An exciting life

I didn't do anything fun this weekend. Well, that isn't true, I had a good time, but nothing worthy of writing about.

So....here's a picture of what is in my fridge right now!


Top shelf: three cans of beer that a friend of my classmates gave me because he is moving and didn't want to take them with him, a half empty bottle of sochu that I have had for ages, and in the back a jar of spaghetti sauce that I have also had forever. One day I bought everything to make spaghetti and then didn't feel like cooking, so it has been sitting back there ever since.

Bottom shelf: two jars of jam, blueberry and strawberry (the strawberry jam, I bought today and it cost 420 yen, on sale. Ouch.), a bottle of soy sauce (of course), a jar of peanut butter (thanks, Jessica! why it is in the fridge, I don't know. But I put it in there and now I feel like I can't remove it or the peanut butter will go bad), AND last but not least, a can of DR. PEPPER! Yum. I guess. Kaori went to Tokyo a couple of weeks ago and bought me a can. I look at it every day and want to drink it, but I want to save it until one of three things happens. 1) I have a really great day and want to celebrate. 2) I have a completely shitty day and want to commiserate. or 3) I get another can of Dr. Pepper. I should always keep a supply of one, just in case.

And that is everything I have to eat in my house.

Also, here is the toy that came attached to my tea today.



So cute! I don't have a clue what I am going to do with it, but it sure is cute.

Smell my finger!

A kid in one of my classes today kept putting his hand down the front of his pants, moving it around, taking it out, and then smelling his fingers.

Constantly, for about 20 minutes.

I didn't know what to do.

So I just tried to avoid his hand.




Awkward.





And yes, I did just use the world's oldest internet clip.

I finally saw live music in Japan!

A couple of months ago, a young man came to Geos on about a weekly basis asking for the manager. And unfortunately, he spoke little English and I speak even less Japanese, so it was quite difficult for us to communicate. Eventually, he was able to come at a time when Kaori did not have class and talk to her. Turns out he was a member of the band at one of the local high schools and wanted to know if we wanted to advertise in their program.

We did.

And last week he came back and gave us the finished program and tickets to the show. I asked Kaori if she would be interested in going, A) because I have NO idea where the school is/what to do once I get there, etc., and B) because Kaori is really fun to hang out with. Maybe I should have put those in the opposite order...no, really, I require someone to hold my hand through these things, so that goes first.

Sunday was the show. The Kehi High School Brass Band Spring Concert '09.


We got there about 5:30 (or 17:30 as the poster indicates) and took our seats. It wasn't actually at Kehi High School, but at Tsuruga Cultural Center, so it was a really nice auditorium. Pretty large too, and I would say 70-80% full. Not a bad turn out for a brass band (by the way, not really a brass band, but a regular band, it had saxophones, clarinets, flutes, drums, etc., not just brass instruments, just no stringed instruments). We took our seats, back of the first section of seats, me on the aisle. You think American theater seats are small, trust me, Japanese theater seats are smaller, and much less leg room.

Here is the program
I know exciting, right?

But here is what was inside
A handwritten note from a member of the band. And Kaori had a different note in her program. So these students took the time to hand write about 1000 notes. Wow! The note just says thanks for coming to the concert, hope you enjoy it, and then a section about the writer, what their name is, what instrument they play, and where they would be on stage. I thought that was kind of neat. And gave me someone to clap for.

The band was pretty small, about thirty kids. Three or four people per section. Nothing like the middle school band I was in, nor like the marching band in high school. And, well, here are their pictures



Ninety percent female. There were more members, but these were the only ones with the headshots. The boy on the bottom right was the guy that came to Geos all those times. In Japan it seems like boys simply do not participate in artistic activities. I think I mentioned this when I went to see West Side Story, half of the "male" gang members were really women just wearing boy clothes. I asked Kaori about this phenomena, and she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Boys are just lazy." Well, I can't disagree with that, I am lazy as hell, but I think there is something deeper there. I don't know, but I think culturally boys might be discouraged from the arts and encouraged to pursue more academic matters, or sports.

Anyway, my favorite thing about those headshots is how all the girls are giving the peace "V" and the boys are just looking as hard as they can. That is about right.

