party. She got married two or so months ago and Sunday was her party for her friends (and former teachers apparently). I was supposed to go with Steven and therefore have someone to talk to in English. Well, Steven did attend the party but was completely hung over and not in the mood to converse so I was forced to talk to other people. Nice to get outside of the comfort zone. Had to try to make conversation with other people, and Japanese people will tell you they can't speak English, but many many can speak some English and enough to communicate. I met a girl who could speak English very well, and she helped me out most of the evening by translating when there were speeches and helping me to read when ordering booze. In my defense, I can pretty much read Hiragana and Katakana at this point (not Kanji) but it takes me forever to read and then half the time I don't know what the word means in Japanese so still tough to read. However she was helping me out, having a good time, good conversation, she is studying to be an English teacher so that was something else to talk about. Plus, she lives in Tsuruga. That is cool. Ask her if she wants to hang out sometime in Tsuruga, practice English conversation and then Japanese conversation for me. Says she'll have to ask her dad (huh?) because she is only 17 and doesn't have a driver's license yet. Whahuh?
Yup. Hitting on a 17 year old. Smart. Dammit, I told you that I can't tell anyone's age in this country!
Well, soon (but not soon enough) after that embarrassment, the party wound down and most of the people went home or whatnot. But a few people were going to go out and have some more drinks at a bar and my former student, let's call her Nami because that is her name, invited me along.
Of course I wanted to have some more drinks! In this group the only people who could speak English with any kind of ability were myself and Nami so as we sat and drank and ate (in Japan you don't just go out for drinks, you go out drinking and eat too) she was appointed the translator between the rest of the group and myself. There we are sitting in this tiny little room (that is another thing I love about Japan, at most restaurants and bars they have little rooms for each table so you can't see the other parties in the place (which would have been fantastic for my ex who refused to go to places that didn't have other people in them, she didn't trust the quality of food I guess, but she would never be able to tell in Japan. Bwahahaha!) and they just feel cozier, you can relax and have a good time because the only people that can see you are the people in your group. I like that idea a lot.) and drinking and having a good time when one of the guys in the group asks me a question and Nami's face goes red, she doesn't know how to translate it. Or rather, she knows how to translate it, but it is completely filthy and she doesn't want to say it to me. And this then became the game dujour. Tell Alex something inappropriate and make Nami translate it for him. I learned many many dirty words and phrases last night and also saw perhaps the most embarrassed woman in the world. One of the most fun nights I have had since I got here.
All in all, busy week, but good. And Jessica comes this Friday! Very excited! Friendly face from back home! Christmas company! My good friend coming to visit me and we get to go around Japan doing touristy stuff! I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to seeing her and getting to go to Tokyo and Mt. Fuji (even if it is the middle of the winter and we won't be all that close to Mt. Fuji, and certainly not able to climb it).
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