Misadventures in Translation

It’s been another interesting week.

By the way, I’m not getting married any time soon. Nor, do I have a girlfriend. Yet…

This past weekend, I hung out with Tomita-sensei (the young guy with 1500 CD’s) on Friday in Kofu City. We ate some delicious ramen, played ping-pong and darts, and harassed the Japanese waiting in line for the PS3 over here. The PLAYSTATION 3 launch in Japan sucked. Japan only had 80,000 units. So, many people were disappointed. Americans will complain about their measly 200,000 units, but Japan had it worse. The Japanese are more loyal to the Sony brand than Americans. Why did Sony feel the need to give their most loyal customers the shaft?

Saturday evening (11/11) was spent hanging out with a girl from Yamanashi City. We had some Italian food, went to Don Quixote (a large shopping/play center), and a book store.

Sunday (11/12), I played tennis with Hatano-sensei from Akeno Elementary School. We met up with a few of her friends from Minami Alps City. We played tennis for five hours. One of the Minami Alps City boys gave me the name, “Dynamite Sexy Adam.” I was flattered. After tennis, we all ate dinner and talked for around 4 or 5 hours. It was a long day.

This week has been teaching teaching teaching and trying to hook-up Tomita-sensei with the hot librarian from my elementary school. Trying to figure out when many people are free can be a difficult task.

Friday (11/17), I ate dinner with Tomita-sensei again. Then, we meet up with one of the older teachers from my school. I walk into the restaurant to find him drunk and reading a freshly-minted smut magazine. The initial conversations went a little like this:

• “You like this girl?”
• “Yeah, she’s nice.”
• “How about this one?”
• “Yeah, her too.”
• “You want to !#$!@#$???”
• “Of course.”
• “You’re a smart guy. I like you.”

Thanks to him, I now know of various “fun-time establishments” where I can lose lots of money. He also conferred his great wisdom in “the way of happy-fun-time-make-with-woman.” I am now a much wiser person thanks to Sensei’s great knowledge in this field. I would post the actual contents of the conversation, but that would make this site rated XXX, hardcore, dominatrix to the nth power. If you really want to know, send me an e-mail.

Tonight (Saturday, Nov. 18th) will be spent hanging out with the other ALT’s in Yamanashi at Addiagios Italian Restaurant in Ostuki. When you get many foreigners in one place, you get many stares from the local Japanese.

I have no plans for Sunday. I will probably study Japanese.

Monday, I have no school! It’s Prefectural Day.

Wednesday, I will go see The Mars Volta at Zepp Tokyo in Tokyo. I’ll spend the night in Tokyo since Thursday is another day of NO SCHOOL. Labor Thanks Day! I plan on hitting up Akihabara, Asakusa, Shibuya, Ginza, and Roppongi.

I apologize for the lack of pictures this week. I’ve done nothing really that picture worthy. After being at Tokyo this week, I’ll have many more to show. I’ll also post some good pictures of Mt. Fuji and the surrounding mountains soon. It’s capped with snow and is very beautiful now.

Now, for your Japanese Moment of Zen.This video is a mockumentary on Japanese culture. Everything is false or grossly exaggerated. These comedians are pretty popular here.

If you can’t see the video, click this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIb6ZSqal64

It’s been way too long since I’ve posted. I apologize. The past couple of weeks have been very busy. On Oct. 28th and 29th, I helped the Yamanashi International Center in Kofu with a Halloween program. On the 28th, I helped get the International Center ready for the poor, deprived Japanese children. We set up a trick-or-treat room, a “there-are-human-remains-in-the-box-that-are-really-nasty-feeling-food-products” room, a haunted house, a jack o’ lantern room, and some other cultural rooms. I was in the haunted house. My friends and I got to scare the crap out of little Japanese kids. If they weren’t already afraid of foreigners, they sure will be now. We made several cry and were even able to scare a few parents out of the room. I think it was a good day of international exchange.

On Oct. 30th and 31st, I had a boring set of conferences to attend. There wasn’t much useful information. The only beneficial thing was the exchange of lessons plans. The other information was just a repetition of things I’ve already heard. The only interesting thing was the good hotel we were lodged in. The hotel was set-up like a traditional Japanese hotel. Nice tatami mat rooms, comfortable futons, and a nice onsen (public bath) on the top floor.