Oh, and also, you will notice, all of these photos are from the program. I did not bring my camera that night. I am not sure, but it might be illegal for me to take pictures of Japanese high school girls. Better to play it safe. However, I could buy their panties in a vending machine in Tokyo....what a strange country I live in.

The show began (and you will see why I call it a show in a minute) with the curtain rising on just one boy playing rock drums on stage by himself. Then the flute section ran in from the side of the seats into the aisle (right behind us by the way) and started playing. Then they ran to the stage as another instrumental section ran in from the audience and did a little "group solo" (I have no idea what that might be called) all the while the other band members were clapping and chanting. Nothing like any high school band concert I have ever been to. The scariest part was when the trombones came out and I saw a slide go past my head. Yikes!

These kids were running around and clapping and chanting and playing their instruments and it was amazing to see. I was deeply impressed with their coordination and choreography. I guess that is what the marching band does too, but it was something else to see it on a stage.

After the band settled in they played a short set, about twenty minutes, of pop music (YMCA, Mr. Lonely, Bohemian Rhapsody, and some others I recognized but couldn't name) and then broke to bring in the OBs and OGs (not Original Gangstas like I thought, but band Alumni). The alumni joined the band and the full band played another longer "set" of more classical music. It was all very good, and almost every instrumentalist got a spotlight piece where they would get out of their seat and go to the front of the stage to a microphone and play a short piece. Very entertaining.

Oh, and it was amusing to see the alumni vs the current students. Apparently you are not allowed to dye your hair when you are in school here. So all of the school students had the "typical Asian" jet black hair, with some crazy hairstyles on the girls I must say, only way to differentiate yourselves I guess. But, every single alumni had dyed hair. Every last one of them had brown-to-red hair. It seems like every woman in this country dyes their hair, and most men too. Kaori mentioned that when she first came back all her friends were saying it was easy to tell she had been in America because she had naturally colored hair, something none of them did.

Right before intermission they brought out some kids to the front of the stage to dance as they played what my best guess is a child's song or a theme song to a children's show. Why do I guess this? One of the band members came out dressed like a dinosaur. Almost Barney looking, but with long blonde yarn hair. Poor band member. Oh, and I forgot to mention, all the band members were dressed in all black with red blazers. I felt really sorry for the drummer to have to drum in that get up. Whew! He must have been boiling up.

After intermission they had a story. Some of the band members were dressed up and acted out a little play. Kaori was trying to translate for me, but I stopped her, how annoying that must have been for her. Best as I could tell, a guy and girl meet and fall in love, then there is a war, and the girl is shot and the guy is sad. All the while the story is going on, the rest of the band is providing musical accompaniment. My favorite part, after the play was over, the band members who acted in the play had to go back and play the rest of the concert in costume. And one guy was dressed up as an old man with a yarn wig and beard, which he kept on for the rest of the evening. Pretty funny.

After the play they brought all the seniors in the band to the front of the stage to pay tribute to them. Japanese school years end at the end of March, so this was most likely their last event before graduation. They presented the seniors (all female) with flowers, then the rest of the band sang a song to them. Which caused many of the seniors to start tearing up, and several of the rest of the band members as well. I know absolutely none of these people, but I got to tell you, it got kind of dusty in that auditorium during the tribute. Stupid emotions.

After another short break for the band members(not me, yeah, definitely not me) to compose themselves, and during which they handed out glow in the dark sticks, those kind you break to get them to glow, like at amusement parks.


These. They were bendy and many people made rings or bracelets with them. When they first handed them out, most people were just holding onto them, except for myself, Kaori, and every child under ten who figured out if we bend them they start to glow.

After intermission, the band started back up and brought out a special guest, a famous Japanese saxophone player. You could tell he was famous because he had on an audacious shirt and his hair was dyed bright pink.


Tough to tell from this picture, but that is a rock star right there.

The next half hour or so was a back and forth between him playing sax backed by the band, and him being interviewed by the hostess for the evening. Suffice it to say, not my favorite part of the concert. Kind of boring really. Oh well, they can't all be winners.

