September 22, 2004
Tokyo for Beginners
This is Tokyo, or what little of it I saw. What a whirlwind trip that was, a 3 day orientation for the JETs was held in Tokyo, but I had very little time to wander around. What a freaking shock, I can’t read anything and I can’t talk to anyone and my day and night are completely flip-flopped. I had a blast, go-figure! In the near future I will post pictures of my most recent trip to Tokyo, which has nothing permanently slated on the agenda with the exception of taking photos.
Welcome to the city of non-stop go-go neon.
Complete with giant mechanical moving crabs.
And yes, the vending machines are everywhere, even (as I was soon to discover) in the countryside.
5 o'clock AM ramen pit stop after a long night.
The Keio plaza was a very posh hotel, complete with bathroom bidets. Even the toilets aimed to please (kick me for that one later).
The icons were fantastic, my favorite being the straightforward tush, it perfectly explains everything.
The city that goes on forever and ever, until next time...sayonara.
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Posted by theinfonaut at 01:48 AM | Comments (0)
It's a small world after all...
Tanbara-cho is in a word, Inaka. It is small, it is country, and it is beautiful. Oh and they play "It's a Small World" everyday at the strike of noon. For those of you who saw the theme-park style map I received from the town office you can imagine just how hard I was laughing (yet with eyes full of horror) when I first heard this merry alarm.
On the flight from Tokyo to Shikoku. The mass of the foreigners gave the locals at the airport quite a shock. We were like so many orphans looking for our names written on the signs being waved by new parents. And then we were each whisked away by our new supervisors.
The view out the back of my teeny tiny apartment (Saiki Mansions...a bit of a miss-translation).
This is a view from a block behind my "mansion". Yes indeed, those are rice fields folks.
These drainage ditches may look friendly, but at night, in this town of few street lights, the ones without those lovely rail guards can prove to be deadly death traps of death, oh my. (Late at night as I peddle along on my standard issue granny-bike I can be heard chanting, don't fall in the ditch, don't fall in the ditch...)
Tanbara makes up for it's size with a whopping three temples. So take that!
Preparations for the big upcoming festival and o-bon dance.
A view from the front of the other Tanbara JET's "mansion". Say hello to Duncan, the only other English speaker in town. Thankfully he is a real charming goofball brit who keeps laughs rolling.
The sun sets early but it's worth the beautiful mountain silhouettes.
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Posted by theinfonaut at 02:13 AM | Comments (0)
The B.O.E.
The head honchos of my job are located at the Board of Education. This is the land of crazy Japanese office fairytales.
The town office is even getting ready for the festival. Notice the white symbol located at the apex of the building, that is that Tanbara-cho emblem. Here there are symbols for everything I tell you.
Haruyuki is my supervisor, he likes PowerPuff Girls, so we bonded.
All of the teachers and school staff are invited to attend a pottery class at a workshop known for making these horses. They look to me like the 4th through 7th century Haniwa style, wow I'm actually having flash backs to Asian art history, that class still gives me nightmares.
We, on the other hand, make simple coil pots. It was a great time though; the people here are amazingly kind and friendly.
Getting ready to fire.
Enkai time. Semi-formal dinner and drinking parties bring forth the lighter side of the otherwise fairly uptight office workers. These enkai's are held usually more than twice a year, cost an arm and a leg, provide a kind of bonding experience that US companies try to muster with camps and such, and the alcohol just flows and flows...
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Posted by theinfonaut at 02:50 AM | Comments (0)
Drum role please...
TaDa! It's up, it's off, it's running. As Ben put it..."it's the blogiest". I can't believe I'm blogging outside of class, all in the name of keeping you informed and serving up picture after picture of lovely Japan. Someday I will take my kids to this site...and they will wonder why all the stupid pictures aren't VR.
A little taste of Engrish to start things off.
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Posted by theinfonaut at 03:55 AM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2004
Sensei Leslie
“Watashi wa eigo no kyoshi desu.” (I that English of teacher is.) I had to memorize this one early on because everyone wants to know what the hell you’re doing in their country. The kids call me sensei. I am a sensei, did you hear that?! Now bow down and then give me 50 pushups! Actually I’m only an assistant teacher, but I still get the sensei title, and besides the kids are great. I’m based in at Tanbara West Middle School and Duncan is at East. To share the foreign-love they’ve decided that we will switch schools mid-year. We also share 5 elementary schools: rotating, switching, exchanging, bartering and swapping until I don’t even know what day it is let alone which elementary school kids are tugging at my pant legs. The job is difficult, we don’t get much direction or feedback and I’m not sure if the cause is our supervisors lacking English (not that I’m one to speak with my puff of Japanese…) or if it’s just the Japanese way. But the kids are great, I mean really amazing.