Part of the JET Program involves international exchange. I’ve been teaching Halloween to my elementary school students. I’ve talked about the origins and how much kids in America enjoy it. Too bad they don’t have trick-or-treating here. Houses are so close together that it would take no time to get a crapload of candy. The candy would probably suck, though. One of the activities was to color their own jack o’ lanterns. Here are a couple of pictures from the lesson. You can click here for the full album.

This past weekend was another busy weekend. On Friday, Nov. 3rd, I had no school due to Culture Day. That day, I ran 15 km in the morning. I’m trying to run more often and longer. I’m interested in running a full marathon of 42 km. So, I’m setting up a plan to run every morning before school. My weight hasn’t changed since I’ve been here. My eating habits in America weren’t that much different from what I’ve done in Japan. Running several times a week will probably drop my weight from the current 72 kg (160 lbs) to around 65 kg (145 lbs). I’ll lose some of my muscle gains in the process, but I’m interested in trying a full marathon. That night, I went to a friend’s party in Kiyosato and made some new Japanese friends.

On Nov. 4th, I administered a math test in the morning. I have been teaching a girl Mathematics over the past month in preparation for her qualifying test. Hopefully, she did well. Maybe I should try to find someone to teach Chemistry or Biology to. That afternoon, I went to play badminton and table tennis with the teachers from Akeno Elementary School. I dominated everything with my American Power. That night, I went with the elementary schools teachers to their office party. I got to show off my awesome karaoke skills again. I think I need a Grammy for my stirring renditions of YMCA and Detroit Rock City.

On Nov. 5th, I went leaf viewing with my friends Megumi and Kazue at Nishizawa Valley (Nishizawakeikoku) in Yamanashi City. It was a very beautiful area with many waterfalls. I want to go to Kyoto for leaf viewing, but my schedule for this month is too busy. Here are some good pictures from the day. You can click here for the full album.

Megumi, Me, and Kazue. Please note that one is wearing a jacket and the other is wearing a sweater. It wasn’t that cold. I’ve heard too many Japanese people say it’s cold now. It’s not cold. Since weather is a major conversation piece in Japan, I’ll just have to put up with it.

Me, Megumi, and Kazue.

Yamanashi is a very pretty area. It’s a lot like Kentucky.

All of Nov. 5th was spent with a bunch of women. Just as what would happen in an English speaking situation, I had to endure long conversations of women issues in Japanese. I understood maybe between 60-80% of what was being said. I just pretended not to know. Everything from menstrual issues to dieting. I only chimed in on the diet and exercise part since I don’t have experience in the menstrual field besides memorizing the hormones for Biology classes. There were also some other things I heard that are just a little too spicy for some of the people who read this…

After hiking, we went to Megumi’s mother’s house in Enzan. Megumi’s mother was very interesting. She’s the inspiration for this post’s title. I got the usual, “You’re cute and cool,” from her. What I wasn’t expecting was this line I heard later in the evening:

• I like you. Here’s a present. Take my daughter.
• OK. Thank you.

From what I could gather, Megumi’s mother was single. She reminded me of one of those single mothers that try to stay hip and cool. She drives a sports car, doesn’t dress like other women her age, and doesn’t look like she’s 53. At Megumi’s mother’s house, I had to endure more women conversations. These were actually interesting, though. It was a lot of discussion about kimonos. Megumi’s mother owns some very nice kimonos.

Megumi’s mother can cook a good meal. Thanks to my many Japanese friends, I have had to cook and buy very little food this month. I always feel bad taking all this stuff, but at least I politely refuse before gorging myself.

I have many friends in Japan. In three months, I now have more phone numbers in my cell-phone here than I did in the U.S. Here are some pictures of my other friends that I haven’t introduced yet.

This is Eri.

Minami and Izumi. College students from Kofu.

Akiko

Eriko

Aiyama

Reiko and Menami.

Killer Panda and Kazue

Now, for a fun little game of speculation. Which one am I engaged to be married to in the next couple of months???

Here is the usual Japanese moment of zen:

This is an old commercial with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Many American actors can make A LOT of money by doing the silliest commercials ever over here in Japan. This was the concept behind the movie Lost in Translation. There are many different examples, but this is one of my favorites.