The concert ended with a couple of upbeat songs where we were directed to wave our glow sticks back and forth and clap (the Japanese apparently love to clap along in unison) during the songs. Then, just when you thought it was over, half of the band ran out into the audience with their instruments and started playing in the aisles and dancing. We were all instructed to dance (the twist, the swim, the monkey, and one more I can't remember, waving hands back and forth, much too complicated for my dumb ass). One of the band members was about a foot away from me (oops, I mean thirty centimeters) shouting, clapping, playing her instrument, and dancing up a storm. It was.....uncomfortable.

Then it ended with bows and more clapping and the band running out of the auditorium, apparently to line up at the entrance to continue to thank people as they left. We say the boy who had come to Geos and he thanked us (well Kaori) graciously for a minute and continued to follow us as we left the building. I love these people. I love how nice they are. I love how enthusiastic they are about what they do. It is very rare to hear someone complain about their job over here, even though their jobs suck and their work hours are beyond shit (salary men typically work 8-8 Monday through Friday and then take home work every night to finish and go in most Saturdays for at least half a day if not a full day of work. I have had Saturday evening students come in wearing full suits saying they just got off of work). I think that is the one thing I will never be able to do. I am a natural complainer. Even when I am happy, I still complain about stuff. I know, character flaw, and trust me when I say I have had enough girl friends call me on it I should know better, but that is the way I am. Maybe if I learn Japanese I won't complain, just won't learn the vocabulary and be linguistically unable to say negative things. Sounds like a good plan to me.

So, all in all, a pretty fun evening. Earlier in the day I hung out and played some pool. I am the KING of 9 ball. Just wait for the other people to clear the table and then I sink the 9 ball. I didn't say I was good, just opportunistic.

Farewell Steven!

Last weekend Steven, the GEOS English teacher from Sabae (a town about an hour's train ride north of Tsuruga) who comes to Tsuruga on Fridays to help alleviate the class load that day, held a going away party. He has finished his time in Japan (well, more specifically, at Geos) and his students had a party for him which he invited both myself and Kaori too. Unfortunately, Kaori was spending the weekend in Tokyo (so lucky) so I was the only representative from Tsuruga to make it up there.

Here is what stood out for me that night in no particular order:

--I love Sabae. It is such a pretty town. And it is smaller that Tsuruga, but has most of the same things as Tsuruga, so it is generally easier to walk around to more places. Regrettably for me and my palate most of the non-Izakya restaurants in Tsuruga are on the other side of town, at the very least a half hour walk each way for me. The few times I have been to Sabae I have been able to walk all over the town in about the same time, and there seems to be more places closer to the Geos apartment.

--Party started at 6. Last train for Tsuruga left at 11:35. That means, five solid hours of drinking. And boy did we EVER! I think I spent $70 that night, only $20 of it on food.

--Train ride up, I was sitting across from a very pretty girl wearing a very short skirt. I love Japan.

--Speaking of pretty Japanese women, the manager and Japanese teacher at Sabae are both very pretty. Geos hires very good looking women. I wonder if it is a marketing strategy or just a hiring staff with impeccable taste.

--The place we ate had the hottest hot sauce I have had in Japan. It was incredibly hot, too hot for me to eat much of it. Steven said he would give me 100 yen if I poured the hot sauce into my beer and drank it. Are you kidding me, 100 yen! Of course I would do that. Turns out, easier to drink hot sauce than it is to eat it. Bypass the lips and front of the tongue. Super easy to drink. ....30 seconds later when my entire chest started to feel the heat of the spice, well, that was just unusual.

--They had a kimchee spiced chicken intestine appetizer which was fantastic. Yeah, never thought I would be describing as spicy chicken intestine as delicious, but it was. I can't wait for Mom to get here and eat some weird shit. My advice, don't ask what it is until after you have eaten it. More difficult with food that has eyes.

--There were about 20 people total at the party. We had two long tables. Actually, a very cool thing about this place was the tables could be moved around to accommodate different sized parties.
Not a picture of the actual restaurant, but similar style. Tatami floor that you sit on, the table was over an open pit, on sliding rails, so you didn't have to sit crossed legged (thank god, five hours that way would have killed me), you could drop your feet down, so it was basically like sitting on a chair. Well, this place had sections of the floor that could be taken up and moved around so that tables could be moved around. We had two long tables, the party across the room from us had one VERY long table for their giant party. And the kids in the other party realized they could lift up tiles from the floor and crawl around under the floor and kept popping up throughout the room. It was amusing and very strange. Like a bunch of Japanese gophers.