A lot of these desks have laptop computers on them, but for the most part they stay buried under the paper work, no wonder this country has so many problems with fires!
No snakes allowed at school, so this ones takes a trip up and over the fence.
The garden at my school kept me feed for the first weeks before I got my pay. How surprised was I to see okra in Japan, after having recently finally adjusted to the southern fried okra in Georgia?!
On a bus that is more than suited to the mostly older crowd that rides it (just check out those flower patterned seat covers) I am whisked away to school every morning. A board at the front of the bus shows the growing fair price from each bus stop. The view outside the bus is also rather outstanding.
The kids wear uniforms and have matching bags, hats, umbrellas and even bike helmets.
Posted by theinfonaut at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2004
School's out for Sports Day
Sports Day: just imagine Field Day (from way back) with practice, parades, tents and a crowd of parents.
Even some of the parents and grandparents get in the games. This event in particular had the elders challanging the elementary children in a bucket toss style game.
Showing off hard earned battle scars.
Group stretching at the end of the day.
Posted by theinfonaut at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2004
It’s FESTIVAL time ya’ll
Every town has a plethora of festivals for every season, celebration and newborn insect. In August it is O-Bon festival time. I was utterly amazed by the community force behind these events. Clubs, companies or business groups make the hanging displays by hand, from paper, and it takes days of work. The festivals contain a population spanning from spankin-newborn to crumpled elderly and everyone is invited to join in the dancing. The more wizened aged-woman beautifully dance the sox off all the generations below them. Duncan and I spent much of our time at the festivals trying to explain to our students that we aren’t a couple, but oh how they tried to convince us otherwise. The rest of the time was spent eating yakitori!
The town hall’s display. This was the last time Tanbara would have it’s own festival because this coming November Tanbara is being engulfed by the city and Saijo and we are morphing into one, sort of like Voltron, but without the cool shiny metal parts.
They aren’t just pretty, oh no, it’s hotter than hell and everyone is wandering around fanning themselves, in fact the communal updraft probably keeps bugs away too.
Oh yes, that is me in a green kimono. These are actually called yukata, which is a summer kimono. The woman in the light blue is Aono. She brought me to her home, introduced me to her family, they made me lunch and dinner. Somewhere in between there Aono took me to a temple, and then they dressed me up in a yukata complete with a purse and clickety clackety, painful! geta sandles.
Many ladies dress up for festivals, and the multitude of colors and patterns are a sight to behold. Men also dress in a sort of summer Yukata.
The dancing is done in long lines or massive circles organized groups coordinate there clothing.
Fireworks must ensue at any large gathering during the summer!
Stand after stand of delicious food, goldfish, games, toys and fans.
Posted by theinfonaut at 01:08 AM | Comments (2)
September 29, 2004
that's Mr. Mount Ishizuchi to you...
Some of the junior high school teachers took Duncan and I on a hike up Ishizuchi-san. It was gorgeous and I can't wait to see what it will be like in the hues of autumn!
Collecting fresh mountain water before starting the hike, despite the odd idea of drinking from a pipe sticking out of the mountainside, this water was delicious!
Some people trek up the mountain to visit the shrine at the peak, this man in particular was wearing the all white garb and traditional tabbe shoes of a person on a pilgrimage.
As we hiked higher the clouds came closer and eventually we were surrounded by an eerie whiteness.
This tori gate was the halfway mark and our signal to stop for lunch.
A travel sized tea ceremony, marvelous! The frothy green tea is always served with sweets such compressed sugar in the shapes of leaves and cloud swirls.
And it rains, and then really rains, and then rains Japanese style...
We stayed tucked away under the shrine awning, until the attendant actually let us into the shrine because the rain was coming in sideways!
The peak became visible during a short break in the downpour. And that was the last photograph for me as we started our mad-wet-dash down the mountain. Did I mention Duncan is afraid of heights?
Posted by theinfonaut at 09:49 PM | Comments (1)
September 30, 2004
To Kochi or bust
I have hung out on the beach in Japan, how cool is that? We headed to the south of Shikoku to a city called Kochi. Stuff nine people into two cars meant for 7 people and see what fun will ensue…
Vivian, Vivian, Vivian...it was so fun to have you as a roommate in Tokyo, I’m sorry you live on the other side of Ehime Prefecture!
An-tam navigating the roads with his tinny K-car (that means this car got a transplant engine from a lawn mower and gets a special yellow license plate to prove it!)
Yacoub the greatest Irish-man alive, or at least the only one I know enough about to say so, but I mean it none-the-less.
How can such a beautiful flower smell so raunchy?
Frank and Morgan leading the way from the treacherous steeps of the Kochi pier line.
Everyone in the crew deserves a special gold star for letting me snap them with my camera and capture their souls for all eternity….muhaha.
Posted by theinfonaut at 12:21 AM | Comments (0)