It doesn’t matter where I go. People always want to write stories about me. Before entering the Yatsugatake Road Race this past weekend, I was interviewed by the prefectural newspaper, Yamanashi Nichinichi Shinbun (The Yamanashi Daily Newspaper). Actually, a guy was going around interviewing many people. I guess I stood out since I was the only white guy for miles. Below is a picture from the newspaper article and a quick translation.

Pictured above is Adam Wooldridge (22) of Kentucky, America and currently of Hokuto City. From August, he has been an Assitant Language Teacher of English at Elementary and Junior High Schools in the area. “I enjoy running,” said Adam before participating in the road race with a friend. “The beautiful nature of Yatsugatke is an enjoyable place to run. When asked how he would do in the race, he confidently said, “I will do my best.”

When I went to school today, I was asked at least 20 times if I had seen the paper. Next time, I need to win so I can really give them something to talk about. The best (creepiest?) thing I heard was when my principal came up to me to show me the article. We talked for a bit and then he pointed at the picture and said, “Handsome boy.” Random compliments can be a little weird to handle sometimes.

The race was very fun. Since I was running, I really couldn’t take any pictures. However here is a picture taken by someone else of one of the bridges I ran over. I would give them credit, but I can’t find their name.

I ran the 10K in 48 minutes and 39 seconds. Below is a picture of the certificate I got commemorating my triumphant run. It says my member number, my name, the running category of being a male and between high school age and 29 years old, and my time. At the bottom, it congratulates me for completing the race. It also says the date. The date is different than what most people are used to. For official or formal documents, the Japanese use a year system based upon the emperor’s reign. 2006 is Heian Year 18. So, the date on the paper reads, “Heian Year 18, October 22nd.” My birth-year was Showa Year 59. So, my birthday on official documents is Showa Year 59, July 31st. This system can be a little confusing. However, most people just use a chart to understand what year an older document was made in.

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After the marathon, I got a commerative photo with my Japanese friend, Reiko, and her students from Nirasaki East Junior High School. She is an English teacher at the school. Reiko is the one the far left. The photo was designed to be a fake news article from the Yamanashi Nichinichi Shinbun.

The Yatsugatake Road Race was my big event for this week. The Friday before the race, I hung out with my supervisor, Hinori Sakamoto, and his friends. We ate at a good restaurant and then dominated karaoke until the wee hours of the morning. Here are a few pictures.

Sakamoto is on the right and his friend Kei is on the left. We were buying “supplies” at 7-11 before going to the karaoke box.

Karaoke makes you do funny hand gestures.

Sakamoto and his girlfriend. I believe this was a song that required you to make a crazy face.

This guy shall remain nameless. Why? I only heard his name once and thus quickly forgot it. However, he was still really cool. You have to be really cool to be able to wear blue sunglasses indoors. Or outdoors for that matter. And look at those pants! He’d fit in Kentucky well.

No entry would be complete without my interesting anecdotes.

I have discovered that I can scare small children with English. In one day, I made two kids cry. What was the overly complex, intrusive English question? It was, “How old are you?” Normally, these kids understand what I teach them. But for some reason, these kids couldn’t absorb what I was teaching. When I went around gauging their progress, these two kids flipped out. I bet they’ll hate English for the rest of their life. Mission Accomplished.

The Japanese are overly amazed at my language abilities. Every time I write some simple kanji, I always hear, “You write kanji well. I’m impressed.” Sometimes, their heads explode from the shocking site of a foreigner being capable of writing kanji. I’ve been writing my lessons in Japanese and English to be posted on the bulletin board at my elementary school. One of the older female teachers oversaw my awesome (horrendous) kanji skills. This lead to the following conversation she had with a couple of the young, unmarried teachers.

• “Adam’s very smart.”
• “Yes, he is. Very studious. He studies a lot of kanji.”
• “You two are young. He’s smart. You should marry him.”
• giggles

This was all in blazing fast, supersonic, high-pitched Japanese. However, I still understood every bit of it. There was more, but it’s not that interesting. I’m afraid of the imminent sexual assault.

As for this weekend’s plan, I will be helping the international center in Kofu set up a Halloween event for the poor Japanese kids who have no clue what Halloween is. I’ll also be going to a Halloween party one night. On October 30th and 31st, I have a Mid-year Conference in Kofu. It’s not really mid-year, but who is counting anyways?