--At some point in the evening it was decided we should start throwing paper airplanes at the other table to see if they would react. They did and we had a paper airplane war for a few minutes until better sense took hold.

--My former student and her husband (the people whose wedding party I attended a few months ago) were there. Such nice people. And so in love that it is almost sickening. Almost. Instead it is just sweet. They are still definitely in the "honeymoon" phase of their marriage and it makes me hopeful that one day I will end up with someone that makes me that happy.

--I was taught how to compliment a woman and ask for her phone number in Japanese. I tried it out on the waitress. The reaction I got was nothing less than horrified. I loved it, but it made it awkward for the rest of the evening. At least I didn't have to tip her after that.

--Speaking of which, one of Steven's students said I looked like a movie star and if they weren't married they would want to go out with me. Too bad it was a guy.

--All in all, a very fun night. I always enjoy talking to different people here. Especially ones that aren't my students. I love my students, they are some of my favorite people not just in Japan but anywhere, but, they are still my students. I always have to remain at least a little "professional" and keep myself guarded. Never able to really be the real me. Maybe that isn't such a bad thing now that I think of it. How many Japanese people want to hear sexual innuendo jokes and terrible puns?


This week has been fantastic weather-wise. Spring is just around the corner. Bright sunny days, warm weather, but not too warm. Didn't have to wear my winter coat. Just a hoodie. Friday was a holiday (Spring Equinox) and I wanted to go outside and do something, ANYTHING. Woke up at about 10:30 to a gray drizzly day, about 10 degrees colder than any day from the rest of the week. Boo and hiss!

Hopefully Sunday and or Monday will be nice out. I really want to go outside and do something. I wonder if they have gokarts near here?

Kyoto Plum Blossoms

How great a name would that be for either a female rock punk rock band? Or a stripper?


Went to Kyoto today to look at the plum blossoms. Not the famed Cherry blossoms, those are at the end of March beginning of April, but the plum blossoms, which apparently come at the beginning of March.

Two hour drive to Kyoto. Highways in this part of Japan aren't really highways at all. They are just two lane roads and we were stuck behind a slow ass truck for at least an hour. Oh, and did I mention that the roads are the curviest roads I have ever seen. I have seen two year olds scribble less loopy messes. I swear some of these roads make 300 degree curves. And that I was half hung over this morning after drinking until 3 am last night? Not the best combination for a wind-y bumpy drive. But after about an hour and some delicious Coke Zero I was doing just fine.


Pre-Coke Zero (man, wonder if I can get sponsored by them, all these free plugs) this is what I felt like this morning.

Our first stop was the Kyoto International Conference center. The one where they had the global warming conference a couple of years ago (must be about a decade by now) and the U.S. said "Go eff yourself, we aren't joining in any stupid helping the environment coalition" Yeah, people are happy about that I am sure. Oh, did I mention that the grocery stores in Tsuruga have started to charge for bags when you go to the store? Yup, 5 yen per bag. Trying to promote people bringing their own bags. So, I bring my own bag most of the time, but it is hard to remember it every time. Oh well. Its only 5 cents. Not that big a deal. But it is nice to see that they are trying to cut down on the bag use. Of course, now, if I knew how to ask, I would always demand the biggest bag possible for my 5 yen. I don't want that tiny bag, give me the double wide!

Tangent over, today was beautiful. I wore my heavy coat and a sweatshirt (aka my weekend uniform) and decided that the coat was too much to left it in the car when we got to Kyoto. And only after we were already on the subway did I realize I left my camera in my coat pocket. In the car. D'oh! So no pics. Well, a few, but just to illustrate a point, no real pictures.

Took the subway into Kyoto. Funny sign at the entrance of the subway. As you walk into the subway, and mind you this is the last stop on the subway line, the furthest out into the "suburban" part of Kyoto that the line goes, there is a sign that says "Thank you. Please visit Kyoto again" in English. Made me laugh.