Now, for your moment of Japanese zen:

This is a video of a set of Japanese pranks. This theme is quite common. Get the guys nude. Then, suddenly force them into the public. Comedic gold in whatever country you’re in. However, I don’t think some of this stuff would last in the U.S. Too easy to sue someone.

If you can’t see the video, just go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BtNN6M97q8

This past weekend, I went to visit my host family in Gamagori, Aichi. It was a a lot of fun. I took about three and a half hours to get there. I rode an express bus from here to Nagoya and then took a train from Nagoya down to Gamagori. Nagoya is huge. It’s the fourth most populous city in Japan. I got to meet to people I hadn’t seen in over four years. This leads to the interesting title. One of the people I visited was one of my host mother’s friends. She was interesting four years ago and still is. Here is a sample conversation after I said that I like weightlifting:

• “Yeah, I’ve lost weight. I’ve been weight-lifting.”
• “I see. Touch, please.”
• “What?”
• “Touch, please.”
• Lots of laughter by everyone around. She then goes into this long conversation that all I can catch is that she likes strong men with good abs. Maybe I should start a fan club over here.

Later, there was a discussion about my homelife.

• “Do you live by yourself?”
• “Yes.”
• “Oh, that’s horrible. Do you clean your apartment and clothes by yourself.”
• “Umm, yeah.”
• “Wow. Do you cook your own meals.”
• “Yup, everyday.”
• “You need Japanese girlfriend.”
• “To learn Japanese?”
• “Well, yeah. That and to cook and clean for you.”

Yet another advantage of having a Japanese girlfriend revealed to me by a helpful older Japanese woman.

I did many interesting things during my visit. One of them, was visiting a bride getting ready for her wedding. We visited because it was my host mother’s friend’s daughter. Say that five times fast. Most contemporary Japanese weddings use both traditional Japanese dress and the Western white dress. Why do they use the Western white dress? I blame American movies. Japanese women think the white dress if very pretty. Seems a little silly to me. Just more money to waste.

This dress looks like it cost a lot and took too much time to put on. Good thing it’s fall or she would be burning up.

Here are some pictures of me and the host family:

See that defiant stance? We’re about to go take down the Yakuza. This is my host father, Manobu.

Peace, dawg. This is my host sister Eri. She’s the equivalent of an American High School Junior.

I like standing to next to Japanese people. It makes me look like a giant. This is my host mother, Yoshino.

This is my host family’s house. That’s a Prius in the front. That sign is for my host grandparent’s traditional Japanese inn that is near there. One night, they fed me a bunch of yakiniku (grilled beef). Good times always equals good food.

One day, we went to Nagoya. We went to the Nagoya Port. There were some interesting buildings there with a good view of Nagoya and the ocean. Next to the Nagoya Harbor was this placed called the Italian Village. It was a pretty good mock-up of Italy. The place was filled with good Italian restaurants and Italian clothing stores. Of course, the Italian clothes were ridiculously expensive.

The Nagoya Port Building

Look at that. A Red Lobster.

That big boat is an old Japanese Coastguard boat.

These were pictures from within the Italian Village. Some Italain man is earning a bunch of money. I saw a bunch of Italians running around directing Japanese people to buy unnecessarily expensive things.

And here is something else I forgot to talk about about in my other posts. I went to the Buddhist shrine, Mt. Minobu. We went here on August 10th – a few days after my arrival in Japan. The shrine was at the top of the mountain and we had to climb the stairs to the top. Why climb the stairs? Because it’s your gateway to Nirvana. I thought about racing up the stairs like Rocky Balboa and jumping around at the top. I don’t think the Buddhist priests would have appreciated that…

Going through this huge gate begins the ascension to Nirvana.

Oh, boy. This is gonna suck.

Look at all the slow Americans!!!

I walked up all those stairs for this? I was expecting balloons, ice cream, and fireworks. I want my free katana

I guess this is Nirvana…

I am not very good at keeping these short.

Next weekend, I’m running a 10K marathon in Yatugatake. It’s a mountain area in my town. Today, the weather was good and I ran 5 km to a flower center up a mountain and then 5 km back down. It was a good run. I’ll be running the marathon with a Japanese friend next Sunday.

And congratulations to the newborn baby in the family and the new ones coming along. Big families = baby factories. I need to join in on all this baby making action. I feel left out. Haha.
Now, for your moment of Japanese zen.

If you can’t see the video, just click this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WuiSKbqYtU

Japanese girls scream like this for everything. Even for small bugs. Some girls screams have been known to cause splitting migraines.

This update comes a little early. I’m gong to visit my host family down in Gamagori-shi, Aichi-ken this weekend. It’s been four years since I’ve seen them. I’m anticipating some good times.

Now, to explain the funny title. I enjoy talking with my coworkers. Every day, I get a thorough brain-overload in Japanese. I enjoy the practice. I also enjoy the random topics that arise. At one of my Elementary Schools, the teacher’s usually want me to give them a brief English lesson during the teacher’s meeting in the morning. One day, I was teaching them how to expresses what they like. I was getting the normal boring stuff such as, “I like tennis,” and “I like running,” until I got to one teacher. With a thick Japanese accent, he said, “I really like ladies.” It’s a good thing everyone else understood or I would have felt really stupid for laughing.

At my other elementary school, I hardly ever speak English to the teacher’s since most of them know very little English. Except this one older lady. They’re always impressed with my Japanese, but I really do need to study more. This lady had the perfect solution:

• “Do you know the fastest way to learn Japanese.”
• “Umm, no.”
• “You have girlfriend?”
• “No.”
• “You must get Japanese girlfriend.”
• I laugh and say, “Yeah, that would really help.”
• “You know what would be better? 3 Japanese girlfriends.”
• “….”

Looks like the Japanese are eager to give away their women to dirty foreigners.

As some of you know, I moved from my original apartment to a new one. My old apartment was in the mountain. The area was very pretty and getting free vegetables from my neighbors was nice, but I needed more convenience. Plus, I don’t believe my little car would be able to get me home in the winter. I know live much close to everything. My school is only a five minute drive from the school and only a 10 minute drive from the nearest station. The other apartment was free, but I’m much better off in this new location. So, here are the pictures of my tiny little abode.

Look! It’s Hometown Sakamoto! The little clown car is mine.

The yellow license plate indicates that the car uses an engine I could lift out by myself. I sometimes use the car for squats.

Yeah. I’ve got a pink toaster. You can shut your mouth. I’m secure enough in my manhood to own a pink toaster.

I’ve got two things every foreigner in Japan wants: a real bed and an air conditioner.

At least I have enough room for a back-flip.

It’s a good thing that I know Japanese or I might accidently hit the button for, “destroy-the-foreigner’s-clothes.”

I hear that people in Tokyo have to live in rooms smaller than my bathroom…

In Japan, you have three types of garbage: burnable, non-burnable, and recyclable. This poster goes into detail about what goes where and when to put it in the bins outside.

Too many kanji. A poster of all 1945 kanji that I’m working on learning. Even after learning these, I’ll still need to learn more. The average Japanese person knows between 3,000 to 4,000 kanji.

I usually don’t get much control of the classes at the junior high school. I have input on certain things, but the teaching stucture doesn’t deviate too much. The junior high kids have entrance examinations for high school. It is very important that they cover certain material. Competition to get into good high schools is fierce. If they don’t cover the things outlined by the Education Ministry, they jeopardize their chances of entering the high school they want.

However, I have free reign over the elective English class. For the two classes I’ve done, I just do fun things. As examinations get closer, I will make the class more serious to help them prepare. One of the first activities I did was Pictionary. This was pretty fun. I even put my name in the pile of possible cards. Well, here is the result:

So, I have a turd for hair, windows for eyes, a mountain for a nose, and a banana for a mouth. At least they got the big chin right. As soon as they drew the eyes, the kids were able to guess it was me. I guess they’re supposed to be big, shiny eyes. We had a discussion the previous week on the size of my optical lobes. It was a little confusing. The major point I gained from the conversation was that the Japanese love big Western eyes. Go me!
This week, I had the kids try some tongue twisters. I’m unstoppable at Japanese tongue twisters, so I thought some English ones would be fun. She sells seashell by the seashore. Oh boy. At first, it went it a little like this, “Shi, serrs, shisherrs, by the shishowa.” Ouch. However, they finally got it. It made me and my eardrums happy.