Took the subway to near where Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavilion) is and went to a Hawaiian themed restaruant for lunch. Had a great ham sandwich and some fantastic fries and I was feeling great again. The miracles of good ol' American food. Everyone else had something that I can only best describe as a thin flat wide hamburger or Salisbury steak (since it had gravy, basically all hamburgers come with gravy in Japan if they aren't from McDonalds) with a soft fried egg on top and rice (duh! of course) and a pumpkin paste on the side. Looked pretty good except for the damnable egg. WHY MUST THE RUIN FOOD WITH EGGS ALL THE TIME?!?!?

Anyway, lunch was pretty darned good and not too expensive either. Thought it would be much more than it was. Went to the bathroom. A unisex bathroom. And the light was hanging down over the toilet just low enough to knock me on the head and make the light swing around wildly while I peed. It was....strange.

After lunch we walked along a nearby river since it was such a nice day. Saw a family playing baseball. A mother pitching to her maybe 4 year old son and her other son, a little older, playing outfield. Father catching. The mom was an ace pitcher, her kid couldn't make contact for shit!

My favorite part of the day. The river has several man made waterfalls and the water in the river, while very shallow, maybe only 1-2 feet deep, moves at a pretty good clip and the waterfalls were whooshing along. There were some ducks feeding in the river between two waterfalls placed close together. And they would duck (ha!) their heads under the water and try to feed while swimming hard enough to stay still in the current. And every once in a while they would either run out of steam of just lose their way or whatever and they would going rushing over the second waterfall and have to quickly flap their way back up to their feeding spot. It was retardily goofy and I loved every second of it!

We then hopped a bus to the shrine to view the Plum blossoms. Yay, bus. Note my enthusiasm.

I have no idea what the name of the shrine we went to was, but I know it was the one Jessica went to for her flea market adventure when she was here. Apparently, plum blossoms are a very big deal as I think half of Kyoto was inside the shrine today.
Note, all of these pictures were found on the internet, not taken by me because I am retarded, but they give a good idea of what the day was like.

I can understand the appeal of the blossoms and the hanami parties (cherry blossom viewing parties, aka excuse to drink sake outside). It felt like spring today. The colors, the smells, the new flowers after having gray and dreariness for the past couple of months. Walking through the plum tree garden you certainly felt like it was a different season. And for a culture who values nature I can certainly see where they would love this occasion. Hell, I only half like nature and I had a great time today.

The only thing that confused me is that not a single Japanese person was taking pictures like the above one, of the tree and the scenary. No, they all took pictures like these:


Close ups of the flowers buds. Just a single bud, or a single branch of flowers, not a whole tree, not a scene. I don't get it. Hey! Guess that is why I am not Japanese. The other thing I liked is that tons of people would put their noses into the low hanging flowers to give a sniff. I can only imagine that those low hanging flowers smelled more like Japanese noses than plum blossoms.

With our ticket to the plum garden we got a free cup of tea and cookie. It was, shocker of all shockers, plum tea! Which I had never had before and really enjoyed. Going to look for it at the store tomorrow.

Then we went to the shopping district for a little while. Another super crowded bus ride. Super-yay. There needs to be a punctuation mark that is the opposite of ! to show just how little I enjoy riding the bus. Especially these Japanese buses, they aren't the big behemoths of America. They are skinny little buses, 20 seats max, yet still 50 people packed in. Fun.

Went to a shoe store where they had some great sneakers, and my size! Wow! I don't know what the sneaker style in America is right now, but in Japan they have some amazingly bright colored sneakers. Which I of course I cannot wear, I would be distracted by my own feet all day. They did however, have a pair of wine red Adidas shell toes that quite simply deserve to be worn by one Alex Trout. Whoo hoo! Oh wait, I didn't bring enough cash with me. D'oh! However they have a website and my friend said he can order the shoes through the site for me if I want. Yes!

And that was pretty much the day. Overall a very fun day. Enjoyed spending time outside. Always nice to go places with Japanese people because they know all the cool little places that tourists wouldn't (like the Hawaiian cafe). That is the one thing I regret about Jessica's visit. I think she would have loved to go to those "secret" places that most tourists wouldn't even know about.

Oh, and Kyoto women are not attractive. Yikes! I don't know what it is, but they are a bunch of unattractive women in that city. Thank goodness for the top-notch women of Tsuruga.