I also had the kids make some stories. I gave them an intial sentence as a prompt. Then, everyone had to write a single sentence to continue the story. Of course the girl groups ended up putting me in some love story and the boy groups ended up having me kick ass John J. Rambo style. Although the grammar sucked, it was still fun. One story stood out above the rest. I end marrying a bird and spawning creatures from Dr. Moreau’s Island. My favorite sentence was, “Dinner is very DERICIOUS.”

If you need a bigger version, click here

In the last post, I forgot to post the sports day photos for Akeno Elementary School. These are much cuter than pubescent Japanese students.

The first and second year students getting ready to enter the field and take some names.

This is a traditional Japanese dance being performed by the youngin’s

You know what? I’m getting tired of watching Japanese kids run.

Some game where the objective is to grab the hats from the opposing team. The teacher in red is Aiyama-sensei. She’s almost the same age as me. Nudge, nudge, wink wink.

Who are the kids competing against? Me.

Yippie! We’re up-to-date again! Why are these so long? Maybe it’s because I’m too verbose. Probably, so. Only a verbose person would use the word verbose.

Now, for your Japanese Moment of Zen:

You’ll need flash player for this bad boy. If you don’t have it, here is what your missing:

Good ole’ Hard Gay. I’ll just let the movie explain everything.

If you can’t see the movie, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5aXjXath2Y&eurl=

I’ve actually had elementary kids come up to me and ask, “You know this? FUUUUUUU!” It’s a good thing I knew about Hard Gay before coming or I would have been even more freaked out by little kid pelvic thrusts…

Welcome to my journal. With this journal and my online web album (http://www.flicker.com/photos/anwooldridge/) you will be able to keep up with what is going on with my life here in Japan.

So, all of you are probably wondering, “What has Adam been up to for the past two months?” Bare with me, and I will give you a fairly brief overview of my stint so far in Japan. I’m sorry for the lengthy post, but I needed to catch up. I would have posted all this much sooner, but I just got the internet at my apartment last week.

August 3 – 5, 2006 was spent doing a Pre-Departure Orientation at the Japanese Consulate in New Orleans. It’s one of the many events in which you get to meet several interesting people and never see them again. The night before leaving, we had a farewell party at the Consular General’s house. Lots of free food and drinks. Here is a picture of me with Consul Sakato and picture of all the new ALT’s from the New Orlean’s Consulate. For the complete Pre-Departure Pictures Click Here

On August 5th, we left the New Orleans Airport at around seven o’clock and flew to Narita Airport outside of Tokyo, Japan.

We then had a three day orientation in Tokyo. We stayed at the Keio Plaze Hotel in the Shinjuku District of Tokyo. This area of Tokyo has the most high-rise buildings in Tokyo. Shinjuku is the home of the Tokyo Government Building – the tallest building in Tokyo. I took many pictures of the Tokyo skyline from the observation deck there. Here are a few photos of the Shinjuku District and the Tokyo Skyline. For the complete Shinjuku photos , Click Here.

This is a picture of Yodobashi Camera. It’s a great electronic store with too many things I can’t afford to buy. It’s 7 floors and a basement of nothing but electronics.

A picture just outside the Shinjuku JR station.

There are too many people in Tokyo…

The gigantic banner used for orientation.

A picture of all the Group B Yamanashi ALT’s. The coworkers of my prefecture.

This is the Tokyo Government Building in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It is the tallest building, but is the second tallest structure. It is 800 feet tall. The Tokyo Tower (a radio tower) is taller than this building.

A picture of Shinjuku Park Tower from the Tokyo Government Building.

This is just a small taste of the urban-sprawl that is Tokyo. The large building on the the left is the Tokyo Opera Tower.

Here is a picture of the Keio Plaza Hotel that I stayed at.

The beginning of my transformation into a Japanese person…

For more pictures of the Tokyo Skyline, Click Here.

On August 9th, I was finally able to go to my new town. It was a nice two hour bus ride from Tokyo to Kofu. We met our Supervisor, Hinori Sakamoto, at the Kofu International Center. Mr. Sakamoto is awesome. He’s 25, so he can easily relate to all the young ALT’s. From Kofu, we drove to Hokuto.

At Hokuto, we went to the city office for a formal welcoming ceremony. After that, there were A LOT of forms to fill out. I had to register as a foreigner, sign contracts, and set-up my electricity, gas, water, cell-phone, insurance, and bank account. It was so much easier with my Japanese experience, but I feel that I would have been fine with out any prior Japanese experience. There are many people in this program who know absolutely no Japanese.

Finally, I went to my house. This is my first driving experience in Japan. I have to make a conscious effort to drive on the left side, but it didn’t take long to adjust to the new style of driving. My house was in the middle of no-where in a mountain. It was a pretty area, but it was too far away from everything. So, I made a decision to move once I got my first paycheck. It’s a good thing payday was only two weeks away. Here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea of how rural my house was. For more pictures of things around my former house, Click Here.

This is the Masutomi community. My house/apartment was on the far left. There were other people there, but they were all old old old.

My backyard was rice patties and mountains…

Fortunately, I didn’t have to stay there that often for the next two weeks. I was actually at my house for only one day before I had to go to another round of orientations. This set of orientations went from August 11th to August 17th in Kofu. It was a round of local orientations and then an English teaching seminar. I met many Japanese Teachers of English at this seminar. I made a couple of Japanese friends there.

August 23rd was my first day of teaching. There was an opening ceremony and I had to introduce myself. I just gave a simple Japanese introduction since I was afraid of trying a complex speech in front of a bunch of native speakers. In class, I gave a simple introductory English speech on my life in Kentucky. The kids played a game of Jeopardy based on my speech. It was very fun.

Check out the horrible handwriting. It’s a good thing I don’t teach penmanship.

With students like these, you know you are going to have a good time.

I worked the rest of the week and then on the weekend I went to a barbecue with a couple of the Japanese friends I made at the English seminar.

The next week, was the first time I went to Akeno Elementary School. I didn’t have to teach any for the first few weeks since a large part of the day was being taken up by Sports Day training. Sports Day is a major school event for Japanese school children. The students participate in group oriented competitions that encourage community and not the individual. Here are some pictures from the elementary sports day training. For more Akeno Elementary School pictures, Click Here.

The school children are divided into four groups of Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow. Each group contains first through sixth graders. Each color has their own chant/cheer to encourage each other.

This is just one part of a lengthy field relay.

I’m not sure what throwing balls into a basket adds to the personal development of a child, but they take the practice very seriously. Maybe too seriously…

When I come back to America, I’ll be making the peace sign in ever photo…

Basically, my weeks follow a pattern of working during the week, going to the gym at night, and studying Japanese. There are times I do other things during the weekday, but usually all my fun adventures take place on the weekend. One of my first solo expeditions was a mountain climb on September 3rd. I climbed Mt. Mizugaki in the northern part of my town. Mizugaki is 2230.2 meters tall (1.4 miles tall). It took around two and half hours to three hours to reach the summit. The view along the way and the view from the top was great. If it had been clearer, I could have seen farther. Here are some pictures from the climb. For more pictures of Mt. Mizugaki, Click Here.

Getting ready to hike.

A mountain spring. It was the clearest water I’ve ever seen.

One of the few things on the trail to assist the climb.

This was a butterfly I found along the way to the top.

The summit is so close, yet so far away.

Take that, Mr. Mountain!

Views of the valleys below the mountain.

On September 9th, I was supposed to climb Mt. Fuji. However, I had to work. Yes, I had to work a weekend. It was for the Akeno Junior High School Festival. The first day was a round of student presentations, singing, and mingling with parents. The second day was the Sports Day competition. Here are some select photos from the sports day competition at the Junior High School. For more photos, Click Here.

Mr. Tomita is a cool guy. He’s the other English teacher at my school. He is 24 and LOVES music. He owns 1500 CD’s. He might go with me to a concert in Tokyo in November.

Go Go Go!

This is Mukade Kyousou(100 feet/centipede race). Another group building activity.

Some tug-o-war game. You can’t see it, but there are some tall mountains in the background. In the background, there is a 3,000 meter (1.86 miles) tall mountain.

These are some of my san-nen-sei students (3rd year/9th grade).

Some of my ni-nen-sei students (2nd year/8th grade).

It seems that running together is very important to the Japanese…

Finish!

Jump rope?! Go Japan.

After a lot of work preparing for the festival and a long two days of working the festival, all the teachers were ready to wind down. It was now time for a good ole’ enkai (Japanese office party). The Japanese work very long hours. There are two favorite ways to relieve the stress: hot springs and drinking. The enkai called an office party, but there is some degree of formality to it. There are some speeches and then the “kanpai” or cheers. You are not supposed to drink until the “kanpai”. Also, you do not pour your own drink. You must pour drinks for others, instead. If you want to stop the flow of libations, just leave your cup full. You get beaten with bamboo stick for breaking these rules…

An enkai is a great time to get to know your coworkers better. The Japanese have a joke term for this called, “nominacation” – a combination of “nomu” (to drink) and communication. While inebriated, they feel more at ease talking about subjects that are usually avoided in daily conversations. Sometimes, they have really impressive drunken English. Many Japanese – but not all – enjoy drinking for this reason.

The enkai usually last about 2 to 3 hours, but the party doesn’t end there. There is ni-ji-kai (2nd party), san-ji-kai (3rd party) and so on. People usually divide up and head out to different venues for more fun. Options usually include yakitori (grilled chicken kabobs), bars and pubs, and of course karaoke. We ended up going to an awesome yakitori restaurant. The cook there made some great chicken kabobs.

The next weekend (September 16th), I went to the Akeno Elementary School’s Sports Day. I also went to Akeno Elementary School’s enkai as well. The elementary school teachers are a crazy group of people. They are very funny to be around. After that night’s enkai, we went to do some karaoke. I had to show off my awesome ability to sing popular American songs. However, I really impressed them with my ability to actually read the Japanese on the screen and sing along with songs I didn’t even know.

After a long night of karaoke, I was ready for climbing a mountain the next day. On September 17th, I went with the English teacher, Mr. Hinata. We climbed Mt. Kanekatake. It wasn’t that tall. It was 1,763 meters (1.1 miles) tall. We took about two hours to climb it, but I could have done it faster if I had been on my own. Here is the picture from the summit.

After climbing the mountain, we went to a hot spring called, “mukawa no yu,” – Mukawa Hot Spring. Nothing helps form a friendship like going to a public bath…

The next weekend (September 23rd), I went to Tokyo for the Tokyo Game Show. I was able to try out the Playstation 3, new games for the Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii. I even played this English speaking game that scores how well you can speak. I ruled that game. I always had the top score. The Tokyo Game Show was held at Makuhara Messe in the Chiba Prefecture. This venue was huge and was packed with Japanese and many Westerners. The number of Westerners I saw was ridiculous. I know some live in Tokyo, but I know of many people that just flew across the Pacific to attend an event about video games. That’s just a little too nerdy. For the complete Tokyo Game Show album, Click Here.

My ticket!

Nerd Mecca

I saw a couple of Westerners try to hump this character. You should have seen the evil stares they got.

Sony had the largest booth at the Tokyo Game Show. It was packed with Japanese nerds.

Soooo many people. It took forever to get from one end to the other.

No convention can go without scantily clad women trying to sell you things. Yeah, I got their numbers.

Game conventions also attract people who love their video games way too much. They love their games so much, that they dress up as their favorite character from the game. These people are called cosplayers. They are just too weird.

I have no clue who this is supposed to be.

This guy is actually a spot-on representation of Cloud Strife from the game, Final Fantasy VII. I want to know how long he spent fixing his hair.

These girls were… weird. Yeah… weird.

Oh no! We’re almost completely caught up with my life!

This weekend (September 29th), I went to Kofu City for a large birthday party for one of the other ALT’s here in the Yamanashi Prefecture. It was good night of all you can eat and drink. Today, (September30th) I helped teach an English seminar at Yamanashi Prefecutre’s best high school in Kofu. I was very impressed with the English the students were capable of using and understanding. Normally, I have to slow my English down to an incredibly slow speed. With these students, I didn’t have to slow down as much. It was a good time and I got paid for it.

After the seminar, I spent some time in Kofu shopping. I bought some of Yamanashi’s famous candy called Kikyuya. It’s a brown sugar and chocolate mix. I got the candy as an “omiyagae” – gift – for my host family. I will be visiting my family for the first time in 4 years next weekend. I will go there October 6th and get back to my town on October 9th. I’ll be taking a train from here to Nagoya and then on to Gamagori.

Now we’re caught up! I will try to post at last once or twice a week – usually on the weekends. So, if you check on Monday morning, this should be updated. I will also send out a mass e-mail to let everyone know that I have updated my journal.

Until next time….